Foster City Independence Day 2012 (Sunset and Scenery)

Independence Day, or Fourth of July, is a federal holiday where Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 4th, 1776 which declared the US independence from Great Britain. Many Americans (and non-Americans) celebrate by shooting off and watching fireworks, having barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, political speeches, and many other activities. I spent the 2012 4th of July in Foster City, CA. I took photos of the fireworks, the event, and some scenery at Leo J. Ryan Park and Bay Trail. I split the photos of this event into 3 blog posts.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. View my best photos from the event here. View all of my photos from the event here.

Parts:

• Fireworks
• Event Before The Fireworks
• Sunset and Scenery

Today's photos will be scenery and sunset in Foster City taken at Leo J. Ryan Park and on Bay Trail. After this blog post, I will begin posting my Monterey photos. No more pushing those back. YAY! XD I hope you enjoy today's photos!

Before I get started, I would just like to remind you that I made a Facebook Fan page for this photography blog. You can "Like Us" here. I have also made Instagram and Twitter pages. If you follow or "Like" me on these, you can be updated whenever I post something new! :) Please invite your friends too! I'm trying to get more viewers on here. Anyways, as always, enjoy my photos!

The sunsets over Foster City, CA. To the left of this photo is where they let off the fireworks. You can see the fireworks photos here. The lake in the photo is Central Lake, and the photo is taken at Leo J. Ryan Park.

This was a photo I took about an hour before sunset. The lake in the photo is Central Lake, and the photo is taken at Leo J. Ryan Park. I had nothing to do. LOL The rides were too expensive, and my friend didn't arrive yet. So I just pretty much sat there for hours waiting for the fireworks. It got a bit boring because I already pretty much took photos of everything. Now thinking about it, why didn't I go watch the live performance. >.<

Bay Trail in Foster City, CA. 

This is the San Mateo Bridge. This bridge connects Hayward and San Mateo (using the big city names). This is also the route you take to go into Foster City if you are crossing the bay. This is the longest bridge in the SF Bay Area and it is about 7 miles long. The photo is taken from Bay Trail in Foster City, CA.

That is all the photos I took at the Foster City Independence Day event! :) I hope you have enjoyed all these photos. In my next post, I will being my Monterey photos! Enough pushing those back! :) Please check back soon! Also, please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts:

• Fireworks
• Event Before The Fireworks
• Sunset and Scenery

Foster City Independence Day 2012 (Event Before The Fireworks)

Independence Day, or Fourth of July, is a federal holiday where Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 4th, 1776 which declared the US independence from Great Britain. Many Americans (and non-Americans) celebrate by shooting off and watching fireworks, having barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, political speeches, and many other activities. I spent the 2012 4th of July in Foster City, CA. I took photos of the fireworks, the event, and some scenery at Leo J. Ryan Park and Bay Trail. I split the photos of this event into 3 blog posts.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. View my best photos from the event here. View all of my photos from the event here.

Parts:

• Fireworks
• Event Before The Fireworks
• Sunset and Scenery

Today's photos will be the other photos from the event. Today's photos are taken at Leo J. Ryan Park and includes photos of the people there at the event, the rides, and the live music performance. The scenery and sunset photos will be in the next post! I hope you enjoy! 

Before I get started, I would just like to remind you that I made a Facebook Fan page for this photography blog. You can "Like Us" here. I have also made Google+ and Twitter pages. If you follow or "Like" me on these, you can be updated whenever I post something new! :) Please invite your friends too! I'm trying to get more viewers on here. Anyways, as always, enjoy my photos!

I thought it would be nice to start you off with some photos from the live performance that taken place at the amphitheatre. The lake in the background is Central Lake.

Here are some closer shots of the performance at the amphitheatre.

There were also these bouncy things and slides. Don't think I got a photo of the other ride... Either way, they were over charging for the rides way too much. HAHA

I actually wanted to do this in my next post as most of it is scenery, but there are photos of people here, so I decided to post it here instead. The lake in the photo is Central Lake.

As you can see there were a lot of people. I was lucky I had a place to set down my tripod for those fireworks photos. The lake is Central Lake.

