Another blue hour ending: May 2023

When you read this, I will be walking the streets of Sydney, Australia. A little bit of history, both my fathers parents were Australian born, but both families emigrated to South Africa where my grandmother and grandfather met, married and created their own family. I will not get to where my grandmother was born but I am hoping that I will be able to walk the streets of my grandfather’s birth town.

However, that is not why we are traveling there. In 2020 Richard developed a melanoma, and for the last 2.5 years he has been on immunotherapy. For a while we did not know which way it would go, but as of the last scan things looked good. But it reminded us that he has not seen his family for a good 10 years, and have not seen our nieces for over 23 years. Our nieces have their own families now. Most of all Richard will get to see his mom whom he has not seen for way to many years.

Ironically, his entire family emigrated to Australia, and mine left Australia.

While we are gone I thought I would share another beautiful sunset in the good old Florida, USA. I love silhouettes and on this particular night I managed to get a few.

I loved watching the sun go down, and last of all the blue hour after the sun sets.

I hope you are all having a fantastic day. Think of me, I already picture sore feet. We are going to be walking a lot. I have plotted out a map of Sydney and I cannot wait to see it. In addition, we plan to walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte, and on a different day catch a ferry to Manly. I also get to meet up with a cousin on my dad’s side of the family in Sydney and hopefully Melbourne and meet up with a childhood friend who will fly in from Brisbane. I joked that it seems crazy that we both have to go halfway around the world to meet up again. That is the scatterings of Africa. We are all over the world.

In addition to spending time with family in Melbourne, we will be doing the Great Ocean Road, as a 3 day road trip. I cannot wait to -Port Campbell and see the incredible rock formation. The challenge here will be that Richard hates cities and I love to walk through them and see all the architecture and beautiful buildings. He wants to walk to waterfalls. I’m not saying I don’t like that but I do want a balance of city and surroundings.

Until next time, stay well

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: May 6, 2023: Shooting Through

{Shooting through} was the theme chosen by Elizabeth of It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson. Again this was not an easy theme for me. I had to improvise a bit this month. This is a crazy month. In January I said that I was going to be traveling to Australia, and here we are 1 week away and it is hectic trying to get everything in place. Added to that I have some work deadlines to meet before we leave and poor Luka had to go for surgery last week, and of course, I had to go along. I know what it is like to to be waiting alone and I did not want Amy to have to do that.

Through the Window

So we have had a lot of rain lately and I just happened to be out in it. So while I was sitting stationery at the traffic light I snapped the following two photos of the night lights ahead. These were two different evenings. I did some post editing in photoshop to get a bit more black in the images. The first night I was driving home from work. The second evening I was leaving my study group and heading to Amy’s to sleep over because we had to get up at 4:30am to drive to the surgery center and be there by 6:30am. I am not a big fan of driving in the rain either.

Through the foilage

This is a favorite spot of mine. I love to stop off at this pond before going to catch the sunset. Dependent on where the sun is setting, I have got some really nice images. The sun was setting behind the trees this time.

I went on to the normal place I shoot the sunset. In this image I was below the road level shooting up through the trees to capture the sky.

Through a Lensball

I was chatting to a friend recently. I noticed that she was posting images taken with a Lensball. I asked her if I could meet her at the sunset one evening and take a couple of photos through her Lensball. I had not planned to meet her this particular evening but as it turned out it was a good thing that I did. The sunsets the following week were not great.

Through a mesh fence

I took a walk along the side fence of a church and cemetery. The gave site closest to the fence had lost 6 of the children. How hard it must be for a parent to go through such loss.

Through a crinkly plastic bag

This did not quite have the effect I was expecting it to have. I thought I would see the crinkle lines but I did not.

Through a plastic bottle

I cut off the top and bottom of a plastic bottle. I had seen a photo taken through one and it had a better effect than what I got here. I was hoping that I would be able to see the undulations better.

Through the bottom of the bottle

I took the piece that I had cut off from the bottom of the bottle and I held that up over the flowers. The center of the base of the bottle draws in to a finish to the mold and the color is a deeper blue than the rest of the bottle. I did get that effect here.

