macro monday 4.6.12

Sometimes the weather is not conducive to going for a photo walk...

Sometimes you are so busy during the day it is hard to find time to snap a picture...

Which is why my macro monday shot this week was taken at night and indoors!

When my brother passed away in April 2010, on of my staff gave me a lovely hibiscus plant...

It is impossible to grow these outdoors with our Canadian climate  

I was told it was difficult to keep them flowering when you grow them indoors...

maybe it was determination and extra special care on my part 

or maybe it was divine intervention

but this lovely plant flowered almost non stop for the first year!

I had to cut it back because it was getting a bit leggy after a year

 and it has flowered at least every other month since...

It is flowering now...

...and seemed to be admiring its own reflection in the bay window last night...

Posting to Macro Monday

scavenger hunt sunday 3.6.12

We've had a very rainy and somewhat cool weekend

but somehow that didn't seem to effect how crazy busy a weekend it was!

It has been challenging but I have managed to squeeze in a bit of time 

for some Scavenger Hunt Sunday fun!

1. Shine

The mister and I are making our own engagement notice/wedding invitations...
I took a variety of photos for possible use and this was our favourite so far...
I like the way my engagement ring shines in the sunlight!
We are thinking of doing our own, shall we say, non traditional wedding photos...
are we nuts? 

2. Fast

One might think this is a fast moving car...
actually, it is me quickly turning away from my own car sitting in the driveway
...and accidentally snapping a picture!
I am, as I have previously explained,  an accidental artist!

3. Left

This weekend we celebrated my son's 31st birthday...

this is all that was left of the cake!

No?

Not the right left?

3b. Left (or Peace)

I left the mister with the puppins on a park bench while I wandered off to get a photo of peace
...as I wandered back I realized that my photo was there ...
he has brought peace to my life...

4. Peace

but I had taken this photo of a peaceful meadow while he was waiting for me...

and I had in mind a 'peace' picture of my zen fountain that is in my archives

since I am just too tired to make up my mind, I threw them all in!

5. Plain

and finally, as we left the park I took a photo of this plain piece of grass...

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...
mine was wonderfully exhausting so I am off to my cozy bed!
Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

skywatch friday 1.6.12

I get up early almost every morning to enjoy my coffee with the sun as it comes up.

I am often amazed at how the most beautiful sun can rise before the day suddenly turns to rain or cloud.

I've lost track of the number of times I have silently thanked the sun 

for what feels like a private show before the sky changed for everyone else's day.

This is an example of one of those days ...

the sun rose bold and round and bright...

and then the clouds moved in over a 15 minute time span

 5:10 a.m.

 5:23 a.m.

5.25 a.m.

Posting to Skywatch Friday

http://skyley.blogspot.ca/

if it ain't bokeh, don't fix it!

Bokeh is the Photo Art Friday challenge

I love Bokeh!

I decided to make another attempt at using textures,
since Bonnie has gifted a few bokehful ones at Pixie Dust Photo Art
So if it ain't bokeh, you can fix it!

I used the same photo that I started with for my Texture Tuesday post

This time I used Bonnie's pdpa Soft Light overlay 

with the soft light blending mode at 100%

and different hue and saturation adjustments

I like this final product better...
because the bokeh in the original photo is enhanced rather than masked 

I think this was a better texture choice for this photo 

as well as better adjustments...

Feedback?

Happy Photo Art Friday all...
looking forward to black and white next week!!

wishing you a great weekend!

Posting to:

{light in the dark} 52 Photos yr2 wk6

It is finally raining here!!

Yay!!
The gardens are finally getting water and my rain barrels are getting filled!

My regular white peonies began to open just yesterday 

I decided to wait until today to take pictures as the tiny touches of pink inside weren't visible yet...

If we get rain all weekend, as they are predicting, those peonies 

are going to look like toilet paper all over my lawn by Sunday! 

You know what I am talking about!

Note to self: NEVER wait to take a photo you want!

I am not above dancing in the rain when it is warm outside

in fact I am known for it in the 'hood

(yeah...they do think I am weird)

But it is dark and cold outside today...

So

It seems appropriate that Bella's prompt this week at 52 Photos Project is:

"Finding Light in the Dark"

I LOVE this prompt

I love light in dark places and at dark times

so I have narrowed this down to

 cut back on

chosen a very few some

of my fav shots to share 

as well as the one I took specifically for this prompt

Seriously, do you know how many sources of light there are in the dark???

I will stick with natural sources

There is nothing like the promise of summer in a beautiful sunrise to start a spring day!

or the promise of cool in a sunset on a very warm summer day

or the light of the moon to remind us of the magnitude and magnificence of  the universe 

or a very bad picture of a star to remind us that our hands are not as steady as we might try to believe!

no matter how often we try or how still we try to be...

Then there is the incredibly awesome light in one of my favourite places in the world...

yup, another photo from the slot canyons of Arizona...

it is precisely the light in the darkness that draws me there, year after year  

it changes constantly depending on the time of year, time of day...
The colours of the walls change with the light throughout the day

a light beam can appear and disappear in 5 seconds! 

