Share Six: March 2024: Sky

We have just spent 8 days in Arizona, specifically in Phoenix, Sedona, Page and ever so briefly Flagstaff. So this month’s Share Six theme {Sky} I really wanted to use photo’s taken on the trip. Outside of that I have some crazy sky photo’s that I have shared before, mainly sunsets which I love. But for this blog, Arizona sky is what you will get.

Flying high above the clouds is always interesting. This looked like cotton candy or snow just hovering below us.
Another image from the sky. Hello, we are not in Florida anymore. I was pretty excited to see mountain ranges, even from up high in the sky. Florida is so flat that you can barely see an undulation.
Phoenix airport from the plane, and the sun setting in the sky. It was nice to land and have my feet back on the ground, and to be able to experience something new and exciting. In addition, I got to see my brother as well so that was really nice for me.
Day 1. My brother headed off to his conference meet and greet and we had dinner at the hotel restaurant before heading to a rooftop bar to see if we could get a sunset. The building had a very interesting rooftop that made me think of Game of Thrones. When the sun had set the lights on that upper floor came on, alternating red and green. I never found out what it was but enjoyed seeing it.
Day 2: Train and bus was our mode of transportation out to Scottsdale. Transportation is efficient and cheap. We spent the day walking around the downtown area. We were doing the Art Walk. There was some interesting outdoor art, but a lot of it was “shops” selling art. We found an interesting little “country” bar/restaurant where we rested for a while and had lunch.
Day 3: It was back to the train and bus method of travel. We headed out to the university town of Tempe. I loved the strange feel to the sky in this image. We did not get a lot done here because by midday Richard was not feeling well and complaining of a splitting headache. 5 hours later we discovered he apparently had pneumonia. Not happy to hold onto his germs he graciously shared them with us. I ended up with bronchitis and my brother was complaining that he chest felt tight. Day 4 was spent with me wandering around on my own and Richard conserving his energy at the hotel.
Day 5. We are now planes, trains and finally automobiles. We headed out on the road early Thursday morning for Sedona. The weather was great although somewhat cloudy. There was definitely a moodiness to the sky.
We passed through an area that gave every indication of a storm about to happen but somehow we missed it.
We finally arrived in the beautiful but busy Sedona. Thursday was busy and Sunday was a parking lot. That said the town is gorgeous, our hotel was awesome and the red rock was just spectacular. Given our time limits and Richard not well, and me starting to feel iffy, we just drove from location to location and did little to no hiking. We climbed a couple of hills but not too high and not to far. In the afternoon those clouds let go and we were trapped indoors for a couple of hours. It was fine, we all wanted to snooze. That evening we went to an Indian Restaurant and had a really nice curry.
Day 6: Cloudy sky but no longer raining. We were ready to head out after a stop for me at the Urgent Care and then the pharmacy to get antibiotics. Sedona and the red rocks are stunning and well worth the visit. What fascinated me was that outside of this area the red of the rock seemed to disappear and the color become more neutral. Sedona is known for it’s vortex sites as well but more about that in a later blog.
We are heading up to Page, Arizona, up near the Utah border. We had to head up through some windy mountainous roads. The sky was cloudy and the weather was cold. The mountains were scattered with snow. We stopped at an American Indian trading area, and it was freezing when we got out of the car. In addition snow started falling on us. I was happy to get back in the car and keep moving.
Over the hills and down the dale and the scenery changes again. The sky was brighter, the clouds light and puffy and the rocks a completely different color.
We had arrived in Page. Two things I wanted to do there was Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. We opted to go down at sunset hoping that it would be good. It wasn’t and it was bitterly cold. In addition to all of that it was a fairly long walk down hill, which meant that it was an extremely long walk uphill. It took me 15 minutes of huffing and puffing and being totally out of breath to get to the top. I was timing myself because I knew there was a time limit at Antelope Canyon and I was worrying about that. It was nothing to worry about, Horseshoe Bend was much harder for me. The combination of being sick, higher altitude and just generally unfit took it’s toll. I told my brother I was convinced I was an undiagnosed asthmatic.
Day 7: Page, and I am super excited and super nervous. We had time in the morning to explore and we accidently explored into Utah. I could not resist taking this photo. The sky was clear, the temps were moderate to cool, and we were standing in Utah.
Antelope Canyon has been on my bucket list since I first saw photo’s of these beautiful rocks. The tour is not cheap and I paid for all three of us, but I promise you, it was well worth it. In the next couple of photo’s the really bright light is the sky shining through the gap at the top of the rocks. The walls undulate and it feels kind of disorientating. I found myself at times feeling a little unbalanced.
There were times I felt like the rocks looked like molten lava or that they were on fire. I cannot wait to sit down and start editing all the trips images. If you can do one thing in Arizona, my choice would be Antelope Canyon. It’s busy but the tour group we used Antelope Canyon Tours were very sensitive to the busyness and staggered the entry so that the groups were able to get images without a million heads bobbing up in the images. I tended to shoot up when our group got in the way.
Straight from the tour we were back in the car again and heading back to Flagstaff. Clear skies were perfect for the drive. Although in Flagstaff the snow was still on the mountain, some was on the streets and there was a chill in the air. A lot of my photo’s were taken from a moving vehicle because our driver, Richard, does not like to stop and start.
Flagstaff on a Sunday morning was not cutting it for us, so we headed out back to Sedona for a short while. Unfortunately we discovered that weekend travel causes Sedona to become super busy. That is not my thing. So after buying my baby boy a t-shirt, we headed back out, making one more stop in Black Canyon City. I read about a place called Rock City Pie shop and we made a detour for coffee and pie, which I will add was really, really nice.
A whirl wind week and I will confess that I have had better weeks where we are not sick. We were back at the airport with a long wait time. My brother was flying out international and had to be there by 5pm. Our flight was only at 10:40pm. Drinks were had, farewells were said, some tears where shared and then we were back on the sky train to our terminal for the 5 hour wait. Fortunately they had some chairs along the window that were really comfortable, so I settled in to read while Richard crashed on the floor.