Through a plastic lid that had a design in the middle

I was looking at what I could use and found this lid to an old coffee machine part. The lid is a clear plastic but the rim has a blue tin to it. The lid also had a design on it. You can see the upside down V over the flowers.

Through a prism

I am not sure what made me think about it but I have had a prism for years and still truly don’t know how to use it properly, but I played around with it trying to get the photo’s. In the next picture I got the kitchen counter and the dishwashing liquid as well as the flowers. In the next image I got the ceiling and what looks like the edge of the computer.

Lastly I took the prism outside and tried to get some outside images. This was the one I liked the most. I have a wild orchid that is in bloom now and I like the rainbow effect of the edge of the prism.

{Shooting through} was an interesting challenge. I am glad I was able to come up with more than one option. I am glad I have managed to get this done. It leaves me one week to get my study work prepped and my toiletries and everything else sorted out and packed. I cannot wait to see Sydney, Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. I have them all mapped out and ready to go.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images to  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_shootingthough

Blue Hour: April 2023

It’s another week and another project. This week’s theme was Blue Hour. That is the period just before the sunrises or just after the sun sets. I had a couple of Saturday night but they did not count because they were in the wrong week. So it was back to Loxahatchee National Park on Tuesday evening to see what I could come up with.

Love watching the sun set on the day. It feels like an achievement of sorts. I have survived the day, and survived another day to put it honestly. I am always so conscious that time is limited now. I am at the age where things start to go wrong. I remember growing up and the folks would meet up with friends, and the conversation would be “do you remember so and so…, yes… , well they are dead”. Yikes. I have reached that age. So it is good to get out and celebrate each day.

Taken with my Lensbaby sweet 35, deliberate blur.

Finally the blue hour arrived, and I got the image below. I had hoped for more clouds but it is what it is. I definitely got the blue.

As I was walking away down the embankment to the car, I turned around to see what was behind me and spotted this silhouette. I think this may be my blue hour image that I will submit.

Nature is a great place to get out and appreciate the beauty of this world. When the day is tough and the troubles are huge, find somewhere where you can just walk and appreciate the beauty around you. That is what I like to do.

Look out for more sunsets, more Macedonia pics, and Whoo Hoo, in a few days I am heading to Australia for 2 weeks. I know, I know 2 weeks is not enough, but it is all I could convince the other half into taking. Stay well until next time.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

30 Minutes In The Life: April 2023

This has been an interesting week. It has been a time of reflection. Two close friends brothers died this past week. A dear friend from one of my study groups lost her husband this week as well. It makes me so grateful to know that I am still alive to see the sun come up and go down each day. I am especially grateful now that we have a toddler in our lives. Luka is our grandson, and I pray that we are around to see a lot more sunrises and sunsets so that we can immerse ourselves in his little life. Time flies and before we know it, he will be a teenager. My friends grandson turned 9 yesterday and it feels like he was a toddler just the other day.

So Saturday I needed to get some sunsets for a project I was working on. (look for it at the end). However, Luka was having a sleepover and so I asked Richard to come along with me so that he could watch him while I photographed the sunset. He ran all over the place and was a sweaty child by the time we left. We had to have another bath when we got home.

It was good to see them both out and about. As I talk about gratitude. I am so grateful that Richard has recovered so well from his melanoma scare. Two and a half years of immunotherapy and he is doing well. I am so glad he is around to pour into this little guys life. Oh I know the picture is not perfect but it is hard to catch a moving child in the dark when your settings are on the sunset.

That said I was there to catch the sunset. I needed to get my creative project done by midnight Sunday. The theme for the project was Dreamscapes and I had to use images taken during the week. Dreamscapes is not my idea of an easy task. I managed to capture Luka sleeping on Friday, and then I combined the image with two of these sunset images. Pulled birds from another image, and threw in a moon just to finish it off. More about that later in the blog.

The sunset was stunning and there was enough cloud to make it more interesting.

