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!

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: