I have come across so many doors while looking at my fellow bloggers posts. So I thought I would post few too. Here are some colorful doors 🙂 from Savannah, Georgia.
I am continuing to participate in 52 frames – this week the theme contrasting colors, as its still all snowy here in Finland trying to find contrasting colors in the nature is a real challenge, so I did not take it on.
I had oranges on the table – I have a blue wall in my living room, with light coming in from the side from a big window. I have a matching blue linen dress to place on the sidetable to get my still life props in order, Easy solution from thing found in the house.
As you can see all of them are VERY similar, with slightly different lighting and contrast , as well as the blue looks a bit different in all. This is something I spend too much time at… well that what I do, and then trying to pick a hopefully the best one for the challenge, second guessing my choice all the time.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #240 – The Road (most often) Taken.
John from Journeys with Johnbo is hosting this week, this week’s theme is metaphoric–and not about a physical road. For this week’s challenge, I want you to think of your favorite type or style of photography as the road you’ve chosen to take most often.
I got my first own camera in my late teens. I took photos of friends and family and photos when traveling. Safe to say there are not that many photos from back then, film was expensive as was the development, and you never knew how they turned out until you got the envelope back.
When I got my kids, well I took tons of pictures of them, here I found few from the archives that I have scanned. So safe to say, I am a people photographer from the beginning. I must say, I have improved a lot, even if I say so myself over the years. I love taking photos of people trying to capture something real, and try to find the beauty we all have in ourselves, fing the best angle to get a the essence of what I see. Now I photograph my grandkids and my husband is often in my photos if I need to get a heasshot for some challenge.
Eventually when I got my first good camera I started taking photos of nature, photos from our travels. Then I got a new macro lens – then details. I learned to edit my photos and that made my photos get better, me being able to highlight more what I what to showcase in the photo.
I have mixed some of my early on photos with some newest ones. Basically I take photos of what ever I fancy, anything that catches my eye, that I find intersting I take photos of.
I have to say that hiking to place that are far and through difficult tracks is not my thing. Even though I admire the beautiful photos other have captured from these place. I look for topic near me 🙂
To start with he photos were not all that good, but I liked the light in them, so I made the in to art.
Same road, photos taken right after each other, so the light is little different, I used two different brushes to get a different outcome by thete texture.
I have a soft spot for black and white photography, I also have a sweet spot for tmy grandkids. I can sit for hours and I watch them play and fight…no thats not true, I cannot watch them fight 🙂 I end up telling them to stop.
They are lively and to get them to sit down and giving me a chance to get a photograph of them is not that easy. This time I did not give them an opportunity to refuse. I sat them by thhe window so I could use the natural light and get nice contrast and shadows, Then I edited them in this moody way, I know childrens photos are not usually edited this way, but I liked them. What do you think?
Portrait #1
“There’s something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery.”
Lens-Artists Photography Challenge #239 – Finding Peace. Tina from travels and Trifles is hosting, and her theme – Finding Peace is so near last weeks topic, to me at least.
I am not a religious person, I do not go to church all that often, my church is the nature. My religion is more to do with my conscience – what is right and wrong. Treating everyone equally, respecting nature and the world around me. But I do find that church is a calm place to find peace .
Finding peace is different for everyone, often it is related to being alone.
Find peace, don’t waste energy wishing things were different or trying to change other people. Stay focused on managing your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Find peace, by taking appropriate accountability. Be responsible for your own choices, but also acknowledge factors beyond your control–like the state of the economy, the weather, and other people’s choices.
Focus on the things you can control.
Be comfortable in your own skin. Don’t waste your time worrying about whether other people approve of their choices. Instead, focus on living according to your values.
Striving to be the best you are is healthy. But insisting on perfection is an uphill battle. Acknowledge your flaws and weaknesses.
Inner peace comes from knowing your beliefs and the willingness to act according to them.
Forest is a great place to find peace, hug a tree, sit on a rock breathe in the peace. Sit by the sea, move your hands on the rock, get the energy of the smooth softness of te solid surface. Listen to the sea and nature around you and find your inner peace. Watch the clouds move and create beautiful art in front of your eyes.
The Sony has been in less use since I bought a new lighter one to carry around, its a Olympus E-M10 Mark II with a 14-150mm lense and I have a OM-D M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8 for street and portrait photography
I have a soft spot for black and white photography, I also have a sweet spot for the ocean and waves. I can sit for hours and I watch the movement of of the water.
As I have been editing my beach photos lately, I did try to convert them to black and white, and I believe that the beauty and power of the moving water even without the colors comes across. Here are few photos from Ocean Ridge beach.
seagulls at the beach
“There’s something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery.”
I love being on the beach, soft sand, the soothing sound of the waves and the color of the sea.
As far as capturing birds goes, Pelicans are one of the easiest. Bid photography is not my strong point, i don’t have enough patience and not the best equipment for it either. I can always try, I like the in the mood sense. It was a rather crisp and windy day, I even had to but on a jacket. I took these at Ocean ridge in Florida.
Lens-Artists Photography Challenge #238 – Alone Time. Ann-Christine host this week, see her blog for more Leya her take on topic : Alone time means time spent by an individual or a couple apart from others. It is often used to ground oneself, or to do something creative.
Alone time, yes, absolutely needed and often taken. I like sit on my sauna patio at my summer house , we built these windows on the sides of the patio to shild us from the north wind. It is a lovely place to sit watch the clouds, trees and enjoy the sunshine and listen to the birds and wind blowing in the trees.