The theme Dreamscape was a challenge for me. As I mentioned there are a number of layers to the composite. First I create the swirls using three different sunset images and manipulating them in photoshop. Then I added Luka sleeping. After that I added the birds and cleaned up around each one of them. Lastly I added the moon.

I tried to create a composite of light and dark with the purple reflecting the rem stage. The moon is still out but the orange of the sun is starting to come out and the dark is starting to fade. That twilight zone. Quite often Luka will laugh while he is asleep or smile. I often wonder what he is thinking about.

Going back to my opening paragraph. We are not guaranteed to see the sun come up or the sun set. If you have not told your loved ones that you love them, now (sooner rather than later) is the time to do so.

30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: April 2023: Macro

How did April get here so quickly. One more month and I will be back in the sky again and on my way to Australia. Hard to believe how quickly time has gone since we made the decision to plan to travel.

Share Six has chosen a theme for this month that goes away from the big wide world of happenings to the teeny tiny world of {Macro}. Thank you Lynne Grant Photography for choosing one of my favorite themes. For the longest time I did not have a macro lens. More about that at the end of the post. Finally I bought a 100mm Canon macro lens, and I have to say it is one of my favorite lens.

I will confess to this being a long post. I love playing with Macro and I also want to share some images taken years ago using the reverse lens method.

I played around with different themes. First I started out in the garden.

This is a pineapple in it’s early stages of development. I never knew until we started growing them that initially they are red as they shoot out.
A common garden weed.
Another grass weed that is just taking over every where.
Flowers on a tree
One more grass weed.
We don’t have too many dragonfly just lately but recently I managed to capture this sweet little damselfly.
Always a favorite is spiderwebs (not the spiders so much)
Tiny Buds on a plant

Then I happened to be babysitting Luka for the weekend and Amy had some interesting dried flowers that appealed to me.

Then I played around with a pair of jeans.

I’ve also played with feathers and reflections in the past as well.

As I said in the beginning, for the longest time I never had a macro lens. But I wanted to shoot macro. I was doing some research on macro options and there was an article on reverse ring macro photography. For the cost of about 11 dollars, this opened up a whole new world for me. Simply put, the ring screws into the fitting of your camera and then you screw your reversed lens into the ring. Word of caution. Do not screw anything in to tight. I had a panic attack the first time I tried to take the ring out. Looser is better. Obviously the camera is free focus. You have to create your distance where the image is sharp. Below are a some images that I took using the reverse lens method prior to having a macro lens.

Tiny buds on a thorn bush Reverse lens method
The newness of an unfurling fern in reverse lens
Down inside the grass there is a whole eco system. Taken with a reverse lens.
A friendly grasshopper taken using the reverse lens method.
Tiny new buds
Down in the grass there is a whole new world
The buds of a tiny garden weed.

Here is a link on the reverse lens method. Sometimes I feel like I may have got better detail using the reverse lens method.

What I love about macro is the details. There is so much we do not see with our natural eye. There is a world of hairs on plants and growth down inside grass and weeds that are as beautiful and as detailed as flowers. Macro is fun and if you have not done it before, I promise you, you will love it.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lynne of Lynne Grant Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images to  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_macro23

30 Minutes in the Life: March 2023

Walking in the wetlands is always one of my happy moments and today is no different from any of the other time. I love the peace and tranquility of my walk, despite the speed walkers and the camera groups and sometimes the crowds. I tend to switch off and focus on why I am there.

Getting out clears the cobwebs, opens my eyes, helps me to appreciate that there is more to life than me. There is beauty that surrounds me and it is a joy to see.

The simplicity of a leaf on a railing makes me smile. This is one of go to styles of photography. I love the creaminess of the image. Today I did not get to see too many brightly colored leaves, given that we are coming out of winter, but sometimes that is okay because it is real.

A Little Blue Heron who was confident enough to allow me to get closer to it than it may have liked. I love the feather action in the wind.

Fir fronds lying on the railing still give a very winterish feeling.

I may be wrong but this bird does not look like a Grackle, rather it looks distinctly like an Indian Myna. How do I know that, I grew up with Indian Myna by the boatloads. Grackles are common in Florida. Indian Myna are common in South Africa.

