Friday flowers…going, going….

“I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace, and next to a hyacinth look like a wholesome, freshly tubbed young girl beside a stout lady whose every movement weighs down the air with patchouli. Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun. I have heard them called bold and flaunting, but to me they seem modest grace itself, only always on the alert to enjoy life as much as they can and not be afraid of looking the sun or anything else above them in the face.”
― Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth and Her German Garden

Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge: Macro…sharp

For this week’s theme, “Macro“, I spent some time scrolling through older shots before chosing this one. Perhaps last week’s frigid temperatures, which kept me from my morning walks in the park, brought out a latent longing for spring, even though I enjoy winter.   I used the Lomo-ish and Vignette effects for editing.

Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge: Macro…Spring

It’s the second Monday, which means the Phoneography theme is “Macro.”  Although I hate to be predictable, with spring in the air and the joy of being outdoors foremost in my mind, I have to go with a nature theme.  Every day I go outside, I see something new and beautiful, something growing and changing, a good reminder of what my life should be.

I must have flowers, always, and always.
~Claude Monet

The rain to the wind said,
‘You push and I’ll pelt.’
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged–though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
~Robert Frost

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
~Emily Dickinson

And when it rains upon your parade, look up rather than down.  Without the rain, there would be no rainbow
~G. K. Chesterton

And when it rains on your parade,
look up rather than down.Without the rain,there would be no rainbow
~G.K. Chesterton
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/rain.html#QWuqKLeDV4heL5Ce.99

Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge: Macro…up close in the kitchen

When you start taking photos, you begin to see things differently, to see potential photos everywhere.  Bring your focus close to you and you’ll find a plethora of beautiful photos waiting to be recorded.  This week’s Phoneography Challenge (or, to give it all its gravitas, the Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge) is “Macro“, just the place for those photos.  I looked in my glass and in my mixing bowl and came up with the following pictures.  Any editing was done on Picasa 3, my newest toy.

 

 

Molasses on sugar..and sugar on molasses

 

Lemon in my water

 

 

Phoneography Challenge: Macro…Milkweed

A small lake, a runoff lake for flood control, lies a few blocks from our house.  Despite the utilitarian sound, a walk around the just-over-a-mile path bordering it exposes all sorts of natural beauty.  The glory of the seasons is on display year-round, making it the perfect place for photos.  It’s so inviting that when I go for an exercise walk, I have to leave my iPad/iPhone at home.  The continual stops keep me from getting any real exercise.  They do, however, net some good pictures.

Although I don’t usually think of milkweed as being a winter plant, its sturdy beauty continues to fascinate through all four seasons.  Here’s a sample of what I saw as Bill and I on Saturday alternately splashed through melting snow and plunged into drifts still as deep as almost a foot in some places.  I tried my best to step in Bill’s footprints, but still managed to get snow in my shoes and wet the bottoms of my flannel-lined jeans.  It was beautiful and, in the next week, the warmth of spring will be descending on us.  Soon the colorful spring bulbs will begin growing, but the elegance of the milkweed will remain, a study in contrasts of silkiness and spikiness left over from the previous season.

The Phoneography Challenge is for anyone taking photos without the traditional camera.  You can read more about it, link to all the entries for the week and learn from Sally’s blog by going to this week’s Challenge:  Macro.

Edited in Picasa 3 with Boost and Sharpen

Edited in Picasa 3 with Pencil Sketch and Drop Shadow

Edited in Picasa 3 with Tuning and Museum Matte

Phoneography Challenge: Macro (Desert color)

I’ll be posting this from the Pacific side of Costa Rica!! I’m excited to be headed for a new place with our older daughter, a mother-daughter trip. I won’t be online much but I don’t want to miss the “Macro” challenge. My entries are two photos from outside my parents’ house in Mesa, Arizona. Hope you enjoy them and your week.

To see all the photos, go to http://lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/phoneography-challenge-your-phone-as-your-lens-macro-and-check-new-themes-added

Phoneography Challenge: Macro…if life give you lemons…

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we visited the newest location of HipCityVeg, in the University City section of Philadelphia. The food was excellent and the restaurant decorated for Christmas. On the counter was a large cooler filled with water, ice and lemon slices, a beautiful, refreshing look that drew my gaze immediately. The workers were a bit bemused when I came to take a photo but when one woman peeked at my shots, she said, “Wow!”, a spontaneous comment that I appreciated. Despite the frigid weather today, the shot still looks fresh and appealing to me. I hope it does to you, too.

The Phoneography Challenge is open to anyone who takes photos with a phone or iThing. Each Monday has its own theme and as this is the second Monday of the month, the theme is “Macro.” Click on the word to go to Sally’s site to enter or simply view the various submissions by clicking on the links. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

Phoneography Challenge: Macro…The dowagers of autumn

Autumn, or fall, depending upon where you live, is a time of endings…the end of summer, the end of days that start early and end late with golden sunshine, the end of trees burgeoning with leaves, the end of the bright, hot colors of summer, the end of the foliage of (most) plants.  During this time, I cherish the last glimpses of colors and rich beauty before the austere beauty of winter reveals itself.  Sometimes the petals of flowers or the outer parts of plants now look less than pristine, like faded beauties still bedecking themselves as they did when young.  But peer inside and you can still see amazing intricacy and charm, just as you might when getting to know better the aforementioned dowagers.  

(The Phoneography Challenge is open to anyone who finds themselves madly taking pictures with their Smartphone or iThingy whenever and wherever possible.  The themes are found on Sally’s page and go live each Monday morning.  We’re a rather nice group of people who all share one desire:  to record the beauty around us.  So come and join us.  This being the second Monday of the month, the theme is “Macro” and you can find links to all the other entries by clicking that word.  We look forward to seeing your entry, either this week or next…or any time you have time.)

My photos were taken with my iPad 3 and have not been edited.  And last, but definitely not least, thanks to all veterans, past, present and future, for allowing us and so many other to be free.  Always remember, lest we forget.  My Memorial Day post works just as well for Veteran’s Day.

Phoneography Challenge: You’re bugging me! (macro)

This photo is an example of the part luck plays in taking pictures. We were walking around the lake one evening, a photography walk, meaning Bill does martial arts exercises while I lallygag around, taking shot after shot before walking another few feet and stopping again. I was busily taking photos of milkweed plants and didn’t realize until I looked through them later that I’d caught a visitor in this one. Fortuitous, since this week’s theme is macro.  🙂

The photo was taken with my iPad 3 and then cropped.

Small bug traverses
Milkweed’s alien landscape
Camera spies him