We saw some interesting skies this week and I was grateful for the changing sky and scenery along the way. It definitely makes the trip more interesting.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lupji from Lupji Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on his Instagram page.

Share Six: February 2024: Out of Focus

I chose the theme this month with the criteria that the level of {Out of Focus} could vary. That said I have chosen some images that are my favorites from the archives and some that are more recent. I will say I kind of went overboard a little, but I hope you enjoy.

When I looked at the theme, I broke it down into a number of categories, elements, nature, lenses, and my favorite style of shooting images, that isn’t travel.

With the elements I found two images that reminded me of what days in Florida can be like, hot, humid with the occasional fog,

This first image was a combination of using the Lensbaby soft focus, and going from a cold airconditioned house into the hot humid air. The lens was already soft the the temperature change on the lens created this really hazy image. 
In the days when I was doing a 365 project, my camera was always in my car. Driving out one morning the fog was in the air and I had to stop and take this photo of a young student walking to the bus stop at the entrance of our community. The fog created this mystic out of focus image.

Nature, particularly sunsets, when using the Lensbaby lens, can create unique out of focus images. Here are a few taken at one of my favorite sunset spots. 

Sunset Sweet 50
Sunset using the double glass lens
Sunset using the Lensbaby pinhole lens
Sunset using the Lensbaby Sweet 35

Using lenses to create different styles of out of focus is a fun way to experiment. In the days before I had a macro lens, I discovered the reverse ring method. It’s hard I am not going to lie. Its kind of like free lensing with a reverse lens. At the time I could not afford a macro lens, and this was my best option. It was definitely fun, until the day I could not get the reverse lens off my camera and I panicked. I did get it off but that made me more determined to get a macro lens.

Fir tree fronds
Tiny new buds

At one stage I got into all the different types of Lensbaby optics. I have a huge variety of them, but I constantly forget to use them. My favorite is the sweet 35, but I also have the double glass, plastic, sweet 50, twist, pinhole, single focus, and soft focus. I will confess that the soft focus messes with my eyes. When you are used to sharp images the Lensbaby optics will cause you to do a double take. Below are a few of the images I have taken with the different optics.

Playing with the Lensbaby Pinhole and loving it.
The Single Glass Optic
The Plastic Optic

The images below were taken with the Lensbaby sweet 35. This is probably my favorite of the Lensbaby optics and if I am going to pack one, this typically finds its way in. My problem is that for the most part I am using my zoom lens and I definitely forget to pull the Sweet 35 out. 

I have always enjoyed getting out and walking in the wetlands. Lately I have not been so often, because I have Luka, but I really need to get out and do it some more. It winter now and the weather was perfect this last week, so I put him in the stroller and off we went. Every time he saw a bird he laughed so loud. When he saw a gator, I told him the gator goes snap snap snap. We had fun, until he had had enough. But it is a start and it got me back out again.
Christmas trees always look like so much more fun when taken with the Lensbaby Sweet 35. I tend to do this shot every year, sometimes with color light and Richard’s preference, the plain white lights. 

