Richard Diamond

A man in a blue shirt intently examines a diamond through a microscope in Amsterdam

An older man in a brown tunic with wide white cuffs sits at a desk concentrating on the drawing he is making. Next to him is a pot with plants bearing orange and yellow flowers.

A woman wearing a white head scarf and a gold and red top works embroidering an intricate pattern on a white fabric.

A woman wearing a dark blue headscarf and a red and white dress decorates a large piece of fabric using a small vessel with a gold wax liquid.

“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you're put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.” Vincent Van Gogh

Photos from Amsterdam 2011 and Bhutan, 2010

An Allen's Hummingbird, with a drop of water on its beak sits on the edge of a black fountain with an out of focus background of deep green leaves and vivid purple flowers. The bird is a rufous orange color with iridescent green patches on its head and back. The bird has just completed bathing itself in the fountain.

A brown and orangeish squirrel leaps on a pinecone that it is playing with

A Black-headed Grosbeak peaks out from behind a branch of a green Jacaranda tree. The bird has an orange chest with yellow highlights and black and white wings.

A Western Tanager stares out towards the camera. The bird is a bright yellow with an orange face and head. It has black wings with white wing bars. The bird is photographed against a blurry background of vivid red/pink flowers and sits on a slender branch with deep green, orange and red leaves.

If I cannot do great things I can do small things in a great way Martin Luther King Jr
“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day,when it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.” Temptations
#birds #photography
Allen's Hummingbird, Grey Squirrel, BlackHeaded Grosbeak, Western Tanager-Studio City, CA 2025

A Northern Flicker, which is a type of woodpecker with a vivid red malar stripe, like a mustache, is shown leaping off a dead tree branch with its wings spread showing its red/orange coloration.

"If you're honest you sooner or later have to confront your values. Then you're forced to separate what is right from what is..legal. This puts you metaphysically on the run. America is full of metaphysical outlaws." Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker #birds #photography
Northern Flicker, 2018

A Lodgepole Chipmunk, with brown and white stripes, a curved tail and a gleaming eye blends into a gnarled oak tree's trunk.

"When the chipmunk's muzzle grew more white than brown, the chipmunk forgot that she and the squirrel had had nothing to talk about. She forgot the definition of "jazz" as well and came to think of it as every beautiful thing she had ever failed to appreciate..." David Sedaris
#photography #chipmunk

The photograph shows a Western Bluebird, in profile, sitting on a gray-white, leafless branch coming out of the trunk of a pine tree. The background is an out of focus blur of green leaves and white/gray light and shadow patterns. The Bluebird has vibrant deep indigo blue feathers covering its wings, tail and head with black feathers on it's neck and running down its upper wings. Its breast is a buff/orangeish brown color with a touch of white. The sun is striking the bird from the left making bright areas on the top of it's head and a gleam in its eye, as well as highlighting the tree trunk and the gray branch that the bird sits on.

"The diehards-they're just going to die hard.They're not going to give in.You've got to try & convince the younger ones. They're the ones who've got to make the future." -Ella Fitzgerald
"Bluebirds Singing a song,nothing but bluebirds all day long"
Western Bluebird, Big Bear, CA 2025 #Ella
#birds

Hope you had time for a chili dog!

An American Kestrel, the smallest falcon in North America is photographed in 3/4 profile against a dark blue sky. The bird has a white face with a distinctive black stripe running down from its eye to its chin. Its body is a dark orange color with a darker breast and white toward its tail. The dark eye has a reflection and the bird is in an aerodynamic gliding posture.

"The world in which the kestel moves, the world that it sees, is, and always will be, entirely beyond us. That there are such worlds all around us is an essential feature of our world." Mary Midgley

American Kestrel, Los Angeles 2025
#birds #Kestrel #Photography #socal #falcon

Kamala is Back with Uplifting Powerful Message Vice President Kamala Harris was honored with the Chairman's Award at the NAACP Image Awards. During her acceptance speech, she addressed themes of equality and

Kamala Harris gave an incredible speech to those that feel down about what has been going on. "Our history will not be written by the man occupying the White House and our future will be written by you." A must watch 4-min video for Democrats. WATCH: truthkast.com/kamala-is-ba...

A red-tailed hawk with a glint in its eye glides against a dark blue sky

A male Phainopepla, a black bird with a red eye and striking black crest, photographed in profile sitting atop a green leafed plant with redish branches and black seeds.

A hovering Allen's Hummingbird with a green, orange and white feathers, it's eye gleaming, approaches a bright orange honeysuckle flower.

A photograph of a Bewick's Wren against a black background with out of focus red branches and yellow green leaves. A small bird with a curved beak, white upper eye stripe and chin, brown, white and greyish-white breast and orangeish, brown and white striped tail.

