Autumn Must Come

Even the birds
Ounce their singing,
Begin flitting
To cover for the night.
And under
The late glow of sun,
Every place
Whispers
That it’s time
To move on,
That autumn must come
Autumn must come,
Must come. ~Claude Wilkinson


It's time again for Bonnie's monthly photo art prompt at Pixel Dust Photo Art, and the theme this month is "embrace". I am embracing fall and its beautiful changes...enjoying every last bit of color before winter comes. Fall is ripe and vibrant, a last hurrah before the bare bones of winter. I captured this leaf that had fallen on an electrical grate in my front yard. I used Bonnie's "heavenly" texture at Soft Light/30%, and also put the image into RadLab. Click on the button below to visit Bonnie's blog and participate!

I'm flying to Ohio this weekend for a wedding, so may not have time to visit other's blogs until I get back...but I look forward to seeing what everyone has come up with this month! Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend!

Time Crumbles Things: Abandoned Prison Grounds

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time. ~Aristotle

My husband and I went back to the abandoned prison near where we live two weekends ago...every time we go to this place, I get some amazing photos! I keep wondering when/if they're going to tear all the buildings down...I'm always happy when we visit and everything is still standing. I especially love all the wild flowers growing amidst the crumbling and rubble - it adds so much beauty to the deterioration of the grounds and buildings. Nature always enhances everything. I have a bunch of photos to share - here are some that I've edited so far. I have many more to come, and we were able to go inside one of the buildings again this year. I'll share those photos soon!

I'm linking up today with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday - in the final image above, I used her "Anna" texture at Soft Light/20%.

Two Hands

TWO HANDS

A maple tree grows tired
from too many thoughts
and nowhere to put
them...its red leaves
release and flame,
kindling the air,
clotting the stream.
I watch in wonder at
its silent burn, and
I steal the sky's breath
in a rush of blue,
unable to help myself.
A fleecy cloud floats,
then topples, into
a gilded mountain, and
a wren swells its throat,
searching for a parting song.
My heart forms two hands
and prays.

© Sherri Brannon 2013

Never do I feel closer to God than when I'm out in nature. There's a sacredness to it that I can't explain...it fills me with peace and comfort. I tried to express those emotions with the above poem I wrote this past week, which I'm sharing with the weekly Poetry Pantry (click HERE to visit). I'm also linking up with Kathy's weekly Song-ography prompt (click HERE), and her theme this week is "Forever Young". Being out in nature with my camera is so good for my spirit - it definitely keeps me young! And makes my heart oh, so happy.

Thank you for stopping by! The photo is one I took near Sperryville, VA.

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. ~Frank Lloyd Wright

A Cloudy Day in Autumn

A cloudy day in autumn has a completely different feel than it does in summer - have you noticed that? The air is riper, as if it's filled with ghosts from times past...the clouds whirl about like spirits. They have the feeling of old souls hanging heavy in the air, as if they've seeped into you somehow, gently haunting you with their memories. Fall air takes you back to another time.

I tried to capture that feeling when editing these photos from our day trip to Sky Meadows Park last weekend. What a beautiful place! It's a state park, but instead of the standard "nothing but trees" landscape, it's filled with rolling hills and open spaces. The clouds arrived during our outing and I tried to accentuate the melancholy feel.

I'm linking up today with Kim Klassen's Friday Finds - click on the button below to visit! Have a wonderful weekend.

I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling. ~Jack Kerouac

Little Red Barn

Inside a barn is a whole universe, with its own time zone and climate and ecosystem, a shadowy world of swirling dust illuminated in tiger stripes by light shining through the cracks between the boards. Old leather tack, lengths of chain, rope, and baling twine dangled from nails and rafters and draped over stall railings. Generations of pocketknives lay lost in the layers of detritus on the floor. ~Carolyn Jourdan

What is is about barns? Anyone with a camera knows that an old barn casts a spell on us...we are drawn to it like a magnet. When I saw this one from a distance in Sperryville, VA, I knew I had to go take a closer look. Luckily, it was sitting behind the town's tiny post office, so I felt like I wouldn't get in trouble if I walked back to take photos. The stories this barn could tell! I wish I could've gone inside of it, to experience what the lovely quote above describes!

From Automatic to Manual: A New Photographic Journey

I can't believe it's been three years now since I fell in love with picture taking...my love for photography and editing has grown and grown. It's the first creative endeavor I've ever stuck with for an extended period of time...except for poetry, which I love just as much. These past three years, I've taken all my photos with my trusty point-and-shoot Lumix...I love this camera and it has allowed me to capture beautiful things with just a snap of the button. It allowed me to embrace this new passion despite my lack of knowledge about cameras, which I'm forever grateful for.

This past week, we invested in a new camera and I am now faced with a new challenge - finally learning how to work a camera manually. My husband and I are going to share our new investment: a Canon 5D Mark III. I can't tell you how intimidated I am to use this magical camera - I feel like a preschooler who has gotten behind the wheel of a Maserati. I literally know nothing about manual photography, and this camera has so many functions and capabilities - it's mind boggling and, honestly, a bit scary!

