Daily Art - A birthday visit to the Observatory

Yesterday was my birthday and what a beautiful day it was - nothing wrong with clear blue skies and warmth to celebrate!  I hadn't taken my camera out for a ride recently, and decided that I wanted to take a trip up to the Griffith Observatory.  The Observatory is one of those treasures, overlooking the city and free for visitors to explore.  I'm determined to make it up there during the evening sometime when I can check out the telescope and the Los Angeles lit up at night.

One of the first things that you see when hiking up toward the building is the obelisk, an homage to the greatest astronomers of all time - Hipparchus, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Herschel.

From there, it's fun to take a walk around the rooftop, and outside of the building.

It's got a pretty sweet view of the Hollywood sign....

....and, in the other direction, Downtown L.A.

The pendulum swinging inside the lobby of the Observatory, demonstrating the Earth's rotation.

Such a nice relaxing way to spend my birthday!  I hope you all had a chance to enjoy the weekend too.  :)

Daily Art - Griffith Park

Today's edition of daily art, I want to share with you a couple of pictures that I took at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.  Considering that Los Angeles is such a sprawling urban jungle, I love that this park is nestled within the city.  It's one of the biggest urban parks in the country and going up there allows me to forget the madness that is L.A. for a moment.  Even the expansive views of the city that the park provides makes everything seem peaceful from above.

I spent an afternoon wandering around the park with my camera a few years ago, producing a couple of my favorite shots taken at the carousel in Griffith Park.  The horses are a little worse for wear, or perhaps they're just showing the love given to them by the many kids that have enjoyed the ride - kind of like a worn down teddy bear that is falling apart from years of being the designated best pal.

Childhood Memories

 Anticipation

I'm hoping this summer provides me the opportunity to head back into the urban wilderness and shoot some more.  What I love about it is that it offers what people generally don't think of as existing in L.A., but it's such an essential part of the area's beauty.