swimmingotter

Here is what was leftover after the children played with the thrown out piano.  It was not a wrecked as I thought it would be.  I was not able to take time to get a really good picture because, thankfully, a woman came by and loved it for art.  I helped her load it into her vehicle.  I was so happy that the old piano found a new home. 

Wow!  I have missed my DA one year anniversary.  I have been so busy since last Fall.  I thought I would have time to sort through hundreds of garden pictures this past winter, but no, I did not.  I have picked through a few, and that is all.  I will have more time this Summer to post photos.  I can't wait!  

I live in an area where one day each Spring, each house is allowed to put almost anything out to the curb for free garbage pickup (minus tires, paint, oil, etc.)  This household pick up day becomes a huge free for all for everyone!  Locals and people from other towns, cruise up and down the streets looking for items they want -- all types of furniture, lamps, children's toys, storage containers, garden planters, all types of metals, spare wood, you name it!  Of course, there is some real trash that is just that.  If I had more time in my life, then I would love to find thrown out wood pieces and wood pallets to make wall hangings and wine racks out of them.  Ah, more time for art projects is my final frontier.  

Yesterday, at dusk, my neighbor set out an old upright piano that can no longer be tuned.  I was hoping to get some nice pictures of the strings today.  Though, someone had already stripped them out this morning to sell the metal.  I did get a few pics this afternoon of the leftovers.  I did not get a good bright picture of the black and white keys.  I was fighting afternoon shadows from the trees.  Then some young children came by and had a lot of fun checking out the piano's insides.  I imagine the piano will be a huge wreck tomorrow.  I'm excited to see what the wreckage will hold.  

 
 

"EAA AirVenture is The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration"

I copied this directly from EAA's website.  To the casual viewer, it is a very large airshow that takes place over one week, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Technically, it is a "fly in," and so big that people fly, drive, walk, ect. to stay there for weeks.  I have attended for 23 years, and I still have not seen everything!  I have been told that the only airshow larger is Paris.  I will have to travel to Paris some year to find out.   

Sadly, I am not able to attend this year.  So, in remembrance of my fellow fallen volunteers, I am posting pictures of my favorite Warbird, the F4F Wildcat.      Enjoy!    
   
  

I would like to send out a cosmic thank you to Lorna, the landlord for my rental house.  She has a garden just ten feet outside my front door.  I call it Lorna's Garden.  I have watched the garden grow and change over the past few years. The garden is truly a labor of love for her.  She comes once a week for 1 to 2 hours to work in the garden.  Her garden has supplied about 80% of my flower pictures so far.  Thank you Lorna!

I have watched pink tulips with yellow tips fade into white and dusty lavender.  I have seen completely yellow tulips turn red streaked, much like a ripe peach.  I have seen angels, stars and galaxies in flowers.  Watching the flowers this Spring has been a spiritual journey more than a photographic one.  I have been sitting on cold wet cement, squatting in the mud and hanging my head upside down all Spring in the garden.  I have become such a fixture in Lorna's Garden, that a normally shy squirrel walked up to my foot.  It walked, not ran to me.  I looked at it and said out loud, "What are you doing?"  The squirrel looked up at me and just walked away.  It only started to run when I walked out of the garden and around the hedge to find it. 

I've figured for years there was a small bumble bee nest near the corner of Lorna's garden that meets the neighbor's fence line.  Perhaps, it is on the neighbor's side.  I'm not familiar with bumble bee habits, but there is always a bumble that just hangs out there, like a guard or sentinel.  About two weeks ago, the first bumble bee of the season showed up.  I was taking pictures of the tulips in that corner and a bumble bee came to check me out, much to my dismay.  I stayed still and it flew on one side of me, then the other.  I decided to ignore it and bent down to take more pictures.  The bumble went back to his post at the corner.  Then last week, when a bumble bee came up to me, I decided to watch it more closely.  It flew around the corner of the garden, then back to its post.  What makes me think that it is a sentinel, is that it constantly hovers at the fence line and faces the fence.  It will fly up and around, but mostly hovers in one spot.  I decided to take pictures of the bumble bee, though they turned out blurry.     At first my pics were taken from chest height.  Then, I raised the camera to my head level.  The bumble rose to my head height and turned to face me!  I was fascinated and scared all at the same time.  A bumble bee facing off with you looks incredibly mean!  I clicked a picture then decided to not find out how far I could go with the bumble.  I slowly put down the camera and slowly bent down to the flowers.  The bumble turned aside and went back to his post.  Wfew! 

Not only has May been a super busy month for me, but also, I now have over a thousand pictures to sort through.  While I know I should take the time to read the manual for my Canon Elph, I like to just play with it instead.  Through happy accidents, I have discovered there is a nighttime setting on the camera, which usually makes colors a little richer, even in the daylight.  There is a wide angle setting which was fun to play with too.  The Canon Elph has taught me patience because there is no manual focus.  In the macro mode, the camera will focus on what it wants, not what I would like.  And, then there is no guarantee that anything will be in focus.  I really can't see the images on the camera screen clearly, especially in direct sunlight.  There is a lot of editing to do on the computer.   About one in ten shots come out the way I want.  I have learned a few tricks, though.  When the camera will absolutely not focus any where near what I want, I turn the camera to another object in the distance, then back to my subject.  This makes the camera refocus, and it works for me sometimes.  Another trick I use is to put my hand next to the subject, like a tiny flower, so the camera can read the flower, and not the ground.  Once the camera finally focuses on the flower, I remove my hand and take the picture.

I am very excited to display my flower pictures, though there is much work to do first.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful Spring!

I have been away from Art for so long, that joining DA feels like coming home.  I'm like the little child in a candy store with wide twinkling eyes.  I like it all!  I want to draw, paint and write.  Yet, there are never enough hours in a day.

Before joining DA, I took pictures for myself, mostly memory tokens for the places I visit and enjoy.  After viewing many professional photographers' work, I knew that my current equipment was not going to give me what I picture in my head.  Also, I knew it would be a while before I could get a new camera.  I was not exactly bummed.  It was just something to deal with.  

I had a change in perspective after viewing the work of and after reading what equipment she used.  All of a sudden I got the idea to see how far my Canon Elph could go.  Her work reminded me that we, and our art, are always evolving.  Thank you for you encouragement!

I'm in love with the process of Art, the hows and whys of the beginning of a piece of art, through to the final product.  I was not able to put that into words until my perspective changed.  Recently, wrote that he loved my enthusiasm.  It is more than that.  It is the anticipation that the next piece of art I study will inspire me to go further with what I see, feel and accomplish.

Changing and evolving, that is what Art is about to me.  Now, to figure out how to show other avatars and to install photo shop on my computer...