Macro lens are super fun. The focus in on the main area and leave the rest out of focus. We have these plants in the garden that are really great with water drops and dependent on the light can give a nice hazy effect.

My favorite style of photography by far, is done with the 70-300mm lens, and my 150-600mm lens. This requires me to get down level with the critter or leaf that I want to shoot and just getting that tiny sliver of focus while the rest are out of focus. This I broke down into two areas, critters and still life.

Critters are a lot harder as they move, but here are a few examples of the out of focus with the attempts at in focus. What I love about these photo’s is the creamy out of focus feel with just an element that is in focus.

Just for the record, spiders are not my favorite critters, but we have hundreds of these spiders making nests all over the garden. As a result I refuse to weed unless the webs and the spiders are relocated.
Now lizards I can handle. I do like them. They are not going to jump on me and bite me. 
Any black looking spider that has the potential to jump makes me glad I am using my zoom lens. Two recent cases of spider bites that have taken forever to heal is not my idea of fun. My friend was lying on the grass when a tiny spider bit her and she ended up having months of healing as they packed the wound with antibiotics and had to cut away dead skin. My son was the same. He thought he had an odd pimple on his shin, and scratched it. It was not getting better so he saw a doctor and discovered that he had been bitten by a spider. Who knows where or when, but that resulted in months of healing as well. So for the most part, I am not a fan of spiders.

Leaves are still life and don’t jump on me and using the same concept of getting low and level with the object, and having people look at me as if I am weird, and wondering what the heck I am taking photographs of, I continue to take my photo’s of leaves or something that catches my attention. Of course, there are ants on the board walk and Florida loves fire ants. I got bitten once and those critters are nasty.

Again I love the sliver of focus with the balance of the image being a creamy out of focus. Dependent on the leaves, you can get some really interesting colors. One of my favorites was a boardwalk that had moss on it, and it gave off this blurry greenish creamy color.

Another images that captured my attention that were not leaves, was this feather that clearly someone had picked up and stuck in the groove sometime before I walked along. It just looked really neat sticking up and so I snapped a shot. 

Last but not least I came across two other images that were experimental that can create a beautiful out of focus effect. 

This first image was taken using a clear plastic bag. I wanted the out of focus effect and this was a fun experiment. 
Last but not least – double exposure can create that beautiful out of focus effect. This was a combination of the earlier pinhole sunset picture with a photo I had taken when we were traveling somewhere. The train was running past us and I obviously had my camera in my hand. 

Out of focus is fun and I am expecting to see some stunning images from my fellow blog contributors. Some of them specialize in the Lensbaby and ICM effects and I can’t wait to see them. Which reminds me, this is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend  Janet from @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on her and Instagram page.

Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Out of Focus} Tag us #sharesix_outoffocus

I have struggled since Covid to pick up my camera. The combination of covid, Richard getting sick, a new baby on my days off, and just a lack of desire to pick up the camera has made it harder. I am seriously considering doing another 365 just so that I pick up my camera everyday. 

I’ve also noticed that I have struggled to edit as well. I am sitting with unedited images from Macedonia. Unedited images from Australia, and in 4 weeks we are heading to Phoenix for 10 days. I have been doing some research and the images I have seen from Antelope Canyon and Sedona blow me away and so I know I am going to come home with a million images to edit. I need to stop doing other things and settle down and get these pictures done.

Until we share again, stay well

Share Six: January 2024: Painterly

I am not sure where time went but this group is starting their 9th year as a blog group. We have had people come and go but I have loved every minute of being with this group and learning from them. They challenge me and force me to step out of my comfort zone. This month is no exception. Claire chose the theme {Painterly} and I have to be honest that I was forced to go to Youtube to figure somethings out. 

My frustration was the brush tool. It kept brushing white on a new layer. I have not figured out the answer as to why it is doing that but if anyone has suggestions I am so open to hearing them. There were some great techniques but I was stumped with that tool. 

This is what kept happening to me. Super frustrating but it was time to move on and try something else.

The next effect I aimed for was a watercolor effect using different filters. 

Sunset out at the local National Park.

The next attempt I made with to create layers of texture. I followed a Youtube example and quite like the rough textured effect. 

Taken on a really lonely walkway in the local national park. 

I am not quite sure how I got the next effect but I kind of like the embossed feel to it. I used texture images, with and emboss filter and changed the layers from normal to a different setting. 

Sunset at the local national park. 

