winter garden

the only thing left standing in the garden

my hydrengea

with a light dusting of snow

meanwhile.........

my friends on the east coast are

digging out from over a foot of snow!

shadow shot sunday

while visiting my friend martha

for our tree ornament exchange

i noticed her chandler was

home to some of her wonderful ornaments

they have a "who" like quality

and cast a wonderful shadow

so i thought they would be great for this weeks

shadow shot sunday

above, one of martha's ornaments close up

countdown

with such a mild fall it's hard to believe

that it's only 32 more days 'til christmas!

i know i've been counting since labour day

but somehow its hard to imagine it's that close

when there are leaves to be raked

and roses growing in my neighbours garden!

no place like home

as much as i love to travel

it's always good to be home!
6 days on the road
27 hours driving time
over 2000 km
and tons of photos to go through
i will post some tomorrow
-------------------
me and my new red shoes
on my front porch
attention carmi:
i may have to borrow
your bedazzler machine!

reflections

it's been 3 weeks since my ny weekend

i haven't had much time to sit and play

with my photos until today

my first morning was spend

walking through bryant park

it was so quiet!

which is hard to imagine!

just a few workers, tourists , homeless people

and me, taking shots of the amazing refection's

after the evening rain

one of my favorite blogs to read is

a new york magpie's eye

judy has a wonderful eye for photography

and lives and works in manhattan

she finds so much beauty on her walks to work

and inspired me to take these shots

so next time your out

remember

look up, look down, look back

where has the summer gone?

finally, summer arrives

on the closing of the cne

it was a great long weekend

while the masses left the city to

spend time at the cottage

i enjoyed a wonderful time

visiting my town

like a tourist, camera around my neck

visited friends and a few galleries

toured different neighbourhoods

ate way too much junk food

and enjoyed a day at the ex

------------

above, a shot of the ferris wheel at the cne

or the "ex" as we call it in toronto

inspiration from the garden

art

inspired by nature

born of the soul

--------

hap haygood

---------

blooming in my garden

globe thistle

layered in ps with latin text

and a ttv frame

august blooms

my back garden is three quarters shade

with all this rain i haven't enjoyed it much

the few sunny spots are blooming with

black eyed susans, shasta daisy, cone flower

and seen above

beebalm or bergamot

my favorite

it smells like earl grey tea!

rainy days

two good things about when it rains

one, i don't have to water the garden

which is usually an all day job

and two, i actually have an excuse

to stay inside and play in ps

----------

above, white coneflower,

in my front garden

text from an old prescription

and a ttv

balancing act

for the past few week i've been try to balance everything

this time of year is extra work

my part time job is my garden

not that i'm complaining

i just wish there were more hours in the day

it's like an addiction

i can't get enough

and while i'm working i'm thinking

about what to do next in the garden

it's convenient working from home

when i get a break i can go out and take a look around

do a few things and them back to work

i'm praying for a rainy day

so i can stay in and do some art

the one thing that has been lost in the balance

------------

above is a photo from last years garden

they are just starting to bud and will bloom in july

i have 8 hydrangea shrubs and several different varieties

blending modes

just mindlessly playing

with one of my photos from my morning walk

the remains of an old house

i layered the same photo 5 times,

resizing and off setting each photo from the previous one

then changed the blending mode for each layer

and added a ttv to frame it

soul awake

" hope is the dream of a soul awake"
a french proverb

photo finds

last post got me wondering through my old photos

one of my favorite all time "finds"

was jerome, az

a little mining town between sedona and prescott

it sits on a ledge

once abandoned

is now starting to make it's comeback

filled with artist and gallery's

i found some great crystals and stones

for my jewelry

a really cool graveyard

and gold king mine and ghost town

where i managed to take over 400 photos

some of which where these old trucks

windows and doors

thursdays challenge

windows and doors

i could have posted a thousand photos

one of my favorite things to photograph is architecture

above are two taken at alcatraz

and this one taken in old montreal

field of flowers

still dreaming of spring!

getting impatient

it's been a long winter!

normally i except the fact that i live in canada

and spring comes late

but this years has been extremely long and cold

bright side:

the days are getting longer, yeah!

and the sun was shining bright yesterday

i managed to brave the cold and go for a walk

to take a few photos and get some vitamin d

above are the photos of my street

it's the only time i can see the lake,

well, a small part of it

i played with them in ps

and added a ttv

and them decided to put them all together
i think something like this would make a great banner

hummmm..........

something spring like!

back in the groove

after going through my photos

and playing around in ps

i decided to change my banner

it has been a few months

i found some great photos from last fall

my cottage trip to owen sound

i also did the above project

a photo from the same trip (inverted)

a page from an old science book,

an old handwritten letter

and a ttv frame

urban art

another found collage

so simple but effective

with just a click of a button and a

a simple group of posters becomes

and eerie image

and an added ttv

more photoshop

it's amazing how three simple images can be

turned into something really cool

the first is a photo i took at my local park

the second is a ttv image i found on flickr

and the third is an antique postcard

i just layered and played with the

blending modes and filters

i used the color burn blending mode on the top layer

here i applied the "high pass" filter


and here the pin light blending mode

just by a click of a button
you can change the mood
and "undo" anytime you want
i came up with several variations
but like these 3 the best

not sure if it's a good thing to be on cold meds while

operating photoshop!

i used my favorite winter photos and tried

on every ttv and background image

it gave me something to do

without having to think too much

i haven't had time to practice in ps for awhile

these are my four favorites

until the drugs where off !