Sometimes its the random things that catch my attention. This case it is a random spider web of leaves and bits and pieces hanging by a thread attached to something my eye does not capture.

A Yellow Rumped Warbler flittered around my view. I don’t capture these little birds too often so I was grateful to see it settle for a few minutes before taking off again. It was long enough for me to capture the pose.

One of my favorite birds is this Little Green Heron. Green you may ask? Absolutely that is it’s name but I am with you because I have yet to see green in it’s coloring. That said, this little bird is a wader and can hold this pose for the longest time as it watches for it’s food.

I was doing my best to get down and low with this little Palm Warbler when someone, something not sure which triggered flight mode. I caught it just as it was about to take off.

The Palm Warbler above is the same one in this picture. It flew into the trees and hopped from branch to branch and it took me a good deal of patience to be able to capture this image. I love the image but I am not crazy about the big yellow blob which is a leaf.

Further around on my walk I came across this colorful leaf. I could not resist taking it’s picture. I always laugh when people see me taking a photograph and then remark “Oh it’s a leaf”. Come on, this is not just a leaf. This is beauty in creation and they just don’t see it.

As I have mentioned Iguana are my friends. I love them. I love their make up. I love their coloring. I love their attitude when you get to close and it flaps it’s neck skin to let you know that it is not happy. They are prehistoric looking and so darn cool. But that is me. Iguana are not popular in Florida. Iguana do not do well over the winter season. On cold days their body temperature can go to frozen mode and they go stiff and fall out of trees. Some to the ground and unfortunately some into water, where they will drown. Those on the ground tend to thaw out as the temperature warms up and then they carry on with life.

The Grebe is super sensitive to people around. For me, getting a photo of this little bird is an achievement. They are super fast, and spend a fair bit of time underwater and will come up so far away from where you expect them to be. This little one had been bathing and so I was able to snap it before it ducked away again.

I happened to find another Palm Warbler in one of the random trees along the walk way.

As I arrived at a water hole, I was surprised to see a host of Glossy Ibis and a couple of Great Egret. The day was cool and this Great Egret looked like it was cold to be honest.

Glossy Ibis are either boring looking or look stunning. When the sun shines on their wings it changes the whole look of the bird completely. They go from a boring looking brown to the pearly colored wing that changes color dependent on the angle it catches the wings.

Talking wings, doesn’t that wing span and it’s intricate formation just amaze you. I am always in awe of nature and it’s creation. Each feather is exactly in the right place so that when they come to fly there is no question that they are going to take off.

Nature is a great place to get out and appreciate the beauty of this world. When the day is tough and the troubles are huge, find somewhere where you can just walk and appreciate the beauty around you. That is what I like to do.

30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: March 2023: Double Exposure 2023

This month Katherine Cobert of Cobert Photography chose the theme {Double Exposure}. We did this theme a number of years ago in 2017, but it was great to revisit it again. I certainly experimented a bit more and learned some new methods of doing things

I will confess that by Monday evening a week before we were due to go live, I had nothing. The little guy in the picture below is our heart, and he was really sick last week. I had had him the Thursday night and he cried sobbing pitiful crying most of the night until he eventually fell asleep on my chest. Saturday night he was rushed to the ER where his parents were told that his ears and throat were blood red. That’s resulted in a lot of shots and doctors and specialist visits. It’s Saturday today and while he is a lot more cheerful. You can help though to want to watch him closely.

For my first Double Exposure I picked two images to combine. The first of Luka and the second of his mom. I had to rotate her so that she fitted into the image better. The image of Amy was taking during her pregnancy and so the words that I added really speak to the pregnancy. ” No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all you are the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside”. I can tell you now, not only does she love him, but he really loves her. That’s who he wants every time there is a choice. Below are the two images I used to create this double exposure.

Back in 2019, when Amy came back from Macedonia, I did a number of “business” type photo’s of her. Recently in January I visited the Butterfly World. I wanted to combine the two images without going outside of her body. I learned how to rotate images using the R key and using a mask to keep the pictures inside her body.

