Little Scraps of Magic

Photo Heart Connection: February 2013

So many photos tugged on the heart strings this month...a trip to the beach and a new lens equaled a great deal of fun.

But, I kept coming back to this one.

Winter photos often frustrate me; there's so much brown and gray. Dark depressing colors - ugh! I need sunlight, crave it.

So, as I sat and stared at this shot, trying to figure out what drew me in, I realized that the almost golden light on the dry marsh grasses caught my eye and my heart.

And, there's a peacefulness here, one that my heart needs in the midst of papers that wait to be corrected, emails that wait to be answered, and students that wait for my attention.

This one offers a bit of solitude and peace, a time to quiet my monkey mind, and a time for me to breathe.

 

Snowy Beach Day

Picture 2 middle aged women (60 is still middle aged, right?), ruddy cheeked, faces tucked into their coats, happily clambering about, cameras in hand.

Why?

'Cause there's snow on the beach. Not much, grant you, but snow, there is!

It doesn't take much to make us happy...

I love this shot; the snow added such neat sparkle and texture to the beach grass - just gorgeous!

Playing here and here. 

Now, go see all the pretties!

Here...

Here...

Head bowed, buffeted by a bitterly cold February wind.

Tears streaming down my face

Eyes blinking against the sunlight's glare.

 

Here...

Head turned toward a radiant sun

Lost in the magic of stay puff marshmallow clouds

 

Here...

Numb hands gripping the camera's body

Wondering how to begin to capture this magic

 

Here...

Kneeling on wet damp sand

Listening to the shreiking of laughing gulls

Watching the itty bitties battling ferocious gusts of wind

 

Here...

Tasting gritty bits of sand

Capturing magic

 

Here...

 

Snow Geese and a List

                                                                       Snow Geese on VA's Eastern Shore

Over at Artsyville, this week's topic is "Unintended Use." Here's a few items that come in handy, but not for the purposes which they were intended for:

1) My macro lens often serves as a telephoto lens, although I did use an honest to God telephoto lens for thepics above.

2) Newpaper bags come into use as grandson diaper disposal and bags to stuff shampoo bottles - and the like - into as I travel. I've learned the hard way that no matter how much I'm careful, the darn things leak.

3) Used up gift cards spread glue and paint very nicely.

4) Old phone books or magazines serve as table protectors when I glue things. Glue, turn the page, and glue some more. I'm no longer getting glue where I didn't intend glue to be!

5) Toliet paper tubes make great "bincoulars" for the grands. Let them color or paint them, and then add some stickers...even better!

6) Enclosed envelopes for remitting payments find another life for practicing tearing (fine motor skills) or grocery list making.

7) Bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard (coffee cup sleeves) make neat textures in paint, and those toliet paper tubes above? Well, they make awesome circle prints! Potato mashers and combs of all sorts also create awesome texture.

8) Empty peanut butter jars hold water for art making.

9) Wine corks in an decorative container get emptied and replaced, over and over again, by the two year old grand.

10) A decorative wooden red bowl often serves as a hat for the same two year old.

11) Paper bags make awesome books.

And, I'm sure there's more, but I'm heading off to breakfast and then some exploring on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Calling My Name

Sitting here, inhaling the salt air.

Doesn't matter one bit if it's cold, or if it snows.

I'm at the beach.

Heading across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

 

Playing with my new wide angle lens...thanks, kids!

 

Trying to hold the camera steady, which is not so easy...

 

Amusing myself while Phil checked us in.

Who knew the inside of a car plus a wide angle lens could equal so much fun?

This Is What I Know...Making a List!

Over at Artsyville, it's "List It Tuesday" once again, and although the kind folks there are quick to reassure me that I don't need to post on Tuesday, and that since I have all week to post, I'm really not late...well, the teacher in me says if I don't do this on Tuesday, I really am late. So, notice, please, I am on time this week! (It may not happen again any time soon...)

We've been given free rein this week, so I thought I'd revisit "This Is What I Know."