For the next image I wanted to do portrait painting and make it look like a water color. I followed the tutorial step by step. I am not 100% sure that I like it. Added to that I have a limited amount of brushes and I really need to find some more. 

Luka at the pumpkin patch

This image already had a textured feel to it when you looked at the wall, but again I used textured overlays and embossed them and added some filters what provided a bit of grain . 

This is my sweet boy Simba, that I put to sleep the other day. He had a huge tumor growing in his jaw and across his mouth and he was having some breathing issues. It broke my heart to say goodbye to him. Tomorrow I will pick up his ashes, and lay him to rest in his favorite spot in the garden. 

This image already had a strong bokeh effect to it created with my lensbaby sweet 35. Like the first image I used attempted to get a watercolor effect to the image. Plenty of texture and paint brush swirls.

Walking in the local wetlands. 

Claire definitely challenged us this time around, but it was fun to play and find different ways to do things.

I followed a number of tutorials, some worked, some didn’t. Here are a few that I followed:

https://www.psfreebies.com/convert-any-photo-to-digital-oil-painting-effect-in-photoshop/

arizo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MAoR4-Jnjsna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obokOCj3vNs&t=644s 

I also downloaded some free brushes from

https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/59067-free-painter-photoshop-brushes-3

Lastly I used some textured images for the overlays:

blank-concrete-wall-white-color-texture-background Image by ArthurHidden on Freepik

pexels-kseniya-lapteva-9176032

smears-from-from-brush a tmImage by kues1a on Freepik

whie-cracked-wall Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

Finally my last image was an attempt to get a brush stroke effect as well as the blended edges. Again the brushes were a problem but in the end I was happy to just get something. 

This image was taken just outside of Skopje, Macedonia. We had taken a boat trip through the waterways to a cave. The scenery was incredible and Macedonia itself, was an amazing experience.

Trying the {Painterly} effect was fun. It was a nice change of pace and I really enjoyed doing something different.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. 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 his work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page.

Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Painterly} Tag us #sharesix_painterly.

Look out for more blogs along the way. I have Macedonia and Australia to finish and we are already planning our next trip to Phoenix, Arizona in a few months. 

Stay well

Share Six: August 2023: Adamski Effect

How did we get to August. Seriously this year suddenly seems to be flying. Share Six is up again and this month I chose to challenge myself with something I skipped in another project. The theme for this month is the {Adamski Effect}. Its a very neat technique, but I was challenged with new tutorials and working with my old CS6. Sometimes I did not have the tools they were talking about or I had to get to them via a different format. That said I did what I could to try and get the effect I was looking for.

I used my Australia photo’s again to play around with this technique. It is painstaking selecting process to get the main object, and I think on a couple my selection was a little off. I also found that they talked about modifying and expanding the selection but that did not seem to work for me. Then I found on some images it would fill with content aware and on others it would not. The effects typically used a motion blur but I did do one with gaussian blur to see what kind of effect I would get.

All that said, it was fun to see how creative I could get. So some of these pics you may have already seen in their normal format and now you will see them in the Adamski Effect.

I choose this image because it was the easiest of images to start with. That said I was not crazy about the black streaks to the right of the man. It was a person and I should either have selected them as well or cloned them out. This was taken on our walk from the hotel to Darling Harbor. Australia has what I think they would call green walkways. No cars and it is the best.

This image had the tall buildings and I kind of visualized the rainbow effects being a little different. We started walking up towards Bangaroo Reserve and then kind of did a detour and I am not sure where we resurfaced but we did eventually find our way back to our hotel.

So this is the effect I was looking for, however, I was not too crazy about the giant white pole in the way but I had spent too much time on the selection and was not starting over again. I loved the movement in the tall buildings. This was on one of the main streets in Sydney, George Street, on our walkabout back to our hotel.

This is probably my favorite of the images I played with. Instead of blurring vertical, I blurred horizontal. This was taken the morning we went to watch the sunrise over the Opera House. This guy was randomly sitting on the steps listening and looking at his phone.

I honestly love the background effect to this building. The boat was on it’s way in but it feels a little awkward given the height of the buildings. This was taken from the Sydney Harbor Bridge looking back towards Luna Park – the amusement park near the Kirribilli markets.

You met this guy in my last blog of the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte. For the most part I think I did a reasonably good selection of the surfer and I do love the effect of the slightly off horizontal blur. And who doesn’t like a surfer.

For this image I used a Guassian blur instead of a motion blur. This is such a common picture of Richard – he always has his toes in the water. That comes from growing up within walking distance to the beach and spending time out on the water either fishing, surfing, paddle boarding, you name it and he’s probably done it.

