My Everything Corner

I was recently given some time to visit what has, so far, been my favourite place to live.  Besides the good company of the welcoming friends we left behind, Cold Lake always offers beautiful scenery for photography.  I took hundreds of photos, and I'm sure I will revisit them and add more, but here are the three that kept catching my eye as I was scrolling through.    

That is a pretty little quote, but I only chose it because I would like to live with that belief.  I spend far too much time hating on the weather.     Actually, I really love the rain, and when it's not a torrential downpour, I love to go out in it.  Of course I love the sun, and really, who doesn't?  But the wind and the snow, no matter how much I try to see the beauty in them, I just want to go back inside and wait until that weather passes.  Which in Canada is about 5 months of the year.  Not healthy.   Don't get me wrong, I love a gentle breeze on a warm day.  But I live on a Canadian prairie where a 'breeze' is 40km/hr strong.  It's not going to be the sun that ages my skin prematurely, it will be that drying prairie wind causing my face to resemble old leather.   Anyway, in an effort to more love where I live, I try to make it out whenever the weather is not too severe.  I get some fr...

I went through my photos and selected my favorite sky shots.  I can rarely resist grabbing my camera when the sky is producing a magnificent scene.  However, I rarely come out with photos that I am satisfied with.  Too bright, too dark, not enough detail and blurriness are common problems for me.  This past week, my husband was going through his computer stuff, a sizeable feat, and he came across an instructional disc that came with our camera.  I plan on watching it soon, and learning more about how to operate this wee beast.  I'm sure it holds lots of hidden secrets that will improve my photography.         

I by no means claim to know how to work well with Photoshop, but with just a few simple clicks, one can have some fun with photos.  Here are a few I've been playing with.  I've also been working on creating some graphics of botanicals that have been extracted out of photos I've taken.  If I like them maybe I'll figure out how to share them here.  I'd share all the steps I took to achieve this, but I don't remember.  I was just playing around.  In this one, I changed the tone of the sunset to better match Bear and the bale he is playing "king of the castle" on.  Photoshop really helped bring out the detail in this one of Bear's pawprint.  This one is a combination of the above two.  It was a bit of work to get the paw print to look decent.

Went for a very short walk today with the camera.  Apparently I can barely touch my toes without my gums starting to bleed from the surgery, so I have to be careful not to let my heartbeat go up.  With little to do, and a high wind, I headed for the shelter of the trees in our yard.  Here are some pretty photos from that little break outdoors.  The textures of bark can be amazingly captivating when you're bored out of your mind.  I guess I should say 'bored out of your tree' to take advantage of the pun.     I really can't figure out why they don't pay me the big bucks. My favorite.  Yep.  Captivating.  I'm sure my insight is bringing you to tears. This is a lilac bush gone to sleep for the winter.  I can't wait to welcome her blooms in the Spring. One of our Magpie friends lost his home in the windstorm day before yesterday.  The bummer is, those poor birds can't catch a break, the wind is ...

The Moon on July 2, as seen from my deck.  (not quite full) Although a day shy of being full, the moon was beautiful lastnight.  I was lucky enough to have my sister-in-law over to give me a few tips on how to photograph it.   I have been trying to get some photos of the awesome lightening we've been experiencing, but without success.  The moon was a much more forgiving subject, as it stayed in one place long enough for the camera to capture it.  We've all seen amazing photos of the moon before, but being able to catch this much detail with my little camera was very satisfying. Most have heard the saying, "I love you to the moon and back".  In my family, this saying has taken on a life of its own.  We go on and on getting more creative each time and competing to see who can get in the last words.  It usually goes something like this: "I love you."  "I love you to the moon and back."  "I love you to the moon, go around 100...

I cannot honestly say that I look forward to the cold months in Canada. Unless you can count curling up on the couch with a good book. Cold weather does not mean ice skating, skiing and sledding for me. The cold weather drives me to do much less torcherous sports, like reading, and baking, and now this year, blogging. But when the frost settles just right, as it does once in a blue moon. You will find me out and about (in my car) with my camera in tow, capturing all the beauty that a heavy hoar frost brings. For this photo, all I had to do was step outside my front door. Everything was covered, but this ninebark shrub was the only thing that had all her leaves, and she looked amazing. So amazing, in fact, I felt inspired. Inspired to quickly take a picture, run back in, put the coffee on and sit in front of my picture window with my book, looking up from time to time to enjoy the view the hoar frost had created. But what took hours for the frost to create, took only minutes for the win...