Below are the two images I used to create this double exposure.

Last year we traveled to Macedonia for the second wedding reception for Amy and Daniel and especially for Daniel’s family. What I tried to do with this double exposure was create a photo mosaic. During this challenge I discovered Blue Lightning TV Photoshop and he really does a step by step tutorial on how to do this. He made the images a lot smaller, but I chose to make them bigger so that you could see the different places we visited. The mosaic is made up of 100 images and then combined with their wedding image

Below are the two images I used for the image above. One learning curve if you try this, make sure all your image face the same direction. Only use vertical or only use horizontal. I had to go back and change out the images.

During our time in Vinica, Amy, Richard, Luka (in his stroller) and I did a walk (although it felt like a hike) up to the fort ruins above the city named Vinikco Kale. These ruins apparently stretch right through to a neighboring town and more and more of it is being excavated. We only did the area directly above the city. For this image I combined a photo of Amy on the fort walls and an image looking out to the next city Kochani.

Below are the two images I used. The countryside is beautiful and you can see the new town over in the middle of the image. I was reminded of the country I grew up in. Florida is so flat that when you see mountains you truly appreciate them.

For this image I combined another image of Amy taken in 2019, along with a photo I took in Kochani, Macedonia. I saw the words in one of the clothing store windows and really loved it. For this image I reduced the saturation and then combined it with the word image.

Below are the two images I used.

While in Macedonia, we visited a town called Struga. It was very much a holiday town, with lots of hotels and restaurants on the lake and along a city waterway. They also had a great umbrella walk. We noticed a couple of young men kayaking in the waterway. The river flows through this water way to the lake so the current moves fairly fast. Also they have a new bridge called the New Drim Bridge and the current flows through there and creates a weir of sorts. I combined three images in what I understand is called stacking.

Below are the three images I used. I did some cropping and rotating to get some of the wave action. Another interesting tale. People were diving off bridges and swimming in this waterway. It was a great little town and eventually I will get to the blogs on the city.

Another city that we stayed in was the Capital. I always think of the Hunger Games when I say the capital. Skopje is a very interesting city. The capital it is the largest city in Macedonia, with a population of around 640,000 people. The majority of the population are ethnic Macedonians, however 25 % of the population is made up of Albanian, followed by TurksRomaniSerbsBosniaksAromanians and a few other minorities. It’s an interesting city of new and old culture. The new side of Skopje houses the hotels, businesses more modern living. The older side of Skopje, the Old Bazaar, is where you find interesting passageways, places to eat and drink and of course there is always Turkish coffee if you are someone who loves coffee. Another thing of interest is that Skopje has about 100 statues scattered around this area.

I chose these three images to combine in a stacking format. The first image is the family walking from the Old Bazaar over the stone bridge back into the newer part of the city. This is a great big square with a great big statue of Alexander the Great. At the base of the statue are various lions and fountains. One of the first images I have of Amy in Macedonia, when she was with the Peace Corp, was of her running across the square with water fountains rising up from the ground. Moving on down the river from where the stone bridge crosses were three boats one of them was actually a hotel. When I was originally researching accommodation, I looked at the boat as a potential place to stay. However, now that we have been there I am glad that we did not choose to stay on a boat. I did enjoy the comforts of the Marriot Hotel after the road trip we did.

This image was taken in the countryside of Macedonia. While researching things to do and see in Macedonia (because I always like to be prepared), I came across a article on a place called the Sunken Church on the Mavrovo Lake. From what I had read the church was built at the bottom end of the lake. At some point they decided to create a larger lake and flooded the area with water, and the church became a casualty of that exercise. From what I read, dependent on the water level at the time, the church could be totally under water, halfway under water for as it was for us, completely out of the water. In fact, they actually looked like they were working on the church.

I used these three images below in a stacking format. The image of the outside of the church shows that they are doing something to the church but I am not sure what. When you walk inside the church the roof is totally destroyed and the inside pillars are either broken or lying at odd angles. It was a super interesting building and I am very grateful that we stopped there to see what we could see. The last image I stacked was taken in the grasses just above the church. One day I will get to blog this visit as well.

