City Lights : Happy New Year 2020

City Lights - Chicago at Christmastide 2019

I was in Chicago for the Bauhaus Weaver's exhibit at the Art Institute last weekend.  All the Christmas decorations and lights are still up downtown.  I caught this photo near our hotel.  If you look closely, you can see the street signs amid the sprays of light.

May the new year bring you love,  light, creativity, and anything else your heart desires!

Sun Flares on a Solstice Sleigh Ride

Sun Flares on a Solstice Sleigh Ride

For Christmas, I gave my family a sleigh ride.   Long-time neighbors to my parents have horses -- not just any horses, but those big Budwieser-type draft horses.  They offer sleigh / hay rides through the woods, with a stop at a bon fire where you can have a cook out . We kept it simple with s'mores and hot chocolate, cider, and tea.

It was a perfect day for a sleigh ride.  Not too cold.  Plenty of snow (almost 2 feet!) there (very little where we live). And a little winter sun for Solstice. 

Unfortunately, my Mom was not able to go along since she fell and injured her ankle.  She loves those horses, though.  And my Dad loves the woods. We had a nice time, even if it was just the four of us.

 Me with Oliver and my Dad watching the bonfire.

These are pics of the previous party coming back into the stable.



Oliver with Sophie back at Grappa and Gramma's house.

Here's a nice video from someone in Sweden sharing the experience of being on a one-horse open sleigh.  Just trying to capture the moment for my mom who missed out.  

Here's another one.  Sorry-- I don't know how to embed the videos from FB.

An now for some mood music:

A Little Bitta Light : Textures

Feeling the need for a little Texture this morning.

Any guesses as to what this might be?

Scroll down for the answer ...

 

It's a light grate near the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.  I think this is right at the entrance at Pret, where we liked to have breakfast on our 2017 trip.

What do I mean by light grate?  This was built into the sidewalk with glass blocks built into it, to allow light through ...  There's a city underground in Edinburgh.     I've seen a few of these around downtown Oshkosh, too. ;-)

I love how each block is different, aged, cracked, rusty and grungy, but nicely ordered and presented on this grid.    Each block could have it's own closeup, and be it's own texture in and of itself.  Maybe I'll bother to isolate them sometime ...

Light : Week 7 Let's do 52

Light

Last summer, I took an Outlander-themed trip through Scotland.  This was in the chapel where they filmed Jamie and Claire's wedding, such as it was.  It's actually a beautifully restored chapel (Glencourse Old Kirk) that had to be re-done and made shabby for the film scene.  The afternoon we were there, the light streaming in through this window lit the candle without a flame and left amazing shadows on the stone.   Mmmmh!

I am participating in Denise Love's 2017 "Let's Do 52 : 52 Weeks of Photo Prompts" to kick start the lull in my photography.   If you'd like to join us, find out more at the link above.  The more the merrier!

My New Light iPhone Case

I decided I needed a new iPhone case (yeah, the old one suddenly looked pretty "junior high").  So I thought it would be neat to use one of my own creations.  In 2015, I picked "Light" as my One Word.  It worked so well, I didn't want to give it up this year.  So I'm keeping it a while longer ...

Enter SnapMade. For a reasonable price (about $17 delivered), I have a one-of-a-kind case for my iPhone.  Maybe now I'll actually carry it around with me?

Maybe this will be the kick-in-the-pants to start my own Society6 or RedBubble or even a SnapMade shop to Liberate a bit more of my art?  This could be the year ...

Light Painting with Steel Wool Sparks on the 4th of July

Here's what we did for the 4th of July!  

I love how you can see my silhouette on this one.   

 Here's another cool one with high arcs.  I think Oliver did this one.

As the fireworks were going off a few blocks away in town, we were in the park quietly doing our thing.  No noise with this, and seemingly safer than sparklers.  Seriously, the steel wool has a gentler and quieter burn than a sparkler.

 

 Here's the first try by Oliver.

 

Aidin's first attempt.  He got a red caste to his sparks.  Perhaps he was swinging the whisk slower, so the sparks weren't burning quite as hot?

My first attempt at it.  Looks like Cindarella's pumpkin carriage!

Aidin sis this one.  I can tell because his were red.

 At the end, the boys were getting more creative - ad libbing with their swing patterns.

We went to the park next to our house, and did it on the baseball diamond as sand that won't catch fire.    We brought a watering can to snuff out any sparks that needed dampening.   Although there was a streetlight nearby, it didn't seem to disturb our light experiments.  In this photo, I turned up the light after-the-fact so you could see WHERE we were doing this.

