On one of the weekend days at Yellowstone, I accompanied my daughter’s family on two mini-hikes. The Wyoming skies were magnificent- blue with puffy clouds everywhere. I love this rural scene of a horse barn near where we stopped to eat lunch.
Happy Henry
I’m back- after spending a week in Yellowstone mostly playing with this sweet boy- and then another five days back in Benicia. Miles was busy at all-day Kindergarten (8:05-3:45!), so 2 1/2 year old Henry was definitely the star of my photos this time. I’m just beginning to edit my photos, but these two jumped out at me. He is just so darn cute!
I’ll be back!
I’m in Yellowstone without my computer and am busy babysitting this little cutie! I’ve taken lots of photos with my big girl camera, but for now am just posting this iPhone photo of Henry earning an m&m for potty training.
Summer’s End
I know summer doesn’t officially end for awhile, but the Labor Day weekend has always seemed like a milestone marking the close of summer. As I walked around the front yard the other evening, I noticed that, as the daylight began to fade, the purple blossoms of the Russian sage were fading as well.
Textured with savor by Kim Klassen for Texture Tuesday.
Evening Skies
The changing colors in the skies after dinner last night captured my attention. There were no towering thunderheads- just some wispy white and pink clouds. They made an interesting backdrop for closeups of plants out front .
Russian sage against pinkish clouds.
Our neighbors’ pampas grass.
Our First Visitors
After a week of unpacking boxes and finding spots for all our possessions (still 25 out of 300 boxes to go), it was so wonderful to have our very first visitors, Rick, Margott (his mom), and dear little Alice. Alice is the three year old daughter of Rick and his wife, Andrea, our god-daughter. Here’s a shot of Alice and Rick in our back yard.
Looking Around
Today I finally took some time to walk around outside with my macro lens attached to my camera. Macro lens- oh how I’ve missed you! I found some flowers and plants I’m not familiar with- maybe someone (Carol, Debbie?) can tell me what they are.
There is a huge spiky plant in a bed out front. It is past the blooming stage (you can see the faded red flowers still ).
I love this one- I think it’s probably an annual.
Floral
With all the sky-gazing that I’ve been doing, I haven’t taken any time to photograph anything else. I am hoping to get back in the groove of doing photography in the mornings at some point soon, but for now I’m editing a photo I took in La Jolla a couple weeks ago. I am missing doing floral photography, and, although I have a yard of mostly rocks, I plan on getting outside soon to photograph the flowers I do have and to get a shot of the hummingbirds that frequent the yard.
I used 3 layers of Kim Klassen’s new savor texture- love this one!
Arizona Sunrise
When not unpacking boxes, it seems all we do is look at the sky here. Here is sunrise viewed from our front porch this morning.
Boxes and Crazy Clouds
The movers arrived Sunday morning at 8:00a.m. during a steady rain that kept up all morning. It was an exciting and exhausting day- and we wouldn’t have made it through without the help of our good friends, Dale and Debbie, who are moving experts. Dale arrived with a toolkit, Debbie with an exacto knife in her pocket. And where were the Andersons’ exacto knives? Packed in moving boxes of course! We haven’t moved for 26 years- we’re out of practice.
Here’s a progress report at the end of Day 2:
The office is up and running! Our desks and supplies are organized (roughly), and the computers are hooked up and waiting for cable internet (currently getting by with our mobile wifi).
The master bedroom is arranged (Debbie made the bed!), but our closet is still a disaster (most of our clothes are not unpacked). Our bathroom is organized if not decorated. The other two bedrooms are full of boxes.
The garage is a work in progress; a lot has been accomplished.
The kitchen is fully functional- although it was a comedy of errors as I taught myself how to cook with a gas stove today! We had our first sitdown dinner tonight (thank goodness for Trader Joe’s frozen goodies), although we still have to sit surrounded by boxes.
We’ve hardly made a dent in the unpacking, but there is no deadline, right?
We had monsoon rains accompanied by thunder and lightning in the late afternoon and evening. I took this shot from our back patio after the rain, but while thunder was booming. I continue to be fascinated with Arizona skies!
Big Sky- and Good News!
We’re discovering that Montana isn’t the only Big Sky Country; Arizona is too! There are ever-changing cloud formations in the Arizona skies. I think this was the first night since we’ve been here that there hasn’t been lightning, thunder, and a little rain. So we headed to the mall near sunset so I could capture one of Prescott’s beautiful sunset skies.
Here is my husband waiting patiently in the car as we waited for the sun to set. Even the eastern skies eventually got a pinkish hue tonight. I edited this one in Perfect Effects 4 to give it an almost HDR look.
And here is sunset over the mountains. To me it almost looks like a bay with islands.
Now for the good news: tomorrow we check out of our hotel and start moving into our new house!!!
The moving truck doesn’t arrive until Sunday, but we will sleep in a bed that will be delivered tomorrow for one of the guest rooms. We are beyond excited!
Blooming
Last week’s visit to Benicia’s Community Garden yielded some nice flower photos- here’s one of my faves, edited with 3 layers of Kim Klassen’s 1301 texture. I used all three of the “tweaked” textures I created for Sunday’s post.
Hanging Around
Hanging around– a lame play on words referring to the Flickr topic, hanging, and our current status of hanging around waiting to move into the new house (one more week!).
I do enjoy the hotel elevators.
They are either incredibly busy (breakfast, happy hour) or pretty empty (middle of the day, evening). There is great people watching here!
And here is HANGING.
Beyond Beyond Day 28- Texture Tweaking
I’m catching up in my Beyond Beyond class too (although I am skipping around). The challenge was to take a favorite texture and edit it 3 ways to make 4 different versions. I used Lightroom 5, rather than Adobe Camera Raw, because it is my comfort zone and the method is almost the same.
Here is Kim Klassen’s 1301 texture (a favorite because of the creases), which I edited to change tones and to emphasize the creases in each one. The upper left square is the original.
Another idea suggested was to choose 4 different textures and simultaneously edit them the same way. Again I used Lightroom 5- with the AutoSync feature. Easy Peasy! I chose the cora, sybil, anna, and daisy from the Downton collection and made each grittier by increasing clarity and contrast, adding grain, deepening shadows etc. Fun!
Garden Gate
Just off the main drag in busy La Jolla I spotted this quiet scene, such a contrast to the busy surroundings. I have started to catch up on some of the challenges in my Flickr group, which I have mostly ignored for months now with the craziness of my packing and moving adventures. This photo is in response to the topic, QUIET.
I am so looking forward to having a home again, although it won’t have this sweet entrance.
melinda anderson photography 