About
Richard and Pam Winegar lived in the San Francisco Bay Area 14 years (1987-1999 and 2008-2011). They lived in Florida 13 years previously, until returning in July 2011 to present. Richard is a research scientist, and Pam works as a senior technical program coordinator. They both enjoy nature photography, and hope to tell their favorite stories from California (which they continue to visit), along with current stories from Florida and travel. Their pictures have appeared in various publications including Nature’s Best Photography and Birds & Blooms magazines, along with three photos in the National Wildlife Federation’s book, “Animals That Make Me Say Wow!” (published June 2014). Their apple snails photo was used as a CD cover for the Portuguese rock band Saturnia in 2016. They hope their photography will encourage you to get out and discover nature’s beauty in your own backyard, parks, and wild places. Contact Pam by e-mail at pgwinegar@aol.com. All photos on the blog can be viewed full size (with additional information) by clicking on them.
Pam’s personal guide to fun on Florida’s Space Coast in Brevard County (which is illustrated with our pictures) is here (click once, and then click on the blue text again to open): Florida Fun Guide 24Sept2019
Quote by President Teddy Roosevelt: “There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, and anything that appeals to the higher emotions of man.”
Quote by John Muir: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”
Quote by Aristotle: “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”
Quote by Jacques Cousteau: “The sea casts its spell of wonder forever.”
Quote at Monterey Bay Aquarium by Ann Stevenson: “The sea is as near as we come to another world.”
Pam & Richard with Koala in Australia
Richard and Pam at Joshua Tree
Richard appeared on TV in 2009 (below in 3 parts; 18 min total):
naturetime 
I nominated you for the ABC Award! Here is the link:
http://funandfabulousness.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/abc-awards/
You have a beautiful blog!!
elisa
Thank you very much! We are excited to share nature’s beauty and connect with such nice people!
You are so welcome! I look forward to every photograph you publish!
elisa
In response to Elisa’s very kind ABC (Awesome Blog Content) award nomination, I will describe myself using the letters of the alphabet.
A Australia. Best vacation ever! Been there twice and want to go back for more!
B Bird watching. Feeders and birdhouses are all over the yard.
C Clouds. I always look up at the sky. Once saw clouds swirling in the arms of a
hurricane.
D Dessert. Our specialty is homemade angel food cake with chocolate frosting.
E Earthquakes. Richard was a child during the 1964 earthquake in Alaska (magnitude
9.2). We were both in San Francisco during the 1989 earthquake (magnitude 7.0). Our
earthquake experiences will be described in a post on the blog.
F Flowers. Enjoy all kinds of flowers, especially water lilies, orchids, and protea.
G Gardening. We are in the process of planning our new garden in Florida. So many
great plants to choose from!
H Hershey. I spent one summer in college working at the Hershey chocolate factory. I
cleaned cocoa bean roasters, and manned the Hershey Kiss wrapping machine. You
could eat as much chocolate as you wanted, and yes, I still love chocolate.
I Iced Tea. My favorite drink besides Coca-Cola classic. Update July 2014: “I” could also stand for Iceland – a new all-time favorite place.
J Joy. Live life with joy!
K Koala. I was thrilled to hold a koala in Australia. They are much bigger and heavier
than you think!
L Lighthouses. We seek them out wherever we go.
M Music. Enjoy a variety from classical to Adele.
N Nature. We enjoy time outside every day.
O Ocean. We’ve spent our adult lives near the sea – both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
P Photography. Our passion is taking pictures of nature. We started out with a Kodak
Instamatic, and worked our way up to multiple Canon digital cameras, in addition to a
dedicated infrared.
Q Quiet. We enjoy quiet moments in nature, or in the evening on the couch at home.
R Reading. We read constantly – newspapers, magazines, books. Favorite subjects are
travel, nature, science, and history.
S Sea glass. We have a collection of sea glass from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, in
addition to seashells and sea beans.
T Television. Richard was on a TV game show in 2009. It was great fun. He played until he was stumped by a Madonna
question, and walked away with $50,000.
