Framed

It's so easy to get caught up in the stress of everyday living and not notice the beauty all around us. For me, there are days when my demands give me tunnel vision, and I forget to stop and look around. This is yet another reason I enjoy photography so much. It forces me to get out of my head and focus on simple (and beautiful) things. I took this tree photo during one of our country drives in October. I played around with it in PSE, adding layers, and I loved the effect of the frame around the tree, which made me remember this beautiful quote. The frame layer is actually from an image of an old book that I found at Flickr Creative Commons. There are some great images there that have "Attribution Only" licenses...in other words, you have permission to use and adapt the images into your own work as long as you attribute the source. The old book cover layer over top of my photo came from "peacay" at Flickr.

Delight and Wonder

Leaves take all kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them. Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated; in whorls, in tufts, in spires, in wreaths endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from footstalk to blossom; they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our wonder. ~ John Ruskin

Today is Macro Sunday over at Studio Waterstone, and yesterday I ventured outside with my camera to capture something up close. As always, I was drawn to the gazillion leaves filling our woodsy back yard. I ended up taking 100+ photos of these gorgeous specimens - so much texture and pattern on every leaf! It truly amazes me. For this photo, I used a textured called Smokin' from Pixel Dust Photo Art (her textures are stunning), and I also put the image in RadLab to tweak it a little bit further.

Photo Art

Today at Pixel Dust Photo Art, the weekly prompt is to post our favorite photo art image of 2011. I only started this blog a few months ago, but the above image is one of my favorites. I captured this image in my front yard - who knew an electrical plate embedded in the grass could be so beautiful? The pop of color I achieved was exciting...I used Bonnie's "Feelings" texture, at Color Burn/44%. It was also tweaked in RadLab with the filters Oh Snap!, Flora, and Vanilla Kiss. I love manipulating my images to make them look more like pieces of art. I'm grateful to Bonnie for her beautiful blog, textures, and inspiration...I always look forward to Fridays!

Memory Walk

When January arrives, my spirit inevitably sags and I long to hibernate far away from the barren landscape. February and March loom frigidly, and I crave warmth, sunshine, and color! This shot was taken from my back yard...the view of our bare, winter garden through the fence line. To add texture, I used Pixel Dust Photo Art's "Yesteryear" and "Feelings". This is my submission for Texture Thursday, and also This or That Thursday. I've mentioned I may occasionally share my poems on this blog...I've been excited at the idea of taking photos to support my written words, and hope to do that here and there during 2012. If you enjoy poetry, please read on! Have a lovely Thursday.

MEMORY WALK

When my bleak winter thoughts
Edge the bare garden, when my
Melancholy words become
Long and orderly, as gray
As the quivering clouds, as
Deep as the musty roots
Hiding lace-like underground
I know it's time for my spirit
To take a memory walk
Along lush, green embankments
Plump with pleated leaves
Ruffled with swollen blossoms
Tinged with a golden glow
Far from the fallen snow
Where birds hold in their throats
The essence of sun and branches
And we swap understanding glances
While the creek rushes by
Babbling with her stories
Her gray stones at the bottom
Nestled in the curve of her flow.

     © Sherri Brannon 2012

Winter Field

Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky, 
how beautiful it is? 
All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness 
there is a poem, there is a song. 
Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring. 
When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with 
the music of many leaves, 
which in due season fall and are blown away. 
And this is the way of life.
 ~Krishnamurti

I captured this shot on the first day of 2012. The weather was incredibly warm, so hubby and I took a country drive near Warrenton, VA. It was harder to find good pictures in the January landscape, but then I saw these cows grazing in their lonely field, and the bare tree standing starkly in the distance. Time to pull over!

Mike's American Grill

It's good to be back to photography prompts. One of my favorites is Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesdays. She's easing us back into things by letting us use any one of her textures in a photo. The image above was taken at my favorite restaurant, Mike's American Grill. Not only is the ambiance amazing, but their food is delicious every single time. They have the best crab cakes ever! I took this shot at the top of the steps on the second level - the chandelier is huge. I used Kim's "black canvas magic" at Color Burn, 50%. I then put the image into RadLab and used the filters Oh Snap!, EZ-Burn, Vanilla Kiss, and Maple, all at 100%.

Beauty Surrounds Me

Today I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after the holiday. It's nice to be able to focus on some photography prompts again after the rush of the holidays. Over at the The Creative Exchange, Lisa is asking that we post our favorite photo of 2011. It was tough to choose, but this one takes my breath away every time I look at it. It's hard to believe that I took this photo with my own two hands (and a point-and-shoot camera). I still know so little about photography, but 2011 was the start of my journey. I can't wait to keep learning!