Spanish Allure

One of the famous landmarks in San Diego, California, is found just outside downtown, at Balboa Park.

Balboa Park was created in time for the 1915 Panama Exposition, as San Diego was the host city that year for the exposition. The park was named in honor of Spanish-born Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the first European to spot the Pacific Ocean while on exploration in Panama. Hence, the park is dominated with beautiful Spanish architecture, almost everywhere you look.

In this photo, this was taken inside the courtyard of the Prado. The Prado is very popular for it's restaurant, as well as for it's wedding receptions.

I wanted to capture many features of the Spanish architecture found in Balboa Park. Easily the most dominating and repeating feature found throughout the park are the arches.

In this courtyard, not only do you have the arches, but you have these flowerpots on the rails, which look like geraniums, surrounding the courtyard. They survived all the rain and wind San Diego got battered with the last week. I decided to selective focus on one of the pots and throw everything else out of focus, but still easily making out other striking features.

This image also demonstrates that if you just walk a few steps further, you can get a fresh perspective of a common place. Most people walk into the courtyard, take their pics by the water fountain (statue in the bottom right-hand corner), maybe go into the restaurant and eat, and then leave.

If you are a fan of Spanish style architecture, there is plenty of allure here for you.