The crew : 2 boys (Oliver and Aidin, aged 14 and 13) and I made the sparks (one at a time) ; my husband manned the camera.  That seemed to be a good sized crew - with good communication among us :  "Camera-man ready? Camera-man ready.  Oliver ready?  Ready.  Light ready? Spark it up!"   Each one of us had a different style, swung the whisk a different way and at different speeds for different effects. 

Actually I've been wanting to do this since back in wintertime, when I wanted to do it on frozen Lake Winnebago ...  There's always next year!

This is the instructional You Tube video we consulted for the technique.
It's ingeniously simple, and kinder and gentler than a sparkler--but still hot.  And quiet.  No booms or noise with this effect.      My camera would not allow us to set the exposure for a full 30 seconds, as recommended in the video.  We did this with 15 seconds--with great success!

Remember ALL safety precautions!

Texture Tuesday : Lessons from Baba Yaga's Cottage

I know--a very different sort of still life than what usually appears in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday, but a still-life none-the-less!   Stay with me ...

This antique letter opener and the desk blotter lives in the old family house of our friends, The Poyets, in La Canourgue, France.    As a huge fan of Baba Yaga (you know her as the witch in the old Russian folk tales with the house that dances around on chicken legs), I knew I had to take a photo of this wonderful item so I could work it up some day ...  Just waiting for the right moment!  And here it is!

This year, I've been exploring Light in all its facets.  I'm discovering (or perhaps being reminded) that you can't know the light without its opposite : darkness.   In some ways, the opposites help define it.  In some ways, they work together -- like Ralph-the-Wolf and the Sheep Dog clocking in on the old cartoons--each had an important part to play in the balance of things, and each respected the other--even though they constantly worked against each other.  They each had a job to do -- yin and yang, push and pull.

This past week has been a tough one for a number of reasons : a close friend lost her dear husband to cancer ; a family member unexpectedly died too far away to grieve with family; my mother underwent a serious surgery;  and I even had my own brush with death this week.  Any one of these would have been enough to contend with any given week of the year, but to have them pile up in the same 4 days was remarkable!

"Consider the uses of adversity" is something I always imagine Baba Yaga saying to anyone who seeks her counsel.  This is one of her great lessons.  If life were easy all the time, we wouldn't be pushed to do better, to solve problems we didn't think we could ever overcome, and to be more than we are at this moment.   My friends, Vicki and Lee, walked the cancer journey with courage, grace, dignity, and most of all : Love.  It wasn't easy--probably the hardest thing either of them had ever done.   Facing death, and the loss of a loved one and best friend is so difficult, but they figured out how to carry each other wherever they are.  If I know anything in this life, I know they will find each other again.  The memorial was a true celebration of Lee's life and loves, and the lessons he taught us.  I'm so humbled and honored to be part of their story.   Thank you Lee and Vicki.

As for the rest of the week, the lesson for me is this : You need the dark so you know how good you've got it in the light. If you know despair, it helps you value the joyful times all that much more. There was a time when I enjoyed the Dark--I'm not afraid of it.  But now, I choose the Light.  That may be easier for me to say--I don't suffer from depression. 

I'm not saying the Light is all good and the Dark is all bad.  Not at all.  Too much light can burn and too much dark can be just as bad.  Everything in balance ...  When they work together, we can see the stars shine in all their beauty!

Here's the processing on this image :


Layer 1) Background image (original)



Layer 2) My Own Texture (Kitchen SubFloor 6645) - Soft Light Blend Mode at 26%
Layer 3) Kim Klassen's Sonnet 2 Texture - Multiply 71%
Layer 4) Text - Gingerbread House Font - Mud Layer Style - Normal 71%
Layer 5) Copy Layer 4 = Normal 25%
Layer 6) Text - Gingerbread House Font - White Grid on Orange Layer Style
Layer 7)  Kim Klassen's Serious Magic Texture - Difference 38%
Layer 8) Copy Layer 7 - Difference 78%
Done!

And last but not least, a parting song for you.
Cat Stevens' version of "Morning has Broken."  We sang it at my friend's memorial service last week.  I always thought Cat Stevens wrote it, but it's a traditional praise hymn.  Thank you, Vicki, for setting me straight!   


Blessings on your day--even the hard parts!

Visit my Baba Yaga Pinterest Board.