My goal over this winter is to slowly start learning...can anyone recommend any online classes, tutorials, or books that will help me grasp the basics? I would appreciate any advice. I do have Scott Kelby's series of Digital Photography books, and we purchased an eBook about the Canon 5D Mark III that looks very good. But if you know of any other online sources or books that explain photography basics in a way that's easy to grasp, please let me know.

I'm almost embarrassed to share the above image, but I HAD to at least point and shoot with our new camera, even though I had no idea what I was doing. I am absolutely amazed at the quality of the photo despite my lack of knowledge! Amazing. I keep reminding myself that any talented photographer I see online was once a beginner like me...I know practice is key. Please wish me luck! And thank you again for any advice.

I'm linking up today with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday...I used her "Sybil" texture on my image, at Multiply/20% - just enough to add a subtle tone.

There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say ‘It is yet more difficult than you thought.’ ~Wendell Berry

Iphoneography: Painterly Effect Apps

Rather paint the flying spirit of the bird than its feathers. ~Robert Henri

I've been on a real kick lately with my painterly apps when processing my iPhone photos...they are so much fun to use and I love how they completely change the look of my original phone image. I love altering the reality of my photos and making them look "unreal". I thought I'd share some of the photos I've processed in the last week or two. For the first image above, I used DistressedFX, Scratchcam, and then Repix. The "charcoal" effect in Repix is what gives it that lovely smudged appearance. You just rub your finger over the areas you want to smudge - too much fun!

For my pink house image below, I first put it in DistressedFX, and then moved it into PaintFX to get the "mostly black and white" effect (with the house remaining pink). I then finished it up in iColorama to give it the "sketch" effect.



I love how my starry moonlight image turned out - this photo was actually taken in broad daylight. I used Colorthief to alter the tones of the photo, and then moved it into CameraBag, which has a "night" filter I used to make it look like night time. I then moved it into Glaze to give it a painterly effect. Next, I put it into Percolator to create a separate star image. I finished by combining the painterly image and the star image in Blender. The two combined created this lovely starry night effect. So exciting!



Oh, how I love quotes...and I find that my compulsion to share quotes is invading my mobile photography. I captured this country driveway through my car window last weekend, and I edited it to look very old. The empty space at the top was just begging for a quote, so I found this lovely one by Tom Hennen. To alter my image, I first used Colorthief to change the tones, and then I moved into Vintique which aged it even further. Next, I used the Phonto app to add my text.



For my autumn leaf image, I again used Colorthief (a favorite!) to alter the colors a bit, then moved it into Glaze for the painterly effect. I think I combined a couple of different Glaze results together in Blender to achieve the final effect. Blender is a great app to use when you want to make your effects a bit more subtle.



I love my serene country scene below...I used iColorama to alter the tones, and then the painterly section to make it look so smooth and lovely. I then added a texture (also in iColorama).



For my "drip demolition" image, I used Colorthief and then moved it into Scratchcam to make the background more interesting. I finished it up in Repix, using the drip effect.



Most of these images were taken in or near Sperryville, VA on our day trip last week. If you haven't used painterly apps before, I encourage you to play - it's a thrill to watch your photos go through such a transformation. And there's no clean-up or spills involved!

Thanks for stopping by - I'm "sherribrannon" on Instagram. All of my Instagram photos are taken with my iPhone (and edited with my iPad).

My Best Day

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. ~Dorothea Lange

Kathy's Song-ography prompt for this week is "best day of my life", and I'd have to say that my best day is any day I'm out with my camera looking for beautiful photos to capture. It's pretty much my idea of the perfect day, and I've been getting a lot of "best days" this month.

The joy for me with this whole photography thing is in the search...that sense of excitement I get as I walk around a place in search of that perfect subject to photograph. My photography radar kicks to full-focus mode, and I'm suddenly noticing every detail...I'm looking up, down, and all around so I don't miss a thing. It's like a treasure hunt and, on a good day, my treasure chest ends up full of beautiful photos to take home and process...it doesn't get much better than that. :)

Last weekend we went to Middleburg, VA...I love walking around this quaint town. There were still so many beautiful flowers around, so I found myself zooming in a lot to capture their gorgeous colors. Here are a few shots of my "best day". Click HERE to visit Kathy's site - thank you for stopping by!

Autumn Tones

Scarcely sad, so mild and fair
This enfolding Autumn seems;
All my moody languor dreams,
Cradled by the gentle air. ~Paul Verlaine

The month of October is my favorite for photo taking...every weekend is spent on day trips to the country to capture the changing scenery. Virginia back roads are truly beautiful...there are treasures to find around every curve and down every country road. One of our recent destinations was the area around Sperryville, VA - here are a few of my favorite images, which I'm sharing with Friday Finds. The trees were barely starting to turn, but fall was definitely in the air. Click on the button to visit and/or participate! Have a wonderful weekend.