We usually don’t have an accumulating snowfall in December here in southern New Jersey. We did over the weekend, and I had the joy of being young at heart and creating a snow lady in the backyard. Happy Winter, everyone!
Category: photograph
Photograph – Thank You Veterans
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Photographs – Computer Programs/Ribbet
Are you like me? Sometimes, I gift myself with computer programs that enable me to blog more easily, write with better grammar, and listen to my words read back to me. I thought it would be a good idea to share throughout this week, along with some other reposts, the computer apps I use that make life easier and help me move toward completing goals.
Today’s app is Ribbet.com. The program helps me create beautiful photos with some tweaking for fun. I feel like a child again when I decorate my favorite garden photos with this app. The photo above is tweaked with Ribbet.
Here is my original photograph, a summer capture of Verbena blossoms. It’s very pretty on its own, but I love to play around with overlays to take images from normal to showy.
The Verbena Blossoms are part of Cee’s Flower of the Day
I uploaded the Verbena photograph to Ribbet.com. Square photos work best on my blogs, so I cropped the image first and Auto-fixed the colors. My computer shows content on the left side and a work area on the right.
To read the symbols on the toolbar, hover over them, and you will see the name appear. I used Effects to add a matte border to my photograph. You can strengthen the matte effect by sliding the strength bar to the right. You can use the same effect twice on the photo to create a strong image. There is also a Text symbol that enables me to add words.
I added some Bokeh lights using the Overlay filter. I did the opposite with the lights and diminished their effect so that they would only lightly highlight the photo. At this point, I was satisfied with the image and saved it to my computer.
I find both photos perfect for XingfuMama’s Challenge, Whatsover is Lovely.
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Photograph & Poetry – Thanksgiving
Dear the people coming home,
Dear glad faces long away,
Dear the merry cries, and dear
All the glad and happy play.
Dear the thanks, too, that we give
For all of this Thanksgiving Day.
Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835 – 1921) – was an American writer of novels, poems and detective stories.
God bless you today on Thanksgiving.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MY FRIEND, MARY D. THANK YOU.
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Photograph – Oh Bee-aby!
There are loves throughout my life that have been questionable: people, habits, places, some friends. But my love of nature and the pollen-gathering creatures God has made is not a choice I feel will diminish or ever be deemed debatable. I don’t remember the exact moment in time I took this photo, but when I came across it today, it immediately brought back the spring/summer rush I feel when I grab my camera and run straight for the garden bed and insects gathered there.
The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.
Elizabeth Lawrence
There is nothing motley about the pollen sprinkled across the bumblebees, in fact it seems ethereal, dusting the bumblebee’s fur/pile with magic.
Bumblebees have round bodies covered in soft hair called ‘pile’, making them appear and feel fuzzy.
Nature – Check out this article for amazing facts about bumblebees!
The sweet bumbler hangs on and collects pollen from lavender bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), a dependable perennial in my summer garden. Bee Balm blossoms are my Flower of the Day.
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Photograph – Midweek Monochrome #120
Mid-Week Monochrome #120 – My mode of transportation yesterday, out in the woods, searching for robins. I am hoping to combine several of my photos into a watercolor painting. Recently, I captured a few moments on video of this happy robin bathing in a swamp. There was a sweet magic in the moment.
My creative side has been recharged in the pursuit of the perfect composition. I’ll keep a blog record of my progress on this watercolor on my Snippets Art Blog. With all the water included in the video and photograph below, I will also include this in the Water, Water, Everywhere Challenge from Photos by Jez.
Skunk Cabbage beginning to emerge in January.
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Photograph – December Moon
I was going to title this post ‘Silent Saturday’ but then realized I couldn’t stay quiet about this beautiful moon. The photo was taken with my Canon camera, zoomed in, and with a flash. I have no idea, other than I was blessed by the Lord, how I managed to capture this image. I took several photos, all were fuzzy and indistinct, and then this one turned out perfectly. Reminds me a bit of life, so many aspects can be blurry, and then suddenly, crystal clarity when it matters.
Initially, I wasn’t interested in a moon photo, but went outdoors to find Jupiter alongside the moon. The planet didn’t disappoint and was glowing large in the sky. I have an app on my phone called Stellarium, and it shows me the position of stars in my area. The view is fascinating. More info here: Stellarium.
Moon watching has its roots in my youth. On a summer night, July 20, 1969, I watched with millions of others as Neil Armstong took that first step on the moon. I have never lost my love for gazing at the moon. I wonder if neighbors think I am crazy, for often, I am outdoors in the moments before dawn in pajamas and robe, taking photographs of the moon as it sits low on the horizon. Since they can’t read my mind, perhaps they are looking at me out their windows a bit askance.
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Photograph – Romans 10:13
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Photograph – Monochrome Monday – Delaware River Goose
It was a dreary weekend, but we walked along the Delaware River, at National Park, to pass a bit of time outdoors. A goose seemed tired of all the cold and rain too, while his flock swam, he surveyed the water and the people strolling along the shoreline. The sky was such a dismal grey, I didn’t need any filters to remove color, the landscape was monochrome all on its own. Hurry Spring! Welcome March!
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Pheathers – Swallow on Scroll
I was going to let the photograph stand alone as a Wordless Wednesday entry, but then decided to write a few lines since I haven’t posted in more than a week. I’ve been tied to the garden for the last week…high heat in NJ means more watering, weeds are growing faster than I can pull them, flowers are beautiful and ready to press, and that doesn’t even begin to cover the mess I’ve made in the house. The bottom line: doesn’t matter a bit cause I LOVE SUMMER!!! I guess I am still a kid at heart.
The little swallow in the photo was captured by my camera in Fortescue, New Jersey. We often fish there and when the weather is cooler I bicycle around the town. I thought the little bird seemed to pose for me and the whole look of it seemed quaint and sweet. I hope you are enjoying summer too. Stay cool and well!
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Photograph – Wordless Wednesday/Up, Up and Away!
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Photograph – Last Photo on SD Card
I took this photograph as we drove out of Fortescue on Saturday. I don’t know when I last posted twice in a day but Bushboy’s Challenge of Last Photo on SD Card intrigued me, so here I am again.
I thought at first glance the photo would be a great lead-in for one of my favorite songs, Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds,‘ but on closer inspection saw that one of the pilings in the salt marsh held two ospreys. The osprey population in the bay town of Fortescue seems to be thriving. Anyway, although the birds are four, there’s always time to post and listen to this sweet song…one of Bob Marley’s best.
I’ve always thought the song a good lead in for these words of Jesus…
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” ~Matthew 6:25-27
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Photograph – Happy Mother’s Day
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Photograph – He is Risen!
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Photograph – Six Word Saturday
““Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”
— Algernon Charles Swinburne
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Quote & Photograph – The Heart of November
“November is usually such a disagreeable month as if the year had suddenly found out she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it.” ~ Anne Shirley (L.M . Montgomery)
I love the heart of Anne Shirley in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables novels. There are so many wise quotes and life lessons in the books. I’ve read the stories many times over and love to rewatch Megan Follows as Anne Shirley in the 1980’s series, Anne of Green Gables.
November is full of change; the glorious jewel-like colors of Autumn leaves have vanished and left behind the rough textures of grasses burnished to golden hues by the frost. The cooler weather has cleared out the dense undergrowth in our forests, giving us the opportunity to indulge in a short hike this past weekend.
We’ve always wanted to see this beautiful pond up close, but it would be lunacy to try and forge through the massive amounts of undergrowth in summer. In November, when bare branches rule the day, it was finally possible to clamber over the strands of thorny, but leafless brambles to get our first look at this small pond near Belleplain State Forest.
