Share the Joy: of Being.

Share the Joy of Just BE-ing

May this little spot

of Yellow Sunshine

 always see 

 beyond

the horizon.

Texture Tuesdays: What We Love

Two things that catch my heart and palate are

Fresh Garden Tomatoes

served on

Quaint, Colorful, Flirty Pottery

Enjoy the Simple Pleasures

Each week Kim Klassen generously gifts all who wish to participate, beautiful textures to have fun with.

In this photo I have used: 

Soft and Sweet--multiply--95%

Sepia scratched--screen--57%

Adjustment--levels and contrast.

Join the fun of simple pleasures using textures to enhance your photographs. 

I wish you every goodness. May your dreams come true. May you expand your essence and feel love.

Sharon

Big Mama Where Have You Been?

 Perhaps you have noticed that 

Big Mama

has been absent for a few days.  

She has been on a photographic journey.

Can you guess where she has been the last seven days?

Wish the grand-kiddies held this still for pictures!!!

Skies are magnificent everywhere. They are heaven's roadmaps.

The days held hazy, lazy clouds, which provides  POP for COLOR.

Big Mama wanted to ride the red canoe, but feared toppling into the water and ruining a gazillion photos! Stay dry and sand free was  her motto.

Hmm she must have taken for a stroll....watch out for flying seagulls.

Ah, here she is....taking in a wave or two, in the softly shifting ripples at low tide.

What isn't mesmerizing about WATER, anywhere, any place, any time. 

Take Joy oh Thursdays

Very seldom do I cross post on my two blogs, but this one has 

such cute photographs and I love the theme of finding JOY that

 I did, done, do it. I apologize to those who look at both blogs.

Recently bouncing around in the blogosphere I ran across

Meri's Musings


Each Thursday she suggests something that might bring us JOY!

  Joy reaches into all the nooks and crannies of life. One only needs eyes and hearts to discover.  
Joy is always somewhere!!

Two "Funny Bunny" faces who bring JOY into my heart and life.

Take Joy in your Day!

When Cropping is Your Friend

One goal of photographers is to be able to capture what is in front of them as they envision/see it in their mind.

This is easier said than done. 

It implies that one takes the time and has the skill to thoroughly think out the myriads of options and choose ONE.

I have to leave that to the professionals.

But there are serendipitous moments when I am lucky enough to photograph something I don't want to change in any way. For me it is just right.  

But what about the other 99% of the photos? We can simply leave the them alone and enjoy the memories. Or we can use a photo processing program to tweak a little magic. 

A week ago I posted When Less is More. This article spoke about eliminating  the unnecessary to create a STRONGER more INTERESTING photo.

I wanted to take one more opportunity to work on a few more photographs. These photos I  have used Photoshop, basically cropping to remove that which is not necessary, to focus the eye on one event.

If you haven't used cropping tools with your photos, I highly recommend it. It brings your main subject up close, you see details you would never know were there. It is very exciting to see the dramatic changes.

These photos were taken in Croatia, a land of great contrast and beauty. It was so enjoyable to revisit those pictures, then choose a few to narrow the perspective on. 

These sweetheart birds you barely noticed in the original photograph. But with stringent editing, you can see the beautiful design in their feathers, and tenderness of the moment.

Until I cropped this picture very tight, I had NO IDEA that there was a dog at the top of the steep stairs!!!!  Now if I had wanted to work harder in editing I could have eliminated the dog. BUT, gosh, he made it all the way up those stairs, so he should have his photo taken!!!

Dubrovnik is a very tightly packed, enclosed town. There isn't much land, especially for hanging laundry or recreation. So the view of laundry out of windows is to be expected, and adds a great deal of interest to the composition. What you don't see, because of the cropping, are the extraneous walls, trash on the ground and unattended "lawn."

Tomorrow, in Kat's class, the subject of close/cropped photography will be closed and we shall move on to something else new and exciting. Looking forward to what Kim has in store for us. 

This is a complimentary class and we share photos on Flickr...would love to have you join us!

Texture Tuesdays: Do-ing, Art of Course

Reflections upon what I 

DO...

circles around several of life's configurations.

FAMILY and FRIENDS

COMMUNICATION

TRAVEL

ART

Join me at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

NYC.

One of my favorite activities, outside of reveling in the art itself,  is watching the people view art, figuring out what they are seeing. 

They are in another world...a very good world.

Many adjustments used along with Kim Klassens' Textures:  kk drop cloth and kk scratches. 

I get so lost in the process I forget what I have done.

Anyone have that delightful problem?

It is The Time for Reaching

Awakening and Rebuilding

9-11

If there is a God,

He has a lot to answer for.

Crocuses, purple cups

that bloom through the snow.

Cerulean, cornflower, azure,

turquoise, ultramarine

Mist off round hay bales

Along the Sand  Road

just after 5 a.m

when the foxes go to ground.

Not only the obvious evils

but also these other things

we should not mistake

for easy.

When Less is More

We have moved from homes so many times I have lost count.

And each time, we challenge ourselves to eliminate, sell, donate, re-purpose!

ELIMINATE

LESS TO PACK AND SHIP
LESS TO UNPACK AND FIND A NEW PLACE FOR

YES, LET'S DO IT....

DOWNSIZE!!!

With each move, we did eliminate. YES, we did as we claimed.

BUT

only to procure more once we moved into our next home!!!  

Before long drawers were stuck with too many socks.

Closet doors raining down boots and umbrellas on one's head, 

being "stuffed to the gills," as my dad used to say.

Kitchen cupboards hoarding every spice

and condiment known unto man.

Garages...we won't even mention!

To eliminate really isn't easy. 
Have you gone through your jewelry lately. What if you had to give up one half?  Where would you begin?

Medicine cabinet....anything in there you know you should throw away, but think you will need it sometime, expired or not?


Junk drawer...well that is almost on the same level as garage...


Kat Sloma has a new exercise for all of us wanna-be-better photographers. It is really simple:


ELIMINATION 
Personally my photos tend to be overwhelmingly FULL of design, color, objects and people. The more the better!
Simplicity is not my middle name.


So how do I comply with her suggestions:


Shoot with one's camera  to eliminate unnecessary elements from one's view finder.  Physically reposition one's point of view and see from a different and more  poetic angle.  Reduce the superfluous.

Work harder on composition. Color. Texture.
Redefine what you really want your photograph to say.
Think SPOTLIGHT.


When you can't get your photo quite right within your camera. Then go to photo processing and crop, or remove areas.


I took a spin through some of my photos to see if I had ever shot with the thought of elimination, culling something down to a photo's pure essence.

 

 

 

Remember

Try to Remember

those days 

before

breakneck-hurricanes

tornadoes funneling down

waters that washed

life's accumulations away

broken Sunflowers

red-hot shadows.

Try to Remember

the soft fluid air

the eagerness of

new beginnings.

Please feel free to download

this little offering. 

May it remind you 

of blossoms peaking into ruffled beauties.

pungent essence 

from emerging lilies

cerulean blue skies 

charming one

into optimism

and anticipation.

****************************************

The following textures were used:

Old Letter, Crackerjack and Precious Pink

Texture Tuesdays with Kim Klassen, who generously on a weekly basis offers complimentary textures and tutorials.