Bird populations in N.America declined by almost 30% since 1970. "These bird losses are a strong signal that our human-altered landscapes are losing their ability to support birdlife..an indicator of a coming collapse of the overall environment." Ken Rosenberg, Cornell Lab
#birds #GBBC #photography

124+ journalists were killed last year. The deadliest year for reporters on record.

A free press is at the core of democracy. It is necessary to safeguard human rights.

We must keep up the work to protect journalists from coercion and even murder, and safeguard their critical work.

A close up photo of a Western Bluebird, in profile, lit by bright sun against a background turned black by deep shade. The bird has bright, deep blue feathers on its back and head, grey and white on its body and a brown/orange breast. It's dark black eye has a bright reflection.

"I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory." Mary McCleod Bethune
#birds #Bluebird #MaryBethune #blackwomen

A close up portrait of a large mail orangutan in the forest of Borneo. The orangutan is staring directly into the camera with a look of puzzlement or, perhaps doubt (OK, I'm projecting, but I remember those impressions I had during encounter distinctly.)

“As I sit my eyes sweeping the canopy...I think about how we humans search for God.The tropical rain forest is the most complex thing a..human can experience..A walk in the rain forest is a walk into the mind of God.”-Birute Galdikas
#Orangutan #Borneo #nature #wildlife
Orangutan, Borneo 2012

While sitting on a small twig, a small bird with bright yellow patches on its head, throat, side and rump, eyes a cluster of seeds.

"Fall is here. Winter's near. Need some cheer? See my rear." Yellow-rumped Warbler Poem by Rosemary Mosco
@rosemarymosco.com
#bird #birds #nature #warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Los Angeles 2024

An American White Pelican swims serenely on the dark surface of a placid lake, its rippled reflection, an abstract version of itself on the blackened water.

"there comes a time when you realize that the pelican holds everything..It has the song of the thrush, the form & understanding of man, the tenderness & gentleness of the dove, the mystery & dynamic quality of the night jar, & the potential qualities of all life."Walter I. Anderson
Big Bear, CA 2022

Hummingbird hovers as it approaches a bright orange flower cluster

“We’re constantly being bombarded by problems..we can get completely overwhelmed.But we should always feel like a hummingbird.I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like other animals watching the planet go down the drain.I’ll be a hummingbird, I’ll do the best I can.” Wangari Maathai

Close up photo of a Three-toed sloth lying on branch high in a tree idly scratching his belly with what appears to be a contented smile.

"Maybe we're fed up with moving too fast ...& being in the rat race...every single day to what end? Maybe this having been something that was considered to be a sin, is now an aspirational quality, the idea that you could be slow & that would be ok"-Lucy Cooke

Three-toed Sloth, Costa Rica 2016

But JFK wasn’t a frail old man!

Nice photo!

Hard to tell from the photo, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s a female Anna’s Hummingbird based on relatively short bill and what looks like a greenish back and grayish white breast.

My love is vengeance that's never free

Well, our number came up. 🔥Got LAFD notification to get ready, packed up the cat & as much as our cars could hold. Left about 10 minutes before we got the “GO!”notice. Now we’re watching our neighborhood from my sister-in-law’s house in Orange County. 😬So far, so good but it’ll be a long night.

Smoke filled sky with burning orange rising sun behind radio transmission tower

“There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town
Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! ” -Grateful Dead
#LosAngeles
#PalisadesFire #LA #LAFD
Los Angeles sunrise over smoke Mulholland Dr. 2025

Reminds me of my father every time I listen to it.

Died too young.

An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay.

A group of King Penguins curiously pecks at a photographer’s camera

“Penguins enrich our lives & livelihoods in many ways.So if they make such a great effort to thrive & protect their chicks against all odds, we can all do our part not only..to help ourselves & our planet, but..to help penguins & all wildlife.” -Pablo Borboroglu
King Penguins,South Georgia Is. 2014

Two Black Skimmers, black, brown and white birds with bright orange patch on face, flying closely together.

"I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me" -Lennon/McCartney (with inspiration from Timothy Leary and his presidential campaign)

Black Skimmers, San Joaquin Marsh, Irvine, California 2024

Beautiful shot,Mike! Love the color tones.

The photo triggered the memory, but I admit I had to look it up.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone!

"In the parlance of the times, this is a peddler, a rather fanciful-looking little man in a black frock coat." -Rod Sterling

A close up of an American Bald Eagle in profile looking fiercely to the left side of the picture

"Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights."
-Sitting Bull

American Bald Eagle, Big Bear Lake, California 2022