Shifting away from Macedonia, I wanted to try another form of double exposure. Again using a tutorial from Blue Lightening TV Photoshop, I did my best to transform the photo into a brick wall portrait. Actually I attempted this image with 3 different walls. I will say that the clean smooth wall worked the best. For this image I used a photo taken at the gum wall in Seattle and combined it with a photo I had taken of Luka in December.

As you will see from the image below I first had to remove the heart and b&b from the gum wall as well as the name Liz. I thought people may think Luka’s name was Liz and that he was a girl 🙂 . I also relocated one of the pieces of gum as well. This was an interesting experiment with a lot of work, and replaying the tutorial over and over again.

Another image from the Seattle trip with this one of Bruce Lee. Again I used the stacking concept for this image. Chinatown in Seattle was so interesting and I loved combining all three images to show case the fascinating history that it has. If you grew up in my era, you will know who Bruce Lee is.

Bruce Lee: From what I have read Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940 and was raised in Kwaloon untill his teenage years. After getting caught up in street fights his parents moved him back to the USA to live with an older sister. In 1959 he moved to Seattle. In Hong Kong, May 10 1973, Bruce Lee collapsed while shooting the movie Enter the Dragon. On July 20, 1973 Bruce Lee Died. His body was returned home to Seattle where he is burried at the Lake View Cemetery. I did not get to see his home or visit the cemetery but interestingly enough we met up with a friend at a local pub called The Pine Box. Turns out that the Pine Box used to be a mortuary – Butterworth Mortuary, 300 East Pine St, Seattle WA 98122. It was from here, we were told, that Bruce Lee was moved to his final resting place. I loved the gritty feel of the side streets and of course you cannot have Bruce Lee without the dragon.

Finally this was an interesting concept to attempt. Using Blue Lightning TV Photoshop tutorial I attempted to use smoke brush keys to change up the photo of Amy. His tutorial had smoke going off the head of his model but honestly, every time I tried to do that it just looked weird. So I decided that I would use the smoke brushes to create a different type of texture to her hair.

Below is the image I used to create the smoke textured hair. Obviously I created a background a different shape to her original photo. I selected and moved her onto the back ground and then using the transform tool I resized her to fit what the canvas that I had. I also used the Rotate tool a lot in this image. The brushes were interesting shapes and it definitely was fun but it was an image that I re-did 3 times.

Double exposure if fun. I loved playing and I really enjoyed all the different techniques that I tried, even if I had to do them over and over again. It was definitely a learning curve.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lupji Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what he has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on his Instagram page. Definitely check out his incredible art.

Come and share your images to  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_doubleexposure23

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

30 Minutes in the Life” February 2023: Tikves Winery

I decided to go back to Macedonia for my 30 Minutes in the Life. I have neglected editing my images. Today’s trip is to Tikves Winery in Macedonia. It was part of our drive down to Okrid. If I recall correctly our trip was about 3 hours of driving time to reach Okrid. Like we do here in the USA, we love to visit wineries. It is fun to see what they look like and to stop and have some food to eat and taste some of wine that has been made there.

Tikves winery dates back to 1885 and a long tradition of wine making. Hot summers and cold winters are the perfect climate for the growing of the grapes, and Macedonia definitely fits into those categories. One of the days was 105 F and I know that in winter it gets super cold.

The first few pics are of our drive to the winery. The countryside really reminds me of the Midlands of South Africa. Lush and green and endless.

I love these beautiful old churches we passed along the way.
Once we came across the tractor we knew we were in wine country.

Tikves was set in a small town about the 3rd of a way through our trip and if I remember correctly a good portion of the inhabitants of the town worked at the winery. Daniel had booked a tour and we were given access to the winery where we parked and waited for our tour guide. Our tour guide only spoke Macedonian and so we had to rely on Daniel to translate, and he was not the best translator lol. He chatted with the tour operator and forgot to tell us what had been said. First we would walk the outside of the premises. While it may look big it really only took us about 10 minutes to visit the outside. Of course, I was always dragging behind everyone because there is so much to see.