Sharing with Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Dreams and Memories by Firelight : Texture Tuesday

Kind of a nostalgic picture for me.  That winter, my husband and kid built a Quinzhee (kind of like an igloo, but not).  The kid really enjoyed it and treated it like a fort.  He was allowed to bring matches and candles into the quinzhee ...   I took this picture and I almost deleted it as a failed picture--but now I kinda like it.  It came up naturally with certain effects we try to add by other means.

It's got that warm firelight texture and the dreamy blur of memory ...   It kind of looks like  he's riding a flying carpet with mountains behind him.   Added Kim Klassen's Appreciate Texture.
 

Sharing with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday and Texture Artists's FaceBook Group.

Everyday Inspiration : Light Abstract

Everyday Inspiration : What do you think this is?
 Scroll down for the answer ...








This abstract came from some Christmas lights reflected on a groovy shade material my parents have over their patio doors.  It created these really neat abstract patterns.  This image is pretty much straight outta the camera.

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group.  

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest, exploring all aspects of Light

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/#sthash.CnMhPgCw.dpuf

I am continuing my year-long study of Light.  Thanks for joining me!

Texture Tuesday : Lion of Lyon

"Wherever there is light, one can photograph." -- Arthur Stieglitz

I've been thinking a lot about Light in Photography these days.

I read a book last summer about a photographer in the early 1900s.  He said something about Light being the medium photographers worked with ... 

As a photographer, "you must see what others cannot ... In our world of shadows, there is no black and white, but a thousand different strokes of light."  -- Moses Levy in  The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

There was  more to it than that.   I wish I could find the exact quote.  I'm pretty sure I highlighted that passage, but I can't figure out how to get the Kindle to show me those passages.   The photographer character had been influenced by Arthur Stieglitz who at the time had elevated photography to an art form.  The book was The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.

Last May, we were visiting family in Lyon, France.  I never realized what a beautiful city is is ...  Mostly we just passed through the Airport and train stations on to other destinations.  But this time, we stayed for a few days.  After that visit, I named it The City of Light.  Christian's cousin lives in the old part of the city, along the river.  Many of the old (medieval) stone buildings are painted a beautiful golden color, designed to reflect light, and make more light where the shadows might otherwise take over.  I took a few pictures of the stucco just to capture that color and texture of the city. 

I'm also amazed at the way our modern tools can help change, improve, or create something new in a photograph.  No  longer is it just capturing what you see.  Light Room as a software program can do some amazing things.  I'm not entirely comfortable with Light Room and tend not to use it regularly--I've "lost" several images with LR in the past, so I tend to use other tools, like Picassa.  Maybe that will change in 2015 : Year of Light?

For the processing, I thought I'd use RadLab to change the Light effects in this overall image.

Photo Processing on this image in PhotoShop Elements:
Layer 1) 2LO Winter Storms 6
Layer 2) Lyon Lion (original) - Darker Color Blend Mode 100% opacity
Layer 3) Pareeerica Ale Texture - Soft Light 87%
Layer 4) Kim Klassen's Golden Hour Texture - Multiply 23%
Layer 5) Rad Lab (Oh Snap! - Punch Out - Lights Out - Antique Tone)
Layer 7) Reflected Light in Lyon (My Own Texture) - Soft Light 23%
     > Merge Layers
Layer 8) Run The Coffee Shop's Dandelion Wine Action (minus the last 3 layers)

 This photo gives you an idea of the beautiful reflected light all over the old city of Lyon, France.

Here's the original.  An overcast day at the city summit.

Sharing with Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Texture Tuesday : Light House Study in Topaz

 

Here's the image worked up in PSE and Topaz Impression :
Layer 1) Background image with minor fixes
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - Hard Light Blend Mode - 100% opacity
Layer 3) Jai Johnson's Peach Kiss Canvas Texture - Multiply 100%
Layer 4) Nancy Claeys Just Peachy Texture - Multiply 22%
Layer 5) Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Screen 31%
Layer 6) Merge Layers (as opposed to flattening- this way I don't lose the layers)
Layer 7) Topaz Impression - Chiaruscuro filter (played with settings, and moved the glow point to behind the lighthouse tower, lessened the vignette effect, among other things)
Layer 8)  Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Screen 59%

I only have a few days left of the free trial, so I thought I should play a little more.  I had this worked up in PSE alone, and I have to say, Topaz did improve the overall image.  I might have to purchase it afterall.  We'll see ...  I'm working out a workflow for

