All Posts By

Phil Colla

San Diego

Photographing Sea World Fireworks over Mission Bay, San Diego

To celebrate the approach of Summer 2021 and their impending re-opening following Covid, Sea World San Diego presented its fireworks show over Mission Bay frequently during the month of April.  The timing was advantageous for a couple reasons. First, neither Sea World nor San Diego had not fully re-opened yet,…
April 28, 2021
BirdsSan Diego

Western Grebes and Clark’s Grebes Rushing on Lake Hodges

Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) exhibit some of the most elaborate and impressive courtship behavior found in the animal world, including various vocalizations, swimming movements, the exchange of nesting material ("weed ceremony") and, most notably, the "rushing ceremony".  When grebes rush, they rise entirely out of…
March 9, 2021
La JollaSea Lion

New California Sea Lion Portraits in La Jolla

I photograph California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) often, and this winter has been no exception. We have had ideal weather for photographing the local colony of sea lions and I've tried to take advantage of it, making more portraits of them in the golden morning sun. I repeat this every year…
March 8, 2021
Underwater PhotographyWhales

The Greatest Muscles in the Animal Kingdom

You think you've got horsepower in your Lamborghini?  You got nothing compared to what Mother Nature has conjured in the great whales.  Having evolved to roam the open ocean their entire lives, sometimes at considerable speed, the great whales have the most impressive drive train in the animal kingdom, capable…
May 2, 2020
CaliforniaHaikuWhite Mountains

Ancient Bristlecone Haiku

Ancient Bristlecone Persisting through the Eons You must be so bored Bristlecone pine displays its characteristic gnarled, twisted form as it rises above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the White Mountains at 11000-foot elevation. Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.Image ID: 17475Species: Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaevaLocation: White Mountains, Inyo National…
March 8, 2020
Antelope CanyonArizonaHorseshoe BendSlot CanyonsThe American SouthwestThe WaveUtahWhite Pocket

The Ultimate Photographer’s Weekend in Page, Arizona

Great photography spots around Page, Arizona, including Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Canyon X, Radio Tower Rock, Rattlesnake Canyon, Stud Horse Point, Little Cut, the Toadstool Hoodoos, and the Wave and White Pocket. What visit to Page, Arizona is complete with a spectacular Horseshoe Bend sunrise? So you…
February 24, 2020
Aerial PhotographyIceland

Aerial Photos of Iceland

Our travels in Europe were primarily a mix of volleyball, cuisine, art and history. We shoe-horned a week in Iceland between Paris and London with priority on spa selfies at the Blue Lagoon. Secondary goals were taking in the waterfalls, Icelandic horses, black sand beaches and wide-open roads of the…
August 5, 2019