I like.......

Flowers






contrast in color and textures

softness

brightness

a scene you can see yourself walking into





reflections and store window displays

sharp, crisp and clear

and I love editing photos

all this decisiveness from a woman who could never even pick a favorite color...

I highly recomend you check out Kat Eye Studio and the online courses offered.

Start the journey to finding your eye - like I did !  Thanks Kat !!! ♥

flowers in winter

I enjoy taking photographs of flowers. 

Last weekend I spent the morning photographing a beautiful orchid my dear friend had given me for Christmas.  I don’t have a very green thumb, well maybe an aqua colored thumb – but not a green thumb.  So I am happy that the orchid still looked as nice as it did on Christmas.

My dear hubby gave me a tripod for Christmas.  I set up the tripod and experimented taking photos in different rooms, with different lighting and different backgrounds.  Close ups and from a distance.  It was early in the morning and I was the only one up and about and I was easily lost in what I was doing.

My only frustrations were that I hadn’t taken the time to think about the light coming in the backdoor and casting shadows on the orchids.  I eventually opened the backdoor – but it was cold outside! 

I love photo editing.  I’m pleased when I have a nice sharp and crisp photo to start with. Often times the results are soft and muted.  I ended up editing a lot of the photographs, but I went with the flow and that’s where it led me.

Pixel Dust Bonnie's free texture "one life"

I recently downloaded GIMP, which looks like an awesome free photo editing software.   I haven’t had enough time to practice with it as much as I would like to.  And as Bonnie expressed in her post, it is hard to get back into the swing of things after the holidays!  I am really looking forward to using layers. I have read a few tutorials that cover layers, but some of them make my head spin!

For editing this photograph of a beautiful white orchid from my dear friend, I once again used Photoscape, which is another  free photo editing software.  It doesn’t have the same layering feature, but it does allow you to add textures (including adding your own textures) and placing objects on top of  your photograph and changing the opacity.

For this photo, I used the auto level, which lightens it up a bit, and then sharpened.  I find that I almost always use sharpen.  I then used color enhance and saturate.  I added  Bonnie’s free texture “one life” as a texture and then added it as an object on top of my photo. I reduced the opacity to 141 and saved.

I love the nice soft feeling it has and the white writing of the words “one life” blends in nicely with the white petals of the orchid, rather than standing out in sharp contrast.

Thank you Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art, for hosting Photo Art Friday, for sharing so much of yourself and your creativity, and for hosting a great spot for all of us to share.  Having a spot to share what I do gives me some sort of validation and meaning.  So, Thank you again!  Happy Friday to us all!  And I've got the number three tucked away in my head for next week!

thoughts on photography

While driving to the bank this past Saturday, a small group of canadian geese sitting on an iced over pond caught my eye.  My first thought and reaction was to reach for my camera, pull over and take a photo.  I didn’t have my dear camera with me.

When something catches my eye, it generates a feeling and a response within me.  I want to capture that feeling in a photograph and convey and share that feeling with others. "this is me, this stirs me, do you feel what I feel?”

Photography has been in my life for a long time.  Years ago I took a photography class and learned how to develop photos in a darkroom.   Many times I went out with a camera in hand, looking forward to taking photographs.  

I appreciate the freedom of digital photography.  If the photo doesn’t turn out the way I had hoped it would, I can delete it.  And it satisfies my need to create.  Editing the photos is the icing on the cake.

My initial response to the question – why do you photograph was “because I have to”.  But that’s not quite right.  But, I do have to be creative.  And photography fills that need quite nicely.

 I went through my house and took photographs of some of the things that I’ve painted, sewn, refinished and made.

I think it’s an appropriate photo for this post.  ♥

Holiday Lights

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park is a seasonal display of holiday lights synchronized to music.  It is an amazing display of Christmas lights and decorations.

Kat Sloma's most recent Exploring with a Camera series is Creative Lights.
I can't say that I had much time to be creative, but I was fortunate enough to experience the "Creative Lights" in person while visiting Disney in Orlando a few weeks ago.

I know that Kat is fond of bicycles...



and who isn't fond of pink mouse ears !

I am delighted that you took the time to view my photos.. want to see the other 597 photographs I took while at Disney????  - smile -



Disney Holiday Reflections

A big thank you to my Mom for taking her "kids" to Disney in Orlando!
This shop window caught my eye because my brother loves M&M's and these look like M&M's with mouse ears, dressed up for Christmas.

It wasn't intentional, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the word "GIFTS"  reflected in the photo. 

Thank you James at Weekend Relfections for hosting such a nice spot for us to share our reflections!

Photo Art Friday - December 2nd

This week Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo made the suggestion that we try some edits we have been wanting to try, but have felt were too hard or that we just haven't had the time for.  The photo art could be produced from following a tutorial or simply the result of some creative play with new photo art tools and techniques.

I chose a photo that I wasn’t really sure what I would do with, but thought I would experiment with layers and the eraser tool.  I used Photoscape for most of my editing, and pixlr.com to make the layers. After much editing, I didn’t use the eraser tool as much as I had originally thought, and only to bring back the orange color of the swan’s beaks.

I just could not decide if I like the photo with text or without. I think that is one of my next goals - learn how to make text look better.

And with Bonnie's texture "Gratitude"

Happy Friday to all of my friends, especially those posting and exploring at

Photo Art Friday !!