The Magical World of Mushrooms

In July, most people go out in their yards looking for flowers that are blooming...for me and my shady yard, I've been on the search this week for all the mushrooms "blooming" overnight. Having a very woodsy property makes for some interesting discoveries, and the mushrooms lately have been popping up everywhere. It's fascinating to me how many different types there are.

Most of these mushrooms were within a 20X40 foot space! I've been on the hunt for fungi every morning this week. Each one is so unique - some are more plain, some are showy, some stick together in clusters, and some are solitary. Kind of like people. :)

While thinking about this post, I did a search for mushrooms because they interest me so much. I found this link to some photos by an Australian photographer named Steve Axford. He takes the most incredible photos of fungi. As I looked through his images, it struck me that mushrooms growing on the floor of the woods remind me of the strange and fascinating creatures found on the floor of the ocean. They're strange looking, and striking, and oddly beautiful in a way that makes you gasp. Click HERE to see his amazing photography of fungi at Bored Panda. Gorgeous!

I'm linking up with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday today...for the last image above, I used her "Touch of 1" at Multiply/74%. I have even more mushroom photos that I'll share in a later post. Thank you for stopping by!

Black and White

Black and white are absolute. They express the most delicate vibration, the most profound tranquility, and unlimited profundity. ~Shiko Munakata

It's App Happy Wednesday - today I'm sharing a very simple image but one I still think is striking because it's in black and white.

You'd think it would be simple to create a black and white photograph, but I've noticed it's a lot more complicated than that. Having the right balance of light, medium, and dark shadows is key. If you don't have that contrast, the image will look very bland.

I was happy with the contrast in this image I took. It looks mysterious...the original color photo had no mystery whatsoever.

Please click below to visit and participate!

Farmer's Market Love

Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer’s year — it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul. ~Author Unknown

One of my favorite places in the summer is the local farmer's market. Walking through the tent-filled aisles of produce on a sunny Sunday morning always makes me smile. This week we walked away with zucchini, corn, onions, peaches, and fresh cilantro. And I can also find the loveliest bouquets of flowers there for $5.00! At the grocery store, that price will get me dyed carnations.

I took this photo with our amazing Canon, which I'm embarrassed to say I still know virtually nothing about...my intentions have been good, but in recent months I've become so focused on iPhoneography. And now that I'm dealing with back issues, carrying the Canon around for more than a short period is an issue...my iPhone is as light as a feather!

I used Kim Klassen's "reverie" texture on this image, at Multiply/20%. I also tweaked it in Radlab. Thanks so much for stopping by.

P.S. I should've removed the wilting, yellow flower before I took this photo...I didn't notice it at the time. Now it's driving me crazy every time I see my image! Ah well, such is life.

Scent of a Feather

SCENT OF A FEATHER

I left the stray cat
secret bowls of milk
and it decided to stay,
following the scent
to my spirit house,
stalking the golden birds
who flew through my
open windows, who
stirred the air
with trees and prayer,
their wing tips dipped
in the sacred source
I yearned for.

And of course
the cat stayed, it
was such a safe place
curled up in the curve
of my marrow, its eyes
now aglow with the
colors of my soul.
If people can carry
the scent of their poems,
mine now smelled
of lingering feathers
on a feral tongue.

But I'm weary of feeding
my hollowest friend,
furring my air
with its delusions.
I pray it soon leaves,
I won't weep or grieve.
I yearn again for
the golden wings
filling my lungs with
their secrets, with
the scent of God,
with their essence of
bark and beak.

© Sherri Brannon 2014

Your head is a living forest full of song birds. ~e.e. cummings

My poems sometimes take on the scent of anxiety, which I personally have always struggled with. Do your poems have a scent?

I love that e.e. cummings describes how our head is a "forest full of song birds". And anxiety is kind of like a stray cat, don't you think? A stray cat has no home base until someone offers up a food source. That offering becomes an open invitation and it starts hanging around. And then it can't help itself...instinct kicks in and it starts preying on all the song birds in the neighborhood, those beautiful winged creatures that until now flew with a lot more fearlessness and freedom. Anxiety and fear (which I believe are the same thing) prey on our thoughts if we let them. They keep us from having faith that we can fly.

