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

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

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.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: January 2023: New Beginnings

Happy New Year! Lets hope that 2023 continues to improve on the previous years. What a pleasure it is to be blogging another year with this fantastic group of bloggers. We have now been blogging at Share Six for 8 years.

The month crept up on us very quickly and it was my turn to pick the theme, so what was more appropriate than {New Beginnings}. I love the beginning of the year. It is a reset. I can look at what I see happening and evaluate what I need to do.

Each year I start out enthusiastically trying to loose weight. This year is no different. I lost some before we went to Macedonia, and then gained it when I came back. My work situation created a fair bit of stress and I, without doubt, am a stress eater. I am also a bored eater. However this year, most certainly for the first half of the year I am going to be eating a lot of lettuce. The reason for that is that we have potential plans to travel to Australia in May and I would like to be a lot thinner by then.

I have also decided that I am going to chill. I am going to work hard not to stress out. 2021 and 2022 were spent worrying about Richard and his health and then worrying about figuring out what I needed to learn for the additions to my job and making sure that I fully understood all of the intricacies of the multiple different tasks I was taking on. This year I am hoping that I can relax a bit more.

I am going to slow down, and cruise as much as I can. Richard is a go, go, go person and I just want to be much slower.

I am going to do my best to keep my head above water and take deep breathes when I need to.

I am going to do my best to not get my feathers ruffled. It takes a bit to get me ruffled but I really do not like it, so the goal is to avoid any form of ruffling.

I want to dance as though no one is looking…

And if I look foolish, oh well…

I am going to hang out with my loved ones, especially my baby boy, Luka. I hope to continue to show kindness and love wherever I can.

I am going to relax and take in the vitamin C. (Carefully though, as we all know Richard story of melanoma. Too much sun is not good for the skin).

I am going to attempt to get more sleep. Being a night owl that is really tough for me. I am awake at 1am and dragging at 8am. There is a up side to sleeping more and it has a lot to do with diet.

I am going to look to others for wisdom and guidance when I do not have the answers myself. But I am not going to be pulling my feathers out over things I cannot control. And if I see, someone struggling, I hope that I will always reach out with kindness.

I hope that I will be curious, but not where it affects others. I want to see as much as I can. Mr Lukie is now going to be going for more walks and outings. I am super excited about the plans for the trip to Australia. This is the homeland of my great grandparents and so I am eager to visit it.

I want to smile a lot more, enjoy the laughter and feel so much lighter in spirit. I hope that we lose some of the heaviness that we have been under the past two years

And when I can, I am going to do my best to have a flipping good time.

And maybe make a splash.

I am not one for resolutions. I know that I can never keep them, but I feel like I can manage these thoughts. New Beginnings are awesome. It means we can let go of the past mistakes, or sorrows or hardships. We can carry forward with us the goodness of life where we choose to.

New beginnings give us opportunities to learn something new that we may not have done before. One of the things I discovered I love is artwork with wood. For the last two years we have gone to an art studio for our work retreat and I hope we get to go again this year. I love the creative aspect of it.

At the end of each year I pull out a new puzzle and start to work on it. It helps to reset my mind, and to dig a little deeper to find those missing pieces. It makes me think again more logically. It helps me to get my mind off everything. When I have finished blogging now, I am heading back to my challenging puzzle.

I encourage you to look at what {New Beginnings} you can put into place in your life. Just make sure that they do not become a burden to you. Enjoy everything you can about 2023, and if life does get tough, try to find the positives within the negatives, those are what will get you through the challenging times. That, and family and really good friends.

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 Elizabeth of It’s Still Life by Elizabeth Willson 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_newbeginnings.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: December 2022: Color

Color is our theme for Share Six this month and I grateful for all ability to see Color around me. The world is a beautiful place. Color comes in so many diverse areas of our lives, from sunrises and sunsets, to flora and fauna, to places we visit. There is so many opportunities to experience color in our lives.

