Twigged : Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday " Better Late Than Never!

I couldn't resist this simple twig - misplace, somehow, on a deck.
This one contains a texture from Kim Klassen called 'Scripted Autumn'

I'm having such a wonderful time re-connecting with my imagery obsession - and in the way I always envisioned that I could.  I'm glad I kept my cameras - even the SLR's!

Kat Sloma's Exploring With A Camera: Allowing Space

This is the Cattle Point Lighthouse as seen from American Camp on San Juan Island Washington.

Kat Sloma's "Exploring With A Camera" theme this month is 'Allowing For Space'. It's an important thing to remember and is all too easy to overlook at times. As with any art work, the eye needs a place to rest when looking at an image. Too much color and information can be as 'off-putting' as too little in the composition of an image that is pleasing to the eye. 

I have to admit to being layer addicted but there are times when color and simplicity can really make an image powerful. I chose this image that is not as simple as I had originally planned, because it has two contrasting colors and both areas offer a lot of space within their nearly diagonal spaces. I liked the sinuous curve that the road  line added to the image as well. Not quite as much space as I could have gone for - but fits the theme none-the-less I hope. Thanks Kat for another fabulous reminder and lesson!

Reflections Of You : Five Facts From Friday

Another autumnal equinox sunrise iteration

5 Facts From Friday:

1.     I love crows and chickens.

2.     I can't imagine life without having a feline to own me.

3.     Life is about taking chances sometimes - and having the faith that it will all work out.

4.     Everything is easy when you already know how.

5.     You have to follow the creative paths where they lead you- all creativity builds on itself . 

        There is no penalty for trying a different creative direction

Autunal Equinox

The Fall equinox is the time of year when we should take a moment to acknowledge all of the blessings in our lives

Photo Art Friday : Roadside Fall Leaves

Photo Art Friday

I am so attracted to this particular bit of sidewalk. It was a lovely bit of summer  vibrancy when the dandelions valiantly fought to pop up near the curbside (see below - previously posted image) and, with the Autumnal Equinox upon us, I'm finding it to be an equally enticing place - graced by the lively colors of fallen, aging, leaves.  It's the little snippets of everyday color and art - so often overlooked -that make my day more colorful.

Macro Monday : Daisy's Heart

I can't explain why I've been drawn , very strongly, back into the world of imagery. When I left photography school - completed on the cusp of the digital age - I was sure I would be a nature photographer. Life intervened and I became a worker bee, textile and mixed media artist but I always kept taking images - I just never did anything with them. For the past couple of years I have heard the siren song of the lens calling and have been re-acquainting myself with the joy of imagery. Thoughts without words I call them.

I like to take images of everyday objects - scenes that I stop and photograph my way to and from work, along the roadway, in the parking lot - that sort of thing. You see, I am blessed to live in one's of God's most glorious little places. A small, genteel, rural island - closer to British Columbia than to mainland USA - so I have a lot of beautiful things to look it.

This morning I was thinking that it would be nice to have a Monday theme - since I am off on Mondays for the moment and then, lo and behold, I received a nice comment on my blog from Ida at Wishes, Dreams & Other Things and right there, on her sidebar, was a link to Macro Monday. My wish was answered - and so quickly too!

Macro Monday's

Photo Art Friday : Nettle: Nature's textural Gem

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

Nettle has always fascinated me. It's nature's textural gem.  It's not a nice plant to touch or fall into but it's smooth, spikey, soft, hard, wispy & thorny surfaces make for some interesting images.

ROF: 5 Fact Friday

Reflections of You

I'm enjoying our 5 Fact Friday. It's fun to think of things about yourself that people might actually like to know - or just perhaps to remind yourself of things that bring joy to our life. Today was glorious, warm, early Autumn day in my neck of the woods. The sun twinkled from behind the trees that were just ever so slightly beginning to show some Fall colors. The nights have already been nippy in the low 40's. I just had to stop along the drive home and sit a moment to appreciate the warmth, the sun and the trees - and what an amazing place I get to live in.

Fact 1.     

I used to be a sky diver and still believe that is the best legal high one can ever experience.

Fact 2.    

I have preferred the same color palette (the warm side) for most all of life.

Fact 3.    

At 42 I left the career that I built and the the decent income and excellent benefits that I had to move to a genteel, beautiful, rural, island on the opposite end of the country. I had to re-invent myself from

the ground up. I am far less financially well off but much happier living in the pplace of great natural beauty than I was living in a big city working in a high stress job that was lucrative. It was a scary leap of faith!

               

Fact 4.   

I am thoroughly besotted by felines although we now have only one - down from a high of nine which almost sent me to the looney bin! We also had a Samoyed during that time! I am an avian loveras well - as long as they remain protected from my cat - who lives inside!

Fact 5.     

I believe that if everyone did indeed treat their neighbors as they would themselves the world really

would be a better place!

Happy weekend to all!

Roadside Beauty

I try to find beauty in the smallthings that we so often overlook.

 The striking colors of this roadway vignette caught my eye today

"Only The Mist Of A Dream...."

It was such a food shadow day last Friday. I couldn't resist!

Morning Sentinels

I snapped this photo (quickly!) through the glass in my office window. I have a bird feeder on the window and morning is a busy time for feeding. The birds all seem to wait patiently for each other to have their turn.

Photo Heart Connection from Kat Sloma

Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower.....A.Camus

My heart, and my images, are always drawn to to the trees at this time of year. Some have been bare since last Winter,  fallen victims of the harshness of the previous winter. Others begin, every so slowly to gain a bit a of extra color - a bit like over ripe fruit.  They are all amazing to me - each one standing as witness to the changing of the seasons and the changing of the times. Trees are my photo heart connection for this month.

Self Portrait Fear

Self portraits are on of the most scary types of imagery for me. I've always disliked seeing myself in photographs and that feeling hasn't changed as I've grown older. I snapped this image in my car last week. One toe in the self-portrait waters.