Snap Out Of It!

"When this whole world starts getting me down and people are just too much, for me to face..."

It's not "Up on the Roof" for me but behind the lens.  Picking up my camera and snapping away is my escape, my happy place. 

It worked like a charm on Friday night and Saturday morning when I snapped this photo at an abandoned farm.  I've passed it hundreds of times and never stopped to shoot it.  Jackie suggested we stop there.  We didn't see the "No Trespassing" signs until we were pretty much right up on the vine covered front porch.  We invoked the "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" and snapped away. This one is my favorite taken looking inside of one of the outbuildings.

So what do you do to pick up your spirits when you're feeling low?

Friendship

Had a great girls night dinner with my photo buddy Jackie on Friday.  She has a beautiful little farm that borders a county park and she is visited by all sorts of amazing wildlife. 

We sat on the deck eating dinner, looking out over her pasture while birds of all varieties, from hummingbirds to chickens, joined us. 

It was like nature's dinner theater.

Have you ever seen chickens like these?

They're called Turkins, naked neck chickens.  These are still babies but they will soon be laying eggs for the Brady farm.

This is Tessa bear, one of Jackie's pups.  All of her dogs have such great personalities.  I had to get this picture of Tessa because she never puts this ball down.  It's her favorite toy.  The ball hangs off of one of her snaggly teeth, so cute!

I took this photo of one of the flowers in her garden.

They are beautiful tiny blue flowers that open during the day and close at night.  We were just leaving to catch the sunset at the lake, but I thought these looked pretty even closed, with just a hint of the periwinkle blue peeking though.

And the sunset, of course. 

The lake was alive with fishing boats, kayaks, and fishermen on the shore.  It was like a parade when they all came in just as it got

dark. 

And then it was still, quiet, and beautiful. 
The perfect Friday night.

Linking up with Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos

On the Border

Our hydrangea border is starting to pop!  Love, love, love!

And now for something competely different...

Last night at our photography club meeting we had a guest speaker, an amazingly talented photographer named  Denise Ippolito.  I don't think I've ever heard a speaker at one of our meetings that was as engaging and inspiring to me.  The two hours went by way too quickly and I learned so much.  I couldn't wait to get home and try some of her processing techniques on some of my photos.  

Here are some of the results:

And just to break up the purple color palette today:

Processed with photoshop plug in Fractalius filter. It's available for photoshop and photoshop elements but unfortunately not available for Mac users.

Back to dabbling...

The Next Best Thing to Being There...

You have to love Skype! 

With our daughter in London she was going to miss her brother's graduation.  Enter Skype! 

Not only could she "be" there, she could also be in the picture and that made us all very, very happy.

Macro Monday

It was a windy day yesterday, less than optimum for macro photography.  I usually do my macros indoors with these conditions but I couldn't help snapping these tiny bees on the mini weed daisy flowers.  In the bright sunlight it made it much easier to shoot at a higher aperature, with a fast shutter speed, for sharper focus.  I'm pretty happy with the results!

Linking up with Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos.

Milestones

It has been a couple of months full of milestones.

My youngest is graduating high school, while my oldest is in London on a two month internship.

I exhibited in my first art show in May and currently am exhibiting pieces in two others at the same time.  I even sold my first piece!  Squeeee!

Four years ago if someone had told me that I would have pieces displayed in a fine art show, my photography would win first place in competitions, be featured on a television program and on a famous blogger's website not once but TWICE, I would have told them they were crazy. 

And yet, pinch me, ouch! I'm not dreaming; it really did happen in the past year.

My son's senior prom was held last night.  It stormed and rained more than we've had in months!  The weather had them running late so I had very little time to snap their photos and because of the weather I had to set up my studio lights and backdrop in the limited space in my living room.  I'm pretty happy with the results though.  I think they both look terrific, despite the raging storm they ran through to get inside the house.

Here's hoping the weather will be more cooperative for the graduation ceremony next week!  Fingers, toes and eyeballs crossed...