Here's another play at it [Sheila, this one's for you--It's as close as I'll get to actually sketching this subject!] :

Here's what I did on this one for a much different feeling :
Layer 1) Background image > Topaz Impression - Soft Sketch 2
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - Soft Light Blend Mode at 63% opacity
Layer 3) Original Image - Multiply 34%
Layer 4) Nancy Claeys Kimberly Texture - Soft Light 100%
Layer 5) Copy Layer 4 - Multiply 29%
Layer 6) Jai Johnson's Peach Kiss Canvas Texture - Soft Light 17%
Layer 7) Kim Klassen's Flourish Magic Texture - Overlay 29%

Here's the Georgia O'Keefe version (above).  I left it large so you can see the smudging especially on the tree branches.  It does a nice job of creating a painterly effect.  I let Topaz do most of the work on these last 2. 

Here's the Turner Storms 2 filet in Topaz.    It's really neat to look at these close up.  They do look like built up layers of paint.  It's pretty neat -- if that's the effect you're looking for.   I left these images large so you could zoom in and see the differences close-up.  Ok--I'm "this close" to purchasing Topaz Impression.  Just waiting for the coupon that I let pass me by so far.

By this time, I worked out the workflow for using Topaz :

Layer 1) Background Image (cleaned up a bit)
Layer 2)  Copy Background Image > Topaz Impression > Turner Storms 2
Layer 3) Nancy Claeys Just Peachy Texture - Multiply 20%
That's it!

Here's the original image, not far from my house.   Nice sunset that night with a little haze across the water.    Many evenings while we're walking the dogs, we see photographers set up to shoot  this scene at sunset.  It's a favorite local subject.

I cleaned up a few things  on my original (I love the spot-healing tool in PSE!  It's a miracle worker!).  I removed the stop sign.  Yes--it's such a popular photography spot, the owners had to put up a sign to warn about their security system and no-trespassing stop sign to keep people out.  It's situated at the mouth of a River as it empties from a large Lake.  A suitable place for a Light House, but it is a private residence.  Once in a while, we get to see the Fresnel lens doing it's work--but not this night.  Perhaps it was too early?

And now for the musical portion of today's meditation on Light Houses :

Yeah--This song never fails to make tears well up in my eyes.  A sad story--even the Light House was affected by the tragedy.  Yeah for anthropomorphism!

And then I think of how happy Una was living with her Aunt and Uncle at the Light House in Ahab's Wife -- a much happier Light House Story.   Still one of my all-time favorite novels.

Here's another song (a happier one this time) : Vienna Teng's Harbor
(I am so glad she decided to follow her bliss in music and not computer science!  Enjoy!)



"The Light in me will guide you home." -- Vienna Teng

How's that for a day's "light" work?
Thanks for joining my on year-long study of Light, my one word for 2015.

Also sharing with The Texture Artists FaceBook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Visit my Light Board on Pinterest (other people's stuff), exploring all aspects of Light.
Visit my Flikr Photo Album on Light (my stuff).
Visit my You Tube Play List for Light (mostly music).

Thank you for sharing my Light Journey.  ;-)

Word Cloud Explorations in Light

Word Cloud made with Wordle.  I was having way too much fun with Wordle!   Of the word cloud generators I tried, Wordle is by far my favorite--and worth installing the Java applet.  I encourage you to play, too!     I love how some of them came out formatted like poetry--scroll down to see more examples.   

Word cloud made with WordItOut

A Word Cloud is a wonderful way to visually work out a pile of ideas.  It can help bring order to chaos.   For this one, I used WordItOut, with text from The Free Dictionary's entry for Light.  This was my warm-up, so to speak.  But it seemed to be missing many of the words/terms/ideas that I brainstormed myself (and too many references to smoking cigarettes), so I went back to the drawing board with my own list and went wild with Worlde.  The funny thing is : They were pretty good, and then I added the word connection (think : fiber optic communications with or without the fiber optics), and that seemed to bring it all together!This one came out looking like a scratch board where the color comes through and pops with that black background.    Or Christmas Lights on a dark night ...

Here are a few more Wordles to show you what's possible : 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wordle lets you choose color palettes, fonts, and general formating of the words.  Or just hit Randomize until you get something you like.   I saved them to the Wordle Public Gallery.  I didn't quite figure out how to save them to my own files, or rotate them when it made sense.  I can always go back to them later.  

Thanks for joining me on my Light Journey.  Smiles!