I am fortunate that there is a local national park near me which has this splendid view of the Florida Everglades. Many an evening I have witnessed spectacular sunsets. I am hoping that 2023 will have me getting out again and enjoying these beautiful evenings.
Gardens can create avenues of beautiful colors. I have a love hate relationship with these plants. I love the effects they create especially when there are waterdrops involved, but their leaves are not long lasting and I feel like I am picking them up every 5 minutes. When Richard was so sick I made a point of going outside and pulling of the leaves before they fell on the floor.
A box of pencil crayons is a wonderful place to find color. For this image I used a vase of pencil crayons to take the picture and then rotated the image to get this effect.
Even in winter I was able to find color in the leaves in one of the county parks nearby. I needed a photo for another project, but what I loved about this image was the various colors in the leaves.
Richard likes to grow pineapples and what fascinates me, is the color of the pineapple when it first emerges and starts growing. I always thought pineapples were yellow but apparently not.
Those trees that I have the love hate relationship created a beautiful contrast of colors in the background along with the reflection of the jacuzzi in the glasses.
I am not a fan of spiders, but what I do love about spiders is their incredible ability to make spider webs. The color in the bokeh of this image is a favorite of mine.
Travel is another place where you can find color and one of the most colorful areas we have come across in our travel is the gum wall at the Seattle Market. Kind of gross but it is a wall full of different colored gum.
Color also comes with emotions. This little guy stole our hearts and he has added so much color to our world. Sleepovers are always fun and I am normally exhausted the next day because I am constantly half asleep making sure that he is still fine.
Last but not least, this time of the year is all about color. I love using my lensbaby sweet 35 to capture the color of the Christmas tree lights.

Wherever you are in the world and whatever you celebrate, I wish you a blessed time. For me it is about Christmas, and celebrating the birth of Christ. It’s about family time. It’s about little Luka tearing into his presents. It’s about quality over quantity. It’s about sitting at the table over a meal and enjoying the celebration. This year we will get to celebrate with Daniel’s mom as well. She will be flying in to the US in 2 weeks and I am so excited for her.

Stay safe, stay well, enjoy the festivities. We look forward to seeing you in 2023.

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 Kathrine 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_color

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

30 Minutes in the life: November 2022

We are a week behind but that happens when our due date falls on Thanksgiving weekend. We are flexible and I am thankful.

I decided to head back to our Macedonia trip for this months 30 minutes. There are so many images and I feel like I have not had time to focus on editing just lately. Hopefully the new year will bring about some changes and I will renew my focus on going out and getting some images again. Its’s been a rough 2 years but we had really good news on Richard’s health and getting the no cancer detected was a huge huge relief for all of us. Today’s time is all about Luka and his baptism.

Confession time. These photos are salvaged as best I can, but I want to share them because this was one of the main reasons we were in Macedonia. The first was to be part of Amy and Daniel’s second wedding, the second was to meet his family, and the third was to witness Luka be baptized.

Daniel’s family is Orthodox Macedonian, and so Luka was baptized in the Orthodox church. What I will say is that I did not understand a word of it, but I could follow along with the actions and I had done some research on what to expect.

When we arrived at the church, I thought that we would be going into the church, however, that was not the case. The family was ushered into a small room across the lot where the baptismal font was. The room was not well lit and I did not have a flash. My camera has been pretty good with low light but it is a fine balance between grainy ISO, and low speed. Some of the images, Luka just moved to much, and I got too much blur. In addition when I decided on what lens to take for traveling I took the 70-300mm and the 17-40mm. Neither were the best for such a small room. The other issue I had was the colors on the walls were the same as the skin tone and it was just too much. In addition there were no open windows, no fans, no air conditioning and it was 105 F. These African have got so used to air conditioning over the past 20 years that not having it is not fun.

This is the tones for all the images and it was just too much for my eyes. So I shifted to black and white. Hopefully things will be a little bit better.

When Amy and Daniel decided to go back to Macedonia for their second wedding reception for Daniels family, they also decided to have Luka baptized at the church his mother attends in Vinica, St Arhangel Michael. The church is situated close to where Daniel’s mom lived and short walking distance from the hotel we were staying at. Churches in Macedonia are not the typical large churches we see in the USA. Perhaps in rural areas they would be similar, however, size wise it was very similar to the church I grew up in in South Africa. This was only the second time I have been into a Macedonian church. I found one about an hour from where we live and we attended a Christmas service one year. What I did find then was that they used a lot of incense, and I was struggling to breathe at the end of the service. This time that was not the case.

While we were waiting on Daniel and the priest, we went into the tiny room. Below is Luka with his baba (grandmother).

Once the priest came in the ceremony started. From what I have seen and read incense is involved and it appears that the purpose of the incense is to offer prayers . Incense is made up of a mix of spices and gums which are burned during services to produce fragrant smoke. Grains of incense are put on burning charcoal in the censer with a prayer, “We offer thee incense, O Christ our God, for an odor of spiritual fragrance. Receive it upon your heavenly altar and send down upon us, in return, the gift of your Holy Spirit.”

