Art of Composition - 1

Playing with line, shape, and just the way we frame things.  I caught a beautiful day moon at 11:00 in the morning yesterday.

I thought when I was setting up the shots that I would prefer the vertical (portrait) orientation shot ... which is unfortunately a little more than the zoom on my p&s could handle.  But after uploading the photos, I much preferred the landscape orientation.  I can't decide why.

Ignoring the focus (I know the landscape is better focused, but I'm trying to look at the shapes and elements in the photo, not the clarity), which orientation do you prefer and why????

What I Did At The Crop

In the realm of better late than never, this post falls under the category of "I can't believe I'm JUST getting to this!"  


I went to a day crop on Saturday October 8th.  I had my photos taken, uploaded, edited, and saved for web by Wednesday October 12th.  All I had left was to come here and create the post.  But I was at work on Thursday. And I spent 6+ hours in the car on Friday (leaving first thing in the morning), driving to pick Sarah up from college and bring her home for Fall Break.  And I'm learning that travel just plain kills me for days on end!


But without further ado, what I created at the crop:

Two page layout about my girls and Santa, back in the early 90's.  All of the photos were taken at Grandma's
house (my Mom's home in Pine City, NY.)  Santa was played each year by Uncle Frankie, but the kids were too
young to catch on. As our families grew larger, so did the number of kids wanting attention from the fat man in the
red suit.  Sadly, 1996 was the last year of the Santa tradition.  Mom was already sick in 1997 and that was the
last year that we celebrated Christmas in New York.

I just had to document the glory days of Sarah reading out loud to her younger sisters at bedtime.  Sarah grew up
to be an avid reader.  The other two, unfortunately, avoid reading at all costs.

I loved the story told by this series of two photos. At this age, the only way Rachel and Becca were going anywhere
near Santa is if I was right there!  And you can see clearly on Becca's face that she wasn't really keen on the big
guy.  But she sure lit up when he handed her a gift!

This layout (sorry for the glare on the photos) was to document all the darling outfits that their Nana (my mother
formerly of California, now in Texas) used to make and send them. They had special outfits for Easter, Christmas,
sometimes Thanksgiving, but my absolute favorites were the adorable little summer outfits!  My girls were the
best dressed kids in town... until Nana got tired of sewing and the girls got too old to appreciate the outfits. You
know it is dangerous when kids start having opinions about what they wear. Portrait collars definitely are not on
their wish list!

LSNED - the final installment

Title Page

I added all the pages to a 4x6 album I purchased at Target. I cut the excess photo sleeves from the center of the album because it was too bulky.

All done!

Tucson - Anatomy of a Business Trip

Tuesday morning, we left for the Philadelphia Airport before sunrise, at 6 a.m.

actually.  It is about and hour and fifteen minutes to the airport.

This was the view from I 95 just before we pulled into the Airport grounds.

Pulling into the Philadelphia Airport.  7:15 a.m. I spent the next eight hours in 

airports and on planes, arriving in Tucson at 12:30 local time (3:30 my time).

I didn't really see much of Tucson. I saw a dust storm flying in. I saw the airport.    
I drove a whopping 18 miles from the airport to the hotel.  I spent my entire day 
and a half on hotel grounds.  

View from the back of the hotel lobby, overlooking the pool and the mountains 

behind the hotel.

Cactus along the road leading up to the hotel. I took a walk 

back down (85 degrees and 1:30 in the afternoon... what 

was I thinking?) the road to take photos.

This view is from outside the front of the hotel... from the upper level parking 

area.  Tucson is definitely not flat!

View from the balcony of my hotel room, looking left.  If I looked straight out I 

was facing the pool and to the right, the main hotel  lobby.

Wednesday, I spent nearly 9 hours inside one of the hotel conference rooms. I

took 14 pages of notes.  Afterwards I was spent. I went back to my room, called

for room service, and read until bedtime.

Thursday, I was up at 4:30 a.m. and drove myself back to the Tuscon airport in 

the dark.  And did the whole first day in reverse. Arriving back at my home 

around 7:30 p.m.  Another U.S. city down and no site seeing done.  Some day 

that's going to change.

October 1st Scott Kelby Annual Photo Walk

On October 1st Jay and I joined in the Scott Kelby Annual Photo Walk. We were in downtown Doylestown PA and very luckily the predicted rain held off and we had a nice morning.  Here are some of my favorite shots:

A sculpture at the James Michener Museum of Art

Don't know what kind of flower this was on a large bush overhead, but thought it was really cool!

Love the way this tree had literally grown around and
enveloped the headstone. Feels like there is a story there.

some kind of fungus on a tree - looks like sea shells

close up

really tall tree

this tree grew around and through the iron fence

A little further back to give the full perspective

The sky that morning as we began the walk.

Gone Postal

I'm writing this post on Monday, the 3rd, but setting it to go live on my blog on Thursday, the 6th. I had finished these little canvases and needed to have them on their way to their new owners before this post went live.  Hopefully at least one of them will be in hand before the big reveal!

For Karen - who asked for the Mary Oliver quote. I chose the colors for her canvas
based on one of her favorite color schemes for the cards she makes - kraft, black,
and red. I even used some of the rub-ons she had sent me! So they went right
back to her, just in a different form.

For Sian, who gave me no direction, but who loves books and
telling stories, and vintage color schemes,
this just seemed the right way to go.

Thanks and MIA

First I wanted to say a very heart-felt thanks to everyone who has posted positive thoughts, hugs, prayers, and good vibes in response to my Storytelling Sunday post. Every single comment is greatly appreciated... positive vibes and prayers gratefully accepted... I'll take all the help I can get in coping with this! So many thanks and {{{{hugs}}}} right back to you all!

I won't be around for a bit. Leaving on a jet plane before the sun rises this morning.  Headed to Tucson AZ for work.  Won't be back until late on Thursday.  Leaving you with this:

Taken September 29, 2010 from my back yard.
"God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us - in the dreariest and most dreaded moments - can see a possibility of hope." ~ Maya Angelou