Hard to believe that our Lukie was only 10 months old. Time is going to quickly.
Vats where the wine is pumped to.
Huge silo’s used in the wine making process.

And then we were heading inside the building and down underground. The air was cool inside. I was impressed with all the vats near that restaurant, that have the wine pumped into them. It is quite a process.

The tour through the underground area was fairly quick. It is not a huge winery, but it was very interesting. Last stop was the restaurant. Through the doors below we entered a double story restaurant area. We were the only guests at the time. We selected to have some salads, cheese and meat dishes along with a white and a red wine. One thing about Macedonia is that they have only two types of cheese as far as I could tell. A salty feta type cheese, or a soft gouda type cheese.

Oh and I fell in love with the stained glass windows.

It was a nice stop over in our trip. Back in the car we are now on the the road to Okrid, where we will spend 3 days at the Lake and touring the area. Look out for more blogs on Macedonia coming up.

30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Hopefully soon I will get back to rest of the Macedonia images, but in the meantime, take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Lupji of Lupji Photography has to share this month.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: February 2023: ICM

This year our group of bloggers has decided to challenge themselves to doing something different each month. Something were we can learn from each other. This month Janet chose the theme ICM or Intentional Camera Movement.

It sounds easy. Well not so much. It’s one thing to move the camera while you are taking the photo, it’s another to get the light right and the shutter speed right and not have a blown out picture.

My first attempt left a lot to be desired. The images were totally blown out and it was only with some post editing that I managed to salvage these 3 images. These 3 appealed to me although I am not sure how much intentional camera movement these show.

1/4 sec; f/4.0; ISO 100
1/4 sec; f/4.0; ISO 100
1/4 sec; f/4.0; ISO 100

I tried using my lensbaby to get a movement effect but it was more bokeh than it was movement.

1/80 sec ISO 125

While the image below is not ICM, the effect the lensbaby gives is one of movement and I love the portal effect.

1/320 sec, ISO 125

I then decided I would swing my my favorite sunset spot and see if I could get a few images late evening. I wasn’t very successful there either. I did like the first one but then next two were not what I was looking for.

1/5 sec, f/18, ISO100
1/5 sec, f/18, ISO100
1/5 sec, f/18, ISO100

I am back to the drawing board, watched a few more videos, asked my team for feedback and then went back out again. This time I chose to go to a walk I know that is kind of dark and not one that I am crazy about walking on my own. However, I knew that the direct light would not be as bright as the other places I had tried. What I do like about these images is the very wintery effect that they have. This particular walk has a lot of tall trees with Spanish Moss growing on them.

0.4 sec, f/10, ISO 100
1/8 sec; f/20, ISO 100
1/8 sec. f/18 ISO 100
1/8 sec, f/18, ISO 100
1/8 sec, f/18, ISO 100
1/8 sec, f/18, ISO 100
0.3 sec, f/18, ISO 100

I finally feel like I found my groove. I set my camera in the upper range of the F-stop, with the ISO at 100 and the shutter speed varying around 1/8 sec. This seems to be what worked for me.

I have to be honest, this was hard. I tend to try to get crisp nature images so the blur, not unlike the lensbaby, kind of challenges me visually. However, it was fun attempting this style and hopefully I got some images that will work with what Janet was aiming for when she chose this theme.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented ladies in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Katherine of Cobert Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images to  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_icm

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30 Minutes in the LIfe: January 2023

I have confessed many times over the last 3 years that I have struggled to find my groove and to get back into the passion of photography. With covid slowing and in many cases shutting places down, along with Richard’s melanoma journey, and Mr Luka taking all my time, there seems little time to get out and do photography. However, the end of this past year and into January, my son-in-law’s mother has been visiting from Macedonia. Ljubica and I have done a whole lot of getting around and it involved me taking photo’s while she pushed Luka. Of course, he had to go with. I feel like I may have got the kick start I need for 2023.