Another shot of the people at the event. In the photo is the gazebo and Central Lake.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed viewing them! Please check back soon for my Foster City landscapes and sunsets post! :) Please don't forget to share this blog post with your friends and family! Also, if you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts:

• Fireworks
• Event Before The Fireworks
• Sunset and Scenery

Backyard and Pleasanton Trail Birds

As the title suggests, today I have bird photos I took in my backyard and on Pleasanton Trail (Arroyo Del Valle Trail). Well it was actually the Pleasanton Sports Park, but I'm going to call it Pleasanton Trail anyways because it was kind of the border between the trail and the park. LOL So anyways, if you are new here, the trail is located in Pleasanton, CA. (Duh!) So here are the photos! I'm going to start off with my backyard photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To view my best 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my at home and backyard photography shots of 2012, use this link. To see my best photos of Pleasanton in 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton in 2012, use this link.

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

The black phoebe really loved to perch on my bird cage (the one I'm not using). There are a lot of bird poop on the top... If you are new here, I used to have a lot of pet birds. 2 died and 1 flew away. Now I only have 2 parakeets left, which I keep in my smaller cage now, which I can bring indoors easily. I don't use my big cage now. My big cage is located near the nest, and the black phoebe enjoys using it as a perch before flying up to its nest. 

Nom nom nom... HAHA It caught a bug...

Well anyways, here is the story of this family of black phoebes. The family nested in my backyard and had baby birds. Now they flew away because the babies hatched. I enjoyed their company though. I got some great photos! :D

That looks like a dragonfly in its mouth. Nom nom nom... 

 Another photo of it perched on top of my bird cage. My big bird cage had a small bird play gym at the top. 

 Fence post got in the way of this shot... That's the thing in the bottom right corner. I was taking these photos indoors to not startle the bird. I temporarily removed my window's mesh screen to get these photos.

The bird standing on my wire vine crawler thingy I stuck in my flower pot.  

You know what bugs me... How a bird can grip such a thin round piece of wire and not flip upside down. LOL

The black phoebe was from my backyard. The rest of the robin photos are from the Pleasanton Trail/Pleasanton Sports Park border...

Looks like it found a worm. 

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

This is all the photos for this post! I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will have some bird and squirrel photos from Pleasanton Sports Park. After that post, I will begin my Monterey photos! :) I know all of you have been looking forward to those, so 1 more post before I start! Please don't forget to share the blog posts with your friends! Also, if you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

New Twitter and Google+ Pages/Buttons

The newly added Social Networking buttons.

If you are a returning visitor, you may or may not have noticed I have added 3 new buttons right under my Facebook Widget on the top of the right side bar. You may also have noticed I added the title "SUBSCRIBE ME FOR UPDATES" right above the Facebook Widget. I have created a new Twitter page and a new Google+ page dedicated to this blog to better connect with all my fans! So if you have a Twitter or Google+, please follow me on my new pages too.

Another reason I made these 2 new pages is due to the recent changes to Facebook Fan Pages. It's either due to Facebook not selling enough ads or they are just being greedy. Anyways, Facebook decided to not spread your new Fan Page status updates to all of your fans' Facebook feeds. They are only spreading it to some of your fans, and they also made it a lot less noticeable than before. In other words, if you only "liked" me on Facebook, you may not be getting all the updates from me. Facebook thinks by doing this, it will force their Fan Page users to purchase ad space from them. They are wrong! I will just ask my fans to go ahead and follow me on Twitter and Google+. :) I hope you do! (Keep scrolling down there is more updates.)

My new Twitter widget for my new Twitter dedicated to this blog. 

I also updated my past Twitter Update widget to the official one from Twitter. I also changed it to the Twitter account I'm dedicating to this blog. This box is located right under the Popular Posts section in the right sidebar. This way, you can view all my latest updates without even leaving this blog! :)

Which ever Social Networking service you choose to use, I will keep you updated on new posts and other things on all of them. Well, thank you for reading this! Thank you for your support! Also, as always, please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends, family, and co-workers! :) See you guys next time! New blog post coming soon!