In Macedonia, and from what I can see, the Orthodox church is fairly strict on the godparents. The godparent must be an Orthodox Christian. Typically from what I understand there is one official godparent (kum – male) but there could be a female as well (kuma). I read that generally the kum serves as the best man at the wedding and then the godparent at the baptism. In this case Daniel’s best man Zlatko, served as Luka’s godparent as well. During the ceremony, the Kum is the person holding the child to be baptized, not actually the parents. Below Zlatko was presenting Luka to the priest

There was a lot of reading done from the bible and since it was all in Macedonian, I did not understand a word of it.

Then Luka was strip down to his birthday suit and was anointed with oil in various places on his body. In the Greek tradition only olive oil is used. I am not sure if it is the same in the Macedonian tradition, but the reason for using Olive Oil was interesting.

“The reason Orthodox Christians use olive oil is biblical and dates back to the time of Noah and the flooding of the earth. In essence, God was baptizing the earth with the flood.

After forty days, Noah sent out a dove that came back with a twig from an olive branch. The olive twig was a sign of mercy from God that he had saved Noah, a believer. Just as the olive healed and soothed Noah during the baptism of the planet, Orthodox Christians use the olive oil as a sign of grace to the newly anointed.” (Orthodox Baptism FAQ).

Not sure that Lukie knew what was happening but he had drops of oil all over him. I read that the priest would cut off 3 strands of hair, which would represent gratitude to Christ (again the Greek interpretation) but I cannot recall that being done and if it was, I did not get any photo’s.

Next he was off to the font to be baptized. Again from what I understand the priest covered Luka with water 3 times to represent the three days Christ spent in the tomb. This also represents Christ’s baptism, death and resurrection. He is wrapped in a towel and handed back to the godparent.

I love this expression on his face.

Once Luka was dressed Zlatko, as his Kum, was handed 2 candles. There was an interesting procedure of walking around the font, and at certain point bowing. I have no idea what the symbolizes. In the Greek tradition is symbolizes a dance of joy. But this looked far more serious a happening. Another webpage I read mentioned that they walked around the font 3 times and this was supposed to signify rejoicing with the angles in heaven and the other Christians present at the addition of one more member to the flock of Christ.

I also have no idea what the flowers symbolized.

Beyond that there was more readings from the bible, and a fidgety little man.

And then it was all done bar the picture taking.

Daniel, Luka and Amy
Zlatko (Kum /Best Man/Godfather), Daniel and Luka
Luka with his baba (Daniel’s mom)
Luka with his vujko, tetka i bratučed (uncle (Daniel’s brother), aunt and cousin)
Luka with his Nuala (grandmother) and his umkhulu (Zulu for grandfather) or granda as I call him.
Luka with Daniel’s second groomsman, Dalibor.
Luka with the priest.

Just when I thought we were done, we were ushered over to the main church where the priest entered a side door, and walked through the back and came out another side door. I cannot remember if he did it more than once. While that was done, I just got to really look around at this ornate and beautiful church.

And that was Luka’s baptism. It was a beautiful event, and I was glad to be a small part of witnessing this event. The day was not over, but that is for another blog. From the church we headed out to Daniel’s home for a short while before heading to a restaurant along a river where the family gathered to celebrate his baptism. This included aunts, uncles, and cousins of the family.

Thank you for joining us, 30 Minutes in the Life is a circle blog and we have some very talented photographers in the group. I always love looking at the sneak peaks and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what Lupji of Lupji Photography has for you this month, and I look forward to seeing what he has to share.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: November 2022: Nature

Nature for me is the wetlands. I haven’t been a lot lately because Friday has become my Luka day and it’s been too hot to take him in the wetlands until recently. However, it is our get out time, before sleep time. I cannot carry my big lens and push the stroller, so I have had to stick with the 70-300mm. Maybe next time I will give it a try. In addition, every time I stop, he grumbles. Our last walk we had to stop halfway around to have breakfast, and then a bit later for his bottle of water. Overall he is so good. Walking past someone I got the comment “he sure looks chilled”. There is Luka resting his feed up on the food tray. Gotta love this boy!

Woodpecker at the bird feeder with food in it’s mouth
Wood pecker back for a second round.
I’m loving the fall colors.
A red winged blackbird letting me know that I was too close.
An Anhinga looking for breakfast.
More fall colors
A Spoonbill in flight.
I love the defused colors in the background of this image.
A male grackle.
Waterdrops on a Palm branch.

Nature is everything that has life around us. It is getting away from the bricks and mortar and breathing in life. It’s the smells, the fresh air, the wildlife, the scenery that always captures my attention. Working on this blog makes me want to get out and go for another walk.