Earlier this month I had time to myself and I decided to pick up my 100-600mm lens and go for a walk at Green Cay Wetlands. I have missed getting out with the lens but it is too heavy to carry and push a pram and try and keep Luka happy.

Today is all about getting back into nature, to re-orienting my head and taking deep breaths knowing that there are things I can change and things I cannot.

Nature is an interesting source of photography. Some shots you have control over and you can set it up as you want it, and other shots are on the fly.

This Little Blue Heron while wild, seemed quite comfortable with people getting up close to it. Sadly in the wetlands you have those people who are there to walk, without consideration of what is around them. I don’t mind people walking, I wish I did it better, however, when you see a bird sitting on the railing and folks trying to take photo’s, slow down and enjoy this incredible bird, as you go past. That way you do not scare the bird away. This bird allowed me to get fairly close but it does help to have a bigger lens so that there is no need to be on top of it.

I love birds feet and I especially love this kind of photo where the object is in focus and the rest is a soft blur.

While it is still winter we are starting to see signs of spring (which of course means the hot summer is not far behind. Although I am not going to complain too much as I will get two winters this year, as we head to Australia in May). What I love the the beginning of new life, while we are still seeing signs of old life hanging out. The lens also creates some awesome bokeh for the background.

I loved this particular image because of the contrast of the leaves. The brown underside stands out fairly starkly against the mottled green of the upper side of the leaves. What also fascinated me when editing was the background kind of reflected the contrast of the fern.

I don’t typically catch small birds but for some reason today I was lucky enough to do so. This little bird is called a Palm Warbler. These tiny birds are fast and move around so quickly that I was lucky to catch as many as I did today.

This Yellow Rumped Warbler is slightly different to the Palm Warbler in coloring. I happened to spot it in the tree eating some kind of berry. Fortunately it stayed on the branch long enough for me to capture it’s image. The differences I see seem to be the stripped effect on the wings and body and the yellow on the wings.

Of course, we have the controversial Iguana. I personally love them. They are so prehistoric and so incredible in design. Most people don’t like them because they are an invasive species to Florida. I see them eating the grass in the back garden. I am good with that. As spring arrives so does mating season, and along with that some interesting colors in the Iguana. They can go from muted greens and browns to bright orange, which is pretty cool to look at.

Along with changes in color, the birds start displaying changes as well. The Anhinga get this really cool color around their eyes. Both male and female (above and below) show this distinct marking during breeding time.

Nature includes leaves, new and old, and I love to find leaves and photograph them with this narrow sliver of focus. I just love the blur around it.

This cute little bird is ironically called the Little Green Heron. To date I am still trying to find the Green part but it is a beautiful bird all the same. It can stand still for the longest time and just when you about to give up it will dive for it’s food.

Another sign that spring is on the way. I love the unfurling ferns. The beginning of new life. So symbolic of new beginnings and so many new opportunities.

Today there were about 50 Glossy Ibis that had descended into this watery area. The Glossy Ibis is known as such due to their pearlescent feathers. Dependent on which way the sun is shining on the feathers you either get a plain brown bird or you get this pearl effect of colors. When the sun catches the feathers at the right angle they are stunning.

Last but not least on this walk about, is a critter that I really do not like. In fact I would go as far as to say they creep me out. Spiders are just not my thing. It may go back to being traumatized by a friend chasing me with a giant spider on the end of the stick, or the bamboo spiders we used to get in South Africa. Or it may even be the fact that I know a couple of people, my son included, who have been bitten by spiders and it has taken months of doctors visits, removing dead skin, packing the bite with antibiotics before the wound actually healed up. However, I am in awe of the incredible architecture spiders create. Who builds an amazing home on 4 twigs. Spiders are good when it comes to that, and I respect that, so long as they stay away from me.

30 Minutes in the Life is a small group of bloggers who get together once a month to put thought to paper and share on the happenings of their lives. Hopefully soon I will get back to rest of the Macedonia images, but in the meantime, take some time to follow the link to see what my friend and very talented photographer Kristina of Hello Olivia Photography has to share this month.

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