{shadows} over Sedona - 52 Photos yr2 wk8

Hands and fingers have been a little, shall we say, uncooperative this week

Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine aka cortisone injections

I am able to type a bit this morning, though I am supposed to be resting them...

(have I mentioned that I am not good at following rules?)

As a result, I will be using photos from my archives this week 

for Bella's prompt at 52 Photos Project

I chose these particular photos because it was the shadows 

that called out to be captured,

over all the awe and beauty of the scenery,

at moments when my eyes wanted to be looking everywhere at once.

The journey began while the town of Sedona, Arizona
still slept in the shadows of night as the sun prepared to rise over the valley

while we waited in near darkness to climb aboard our balloon
and follow our companions into the sunrise

we watched the sun rise as our balloon rose with it...
...we came over this crest to witness a beautiful scene below us
where the shadows crept across the valley while the sun continued its ascent

even when the sun was fully awake
and the people of Sedona headed out on the highway to work
Oak Creek Canyon was full of shadows...
...and we were casting a tiny shadow of our own!
(that would be 'me' in the centre, above the highway)

we went down into a gulch in the canyon and again
it was the shadows cast by the rocky wall that caught my attention

and the trees shadows mingling with our own as we went lower

and then we rose again to continue our flight over the world
which was now bathed in sunlight
with only tiny shadows cast by trees and bushes being visible

until our own shadow was cast over the Suburban that would shuttle us to
a celebratory champagne picnic breakfast and our balloon 'pilot' certificates!

I have to admit that I was very impressed with the incredibly accurate precision
with which these gentlemen could estimate and execute our landing!


"Shadow owes its birth to light." ~ John Gay

Thanks to Bella for a great prompt this week!

Have a wonderful weekend!

skywatch friday 15.6.12

We had some stormy days this week and I grabbed as many shots as I could 

I haven't had much of a chance to look at them yet...

This is what it looked like from my patio earlier this week:

Posting to:

http://skyley.blogspot.ca/

negative space - photo art friday

I have just been the victim of multiple cortisone injections 

so need to stay off the computer for a few days...

I already had this ready for Photo Art Friday so putting it up here 

(with a little help from the mister)

I posted this photo a while back for Skywatch Friday

but have added one of Bonnie's lovely textures this time

This was the original photo SOOC

I added Bonnie's 'pdpa painterly texture'

using the linear burn blending mode at 100%

I removed the texture over the rocky outcrop 

with a soft brush in normal blending mode at 29%

and I liked the way it allowed me to imagine what the Canyon would look like at night

so I deemed it to be finished (for now)

For:

THIS (is what I have been up to) & THAT (is why I've not been around much)

I am missing blogging and hopping!!

but I have to get our wedding invitations made and sent out!

The clock is ticking...

and of course we had to make our own because...

we couldn't find anything that grabbed us

we wanted to keep it simple and affordable

we wanted something we designed that would be unique to us...

because "you only get married once"

or, in our case, twice.

They apparently call it an 'encore wedding'

I sorta like that...

So I was going to cheat a bit...

or

maybe I could say multitask?

...and just post photos of the invitations we've been making

But then I managed to get a few shots yesterday after the rain to post for this or that Thursday

here they are...

followed by the photos of the invites

A private sneak preview for my blogosphere buds

invitation on ivory recycled card stock
'gate' made with copper vellum
'belly band' of handmade ivory straw paper
raffia bow with a lavender spike from our garden...

Heading out to mail them now!
Cross your fingers that they are not over standard card weight! *lol*

macro monday 11.6.12

Wedding plans are starting to eat into my blogging time

but I am still getting out for snap some shots fairly regularly...

This weekend I was thrilled that one of my favourite bushes have bloomed! 

Philadelphus coronarius is the fancy name

I always knew it as Mock Orange growing up with one outside my bedroom window.

I remember my mother making a corsage for my Grade 8 graduation with the flowers!

I was so excited when I realized I had not one, but three on the property 

when I bought this house four years ago...

For days now, despite some rather nasty thunderstorms, 

their most delightful scent has filled the air inside and out!

Posting this shot to Macro Monday
then heading back to make more wedding invitations!

Have a day!

Pop over and see some of the other amazing entries...

especially Lisa's awesome captures of a swallowtail butterfly!

diving into {black and white} - 52 Photos yr2 wk7 and Photo Art Friday

It has been a crazy busy week and one of the things I was hoping to cross off my list 

was making some decisions around photos I want to use in our kitchen...

With the exception of the blackboard wall previously featured

we painted the entire kitchen white with black and wine accent colours.

I have hesitated and hemmed and hawed and changed my mind many times 

about what/what kind of photos to use!

...and the kitchen wall has looked like this for over a month

yup - those photo frames are empty

 I decided I would explore the possibility of Black and White photos...

the timing was perfect... the prompt/challenge for both 

52 Photos Project and Photo Art Friday

is Black and White! 

I pulled out a variety of different photos

people, landscapes, flowers, buildings

and, using what I could make out from my notes taken

during Kim Klassen's skinny mini e-course,

I started to experiment!!

I had a BALL!

I got lost in the world of black and white

and enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are the results of some of those experiments:

Landscapes:

I actually took the above photo because it reminded of a picture I had taken as a kid (B&W)

I was pretty excited at how it turned out

Buildings:

Flowers

I had a lot of fun with this old favourite...same shot with two very different final products

I am posting this one to Photo Art Friday

Randoms

This first one was an experiment with the shadows in Black and White

I couldn't leave out this one of our adorable niece 

who thinks I have only one eye and that my name is Nikon

because my camera has been in front of my face every time she has seen me since birth

I am no closer to making a decision about what to hang in the kitchen!

In fact, I may just have made the decision even more difficult!


One of my favourite places in the world is the Grand Canyon
One of my favourite photographers is Ansel Adams
So I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that I got carried away with some of my Grand Canyon shots!

But I'll save those for another day!

A big Thank You to both Bella and Bonnie
for inspiring me to explore the world of Black and White...
and for all their hard work on these weekly challenges!

Have a great weekend all!

          

texture tuesday - the quote edition 5.6.12

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge this week 

is to share an image with one of our favourite quotes and any one of her textures...

I was pretty excited about this!

I am a quotaholic...

and, as it turns out, my introduction to textures was when I stumbled upon 

 Kim's video tutorial - Textures in Ten - and through joining her "texture lovin' list"...

as well as her Skinny Mini eCourse

I pulled out one of my first texture attempts and reworked it 

using what I have learned since that time

through experimentation and through many of your blogs

I used two of Kim's textures

and this is what I came up with

For this I used two layers of Kim's 'music lovin' texture, both in multiply blending mode

and one layer of her 'paper stained' texture in soft light mode

I used a soft brush to remove some of the texture on the coffee cup and added my text...

(which, as I look at it here, perhaps should have been a bit larger)

and then I couldn't stop....

I really loved the Post Card texture 'dear dreamer' that Kim sent out this past weekend!!

It reminded me of the Post Cards we sent to friends while on vacation as a kid.

I experimented with it as well... 

I couldn't come up with what I felt was the right quote for it in the moment, 

but since I had chosen a photo from a visit to a beach we frequented during my childhood 

I decided to use it as a post card to my brother

I used Kim's texture as the background in this one 

adding my text to it and then adding my photo as a layer

using the soft light blending mode at 53% 

Check out everyone else's wonderful submissions to today's Texture Tuesday

They are awesome!