Spring has Sprung

I am basking in the beauty of spring this week - everything is budding, sprouting, and blooming! This is truly my favorite season of the year. I went out with my camera and captured some images that make me smile. The second photo above was taken at Quantico cemetery over the weekend, but all the others were taken yesterday right in my neighborhood. Color has finally returned!

Harley Boots

I'm loving practicing with black and white photos, and for this week's Texture Tuesday we are to use one of Kim's textures over a b&w image. I was trying to figure out what to take a picture of yesterday and saw my husband's well-worn Harley boots sitting in our laundry room. Perfect! I used Kim's "grunged up" texture at Multiply/34%.

Quantico National Cemetery

It was a beautiful day on Saturday so my husband and I went for a drive...I had never been to the Quantico National Cemetery before and wanted to visit. I did not expect the emotional impact it had on me...driving through the quiet, vast cemetery and seeing the thousands of graves of our fallen soldiers was powerful. Every grave represents a precious brother, father, son, or husband...or a sister, mother, daughter, or wife. It was so moving to see the family members visiting; I was deeply touched, yet felt intrusive and as if I was witnessing something too private for observing eyes. The hundreds and hundreds of graves you can see on the far hill in this photo say it all...this is the view as far as the eye can see as you drive through the cemetery, all 725 acres. I swallowed hard as we passed the newer grave stones, with fresh plots and 2011 dates on them. And the biggest surprise to me? So many female names on those grave stones...so many.

I'll admit that my eyes welled over when we drove by an old 70's Cadillac pulled off to the side of one of the sections and saw a stooped, elderly man with a walker slowly making his way through the World War II graves to visit a fallen hero. As we passed his car, I saw his license plate and it had a Purple Heart on it. Moments like that stop you in your tracks...any petty problems in your life seem minuscule when you realize what these soldiers have gone through, and when you think about the things they've faced that you can't begin to imagine, all in the name of protecting our freedoms here at home. When we circled back around a few minutes later and passed the elderly man again, he was standing at a grave carefully tying together a bouquet of flowers he had laying across the top of his walker. He looked frail, but I also saw such strength and honor in his presence at this sacred place, paying his respects to a fellow soldier. I was in awe. There are no words to express the gratitude I feel for our military...they truly are my heroes. And my biggest hero of all: My Dad, a retired Army Colonel who did two tours in Vietnam during the war, and thankfully made it home safely both times. For that I am forever grateful.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I missed Scavenger Hunt Sunday last weekend because we were traveling - it's good to be back on the hunt! :)

1. Vintage. I took this photo at a park in North Carolina last weekend. The trees looked so pretty with their white blooms. I added a couple of textures to give it more of a vintage feel.


2. Word or Quote. I could devote an entire blog to clouds and trees - why do I have such a fascination with them? I find them so beautiful and never get tired of taking pictures of them. I took this one on Wednesday afternoon, and the quote seemed to be a perfect fit.


3. Nature's Own. On our way back from North Carolina, we pulled off at a "scenic outlook" while taking back roads home through the mountains. The view was gorgeous - it was hazy, but still a lovely sight.


4. People. I've been practicing converting photos to black and white this week (thanks to Kim Klassen, whose Beyond Layers class I'm taking). This is the only photo from my archives this week - a picture of my daughter from last fall. I've been looking for photos with a good combination of light and shadow to convert. Black and white photos are making me look at my images in a whole new way - sometimes photos really are more striking without color.


5. Photographer's Choice. While we were pulled over at the scenic outlook mentioned above, my daughter spotted this cute ladybug and I quickly snapped a few pictures...he's cute, isn't he? He flew away very quickly!

Photo Art Friday

It's time for Photo Art Friday...I've been scrambling to catch up all week and still feel like I'm not quite there yet. Last night I hadn't even thought of what to do with this week's PAF yet. So this image feels a bit rushed, but I still enjoyed the process of playing to come up with these results. Normally I let it sit for a day or two and then have another look at it, but there was no time for that this week. I started out with a photo I took last night when some storm clouds came through our neighborhood, and added in several public domain images. I also used Bonnie's "Backlight" texture at Vivid Light/68% and "Helena Inspired" at Saturation/100%. I used Radlab a couple of times during the process to tweak its color and/or warmth.

Berry Pretty

I took this photo last weekend in North Carolina - we visited a local park and I noticed this beautiful bush right away. The berries were bright orange and such a contrast against the greenish/reddish leaves. So pretty!

Spring's Blooms

We took a trip this past weekend and had a very quick family reunion...relatives from Virginia (us), Massachusetts, and Texas all gathered together at my sister's house in North Carolina. It's been too many years since we were all together at once - there were 12 of us and we had so much fun! We had a picture perfect weekend with temps in the 70s and vivid, blue skies. I have been so busy since returning from our trip and have fallen way behind on visiting blogs this week...I hope to be back on a normal schedule by Thursday. I know I've missed lots of good stuff!