Oh, to dance with flowers

Why I love photographing flowers 

photographing flowers is a dance 

just me and my flowers 

moving to the light and shadows that embrace each petal

getting in close enough to smell the fragrance of its essence

gazing long enough to appreciate the dusting of pollen

focusing each step on the uniqueness and beauty each flower holds

hoping our dance together brings joy to all that view it

two of my favorite things to do - dance and photograph flowers

To view video on iPhone or iPad click here

Wisteria Pods

I have had a fascination with wisteria pods this summer. This is the first year I discovered them in the wisteria out back. One thing is their color a beautiful olive green that I love combined with the lavender from the flowers one of my favorite combinations. The the other thing is the velvety texture - so amazing. I opened a few for my friend who wanted to start growing some wisteria so I dried some pods and cut them open, I was surprised at how small the seeds are, I expected them to be pea sized but they are very small. Thank you wisteria for all your loveliness this summer.

Preserving the past

I was looking through magazines the other day and ran across an old copy of "Somerset Digital Studio"Autumn 2014. I remember keeping it because it had a free download of handwritten vintage text which I really liked. Sometimes I like adding text to my photos which got me to thinking how much I love running across a note, recipe, or card from my mom and seeing her handwriting. That got me to thinking what would happen if I used my mom's text to add to my photos, then I could see her handwriting all the time and enjoy it and preserve it. So I got out a few of her cards and photographed a few of her most recent sentiments. I scanned the text and cleaned it up in Photoshop using brightness and contrast and made brushes out of it and added the sentiments to a few photographs. After completing my photos I looked up the author of this article in Somerset and discovered I follow her on IG - small world!

Waiting for Poppies

I've been trying record a video of a poppy opening. I was very close to capturing one. I saw a pod cracked open and ran to get my camera a tripod came back and it was all open and beautiful. Until next time.

Desert Garden at Huntington Library

Ventura Beach

 So many rocks on the beach from the high tides.

Calligraphy wrapping paper

On my previous post I mentioned I was practicing calligraphy, this is my first attempt at adding it to wrapping paper. I used a kraft type wrapping paper and practiced on a small piece first to determine if my ink would run. When I saw that it actually worked pretty good and didn't bleed, I measured out a larger sheet and with a pencil and ruler drew out diagonal lines to use as guides. After completing all the inking I erased the guide lines. I used a Nikko G nib and a General pen holder with Higgins Eternal ink. It was a little intimidating and I had to focus on just writing out the word I couldn't think about almost getting to the end and misspelling love or messing up! A really fun way to practice words and get a personalized wrapping paper. You can choose any word, or name, or occasion the possibilities are endless.