Quarantine activity- playing around with older photos and editing new ways . . .
Easter Quail
Last night as we were getting ready for our Easter dinner, I spotted a quail kind of hunkering down in a clay pot near the patio. I grabbed my camera and took a series of photos through the window as he fluffed his feathers to warm himself in the wind. When I looked through the resulting photos, I realized that he had gradually made himself fluffier during the quick photo session. My photographer friend, Carol, had recently informed me that a fat bird is called a BORB and a fluffy one a FLOOF. So my Easter quail had transformed himself from a borb to a borb that is also a floof in a matter of seconds- your Fun Facts for today!
This was a fairly mundane image, so I decided to try some creative edits to create an image to submit today to my photo group. I have been working on creating textures for the last few months, so I made a custom background for the quail, starting with a copy of the original image and adding a painted texture and a Topaz Impression chalk drawing filter. I finished it off with a clipping mask border, another skill I’m working on.
Be the Light
I’m joining Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday again to share a photo I took in January with a new edit using textures she sent out just last night. I am also using Kim’s words as my blog post title.
So everyone, let just be the light!
Muted
Although there were signs of Spring in the blossoming of fruit trees, Winter still had us in its grip last week. Days were cold with a few snow flurries, and the bare branches gave little evidence that it is Spring according to the calendar. The muted colors of this scene off the Peavine trail at Watson Lake reflect our muted lives these days, as we adhere to social distancing and develop new routines in our individual houses.
For me, these days are revolving around connecting with friends and family through phones and internet, planning and eating meals, hand washing (washing everything, it seems), ordering groceries online, editing photos, doing some organizing projects, and streaming and binge-watching TV series. It’s still a good life- it’s just pared down to the basics. So each day we choose to practice gratitude, appreciate our loved ones, focus on the positive and enjoy life as it is right now.
Flattening the Curve
Like most of you, we are staying home, trying to avoid getting exposed, and only going outside for occasional walks or drives. We are getting into a routine of exercising at home, doing a few clean-out projects, planning and eating meals, keeping track of our supplies, communicating online and by phone with family and friends, watching the news (Lonnie), editing photos and doing genealogy, and streaming shows at night. This whole thing would be so much more difficult in the pre-internet age- there’s lots to be grateful for!
Nature Heals
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir
Kim Klassen, my very first photography mentor and whose video tutorials taught me Photoshop nine years ago, has brought back her Texture Tuesday linkup! When I saw the announcement last night, I leapt at the opportunity to download her free textures and participate! I have gotten away from still life and have ventured into other areas of photography, but am so, so grateful to come back to Kim’s special world, especially NOW! Thank, you Kim!
https://kimklassen.com/texture-tuesday-2-o-is-here/
Social Distance
Today’s photo was taken on February 27 on Newport Beach, and how things have changed since then! Even then, we were very aware of the looming health crisis and had brought hand sanitizer and lysol wipes with us to California, but how quickly things have escalated! We barely leave the house ( have gone on two walks), and we have never felt so far away from our children and grandchildren. We are keeping busy with projects that have been long-postponed- mostly going through boxes of photos and videos- trying to put some order to a an almost 50 year collection of our photos and movies and another 50 year collection of my parents’- and then the photos from earlier generations and extended family. We are avoiding the stores, but at some point will have to risk it, I guess.
When I first edited this image a couple weeks ago, I saw it as a peaceful beach scene- but now I see it in the context of social distancing. The mother and child are each looking out of the scene- at other people? at the empty beach? I added a slight frame to emphasize their containment within their own little 6-10 foot space.
My hope is that we all emerge from our separate spaces into a kinder, gentler world- and are truly grateful for our families, our health, our friends, and our planet!
Be safe and well, my friends! And stay home!
Patience
Another thing about the beach- there are surfers! There is a lot of patience involved in surfing , I’ve discovered on my beach walks; there is more waiting than actual surfing. But then the right wave comes, it’s magic!
First Date
It was the noisy squawking that led me to look up and see this pair of gulls as we walked on the Queen Mary. My first thought was that it was their first date, hence the name of this post.
On the Roof
Gulls can sometimes be pretty annoying when you are at the beach, but this one caught my eye as he perched on a rooftop surveying the scene in Newport Beach.
Queen Mary
One of the highlights of our last trip to California was touring the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach. The lines and angles of this view caught my eye as we walked prepared to go aboard. What a beautiful reminder of a bygone era, before cruise ships became associated in our minds with viruses and quarantine.
Greeting the Day
Good Morning, Sunshine!
What a joy it was to be back walking on the beach with my new knee! It still doesn’t feel “normal”- but I can walk without pain and without poles. And watching the waves and the birds is the best therapy!
At Newport Beach
Patterns
I took the photo below last summer at the beautiful Anchorage Museum- I just loved the graphic elements on the wall and the line of bean bag chairs, with the pattern broken by my grandson Miles. I brought it to my photo class yesterday for our assignment on Patterns.
Getaway
Tuesday was Lonnie’s birthday, a great excuse to spend the night in Sedona- and our hotel was right across from this gorgeous view! Although we head to Sedona four or five times a year, the red rocks take my breath away every time!
In Winter
It looked like the Canada geese felt right at home as they paddled through the chilly water on this cold winter day. It was just Tuesday that Watson Lake was surrounded by white- but now the beautiful Arizona sunshine has melted most of it, leaving white in just the shadiest areas. I have learned to get out and take photos right away here in Prescott, as more often than not, the snow only lasts for a few days. This image was taken with my iPhone.
melinda anderson photography 