For this image I was back to the motion blur. However, I did not want to do too much so this has more of a painterly look to it. This is the 12 Apostles on The Great Ocean Road. What I will say is I think that they are down to about 6 or 7 apostles these days. This image was taken on an overcast day with lots of wind and water spray. The scenery is stunning and this will be back on my bucket list when we go back. The cliffs here are incredible and so high.

For this image I used a horizontal motion blur. I loved the colors in this image. We had visited Australia in the fall and so we got to see a lot of reds and yellows. I am not sure where this was. It could have been after we came out of the Great Otway National Park. We had taken a detour through the Park to the light house.

I did this image twice. The first time I just isolated the leaves, but then it looked like floating leaves so I redid this to get the vine in to ground the leaves. Again I opted for a slightly off horizontal effect. This was taken during our time in Melbourne where we decided one afternoon to take a drive to a wine farm. What I loved about it was that it was about 15 minutes from where our family live. I could do that easily on a weekend for sure.

This is my last image. By now I was tired of tirelessly selecting the image. My version does not have “select subject”. So it was a painstakingly back and forth to get the selection as accurate as I could. I loved the way the colors in the back ground blurred. This was taken in Sydney 2 days before we left. There was a local market that we thought we would walk through and see what we could see. I had visions of bringing things home but that did not work out. So we ended on one of those Richard walks through the Rocks and up to the Lord Nelson Hotel and then made our way back to the hotel. This was a great day, as my childhood friend, who was now living in Brisbane came through with a friend to Sydney, and after a few beers back at the market area we headed by ferry out to Watson’s Bay to meet my cousin and his wife for the first time.

So those were my attempts at the Adamski Effect. Not perfect but I enjoyed trying to get the effect. I really hope that you will be challenged to try it as well.

Here are a few links that you can check out when trying:

https://photographychef.com/how-to-get-the-adamski-effect-in-photoshop-step-by-step/

I used this one a fair bit.

and this one as well.

This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. I hope that they are all challenged to do my (Adamski Effect) challenge. 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 IG page. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Look out for more blogs.

Stay well

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: July 2022: All about today

{All about today} is the theme for the month of July and was chosen by Lynne Grant Photography. Friday’s typically are my Luka day, but last week I had him overnight on Saturday, and this week I had him on Saturday as well. We are getting closer to our travel dates, and Amy wanted to do some last minute shopping. So we got Luka on Saturday so that she could get out and do what she needed to do. So this is my {All about today}.

This little guy holds my heart. Every time I look at him I feel this enormous amount of love. He’s at the age now where he is a little frustrated. He is not crawling but really wants to walk. You put him on your lap and he is wiggling down. Then when he is down he is wanting up.

He was lying on the floor on Saturday and he suddenly bit my toe with his two tiny teeth. We are trying to teach him how to get up on all four’s but when Richard showed him this weekend he just collapsed to the floor. However, he is nearly there. He was sitting and reached for something and managed to get on all fours but did not know what to do with himself so he collapsed to the carpet again. He does love to stand though.

Feeding time is always fun. I have my own high chair at the house and he knows when he goes in there exactly what is coming. He eats a variety of “baby foods”, pureed mango, or pear, or pumpkin, or numerous other combinations. He always makes sounds after each spoon. This week I actually gave him pear pieces. Half of it landed on the floor, but when he got it in his mouth I made a big fuss and clapped my hands. He gets the biggest smile on his face when I do that.

After feeding time, I headed outside to see if I could get an image or two of him. It is super hot and humid outside and he has not spent a lot of time outdoors, but we went into Granda’s big chair and I snapped a few of him in there. Every so often when I look at him I see my brother. I also see a lot of Amy these days.

Sleep snuggles is my favorite time. It is when we go quiet for a while, slow down what we are doing. I get to rock him to sleep and then we go on the bed, and he has a good sleep on my chest. I get to cuddle and make sure that he is not disturbed. I elevate the head of my bed and he seems to sleep so much better and longer. I know that this routine is not going to last much longer, but I do love those little cuddles and that happy face that he wakes up with.

Once he woke up Granda and I took him back to mom and dad. While Amy was making lunch for us, I took this wiggly little man out to his swing set. A couple of months back I bought him the swing and the saucer swing, and his Granda built him the frame to hang it from. So we went outside for a short while and he seems to enjoy it.

