A hike in eastern Canada in the summer of 2002 brought me through a forest of trees like this one. This was scarred by forest fires, windswept by the nor'easterlies, and pecked on by woodpeckers. A year later, the area was hit by hurricane Juan and not a tree was left standing.
inspiration corner
Quote of the week
- I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir
My photographs
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- The Crafty Crow
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February 2008
February 29, 2008
February 28, 2008
black and white experiment- 30:3
At the local gardens there is a brick wall and interspaced along the wall lie various old sculptures, engravings, and vines. Something captures my attention every time I go. I was drawn to this cracked edition of madonna and babe making me think of the themes of lost, forgotten, and derelict. There is a sense of sadness about it.
February 27, 2008
alternates 30:2
There is something nice about walking through a carpet of waving ferns in the wood. Sometimes I'm inspired to make a photo of the whole scene and other times I'm inspired to zoom in close and focus on the parts that make up the whole. Nature is full of so much beauty when we stop to have a really close look. Every time I walk in the woods, I see something different with the lens.
February 26, 2008
Experimenting in black & white 30:1
I've always been drawn to black and white photography since I first discovered the likes of Ansel Adams, Freeman Patterson, Galen Rowell, and many others. Black and white photography takes away all the other variables that colour presents and gives us the ability to focus on the most important things: light and composition. This month, I'm going to focus on the digital darkroom and experiment with the multitude of black and white conversion options in Photoshop CS3. With this month long experiment I hope to bring out the best in my images and immerse myself in the magic and fun of it. Anyone who wants to play along using their own techniques, please feel free and do post a link to your photos.
February 25, 2008
alphabet time
Today it was time to join the others at unplug your kids in art time with the alphabet. We thought about this for a while and I decided to turn Leah's love for stamps into our alphabet activity. First she stamped a whole bunch of favourite stamps on paper and then came time to match up the stamped images with the letters that each image starts with. Soon enough, butterflies had Bs next to them, Strawberries had Ss and so on and so on. It became a good lesson in phonetics. Leah has a stubborn aversion to any lower case letters except in her name, so we only used the upper case letters. She says she does not like the smaller letters....." a little j, is not a J" oh well.....I'm sure this too will pass.
Then I thought we could make an alphabet bracelet. First I slathered glue over a piece of cardboard, and then Leah glued letters from magazines all over it. Once dry, I punched a hole at each end, threaded a ribbon, and Leah was able to play dressup with new bracelet.She happily picked out the letters and sang the alphabet song to her heart's content.
crab apples in snow: nature challenge #30
This is the last of my nature challenge series and tomorrow brings another new day with a new theme in photography. This keeps me shooting and processing and learning.
I'm having a week where I am missing snow and snow sport. That's not to say that I don't appreciate having temperatures in the 70s in February, I just miss a little play in the snow. This photo was taken at my Mom's farm in Eastern Canada two years ago at Christmas. There is a great old crab apple tree with the apples still on it and the snow had just fallen. In fact, it snowed every day we were there....heavenly! We toboganned every day down the slopes by the barns. We went inside only when there was snow up the pant legs, in the mittens, and down the neck. What a blast!
February 24, 2008
East Bay Brook: nature challenge #29
Today I woke up missing the snow and cold. Am I nuts? Most likely. However, as people write about the length of winter and frozen toes, I think about snowmen, toboganning, skating, cross country skiing, throwing snowballs, icicles on the roof and hanging off the front of the car, frozen nostril hairs, being wrapped up in a cozy blanket by the fire, hot toddies, and a good winter's read.
I took this photo at my sister's in Cape Breton when I went on a walk along a brook two years ago. I did a little painting in photoshop CS3 and voila....reminiscent of the Group of Seven...well...sort of. I'm thinking of making this into a mid-winter greeting card to send off to friends and family. Winter greetings to all!
February 23, 2008
preening: nature challenge #28
Soon I'll be wrapping up my 30 day nature challenge and have a plan for the next 30 days....
This one I worked on this morning from my archives because my mother who is a birdnut more than me, wanted some of my hummingbird photos. I must work on improving my technique photographing these little fellows. I should have used a different focusing program and bumped up the shutter speed more than I did. It's all trial and error sometimes to see what works the best. I believe this is a juvenile ruby throated hummingbird. The red isn't quite as developed on the neck. Anyhow, if anyone knows for sure....feel free to correct me!
February 22, 2008
markers and finger hole puppet play
A nice relaxing day without having to be anywhere...so nice this break in routine. We live for Fridays when we can take our time doing anything and spend much time thinking about what craft to do. This is usually between bursts of outdoor activity like chalking the driveway, feeding the birds, blowing bubbles, and seeing what is blooming in the garden (sorry to those who are still buried in snow).
We started out with markers...Leah still prefers scribbling over anything structured like figures and letters. I'm waiting for this to change! We love this paint a pony put out by Melissa and Doug. You mark it all up with markers, then throw it in the wash and start over. It's had many washings.
We continued today with the puppet theme we having going this week. Today was finger hole puppets and we started with an elephant. First I drew the elephant and cut it out. Leah added the tusks, googly eyes, and punched a hole with a circle punch for the trunk (her index finger). I mixed up some white and black tempera paint to make grey, painted her finger, and then she stuck it in the hole of the puppet for the trunk. Don't all kids like to stick fingers in holes? yep....that's what we were up to today.
more drops: nature challenge #27
Another day of rain, but it is nice and warm and spiders are still at work creating wonderful webs to catch drops. The red glow in the lower portion of the photo is from a brick wall which is also reflected in the drops. You never know what you are really going to see when you put the macro lens on the camera!