My iPhone image was edited completely with camera apps: Snapseed, Stackables, Mextures, Pictapgo, and Superimpose. The feather photo was actually taken against a black piece of cardstock, but the apps I used turned the background more colorful. The writing in the background is from an old 1800s book.

I'm linking up with Poets United today - please visit and read some great poetry!

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. ~Rabindranath Tagore

Just Peachy

I went to our local farmer's market this past Sunday and there were lots and lots of peaches for sale...oh my, so delicious. A couple of vendors were giving out free samples and one taste was all I needed. I picked the above peach specifically because it had the big stem on it and I knew it would make a good photo!

I put my iPhone image into Glitche and tapped the "glitche" option until I was happy with the result...next, I moved it into Brushstroke and made it painterly. Quick and easy. I'm linking up with App Happy Wednesday today - please join in if you like phone camera apps!

A Little Morning Rain

Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall? ~Charlotte Brontë

Or, in this case, the hostas bloom... :)

We had a morning rain shower last week and I captured some lingering raindrops on our hostas. I love sunshine, but clouds sure do make for wonderful lighting in photos.

I used Kim's Cora texture at Multiply/41% for this image, plus some Radlab and some tweaking of Levels in PSE to make it a little more matte.

Happy Tuesday!

The Lake is Quiet

The lake is quiet, the trees surround me, asking and giving nothing. ~Margaret Atwood

There's just something about being near water...it has such a calming effect. You feel your body relaxing, you breath easier...it's a wonderful thing. This is a photo I took in Florida with my iPhone, but I just got around to app-editing it this week. I used Snapseed to create the tilt-shift effect, and then put it in Luminance for the lovely filter.

Happy Friday to you! I'm linking up with Friday Finds today.

Bouquet

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head. ~Henri Cartier-Bresson

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend - mine was wonderful. I can't believe it's already Wednesday - time for some more app talk, which has become my main means of creativity lately.

I've finally admitted something to myself...camera apps have officially replaced Photoshop as my favorite way of editing images. Who knew? Being able to make incredible alterations to an image using my iPhone (or iPad, which I use for editing) is truly amazing to me. There is an app for every type of edit or effect you could think of. I have learned about so many of them simply by playing and practicing. The more you practice, the more knowledgeable you get about what your favorite apps can do. And then, of course, there are some wonderful online courses now available that teach you everything you need to know (click HERE to read my last post about that).

I love the above image I edited this past week. I took the flower photo at the Grand Floridian resort in Disney World back in May. The photo on its own wasn't that special, but by using various apps I really liked what it became. I used the following apps to get my results: aremaC, Glaze, iColorama, Imageblender, and Stackables. To get the "line edges" you see in my finished image, I put the image into iColorama and used the Edges (#2 option/Normal) under the Style section. I saved a copy of it, and then Blended it with the Glaze version of my image in ImageBlender.

I'm linking up with App Happy Wednesday - please join in! I'm "sherribrannon" on Instagram.

Painterly Camera Apps

Apps used: Snapseed, iColorama, Glaze, Image Blender, Repix ("charcoal" effect - used to smudge background)


For the image above, I followed a wonderful tutorial by @jlfiala (on Instagram). The tutorial is at her blog - click HERE to visit and see the tutorial. Her work is beautiful!


Apps used: Snapseed, iColorama, Glaze, Image Blender, Stackables


Apps used: Snapseed, iColorama, Glaze, Image Blender, Repix ("charcoal" effect - used to smudge background)


Apps used: Snapseed, Glaze, PhotoTropedelic, Image Blender

I'm currently taking Bob Weil's online iPhoneography class, and it is so fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to take their iPhone photos to the next level. I am learning so much...the content is wonderfully detailed and you have access forever. Right now his class is being offered at 50% off (until July 5th). If you want to investigate further, click HERE for his class details.

Because of the class, I've been much more artsy with my photos this past week...it really gets the creative side of my brain going. Bob Weil's teachings have my wheels spinning with possibilities! That's what I love about iPhoneography...it's a subjective medium just like any other form of expression. I'm linking up with App Happy Wednesday today - click on the link below to visit or participate! I've tried my best to list the apps I used underneath each image up above.

I'm "sherribrannon" on Instagram. Thank you for stopping by!