U Upbeat. Cheerful, can-do attitude.
V Vacation. We love exploring the world around us. Favorite places are Australia, Iceland, Alaska, Hawaii, and Wyoming.
W Winegar. The name I took when I got married in 1983. Richard and I met on his first
day of college, and we’ve been together ever since.
X Xerox. I am always copying articles for family and friends.
Y Yosemite and Yellowstone. Two of our favorite national parks.
Z Zoo. We once flew to Atlanta specifically to see the new baby panda at the zoo.
I have sent you a message via your ‘aol’ email. Would you please check it and respond as soon as possible. Thank you so much.
I’ve sent you an e-mail – so nice to hear from you.
Richard and Pam, you have a most interesting and very beautiful blog.. : )
Thank you very much! We appreciate it!
Hi Richard and Pam – I love viewing your pictures! They bring back such fond memories of places I’ve been, or give me new ideas of places to go. Beautiful! So… I’ve passed the Readership Appreciation Award along to you. Thank you for your gorgeous photography! http://anaturemom.com/2012/05/26/readership-appreciation-award-thank-you/ .
Thank you Nature Mom for the Readership Appreciation Award! Your blog about outdoor activities for children in the Bay Area is simply wonderful! We are touched and pleased by your generous praise. We never could have imagined the global connection we would gain when we started this blog in February 2012. It is truly an inspiration to connect with so many people all over the world. Our enthusiasm for nature and new places is endless, so we look forward to more blogging ahead!
I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award! Congrats! 🙂 http://wp.me/p2cqTL-iC
Thank you Michelle for the Versatile Blogger Award! I thoroughly enjoy reading your travel blog at http://fullofhertravels.wordpress.com/ I am honored, and really appreciate you thinking of me! Seven words to describe myself are: cheerful, enthusiastic, curious, organized, focused, caring, and grateful. I will be back later with a list of nominations to pass on.
These are wonderful pics. I stumbled on to your blog via a Google image search for newts native to the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA. I maintain the website for the Coastal Watershed Council (http://coastal-watershed.org/) and was wondering whether I might have your permission to use this little guy (bigbasin_070318-1555.jpg) on our site? We had a nice image of a newt, but it seems to have gone missing from the database and I’m no photographer! The CWC is a Santa Cruz-based non-profit dedicated to watershed education, stewardship and monitoring. We’d be honored to display a photo credit.
Thanks!
I would be pleased to have you use any of our images. I can provide it via e-mail: pgwinegar@aol.com
Hello from another Central Floridian. I really enjoy your posts of the area, I look forward to seeing more! Happy to have found your site 🙂
I am so happy to hear from you! Welcome!
I am very pleased to have been nominated by Arindam Saha for the Sunshine Award for “positively and creatively inspiring others in the blogosphere”. Thank you Arindam! You should check out his blog “Random Thoughts – The World as I see it” (http://whenintrovertspeaks.wordpress.com/). It is a real joy to read!
As part of the nomination, I have been asked to answer the following questions:
Comics or Fiction? Comics, because I always like to smile.
Trekking or Swimming? Both are fun, but I will answer trekking because that is when I can carry a camera.
Sweet or spicy? Sweet – I love chocolate.
Sunset or Sunrise? Both are equally great.
Comedy or Classic? Comedy – it’s a great way to relax at the end of the day.
Silence or Noisy? Silence please! I want to hear the sounds of nature.
Winter or Summer? Both are enjoyable in Florida for different reasons. Actually my favorite season is Spring.
Mountain or Beach? Beach! I do enjoy the mountains on vacation.
Cooking or cleaning? Cooking, because I can eat the results.
Chicken or Fish? Chicken – our best dish is lemon chicken.
Cheese or butter? Cheese! I eat it every day.
I like your pictures and would like to hang one of them on my office wall. How can I contact you about getting copyright clearance to print one of your pictures? Thanks.
Hi, Michael. You can e-mail me at pgwinegar@aol.com
Hi Pam and Richard,
Thanks so much for following along this past week as we asked our Readers to help us pick photos for the Capture the Colour Photo Contest.
