299 Night Falling

Trying out some new things. Like going outside in the dark and using (or not using) the flash. The flash has been my nemesis, but, I'm doing what I can to make friendly.

I used Shadowhouse Creations textures on this photo. I'm so glad I stumbled upon his site. Its on my side bar. Check it out for freebies, techinques and interesting photography.

298 Its Time: A comparison

I'm learning new stuff in photoshop. After applying some textures to the top truck, it looks so much more interesting, in my opinion. Hmm, ok, so you don't really know this, but a few minutes have passed as I uploaded the original - seen below - so you can compare and contrast yourself.

Yes, still a good photo, in general terms, but the top one, just has more interest, I think anyway.

Shadowhouse Creations textures and mask applied.

297 - Stormy Weather

Stormy weather is here. It puts a bit of a damper on my creativity. Just want to nap and veg and watch movies. Getting dressed for outside when its windy and rainy and cold just to search for something to photograph - well, I must be a fair weather photographer because, I don't always like it much.

296 - Weekend Fun

So much fun last weekend. We played games, ate great food and bonded just a little bit more.

295 - Enter with caution

I like doors. I should photograph more of them. Oh, and windows. They both lead place. They both contain mystery. They both have intrigue.

293 and 294 and its the weekend - - soon

100 things

Well, 100 things I would like to do, accomplish, before my time on this planet comes full circle. Not sure I will be able to think of 100, but let me try. Some may be strange or off the wall in your mind, but in mine, they are all a dream, a completely doable dream. Some things to strive for. Some things to look forward to.

1. Spend a consecutive month, or more, living in France.
2. Pet a tiger
3. Be a really great photographer
4. Photograph the polar ice fields, both poles
5. Be able to ride my bike 100 miles
6. Have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama
7. Have a real and positive relationship with my sister
8. Be physically flexible, you know, yoga-ish
9. Be happy to my core with my life, as is
10. Give up all my insecurities and beotchy thoughts
11. Hike the Grand Tetons
12. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
13. Dive / visit the Galapagos Islands
14. Take really great photos that people love and ooh and aaahhh at.... this might be a theme
15. Learn how to cook and bake more creatively
16. Ride my bike to work 365 days in a row, well, more like 52 weeks in a row
17. Visit Australia and New Zealand
18. Go to South America, anywhere, Patagonia maybe
19. Work for myself doing a job that I love so much I think of it as play
20. Become fluent in French
21. Become fluent in Italian
22. Become fluent in Spanish
23. Work in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving day
24. Go to a play at least once (twice) a year
25. Backpack overnight somewhere
26. Get in our canoe on the Willamette River
27. Sleep out under the stars

Its a work in progress. I hope to revisit this list, add to it and also cross things off. What's on your list?

289 - Wax on

Forgot to post this pic. I sometimes have a hard time finding something to photograph. This was one of those days.

290 Forest; 291 Blue Hour Rose; 292 06:45

Mister and I hiked on Sunday.

I took this rose photo just before dusk and it was glowing, radiant, atomic.

Could not sleep. Got up early and grabbed my camera before I drove to work. I knew the sunrise was going to be great, but, this was beyond my reckoning.

288 Fog, 287 W is for Water

Fog at the end of last week. Stayed around way longer into the day than usual. And, I was inspired by something I saw on Little Purple Cow. I went searching for metal things and found this wonderful water main cover. I really like this old style cover with the roses. The newer ones are plain and boring.

284, 285 and 286

Its funny how art does imitate life, even when we aren't completely conscious of it. I post my 365 pics on Facebook in addition to here on my blog. I have a couple friends there who also had 365 projects and it has been a serious motivator to have others be in the same boat, to have others be encouraging, to be encouraging to others, to see what they have come up with, to see that they are persevering even when photography subjects get tough to find. I have a friend, there, on FB, who commented that I must be 'evolving' as an individual or a photographer (or something) because the mood of my pics in the last week has changed. Now, I don't know if she's just very observant of the subject matter and tone of my pics or that she is observant of the titles I've been giving them lately. (I title each photo on FB. Something I don't always do here.) But, she is right and I had no idea my photography was reflecting it. Life has beat me and my circle of close friends down with a steel baseball bat of late. We'll all get through our "stuff". But, when you are in the thick of it, it doesn't feel like you will. Anyway. I've titled these pics for you, the same as the titles on FB. Just because, its where I am.

Growing

Weight of the World

Still

I guess now that I see all three pics with their titles together, it wouldn't necessarily take a rocket scientist to figure out I'm wading through some muck.

I hope your world is peaceful today. If not, I hope you know that it will, eventually, some day, most likely, get there again.

Ciao

280 - 283

Some times all you get is a photos that bores you to tears. I've come to realize that when that happens, I just start playing with effects and other stuff in Photoshop and I will often end up with something not quite so boring. There were hundreds (probably) of these plastic dinosaurs all along this rock wall in front of some random house Mister and I walked by. I'm standing there, taking photo after photo and I realize, the home owners are there, walking to their car, driving away, watching me. I just smiled and kept taking pics. What else did they expect?!