Given that it was so hot, we decided a swim was on the cards. Luka is like a fish. He instinctively kicks his legs. Amy puts him in the floater, but I have been pulling him out and holding his body so that he can have the freedom to kick and move his arms. I want him to learn to swim as soon as possible. Once he gets mobile the pool will become a hazard until he is able to get himself from his entry point to the steps. We learned with Amy that being prepared is good. She loved the water and we fished her out twice.

I honestly never thought about what it would be like to be a grandmother. Amy always said she was not getting married and not having kids. I always said the right person will come along and all that will change. Having Luka in our lives is such a joy. He was a balm to a horrible 2021, and watching him and Richard interact brings me such pleasure.

{All about today} is about the simplicity of life, the joy of a new child, and the gift of being able to love on this beautiful and delightful light in our lives.

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 from Cobert Photography next 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 and  Instagram pages. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_allabouttoday

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: June 2022: Light

Well this month has passed and I have done one walk. I have struggled to get out on my free day as I have had Luka and for the past 6 weeks he has been sick. Last weekend when I did plan to go out, I ended up with him spending 3 days in our home. Amy had bronchitis and she did not feel at all well, Daniel was working night shift, and honestly we did not want Luka to catch something else. As it was I took him to the doctor for a check up on his cough and discovered he had another ear infection, and subsequently received another antibiotic. Poor guy spent a good bit of time in my arms.

So I looked through what I had not edited this past year and pulled images for light from there.

This image caught my attention because of the bokeh and the light shining through the wings. This poor Anhinga has clearly had a run in with something, probably an aligator, given the loss of feather. I have to wonder how it is flying to be honest.

Whenever I go to shoot the sunset, I always take my lensbaby, but for some reason I never pull it out. This was one of the light images that I had not edited 2 months ago. This is my favorite spot to get some nice pond reflections. What I like about this image is the reflection of the son on the leaves of the reeds.

Out in the garden and just after the rain. The light was dullish but I was able to capture the waterdrop at the tip of the leaf.

Out on my walk recently I spotted this Iguana in pockets of light. He was on a berm surrounded by trees and there are odd spots that get lit up along the edges. The Iguanas are in mating season and this guy clearly has been fighting as he has a bloody spot on his back that looks like a claw snagged him.

Sunsets are my favorite and sometimes they are average and sometimes they light up the sky. I loved the different shades of light in this image.

Moody kind of light found along a secluded walkway. This are my favorite kinds of images.

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 from @wiredtothemoon next 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 pages. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_light

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: March 2022: Revive

As I sit here and write, the news is on the the attack on the Ukraine is happening. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine. My prayer is for peace and no more senseless killing. I pray that they stay strong and resolved see this through to the best of their ability.

The theme this month is {Revive} and was picked by Elizabeth of It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson.

Revive, I had to put on my thinking cap for this one. Books revive me, or allow me to escape. I thought about a spa day, but there’s no time for that.

What does {Revive} me is getting out and walking in the wetlands. It gives me peace. It restores my soul. It centers me. I am in awe of creation .

I also realized that nature itself is in {Revive} mode, certainly in South Florida. The weather is warming up, and there are definitely signs that spring is on it’s way. I took Luka for a walk this past week deliberately looking at nature for this revival.

The flora definitely has little spikes of green happening.

However there is more, Revive is happening amongst the bird life as well. As we see winter come to an end, the bird starts coming in and creating nests, doing their mating dances, and before long we will see new life again.

The Great Egret is one of the most stunning birds in breeding season. They get these really wispy feathers that are used to attract the male and you are fortunate if you get to witness both the calling dance and the mating dance of the two birds. Above this bird was in the middle of her calling dance. Her feathers were splayed wide and and the stand up wide as she moves. The green around their eyes deepen in color.
New to the wetlands is a set of baby gators. Mom was hanging out in the shallow water. if you look at her body you will see the head of a baby gator resting up against her. In the reeds (but at the wrong angle for me) the siblings were playing in the reeds.
The male Great Blue Heron is the stick collector and you will see them flying out to find a stick, and bring it back to the female. She will attempt to wedge it into the nest. They also go through the mating dance routine, and I have actually managed in the past to capture the actual mating.
The Wood Storks are currently moving in. When they first arrived some years ago I was over the moon. These guys have a prehistoric look about there. I have since discovered that they have a prehistoric behavior about them as well. They move in in mob form and take over. They have pushed all the Great Blue Herons to a section that is not as easy to photograph and by the end of the season I am convinced that I am breathing toxic waste by the time I have passed them. While it is nice to see them I kind of feel that they have taken over.
The Cattle Egret, like the Snowy Egret, also get this wispy feel to their feathers. The top of their heads get darker. They are really cute and I wish they would nest closer to where I can photography them well.
The Anhinga is also doing their thing. One of the amazing things about the Anhinga in the mating season is the color of their eyes. They get this ring of turquoise green rings around their eyes. The male gets these wispy feathers on top of their head. Below I managed to get up close to a male anhinga that I hopped up onto the board walk to dry it’s wings. When they go fishing they are weighed down with the water and can only fly a short distance and then they need to dry their wings so that they can fly again properly.

