The soundtrack for this blog post is Bonnie Raitt’s Have a Heart (can’t get it out of my head- and I love her!).
Did you see the heart?
Linking up with Friday Finds today.
And for your listening pleasure. . .
This version is less up-tempo than the the one in my head- but it’s Bonnie! And any song that begins with “Hey, shut up!” certainly gets my attention!
I’m getting a lot of mileage out of this week’s bouquet. I thought I was done with it, but walked by yesterday and noticed the light- the rest is history!
It is FALL, but still no beautiful fall leaves. So here is some Fall COLOR for you. . .
No, it’s not the moon- just lens flare- but I love the effect.
kk_chill texture added
Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.
Here are two more shots I love from last week’s (short) walk up the hill to the top of our lot. I want to make clear that none of this land above is ours- and it does crack me up that it took me a year to walk through our weeds to get to the pretty ones above. Just know that I don’t like the possibility of snakes- or even lizards. Or frogs. I think that covers it.
Lovely weeds!
And here is a view of Prescott’s iconic Thumb Butte.
Our house sits on a hill on a half-acre wedge-ish shaped lot with the most of the backyard on a steep slope, covered with rocks to keep the hill intact. There is a rickety stairway going up the hill on one side to an unlandscaped area that is mostly, um, weeds. We had the weeds cut down this summer, and this week I finally ventured all the way to the top of our property! Before, I had been concerned about what might be living in those weeds and didn’t really want to walk through them, chicken that I am.
At the top, I could stand at the edge of our uphill neighbor’s property and enjoy the view over our house to the hills and also see our neighbor’s fields at the top of the hill. Pretty!
BTW, I did play with the color in the bottom photo; the fields are actually pretty green. Artistic license!
I’m linking up with Friday Finds today.
I belong to an amazing photo group in town which is full of accomplished photographers, many of whom are professionals or at least display and sell their work. To say the least, I am a bit intimidated by the level of expertise of the group. It took six months before I ever brought a photo to be critiqued, and it was not particularly well received. Since then, I’ve brought two more, and I’ve learned from the experience. I also learn a lot from listening to the critiques of all the other photos and from the speakers that are brought in each month.
Probably the most exciting thing for me as a member of this group was being able to participate an exhibit at a local cafe/nightspot. Two of the photos I submitted were selected and have been on display for over a month. It has been a lot of fun seeing my photos framed and hanging on the wall- with price tags. Only one photo out of the whole group of 40 some photos displayed has sold so far, which I’m told is about average. By the way, the two photos I have displayed are Golden Feather (the owl feather I photographed in Yellowstone)and Dusty Jeans (the legs and boots photo from the Gardiner Rodeo). The display ends this weekend.
This summer, one of the photo assignments was “unique door ajar”. When I was out and about I took a few door photos for the challenge, none of which seemed to me to be THE photo. I ended up being unable to attend that particular meeting, so never had to make the decision of what to submit (I probably would have gone back out for more shooting. . .). Lately, I have been spending some time going through and organizing and culling photos in my Lightroom catalog and came across some of the photos I took for this assignment. So today’s post is featuring some “unique doors ajar.”
Bedroom door ajar. . .
Doors ajar in Prescott. . .
And from a drive out in the rural areas nearby. . .
I’m fascinated by intentional camera movement (ICM) and the often abstract images resulting. It is harder than it looks, and I have yet to find the right combination of subject, settings, and movement to produce what I am trying to create. There is always an element of surprise, which makes it fun.
Here are two shots of lavender from my front yard, created by using slow shutter speeds and moving the camera.
Knowing the time for flowers is limited as the days grow shorter and autumn approaches, I picked a bloom from the bed out front and took a few photos.
Both of these images have a layer of Kim Klassen’s chill texture. The bottom one had the paint daubs filter applied (twice!) before adding the texture.
Here are a few leftover shots from this week- details from around the yard.
Some lonely clouds and some lavender
A patio chair and a closeup of our drooping backyard tree (can’t remember what it’s called. . .)
Front flower bed
Yesterday I photographed No. 2 pencils. I’ve photographed pencils before, but I had this image in my head that wouldn’t go away: bright yellow pencils with my orangey wall as backdrop. I even made an early morning (well, 8:00- early for this retired person. . .) trip to the grocery store to buy brand new pencils.
I think I’ve already written of my lifelong love affair with office supplies, something I inherited from my grandma, Mimi, who would drive my mother crazy in her later years by asking to be driven to the stationery store (this was way before Office Max was born) because she needed a new pen. We would stand around and watch as she carefully tried out each pen before deciding on the right one. She wrote with fountain pens, sometimes the cartridge kind, but usually a beautiful Parker fountain pen with turquoise ink.
When I was a little girl, I loved the beginning of the school year and the passing out of brand new school supplies. We even got modeling clay to keep in out desks; I distinctly remember the smell! When I started teaching, I loved the boxes of new supplies I would unpack each year and pass out to my students.
So today, I am thinking about school supplies. And brand new sharp pencils.
Pencils: dark side
Pencils: bright side
After I took these photos, I saw that a new assignment had been posted in BeStill 52- a still life portrait. This could be a self-portrait, I suppose.
I’ve learned two important lessons about photography in the last four years (and I’m not talking f-stops here. . .):
1. Light is everything.
2. Beauty is everywhere.
I know I used to know about the second one when I was a child; I’m sure all children do. I noticed everything and took note. Then I grew up and got busy. Now that I am retired I notice again. And take note. And appreciate!
The other day I was walking through my bedroom and noticed the vertical blinds-probably the least appreciated item in our home. I don’t like vertical blinds and plan to replace them someday. But that day, I noticed. And took note. And appreciated.
I love the play of light and shadow. Yes, there is beauty everywhere!
I then played with some of the images. I started by making a collage of two of them in Pic Stitch.
Then I brought the collage into Pixlr Express and had fun adding effects with the Effects panel.
Great fun!
The next day was the day of the beginning of the Mother of all Monsoons- torrential rains and flooding fed by Hurricane Norbert pushing inland. I stayed inside (when I wasn’t running outside to make sure the hill wasn’t sliding away. . .) and set up a still life for Be Still 52 (the one I posted yesterday). I was proud of myself for remembering to take some iPhone shots as I was getting things ready. This one had a basic edit in Snapseed, with some adjustments in tone. Then I added a texture in Mextures.
I couldn’t resist taking a photo with my Lensbaby Mobile. Edited in Snapseed. Love that blur!
Linking up with App- Happy Wednesday today!
It was a stormy monsoon of a day- a good day to practice my still-life skills. I’d been feeling the urge to photograph old books again, so went to the bookshelves and pulled down four of my mother’s books (which I treasure) and my childhood thesaurus (the torn and tattered one). I added my cup of coffee to the scene and went to work. Afterward, I edited them with a matte curve in most and adjustments in white balance and/or split-toning to get the tones I was trying to create in the image.
I took two of the images (the first and fourth) into Photoshop and added textures- Kim Klassen’s yesteryear and sweettart.
Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.
melinda anderson photography 