There is a real sense of exhilaration and success when you catch one of those with your camera

I have a gazillion photos but I chose this one because it is specifically about light!

Our native guide took this for us

He asked the mister and I hold our hands like that and blow up towards our hands.

The light above our hands represents a flame being breathed into life by our joined breath

We are seriously considering getting married there

::::
Then, there is reflected light

I love reflected light, especially on water...

This is a different slot canyon...

filled with the dammed waters of the Colorado River that creates Lake Powell 

on the Arizona-Utah border.

There is something incredibly peaceful about kayaking out of a dark and silent slot canyon 

into the light of the setting sun

...and it was the reflected light of the setting sun on the waters of the much tinier
and more local East Holland River here at home
that I was inspired to snap for this prompt!

Oh...I could go on forever...oh wait! I already have!

Thanks for those who stuck it out all the way through that post!

Enjoy what is left of your day *lol*

All photos are SOOC in this post...

You know you: 

(a) have too many photos (is that even possible??)

or

(b) need to find a better organizing system for photos

or

(c) need to hone your decision making skills 

when it takes you hours to find, sort and decide for one blog post!!

Posting to:

This? or That?

This or That Thursday 

....seems to be an apt description of how I am dealing with today!

Many things I could do (and others that I probably 'should' do)

Things I need to get started on...

Things I need to get finished!

don't know where to start ... feeling rather indecisive today

when feeling like this, there are a number of options available...I could: 

(a) grab my camera and go for a photo walk

(b) go to my computer and write a blog post

(c) have a coffee and make a list!

(d) all of the above...

I chose (d)...

The top item on my coffee list (c) was to take some photos of my Jackmanii clematis 

which bloomed this week. 

I grabbed my camera and went for a short photo walk to my back garden (a) and

I am now sitting at my computer writing a blog post about it! (b)

I love it when I can cross things off my list so quickly and easily!

So here are the backyard photo walk photos

SOOC again this week

I was pleased to see this clematis doing so well for only its second year

I just love the colours!

and I love how the centres become these fascinating little curly things after the  petals fall off.

These two shots are actually from my white clematis for the purpose of showing those curly things

I also love all the little knots in the vine and the beautiful way that the plant 'embroiders' itself..

:::::

Then I got distracted...because that's the way I roll

I got distracted by all the purple in my garden...

it seemed appropriate, after all the photos last week for 52 Photos Project 'Pink' theme,  

to focus on the purple in the garden...since most of it came about this week

the unopened bud to the side of the flower and at the bottom are about the size of a pencil...

these irises...iris'...iri? are quite tiny flowers on very tall stems

very delicate

my chives are also in bloom...though looking a bit pink here they really are mauve

this is aubrietia also known as rock cress  

as hard as I have tried, I can not find it in the nurseries anymore!!

Bet you thought I got distracted - yet again!!

Nope...this is my purple smoke bush getting ready to...

well...smoke!

Keep your fingers crossed for me please?

Last year in the heat, these all dried up and dropped off before my smokebush could bloom!
We need rain!!

Have a great day everyone!

Joining This or That Thursday
Why not grab a cup of coffee and join me, as Deb has posted follow up photos
of her monarch caterpillars' journey into butterflyness!!
and check out all the other contributors too!

Now....where did I put my coffee cup?

jumping in to texture tuesday

I briefly dabbled in textures a while back.

I didn't (and still don't) really know if they were truly textures....

They were more like double exposures of my own photos.

I learned more when I took the 'skinny mini' Photoshop course offered by Kim Klassen 

and have received a number of lovely textures through her "texture lovin' list"

Nancy over at A Rural Journal has some incredibly beautiful textures available!

In fact, the first of my few forays into texture used Nancy's 'Spring Fever' texture and her recipe! 

Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art also has a wide variety of stunning textures as well...

I am frequently gobsmacked by the gorgeous work so many people are doing with these textures

Okay

I have the basics....

I have the textures....

I have the photos....

So what am I waiting for???

Good question!

I think this is the answer...

I have been saving my pennies to take Kim's Beyond Layers e-course 

next time it comes around and I think have been waiting for that...

I have been 'experimenting' - 'cause I am geeky like that -

but I guess I don't feel confident in my skills & knowledge

But

Today I am throwing tossing caution to the wind

Today I am jumping tiptoeing in with both feet

I am putting something out there!

I guess I feel safe here...that is a good feeling!

I think this may be the first time I have produced something 

without following someone else's recipe...

so

I would LOVE feedback and suggestions,

ideas of what else I could try to have created a better final product...

I started with this photo 

It is a bit over exposed but I liked the bokeh.

  I used the clone stamp to fill in some of the colour and

did a duplicate layer using multiply at 93%

which made it look better, I thought...

To this I added Kim's texture 'Epiphany' in soft light at 83%

I used a soft brush to reveal the petals only and made adjustments to the hue and saturation 

I ended up with this as a final product:

which I am posting to Kim's Texture Tuesday - the warm edition!

Phew...