Spring is a time of revival. It is a time of new birth. It is a time to start planting. It is a time to revive.

Thank you for joining us this month.

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 Ceri Herd Photography up next 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 and  Instagram pages. Definitely check out her incredible art.

Come and share your images  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_revive

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: January 2022: Abstract_22

Happy New Year and welcome to the year 2022. I am so grateful to see the back of 2021. I am excited to see what this year has to offer and praying that life does not get so crazy like it was last year.

Starting out with 2022 on a bang, Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ has chosen the them {Abstract}. We have done this them some years ago, so that will explain the _22 on the end of the hashtag.

I looked up the definition of “abstract art” to see what the internet would come up with. Here is what I got:

“art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

I love abstract art to start with. I have abstract art on the walls in my home. However I took a different take on it this time around. I looked at {Abstract} in nature. Very often I get that impressionist kind of feel to the photos.

I love the out of focus feel that the lensbaby gives a sunset.
Branches in the wetlands. What you don’t see is the Little Green Heron that I cropped out. He had hopped into the trees to hide from me. I loved the effect that the gray branches gave on natures background when out of focus.
In this image I was looking for a “breaking the rules” image and so I had a flower on the extreme right of the image. I cropped it out and now I have an abstract image of the reeds in the wetlands.
Again another out of focus post crop. My focus was on a Great Blue Heron but when I looked at the background I loved the impressionist feel that this image gave me.
Lensbaby and bokeh. What more can I say. For me the abstract of this is all of the crazy bokeh in the image
While I would love to say that this is an alligator submerging it wasn’t. I managed to capture the tail end shot of an Anhinga diving for food in the lake.
In the forefront of this image was a female Grackle. I love the soft out of focus effect of this image that creates and abstract feel.
This image was the top of the nesting area where the Great Blue Heron were building their new homes for spring. I loved the eeriness of the branches reaching out. Bokeh always gets me as well.
Cropped out of this image was a dragonfly, but the background is again something I would put on my walls.

Technically the next three are not in the wetlands but I did love the abstract feel of these images.

I had gone to the wetlands, and driving home with no cars on my side of the road, and the lenbaby on my camera. I held the camera up to balance on the steering wheel and just took a series of images of the oncoming cars. This kind of pic is up on my wall.
For this image I was trying to get movement but it functions as abstract as well. I was running water into our kitchen basin and shooting with a macro.
An for a little bit of crazy abstract, a garden flower and some fun and games in photoshop.

Thank you for joining us as we start out yet another year of photography sharing.

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_ up next 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  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_abstract_22

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: May 2021: Light Inspired

Well this month crept up on my by surprise. I had my images but when a blog falls in the middle of the week, I get sidetracked. And seriously where the heck did May come from? April was probably the first month since Richard’s hospital stay that I have felt more comfortable heading out and leaving him home alone. Now I am sure he could have been home alone, but after the first crazy reaction to the infusion, I was honestly nervous and have stayed close to home. So far so good, and I am relaxing a little bit day by day. That aside, he is a little tired of me hovering and so it was good to get out.

So this months theme is {Light Inspired} and it was chosen by Janet Douglas of @wiredtothemoon_ and I am excited to see what everyone comes up with.

For me it was finding light in my walks.