I played with liquid recently. You don't even want to know what this top one is, but I just have to say, its not Photoshopped. Actually, now that I think about it, other than the border and some cropping, neither is the bottom one.

Just Read: Always Looking Up

Author: Michael J. Fox

I thought I had posted about this in the past, but, I can't find it. Maybe I should spend more than one minute looking. Anyway.

I never realized/knew that Michael J. Fox was such a good writer. I mean, how could I know it, I've not read any of his books. I wouldn't have picked this up myself, it was given to me by a friend. That's how I get most of my books lately. I don't want to spend money on books, and I have no idea what I want to read right now. I am relying on the kindness of friends to lead me. They usually do me good.

MJF famously has Parkinsons disease. He was one of the first few celebrities to be open and vocal and proactive about letting the public in on his struggles. It's one of this diseases that for some reason has always (in the past) carried a stigma with it. MJF has been a huge activist in changing those misperceptions and in advocating for research.

It took me a long time to read this book. I would read a bit, then read something else. It was a good book, humorous, informative, insightful but difficult because my dad has Parkinsons. I sometimes want to put my head in the sand and pretend all is just fine in the world. All my worry and or fretting doesn't help at all. I just spend as much time as I can with him.

That is all.

You can't win a prize with every shot: 278 & 279

Well, unless you are Art Wolf. He could probably win a prize with nearly every shot.

Have you ever watched the 'extras' for... I think... Monsters Inc.? Holy Schmoly, I'll have to check it out later for accuracy. Anyway, one of those Pixar movies has a 'short' about birds on a telephone wire. I love that short. Ok, here I go (you won't even miss me, I promise) to see if I can find it on YouTube....Ok, I'm back, its called "For the Birds" and I linked it for you. Its so great. I was out taking pics the other day and there were just a ton of birds and some were on this wire overhead. I took shot after shot trying to capture what I thought would be representative of the Pixar short I love so much. I didn't really succeed all that well, but, here's what I ended up with.

I always thought this was called a bachelor button. Who knows, it may be, but I think (think) its also called common chicory. Don't know. What I do know is that I took the most fabulous photo of one of these, or a very similar one, in California a few years ago and have been fascinated with them since. I can't find the photo on my computer. I'll have to dig deeper.

Just Read: A Lion Among Men

Author: Gregory Maguire

I read this book a while ago and forgot to post about it. Its part of the Wicked series by Maguire and it was pretty good. Interesting to hear the (a version thereof) back story of the cowardly lion. How he started out and how he ended up so cowardly. I never would have thought this all up, but then, I'm not really a writer. I liked this book. Not as much as the others, but still, I did.

Just Read: There's a slight chance I might be going to hell

Author: Laurie Notaro

As I start this book: Its not capturing me like I thought it would. But, in the book's defense - - does a book need a defense - - I'm not really a laugh out loud girl. If something does strike me as funny enough to laugh out loud, well, you best step back because I'll probably be rolling on the floor, or doubled over at the waist due to my lack of practice at laughing out loud.

Done now: I liked this book. It had humor and intrigue and mystery - well as much as a comedy can. It was nearly a dramedy. The main character moves to a new town and experiences difficulty making new friends. In fact, she actually manages to make quite a few enemies through quirky misunderstandings and outright deception on the part of others. In the end, she hooks up with an unlikely comrade and you like them both, a lot. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something light, funny and quick.

276 Tomato; 277 Field

Just two pics. The tomato, I really wanted to love, but didn't. I overlayed another photo of an etched mirror that I also wanted to love, but didn't. Mashed together, I like it. The field of colors, I liked. Layers, layers, layers. I toyed with it in photoshop to bring out the vibrancy and overlayed (I'm all about the overlays right now) a texture to give it more interest. I sort of liked how it ended up. I've since had 'people' tell me I should change it - very interesting. To make it better - "crop out the weeds in the foreground" (something that I sort of specifically focused on) and "crop out more of the sky and bump up the contrast". I had initially cropped out more of the sky, making it just an icing on the photo, but, put it back in. I liked it better with more sky - more layers.

I was initially taken aback by the suggestions, but have since come to realize, its ok. Its art (I use the term loosely here) and art is subjective and everyone has differing opinions about what is "pretty". So, I take in the constructive criticism (which I don't even know that it was necessarily) and hope to learn from it.

273 Tomatillo; 274 Prayer Flags; 275 Pumpkin Patch

Our tomatillo plant has hundreds of quarter sized little thin skinned orbs. There is nothing inside the little orbs. We had so little in the way of summer weather - or rather so very wonky summer weather - the tomatillo plant is months (it would seem) behind. The poor plant even has blossoms still on it. I was so very much looking forward to all manner of home grown tomatillo goodness. I'll keep hoping, but I doubt it will come to fruition. Prayer flags in the neighbor's yard. I love when I'm walking around and I see prayer flags in someone's window or over a doorway. Whatever you believe, whatever you believe in, whatever your prayer, it can't be a bad thing to send to the universe a call for love or nourishment or a sending of those same elements.

Pumpkins. I've been mentally obsessed with them for a few weeks. Mister and I drove to Sauvie Island early Saturday morning just for pumpkin photos. He's good to me that way.