Just Going Along

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering. ~Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne

I'm sharing a few more photos from my vacation for This or That Thursday...one of our favorite places to visit at Hilton Head Island is Harbour Town on Sea Pines Plantation. There are boats, and shops, a lighthouse, and pretty red rocking chairs to sit in and relax. To see more This or That photo submissions, click on the button below and visit Deb's blog. Happy Thursday, everyone!

More Camera App Love

While I was away on vacation, I thought I'd suffer withdrawal symptoms from not having access to PSE. I knew I'd take lots of pictures, and hated the idea that I wouldn't be able to do any photo editing till I got back to Virginia. Thankfully, this forced me to use my iphone as my "editing fix" all week at the beach. I experimented every day with some of my camera apps and fell in love with them even more than I already was. My iphone saved me on the 9-hour drive home - I literally spent most of it processing all my pictures on my camera! It was awesome. Anyway, I wanted to talk about a few of my current favorite apps...there are so many!

The first app that has become my new favorite is Snapseed. It's the most expensive app I've come across - $4.99. But so many people raved about it that I bit the bullet and purchased it. I was a little intimidated at first because I wasn't sure how to use it. But I did a Google search and found a great video tutorial. Once I saw how simple it was, I was amazed at how this app can transform your camera photos from good to fantastic. It's almost like having Photoshop Elements on your phone! You can selectively brighten or darken areas of your photo. You can fix the white balance, sharpen it, straighten it, add saturation, blur out parts of your photos, etc. It also has some filters. I now use it to enhance every single photo I take. Here are a few examples:




And the video tutorial that explains how the Snapseed app works is HERE.

Next, I am really loving the Picfx and Pixlromatic apps. Picfx costs $1.99 and Pixlromatic is FREE, and I believe I talked about Picfx before (it has the heart bokeh as an optional filter). I continually experiment with both of these apps for their filters, and love the dramatic, grungy looks I can get with my photos. Here are some I've done in the last week:







And lastly, my latest find is a FREE app called Phonto. It allows you to add text to your camera photos, and it's so effortless and easy! Very user friendly. It has hundreds of fonts already, and apparently you can even upload your own fonts into the app also (I haven't done that yet, but I found a tutorial HERE). Here are a couple of examples of my Phonto photos (both of these were first edited in Snapseed):



And there you have it...Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's good to be back for Scavenger Hunt Sunday...for all of the prompts this week, I'm using photos from my vacation because I haven't had time to get out and capture many images since I've been back. This week's prompts were travel, silly, spots, paper, and black and white.

1. Travel. I've barely begun editing all my photos from Hilton Head, but this was one of my favorites of the marsh area we walked by to get to the ocean.


2. Silly. A lizard with a blue tail? That's silly. (I captured this at the Hilton Head Forest Park Reserve, a beautiful place to walk around with your camera. My husband and I spent a couple hours there walking the beautiful trails.)


3. Spots. These herons in the sky look like spots if you scrunch your eyes up just right.


4. Paper. Maybe this kite is made out of paper? Well, I think they used to be, anyway, in the olden days.


5. Black and white. This was the perfect reading spot inside our beach house rental...although I must confess I never cracked a book while I was there. My intentions were good!


Thanks for stopping by, and for letting me stretch it a bit with the prompts. I should be back on track next week, I hope! Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

Photo Art Friday - Black and White

I've had such a busy week catching up and getting back to reality after vacation...I didn't have time to create my Photo Art Friday image until this morning. I wish I had more time to play round with it, but this is what I came up with. I feel like it's not quite finished. I started with an image I took of a townhouse in Occoquan, VA. I added an old floral book flyleaf pattern, some text, and a decorative border. I also used Bonnie's "Helena Inspired" texture. It's good to be back and making photo art!

Hilton Head Island

For This or That Thursday, I thought I'd share some of my Hilton Head photos. I've been so busy this week getting back to reality and only started processing some yesterday. Hilton Head is truly one of the most beautiful places I've been to...we started going there on vacation when my husband and I were first married 28 years ago. We stopped for awhile when our annual family beach reunions took us to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (another fantastic place). But then we resumed with Hilton Head when our daughter was about 12. We've been going every year since! The beaches are wide open (and not too populated), and you can even ride bikes on them. There are gorgeous nature paths everywhere, for both walking and biking. There's also plenty of restaurants and shopping within a short drive. I started processing my photos in order, so I haven't even gotten to the ocean yet! But here are a few of my favorites so far. These were all taken on our daily walk to the beach - it's about a ten-minute walk from our rental, and it's absolutely beautiful. We have to walk over marshland to get to the ocean.

Ocean as Cathedral

Kim's prompt for Texture Tuesday this week is to post an image centered around a quote. We just returned from our beach vacation this past week, so I had to post a photo of the ocean at Hilton Head...walking beside the ocean is my most favorite place to be. There's something so spiritual for me about being near the sea...the water connects with my most inner thoughts in a way I can't explain. I only know that it's profound and comforting in a way that no other location is (except for, perhaps, deep in the silence of the woods). I experience such clarity...my thoughts flow freely and I feel an invisible, yet powerful, presence. For my quote, I'm using a few lines from a poem I wrote about my love for the ocean and the way it makes me feel. I used Kim's "Vintage" texture with this image, at Overlay/28%. The font I used is called "Sunshine in My Soul".

OCEAN AS CATHEDRAL

A spirit in my feet leads me
To stop walking in circles
And pray, linear, by the ocean
Where delicate, strong things
Stir from my depths
Like the whale’s backbone
Quiet and hidden

The sea turns its ear softly
Hearing the unspoken words
From my soul
Those hallowed things
That no one ever knows
Those gold and silver tears
That never flow

Thoughts become translucent
Each wave a simple hymn
With something new to sing
The soothing of my fragile frame
As a heron glazes the waves
And seagulls fly like small
White souls hovering

Truths in my hands unclench
Releasing their philosophies
Battling the water
Tested for their strength
Some sinking like stones
And drowning
Others breaking the surface
With their absolutes

The best are washed back ashore
Catching the light of the sun
Clinging to the ragged rocks
Of my hopeful longings
The ocean is my cathedral, and
Revelations from my heart
Float freely atop
The deep and sacred sea.

© Sherri Brannon

Back to Reality

Hi there, my blog friends! Hilton Head Island was beautiful...we got back home yesterday and I hope to get back on track with my blog this week. I couldn't resist posting just one photo of the beach. I took hundreds of photos and can't wait to share more of them in the coming weeks. We got very lucky with Hurricane Beryl while down south - the worst of it came Monday evening and into Tuesday, but for HHI it was just windy and rainy for about 24 hours. The rest of the week was paradise, as always. To all who stop by, it's good to see you again and I can't wait to get back to my weekly prompts!