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 Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

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

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

30 Minutes in the Life: October 2022

I am interrupting the Macedonia blogs to cover our newest event. Our baby boy turns 1. Where did time go? 2021 was a crazy year, and I really thought things would slow down a bit this year but they have not. We are rushing to Christmas like we are on a bullet train. Life has it that virtually all our birthdays fall from September to November. It as busy and sometimes expensive couple of months if you add Christmas into it. However, it’s really hard to not spend money on our little monkey. One year ago we looked at this tiny face and fell in love. Suddenly a year has passed and so many changes have happened in this little man.

Amy had decided to do a Wild One birthday party theme and so I said I would make the cake. Please note that I am not a baker and I have never made a birthday cake before but I planned to challenge myself. What I discovered is that working with fondant is fun. It is like playdough for adults. Baking on the other hand is not that much fun. I hate it when you buy brand new non stick pans and they end up sticking and the cake breaking. I also learned that rolling out fondant and covering cakes is not that easy either. I made plenty of mistakes that I could fortunately hide under a bright blue waterfall. The fun part for me however was making all the creatures and their bits and pieces.

Lesson learned – do not ever use glitter fondant again. It does not set. I made the elephant and lion using a glitter fondant. The lion landed up in the garbage bin and I used the elephant on one of his smash cakes. Oh yes, he had two. One for the day before his party as Amy had friends come down for the weekend to celebrate his birthday but were unable to stay for his party. I can safely say he was not too impressed with the smash cake idea.

I started out with a concept (excuse the animals but I knew what they were). I had searched through a number of ideas. Loved the idea of a waterfall. Decided a hippopotamus would languish in the bottom pond and a gator in the upper pond. I had this wonderful idea of palm trees holding up a happy birthday banner. That said the trees looked great but the fondant never set and so in the end I cut the happy birthday off and ended up stretching it across the waterfall.

Next came the actual animals. As I said making them is like playing with playdough and following a lot of tutorials. First I made an elephant (who never hardened), then a giraffe. Then I made the hippopotamus and a zebra. After that I made the lion. I was never really happy with him. I made a leopard, who was a touch too orange, but it was only after that, that I found color mixing charts. I am holding onto those because this cake making story could become addictive. Just close your eyes when you add up the costs.

The monkey was fun and adding the banana’s seemed to make him so much better. Last but not least I wrapped a snake around a candle.

The grass was made in a mold as were the butterflies. Each rock was a blend of colors to make them look more interesting. Flowers were made from tools I purchased or by hand. Below is the final result.

Our little man turned one today. It has been a year of abundant love, baby giggles, sloppy open mouth kisses and those heart warming cuddles. Oh, but how my heart smiles when I think of all those wonderful moments. Even yesterday we sat and he would giggle and I would laugh and then he would giggle again. My heart just melts.

Amy had created a beautiful setting for his birthday and we got to barbecue and enjoy lunch while Luka was actually sleeping. He did sit a the party table for a while but got a little cranky.

When he woke up it was cake time. We got to sing happy birthday and he got to wonder what the heck we were all doing. Amy & Daniel got to celebrate him too.

Then it was time for the smash cake (number 2). He did not seem too interested in getting his hands dirty. He pushed at the zebra a bit before granda came along and showed him how to get his hands deep in the cake. The look of horror on his face at his dirty fingers makes me laugh – get it off, get it off!!! 🙂 🙂

Last but not least he got to tuck into his presents, or rather his mom did. I look forward to the age where he just rips the paper off to get to what is underneath.

He was certainly spoiled by all and we were tripping over toys everywhere. Roll on Christmas when he gets more toys. I remember that feeling of having way too many toys. I have tried to limit mine to educational toys and clothes but there is just so many cute things out there.

Next stop is Halloween, and Luka will be Peter Pan, Amy is dressing as Wendy, Daniel is dressing as Captain Hook. Cameron and Kathryn are John Darling and Tinkerbell. Cody and Carter, the service dogs are dressed as a crocodile and a skunk. Yours truly is dressing as Smee. Hopefully we are going to have fun with this.

Then we are into November, and Richard and I share a birthday, and I am going to attempt to make a topsy turvy cake. I am not holding my breath on what it will look like but I have been reading up on how to make them

Then it is Thanksgiving and a weeks vacation. Then 2 more weeks of work and it’s Christmas and 2 weeks of vacation. We are excited to have Daniel’s mom join us for Christmas this year. Finally the embassy has opened up again and she was able to get her visitors visa. It is hard to believe how quickly 2023 will be here. But since this blog goes live on Halloween, it just leaves me to wish you all a very spooky night and enjoy the fall weather, I know that I am.

Thank you for joining us, 30 Minutes in the Life is a circle blog and we have some very talented photographers in the group. I always love looking at the sneak peaks and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what Kristina of Hello Olivia Photography has for you this month, and I look forward to seeing what she has to share.

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.