1/23 On The Third

Flying Back to Winter

1/23 Photograph On The Third

Landscape / Sky / Horizon

The prompt instructions for today was to make sure that the horizon was not in the middle, but either in the top or bottom third. After a few sunrise pictures, I went the travel route and used a picture taken from the airplane. I should have used the landscape format for the picture to include more detail of the ground. But now that I am looking at all the pictures from the morning, I should have gone with a sunrise shot.

For the flickr shot, I went with a tropical flower for color. It will be the last bright outside color for me for a few weeks. I took a photo with my iPhone and edited it in stackablesapp. 

23/365 Tropical Color 

Outside Dining Scenery

Texture Tuesday time and today's photo is from Sunday. We ate outside at an Italian restaurant up in the White Mountains. It was a beautiful summer evening, not too hot, not too cool and no mosquitos. There was a black iron fence around the courtyard and they had flowers growing along the fence and in pots within the courtyard. After looking at the inside of the restaurant which looked pretty worn, eating outside was definitely the better choice. It was a nice way to end our very busy weekend.

(Texture used above: kk_follow at 45% opacity with a screen blend. Mask used for flower petals and stem)

Friday Finds- More Than One!

Texture: kk_waterfront28 - Soft light 100% opacity with flowers masked

Woke up to find more than one Iris blooming. I went out with my camera before I even had coffee to get the morning light on the wet Irises. I guess I was procrastinating as I have a list of things to do today, including fertilizing the lawn while it is still wet. But the light and irises called me out.

Was just able to catch the bee as it buzzed among the blossoms.

Now I need to get busy with my list for the day!

Happy Friday!

Linking with Friday Finds at KimKlassen.com

Outdoor

Outdoor Fun Self Portrait

3/1 Photograph Step Outside

Natural / Outdoor / In the Street

I had a lot of fun today with this prompt and my husband convinced me to use one of the funnier posed ones for the picture of the day. He thinks I can be too serious! I had quite a few from inside looking out the front door using my new flash for fill light and then took it outside. I had the self timer set for 6 shots after 10 seconds, giving me 10 seconds to get from the deck to the middle of a path in our yard. I used my husband to focus on and then left the camera in manual focus mode so I could click and run. The first time I did it, we ended up arguing over where the mark was and I started with the silly poses. Some were just so goofy after being so serious in the beginning. 

This was a good exercise to pull out the book for the self-timer review and to rely on the manual focus. It's hard for me to be the subject, and this is something that I am going to work on throughout the year. Here are a couple of the shots that did not make the cut for today.  Check out the reflection on the middle door shot.

While outside, I took some shots of Marc while he was doing the wood for this week. So glad that he is home for 36 hours to get some stuff done around the house. This morning he had to take the door off under the deck to get our tires out, I wonder if I would have figured that out? There is a lot of ice down there and the door wouldn't open after he shoveled it out. 

I did help a little bit with the wood, I drive him crazy by saying, " I pick things up and put them down." It's a work out usually, but not today. We didn't need to refill much. This afternoon we went for a very quick walk, since it is still so freaking cold here. We are so ready to be in Florida already!

So, the stromboli ( calzone) that I made last night has an interesting taste. Lesson learned, don't be talking on the phone while putting ingredients in a bread machine. Lemon olive oil is not basil olive oil and we all noticed it. Such a shame, since the texture of the bread was perfect. Oh well, there's always another day and we are still eating it. Not letting it go to waste.


And the flower of the day is tickweed in a photo that I took in Ogunquit, Maine on the Marginal Way. The texture is a picture of the plaster wall from the house that I worked on last week. I used a lighten blend with a 50% opacity along with a clipping mask to take the texture off the two main flowers.

Many

Snowshoeing with Many

2/23 Photograph Crowded Around

Gathered / Huddled / Many

Today I was invited to go on a 5 mile snow shoe hike on the town trails with a friend and group that she had gathered together to go out and enjoy the warm weather. We went on some trails that I had not gone on yet and the 5 miles turned into 5. 63, but who's counting? (Besides me?) The group fit in with the prompt and they were all good natured about having their pictures taken. I couldn't have asked for better color contrasts with all the bright colors worn today. Except here I am in gray after taking off my maroon fleece due to the warmth of the exercise. 

It was a nice day to be out and I couldn't believe how extensive the snowmobile trails are in our town. We took a detour off the main trail to visit a special spot that my friend D calls "Uncle Jim's tree"where there is now a plaque with her dog's name, Namaste on it and this inscription: 

My soul honors your soul; I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the light, love, truth, beauty, and peace within you because it is also within me. In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one."

In the past three years, D has gone through a lot of family illness with close family members dying and this is a spot where she has found peace and a place to pray. It's where the ashes of her dog were placed this past fall. Better than a church, it's within walking distance and there is peaceful view from the spot.

After such a long walk, I should have taken a nap, but no, I went on line and found a great website for textures and tutorials, Kimklassen.com. The website has a lot of free downloads of textures that Kim creates. I checked out a couple of links from other bloggers and from a link there went to another website, theCoffeeshopblog.com where I downloaded the collage template above for the blog. It's a lot neater than when I make it. This whole photoshop element thing can be addicting. 

The flower for today, is a Crocosmia Lucifer, this photo was taken last summer when I was golfing at Clyde River. Once I saw it, I knew that it would be a good plant to get for hummingbirds this summer. The texture is kkSoTrue from Kimklassen.com. I like this idea of a flower a day until spring, my own little revolt against winter. I can embrace it has much as I want with snow shoeing, hikes and shoveling, but I still like Spring better. 

Crocosomia Lucifer