On the rocks

My husband and I tried geocaching this weekend! Armed with a GPS and an iPhone with the geocaching app, we searched for three geocaches (out of hundreds to choose from) in our area.  We started with an easy one at Lynx Lake, where we had lunch- I think it took us about 20 minutes to find.  Then we went out to Willow Lake and quickly found another (a tiny one this time), although it took us about 20 minutes also, most of which was spent tromping through weeds and climbing an embankment to get to the location.

Our confidence high, we tried to find a third one hidden on or around the granite boulders closer to the lake itself.  It was an educational geocache in that there was a quiz as part of it, based on the information the cache hider provided about the Liesegang bands or rings found atop the granite rocks at the location.  These bands are concentric circles or rounded squares formed by a chemical process involving erosion and minerals and other things beyond my comprehension.  And they are pretty amazing to look at!  I can attest to how cool they are, because I spent a good hour and a half looking at them as we searched for the cache. I kind of gave up about halfway through, because the iPhone battery gave out (why didn’t we bring the new portable charger I just gave my husband for his birthday?).  My husband had become pretty obsessed, though and was charging around determined to not be beaten.  But beaten we were- at least for this weekend- but we’ll be back!

22Feb2014-2733-Edit 22Feb2014-2798-Edit22Feb2014-2740-Edit

P.S. If you are interested in finding out more about geocaching, go to geocaching.com and set up a free account.

Melinda4 Comments

Happy

I’ve got that Happy song by Pharrell Williams going through my head (it was in my Facebook feed this morning)- a great way to start the day! If you know it, sing (clap!) along as you look at these two photos from our walk at Willow Lake earlier in the week.  I know that going on this walk certainly made me happy, as did remembering how to add a frame on each photo!

18Feb2014-2471-Edit 18Feb2014-2515-EditI used two of Kim Klassen’s textures in both: bien and daisy.

Linking up with Friday Finds.
Kim Klassen dot Com

Melinda11 Comments

Two

We spent a few hours in Benicia on our California trip last week- long enough for me to visit the waterfront and take a few photos.

The photo below is of boats at the Yacht Club, with the refinery towers looming in background. I edited this in Photoshop, using a filter to “posterize” the image and adding one of the free Flypaper textures from Adobe Exchange.

14Feb2014-2370-Edit

This is your basic Benicia waterfront photo, edited in Lightroom.

18Feb2014-2290

Melinda2 Comments

A Birthday Walk

Special breakfast treats, presents, phone calls and facetime with kids and grandkids, and a walk at the lake were all part of my husband’s special day yesterday. And evening brought a delicious dinner and cake at Debbie and Dale’s house.

We puzzled over the big white bird we could see in a tree by the lake, but it was too far to see clearly, even with the zoom lens.After, looking at it on the computer (and asking my bird expert friend, Carol), we have decided it is a black-shouldered kite, which isn’t supposed to be in our area.

18Feb2014-2634-Edit

Textures by Jessica Drossin and Kerstin Frank

MelindaLeave a comment

LIGHT!

When I first started this whole photography thing, I literally couldn’t see the light.  I think it took me almost a year before I was able to really see how light differs from moment to moment, from place to place. And now I am obsessed with it.

While we were in California, I took advantage of the beautiful light (and Spring flowers) when taking photos. The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is light, and I think this photo demonstrates how light (in this case, backlighting) can enhance a photograph.

12Feb2014-2135-Edit

Textured with bent edges and florence, by Kim Klassen.

Melinda10 Comments

Something like Spring

It is Spring- or something like that- in California! We are returning from a whirlwind business trip where we managed to see most of our friends that we didn’t see the last time we were there. We talked, we laughed, we ate, we drank- it was great!

There were blossoms and flowers, and even a bit of rain.  I didn’t do a lot of photography, but here are a couple shots from when we stopped at a shopping area to load up on “necessities” we haven’t found in Prescott (think Aveda and Art of Shaving. . .).

12Feb2014-2090-Edit

12Feb2014-2137-Edit

Yes, that’s Nordstrom in the above photo- no, we didn’t shop there.

We’re on our way home now. Funny- I refer to both the Bay Area and Prescott as home- as in, “We are going back home to visit our friends,” and “We’ll be driving home tomorrow.” I guess it’s a good thing to feel that way about two places!

Melinda1 Comment

Hole-y!

I was photographing my tulips for probably the last time and came up with this whimsical shot, which ended up being perfect for one of the Flickr challenges- Holes! BTW, this is the sprinkling part of my watering can; the tulips are in the background.

8Feb2014-2068-Edit

Melinda3 Comments

Color!

6Feb2014-2051-Edit

My husband stopped at Trader Joe’s the other day (for beer. . .) and came home with a bouquet of tulips and another of iris! I love the color combination!

Melinda3 Comments

More Squares

I am continuing my obsession with square crops with this flower diptych. I edited both of the photos in this layout in Lightroom, then added one of Kim Klassen’s textures, bamboo, in Photoshop. Then- it was back into Lightroom for an easy diptych layout.

flower_square-2

Then, because I LOVE black and white, I duplicated the diptych and did and did a b&w conversion.  I like this version even better.

flower_square-3

Melinda3 Comments