This particular walk is really dark and gloomy for the most part but the pockets of light in there always catch my attention. The contrasting colors of the dead leaves, the green leaves and the Spanish moss appealed to me.
I love finding random bits of greenery or plants or even feathers poking their way through the railings on my walk. They offer one of my favorite types of images.
For me the light and color in the background of this Palm Warbler image reminds me of some of the impressionist type art.
New leaves are awesome and this little bunch of leaves was hidden in a dark area but highlighted by the sun.
The sun in the background of this blue jay really captures my attention.
Early morning walk and this Red Wing Blackbird had a lot to say.
I used to photograph the squirrels in our garden so often, until I got banned because the “rats with a tail” were running on the screening. So I was quite pleased to see this little guy feeding on the grounds of the wetlands. I love the autumn looking light in the background. Ironically this was taken about 2 weeks ago.
The light in the wetlands can be harsh, but this particular day was slightly overcast and breezy and I happened to catch these two dragon fly doing the tango. I will say it is a first time catch for me. They barely sit still long enough for you to get a quick shot of them.
Waterdrops on the leaves in the garden. This plant is a pest and drops a lot of leaves and since I am doing the gardening they are not my favorite. We have about 10 of them. However, when the light is right and the rain has just cleared up I love to go outside and capture their colors.
Back on the dark walk, and as I mentioned in the first image, there are just random pockets of light where I find something that catches my attention.
This particular area of the wetlands has lots of trees and so the light shining through created this beautiful bokeh for me and I really enjoy seeing the Spanish moss.

It has been nice to get out again and walk and just breathe deeply for a while. However, the walks are going to have to happen earlier for me because the weather down south has quickly become oppressive and it gives the feel of a lot hot, potential hurricane filled summer. If it stays hot like this that ocean is going to be warming up significantly. Let’s hope not. In the meantime, I am going to try to do my best to get out and about a bit more.

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 artistic friend Ceri Herd Photography is up next is up next. I can wait to see what she has to share as I have seen some of her work recently and love it. I would encourage to have a look at what she has to offer. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page or Instagram page.

Come and share your images  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_light inspired

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.

Share Six: March 2021: Frozen

It’s March and time for Share Six. Still trying to keep with the simple themes, that everyone can be a part of Kathy of KG Ledbetter Photography chose the theme {Frozen}. For anyone above Florida, frozen seemed like a good choice, but in Florida the weather is 86F and there is nothing frozen about it unless I am inside the freezer.

I had to wonder what my options were. I thought about trying to make ice bubbles in the freezer, but I was not sure that it would work. Right now we have our kids living with us temporarily and that means the freezer is full up with everyone’s stuff. I also through of freezing flowers but that really did not work for me. Below is my one and only attempt. I love fresh flowers and it did not feel right to me to freeze them.

So I had to put my thinking cap on again. What is frozen in South Florida. Drinks, of course! What better than to have a cool refreshing drink on a hot, hot day. So here is my take on the frozen theme. I will confess only one of the drinks is alcoholic and it really tasted good. But with Richard just out of hospital, Amy not able to have anything alcoholic right now, Daniel who is not a big drinker and me who only really drinks beer, there seemed no reason to make anything alcoholic.

For the first drink I used an Ice Drink, Strawberry Kiwi Flavor, and mixed it with ice in the blender and added to the biggest wine glass in my collection. I then topped it with a strawberry and some pomegranate seeds. It actually tasted pretty neat. I imagine you could add something alcoholic to it if you wanted but it was pretty refreshing on it’s own.

For my one and only alcoholic drink, I made decaf Hazelnut ice cubes and once they had set added them to the mug and poured Bailey’s over it. It definitely gave it a pretty nice flavor.

For a refreshing drink, I froze melon, cantaloupe and watermelon balls in the freezer over night. I mixed that with a sparkling water and topped it with crushed ice and decorated with lime and mint. I loved the colorful effect of this drink.

Next I chose to make a Blue Powerade mixed with crushed ice and topped with Organic Blueberries and decorated with lime and mint. I love this glass that we were given in the year 2000. The numbers make up part of the stem. The flute is so fine, that I rarely use it for fear of breaking it.

Mojito’s is one of Richard’s favorite drinks, but since he is not drinking, I tried to just come up with something similar. Crushed ice with Roses Lime juice, and topped with additional lime in one of my old fashioned champagne glasses. As kids I remember us drinking Roses lime juice fairly regularly, so this was another refreshing drink to have on hand.

Lastly is my take on a Mimosa. Orange Juice and champagne just do not work for me, they give me terrible heartburn, but I love the look of the drink. So I mixed an orange Gatorade with crushed ice and garnished it with some cantaloupe and lime and poured into one of my cristal d’arques Longchamp crystal flute that I had begun collecting prior to getting married. This is probably the only set of crystal that is not broken.

So that is my take on the {Frozen}theme. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the group come up with and to see all the snow that everyone else but South Florida is enjoying.

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 artistic friend Kathy of KG Ledbetter Photography is up next. I would encourage to have a look at what she has to offer. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page or Instagram page.

Come and share your images  Facebook and Instagram tagging #sharesix_frozen

You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.