Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I really missed participating in Scavenger Hunt Sunday last week - real life caught up with me. I'm happy to be back - this week's prompts are Hanging by a Thread, Collage, Always Look on the Bright Side, Home, and Mobile (phone). I have a real jumble of photos this week.

1. Hanging by a Thread. This butterfly looks like it's hanging by a thread...right? I know, it's a stretch - it's all I could come up with for this prompt. I was very stumped!


2. Collage. I'm still a newbie when creating collages with templates - I was happy to figure out how to put the photos inside each frame, but then was completely clueless about how to change the color of the frame. I kept trying and had no luck. So, white it is...lol.


3. Always Look on the Bright Side. Some pretty flowers I captured in someone's yard...I gave it a sun-kissed look thanks to Radlab.


4. Home. We're in the midst of painting our family room, so our couch and other furniture are stuffed in our kitchen temporarily. I liked the light in the room on a late afternoon when I took this photo (the vintage tin dollhouse normally sits on top of a tall hutch in our family room).


5. Mobile (phone). We went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant last night...I took this with my iphone (and added the light effects with the Rays app).


Thank you for visiting - have a wonderful Sunday! Click on the button below to see more photos.

The Witness

The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music… The trees, the stars, and the blue hills ache with a meaning which can never be uttered in words. ~Rabindranath Tagore

THE WITNESS

The poignancy of life
Is a physical thing
As my lungs inflate
Filled to bursting at the ache
Of gold-tinged memories
Crumbling with a touch
Fleeting and fragile
Like a butterfly at sunset
Disappearing into twilight

My heart trips and stumbles
On the cracks of my past
Falling hard on the sidewalk
Its bittersweet chamber
Skinned raw with regrets
My anxieties lie draped
Atop my fickle faith
Like a barbed wire necklace
That pricks with its
Foolish agonies

But my soul stands
As a witness
To the joys and the strife, to
The angel and the devil
Behind my eyes
And we all three stare
With an intake of breath
At life's pincushion sky
Stuck sharply, sweetly
With brilliant stars

My lonely billows out, and
My soul falls to her knees
From the love.

©Sherri Brannon

For this week's Photo Art Friday, we were to center an image around "gift(s)". I'm grateful for the gift of Photoshop Elements, and what it's given to me as a means of expressing myself. For the first time in my life, I have found a medium that continues to enthrall me over a year later, and that lets me combine my creative loves: photography, art, and poetry. For this week's prompt, I created an image to go with a poem I wrote called "The Witness". The beauty and the poignancy of life overwhelms me at times...have you ever had one of those moments when you're so grateful you feel overcome by emotion? That is what this poem is about. Life is not always easy, but it is so precious.

For my image, I started with a daylight photo I took of the mountains in Virginia, and used layers/texture to turn it to night and add a star-filled sky (Multiply/100%) and moon (Normal/100%). I then added the three figures (Darker Color/100%) and the heart bokeh (Lighten/45%). I found the starry night, moon, heart bokeh, and "three figures" layers all at Flickr Creative Commons. I hand wrote my poem on a piece of paper, scanned it, inverted it in PSE (so it was white text on black), and added it as a layer on the mountains (Lighten/12%). I like that my words are imbedded into those mountains...a little piece of me taking part in the story that this image creates. Note: I used a reverse mask on each layer if needed to remove it from areas where I didn't want it to show.

Original mountain image:

My Heart is Bokehful

I have struggled so much with finding good photos lately...the month of August, for me, is very much like the month of February. All the color (except for green!) is gone from my yard, and a lot of the green has turned to brown because of the heat. It's too hot to go out in search of photos...so thank goodness for my iphone! I try to at least get some photos here and there throughout the week...and then I have fun experimenting with all my apps! I took a screenshot of my latest Instagrams to use for this week's This or That Thursday.

Camera apps have become my new obsession...I'm always on the lookout for new ones. A few of my latest favorites were used in the photos above.

For the "One Day at a Time" photo, I used Blender and layered two photos together. The words are actually a sticker (black text on white paper) that I took a photo of.

For the journal photo, I added the hearts with Bokehful. This app lets you add a variety of bokeh (circles, hearts, stars, etc.) to your phone images, and the best part is that you can choose: 1) the color of the bokeh, and 2) where you want the bokeh to appear simply by touching the screen!