We truly love your wonderful blog and your gorgeous photography, so we wanted to invite you to join us in the fun quest. We are posting our final submission tomorrow (Saturday September 7) and you will see that we have nominated you to submit.
Please participate at whatever level you like. We just wanted you to know that we think your blog is a joy! 🙂
All the best, Terri and James
Here are the links to our post titled Capture the Colour 2013 and the contest.
http://gallivance.net/
http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/
Thank you so much! I’ll see what we can put together, and good luck with your excellent entries!
Great! James and I think you guys are world-class photographers – your photos of flowers in water droplets blew us away! So good luck on what we know will be marvelous entries! 🙂 ~Terri
That is so generous of you! I will post our pictures shortly, but don’t think I can compete with your blue jar! We really enjoy your beautiful blog and pictures. A completely unexpected bonus of starting this website is connecting with such wonderful people as both of you!
Pam and Richard
Really wonderful to make friends in this manner, sharing your passion. –Noriko
________________________________
It really is great.
Best California nature photos I have ever seen. I’ve been to most of those places, and your selection really captures the true spirit of each special place. Your connection to your art and beauty really shows.
That is the nicest compliment we have ever had! Our hope is to show others the beauty in nature – each place is special in its own way. Best wishes, Pam
Great content, just bookmarked it! 🙂
Thank you so much!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Love your photos! 🙂
Thanks! I enjoyed looking at your pictures very much!
Thank you! 🙂
Hello! Great blog here at naturetime. Really exciting stuff.
I work at Two Penguins, a film and photo studio in Portland, OR, and we’re interested in talking to you about your mermaid photo found at: https://naturetime.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/weeki-wachee-mermaids/mermaid-swimming/
It’ a great shot that we’d love to use as a backdrop for an upcoming project of ours. We’d love to talk to you more about this project. Please email me at kyle.simmons@twopenguins.com for more information.
-Kyle
Hi, Kyle. Pleased to hear from you! Will be sending an e-mail.
I enjoyed seeing your images from Iceland and reading about your trip. I am vert excited about my upcoming trip to Iceland, just disappointed that I have to wait until May. I also enjoyed reading about you and Richard, as well as your alphabet description of yourself. Oh, and thank you for following my blog and your comments, they are appreciated.
Thank you! I will be anxious to see the images you bring back. If you need any specific details or have any questions about what we did in Iceland, I will be happy to answer them for you. I know we will visit again sometime. We wanted to see the Westmann Islands too, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I always enjoy your pictures – you have a lovely blog!
Hey, just tuned in. Gave a follow. Come visit?
a very nice blog
Just a suggestion:
Go to Settings>Sharing, and select the checkbox – Front Page, Archive Pages, and Search Results
Now if someone visits your blog, he/she may like the post without opening the post separately. It will help you get more likes on the blog.regards, http://YourWellWisherProgram.wordpress.com
Excellent suggestion, and done! I would have never known – thank you! Your blog is very nice too – will scroll through this evening.
Yes i see the difference -Great – i checked, and liked few posts with just scrolling and not needed to open individual post. all the best.
It was fun watching it again.
Wonderful!
I am an environmental educator, and am working to develop a poster on purple martins to be used at an upcoming festival. Would it be OK for me to use two of your photos?
Of course – you are very welcome to use any you wish! Which two did you have in mind? Do you need me to send the files to you? Send to pgwinegar@aol.com
Helo Pam, I just sent an email to pgwinegar@aol.com, but just in case the email gets overlooked: We are the US correspondents for a German science magazine, and we are interested in running one of your photos. Could you please see if you received my email from bmsinc@barbettemedia.com? If not. please reach out to us, so perhaps you have an alternate email address?! Thank you and Kind Regards, Simone // Simone Pipek
Barbette Media Services
356 West 121st Street, New York, NY 10027
bmsinc@barbettemedia.com
T 212.665.5501 | M 917.673.3448
http://www.barbettemedia.com
Thank you for writing! I responded by e-mail. You are very welcome to use the image. Best wishes. Pam