1. I'm happiest wandering about with a camera, focusing on what ever might catch my attention....the roots of an onion (cool surreal photo) or rusty bikes at the shore (to the bewilderment of 2 teen age boys). Doesn't matter one bit!

2. Photoshop is a wonderful thing. I get lost in it, playing for hours, pushing the envelope, just to see what happens, 'cause, you see, there's always the "undo" button. Wouldn't life be wonderful, if we could just hit that undo button once in a while?

3. I love vanilla spice lattes. Love them.

4. McKay's used book store is saving me a fortune.

5. When there's a two year old or four year old boy, or both, in my house, and it gets quiet, I better check on what's going on and quickly. Noise is wonderful because I know what they're up to.

6. I am going to the beach over Presidents' Day weekend, and if all goes well, I'm going whale watching with my husband and my sister. And, I get to play with my new wide angle lens. Since I really love my sister, I will let her play with the lens as well, and then I bet, she figures out a way to get one soon as well.

7. I need to stay out of "Chico's." I find way too much to buy in that place.

8. My husband is an awesome cook, whether it's homemade soup and bread or it's cookies. He does it all and does it well.

9. I love middle schoolers. They make some folks shudder, but all in all we have a blast. Right now they are humoring me and seriously trying to figure out how to calculate rates, bases, and percentages. No kidding!

10. Teaching ancient history is suitably gross enough to capture those same middle schoolers' attention.

11. I work with an awesome group of people.

12. I miss journaling and need to get back to it.

13. I need to win the lottery so I can quit, shoot pictures, write in my journals, and oh, maybe once in awhile, clean my house. Notice what's at the end of my list.

14. My daughter and I are taking a photography class together beginning in April. Yay!

Almost There

Trying to finish up "August Break," which gets pretty funny when I go back to work the 3rd week of August. A break? Nope! More like trying to get my body somehow back into sync. At any rate I'm nearly there...the August Break, not getting my body into sync. That's a work in progress.

At any rate, do you see what I see?

I didn't see it at the time, being far too busy with trying to do justice to the gorgeous bits of driftwood strewn along the shores of Lake Erie.

I didn't see it then, but now I do. A torso, an arm, and a foot complete with toes. Love it!

Flight Interrupted

On the shores of Lake Erie, Westfield, NY

August Break, Day 9

Focus 52: Week 32

 

Focus 52:27 - Celebrate!

As an older sister, it's my job, plain and simple, to guide my siblings! I do a remarkable job with my sister, Denise, and have cheerfully led her to spending lots (and lots and lots) of money, whether it be on cameras, lenses, books about how to use that camera and those lenses, and table landscapes. I gleefully point out anything she might be lacking.

We spent several days together this week and last, scouting places to amass goodies for her summer table vignette. Antique shops, Pier 1, Joanne's, The Christmas Store, shops in Chincoteague, - so many possibilities. We investigated as many as we could, and wow, did she create some magic!

Our tables change with the seasons, celebrating all that is special  to each. Pulling the odd bits and pieces together reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle, one of those where you really don't see the whole picture ahead of time. As you shift pieces here and there to see what fits and what doesn't, the magic begins to happen.

I've done a good job with her, don't you think?

Hop over to Focus 52 to check out the pretty eye candy, ok?

 

Photo Heart Connection: June

June presented me with so many photo ops, and I seem to have taken advantage of every one possible. So many still await editing, and I'm happily playing here.

As I waded through the plethora (love this word!) of images, pictures kept murmuring, "Pick Me." But this one grabbed my heart.

I am a water baby - not in the sense that I'm in it, but that I need/want to be near it, to smell the salt air, and to feel the sand between my fingers and toes. I want to be searching for bits and pieces of shells with colors and patterns that catch my eye. They find their way into my pocket and eventually coming home to a space in my studio.

I played with this image just a bit...adding a little sepia to it, aging the colors a bit. It's just as gorgeous in its original form, but I wanted to give it a touch of timelessness.  A man and his dog, walking the coastline, beach goers in the distance. And, those clouds...sheer gorgeousness! This is the scene that dances through my dreams; this is what I close my eyes and imagine in the dead of winter.