For the "take time for the view" photo, my very drab photo of a seagull on a street lamp (taken in the grocery store parking lot!) became pretty thanks to the "100 Cameras" app. I also added the little bit of bokeh at the bottom with a "Picfx" filter (under their Light section). I added the text using "Phonto".

For my sweet Ruby (corgi) photo, I used a new app I found called "SigNote". It allows you to put your own writing on your photos - very cool! For a great youtube tutorial about this app, click HERE.

Regardless of the various apps I use, I always process my photos first from my camera roll and then post them to Instagram as my last step when they're ready to be shared. It's funny, I used to download music to my itunes, but now I download camera apps to my iphone! Times, they are a-changing. :)

Thanks for visiting - please click on the button below to visit This or That Thursday!

Choiceless as a Beach

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea. ~Ann Morrow Lindbergh

This week's Texture Tuesday is "anything goes" - no texture required if you so choose. I must confess I've lost my focus with photography this past week...a friend I love dearly received some devastating news and I've been preoccupied. It's really thrown me off my photography game. So, I hope it's OK that I went back to some of my Hilton Head vacation photos that I've never shared...this is a photo of some driftwood that I took at the beach one day. I love the mood of this photo - I wish I was back at the beach today! I would love to walk beside that beautiful water. Thanks for stopping by - please click on the link below to see some more lovely photos.

Five Fact Friday

Kim and Xanthe are hosting "Five Fact Friday" over at their Reflection of You blog today. I thought I'd join in - here are my five things:

1. Not only am I an introvert, but I'm also an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). There are many of us out there...are you one of them? Psychology Today actually published an in-depth article about HSPs for the first time last year. Being an HSP is a blessing when it comes to creativity...but it can be challenging in day-to-day life.

2. Depending on the activity, I'm either right-handed or left-handed. I write with my right hand, but tend to do most other things with my left...except when batting in baseball, or golfing, or throwing a frisbee (back to the right hand). When I paint, I switch my paintbrush back and forth from my left hand to my right, sometimes without even realizing it - very strange!

3. I love clouds. I take more photos of clouds than any other thing. My family shakes their heads each time because they just don't understand my obsession with the beauty of clouds. lol

4. I am an Army brat...I lived in many places growing up, including England, Turkey, Panama, and Germany. I went to three separate high schools between 9th and 12th grade.

5. The older I get, the more I listen to my inner voice. My painting above symbolizes that inner intuition...that wise presence who is always there if I just listen.

Thanks for stopping by - by the way, I'd love to hear 5 fun facts about you. :)

Invite Them In

This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. ~Rumi

Rumi has my heart...what an understanding of the human experience he had. My poetry is the outlet for all of my "guests", especially the more difficult ones...but still, I respect what they have to say and I allow them all to speak. They each have lessons to offer. For this week's Photo Art Friday, we were to center our image around a door. I had fun creating this one! I started with a photo I took in Warrenton, VA of a field. I added the door and the silhouette by using separate layers. I also attempted to add a shadow behind the door by using a soft, black brush at 30% (also created on a separate layer). I used Bonnie's "Golden Bokeh" texture at Pin Light/100%. Please click on the button below for more great photo art images!

UNFILTERED

I am grateful
For my shadow self,
Who notices burnished
Light on morning trees.

She hears pungent colors,
Sees swirling sounds, and
Leaks asymmetrical thoughts
Through my pen.

She lives raw inside my heart,
An organic neverland, and
Helps keeps me sane
In a flat, generic world…
I love her.

©Sherri Brannon

Corgi Crasher

Carry laughter with you wherever you go. ~Hugh Sidey

I'm taking advantage of these last few weeks with my daughter before she heads back to school and am using her as my model when I can...we were doing a photo op out back a few days ago when we were interrupted by a corgi crasher...lol. When my daughter started cracking up, I kept taking photos. You can see the results as our photo op went from serious to silliness! The best laid plans... :)

It started off well - nice, polished photo with a beautiful smile:


Oops, there is a distraction...


What's going on? Ah, a corgi has entered the picture...


What is that silly dog up to now?


Bahahaha!


Oh, Ruby...!! Her life motto: No stick shall remain unturned uneaten.