It is a joy, I find myself enjoying alone frequently. Silence, my own thoughts and the warmth of sun.
Time spent ,alone, in art galleries, painting in the nature ( that’s not me, but someone else doing the same thing- alone) Listening to music, or as this young man does, doing music. Sitting in a cafe watching people go by, this one is so much fun. Going through your news in the park… biking, swimming . I enjoy these, and apparently others have been seen to do so too. These are great places to enjoy alone time, would you agree?
Alone time can be a state of mind, you can be in company and still be able to be alone.
It happens that I spend lots of time on my own. I take photos alone, mostly. Edit them alone. I find doing sculpture to be a great time to relax in company, but totally alone in my own bubble. Below you can see some of my creations I’ve done on my alone time in various art forms. I also love to sing, but I am not posting a sample of it, I’m not a bad singer, not a great one. It is like all other art forms it needs to be done often to keep it in any shape. My motto is is something Picasso has said: Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. I find this to be SO true.
Driving the car in any weather, watching the scenery and clouds, listening to music. Stopping for coffee. Sitting in the hammock … Slow mornings, with my cat as company.
As I’ve stated before I am not a very technical photographer, more into composition, mood. I do my magic on the edit table mostly, if you can call it magic, more like my interpretation of places and people. I am also not one to write all that much, let the photos speack for themselves.
I have two cameras an old reliable SONY SLT-A65V, and I have two lences I use with it one for Macro Sony Macro 2.8/50 and portraits. The other for nearly everything a Sony 18-200mm.
The Sony has been in less use since I bought a new lighter one to carry around, its a Olympus E-M10 Mark II with a 14-150mm lense and I have a OM-D M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8 for street and portrait photography
The osprey populations worldwide have been making a comeback. Their dark backs, white bellies and wings crooked like those of a gull are once again a common sight as they relentlessly patrol the rivers, creeks, lakes and ocean in search of their favorite food: fish, fish and more fish.
I’ve read that the gulls, terns, shorebirds, herons and egrets do not seem to be bothered by the ospreys. They instinctively know the ospreys are looking for fish.
From the cemetery we were off to Tybee Island and another lighthouse. Tybee Island Lighthouse we only saw from the outside.
Significant events in the history of Tybee Island: During the Revolutionary War, Tybee was the staging area for French Admiral D’Estaing’s ill-fated 1779 “Siege of Savannah”, when combined multinational forces attempted to defeat the British held Savannah. During the War of 1812, the Tybee Island Lighthouse was used to signal Savannah of possible attack by the British.
Tybee Island light station
1958 two U.S. Air Force planes collided in the air and one of them had to dumb a nuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb). The lost weapon, known popularly as the “Tybee Bomb”, remained a security concern for several years, although the Air Force claims the bomb lacks a nuclear capsule and does not pose a serious threat.
On August 17, 1960, eleven African-American students were arrested on Tybee Island at Georgia’s first wade-in protesting the Whites-only public beaches. The commemorative plaque of the wade-ins can be seen by the Tybee South Beach. The plaque was installed only last year, 62 years after the event.
The weather was quite windy in Tybee and therefore we sat for a while in one of the swings by the dunes.
Later, we walked along the pier and watched the fishermen. One of them caught a small stingray. Unfortunately, the stingray got the hook stuck very deep inside of it. The fisherman was holding the sting with pliers while the bait shop keeper was trying to pry the hook with other pliers, without success. Eventually they had to cut the fishing line and the shop keeper took the stingray in his shop to be killed.
Walking on the beach we got some nice shots that I will post in an other post as this is already overloaded with them. These photos are shot with both of my cameras and also some are with mobiles.
And that was that. Soon we had to start thinking about driving back to Boynton Beach, Florida. It was a seven hour drive with one stop in Daytona Beach exit to get gas and eat at the Popey’s Chicken Restaurant, which proved to be nice surprise. The traffic was fairly heavy once again but we were able to maintain an average speed of 75 mi/120 km, by following our friend Bob’s advice – stay in the pack. Go too fast and you’ll get a ticket and if you go too slow, you’ll get honks from the horns and you’ll cause hairy situations.
No rest for the wicked, so we are off to an early 9 am start to see the Bonaventure Cemetery. It was an interesting and beautiful place to visit, on a rather chilly morning. I loved how the light the sun filtered through the trees on the old gravestones. Bonaventure has massive live oak trees with arched limbs covered in Spanish moss overhanging her roadways. I read that the live oak trees in Bonaventure today are nearly 250 years old. The monuments and vistas are part of charm of Bonaventure, which continues to be a working cemetery. Perpetuity written on a stone at one of graves, it was present here.
Wikipedia says: Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. The beautiful cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. Military generals, poet Conrad Aiken, Academy Award-winning lyricist Johnny Mercer and Georgia’s first governor Edward Telfair are among those buried at Bonaventure.
Especially famous after Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil book’s success, The Bird Girl statue, that is on the cover of the book, became very popular. Bonaventure and the Trosdal lot, where the statue was located, were inundated with tourists, and Bird Girl was removed from the cemetery and placed in the Telfair Museum. So we didn’t see the Bird Girl but I can highly recommend visiting thecemetery.
I have to mention Johnny Mercer who was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs. You might know quite a few of Mercer’s songs, including “Moon River”, “Days of Wine and Roses”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Hooray for Hollywood”, “Jeepers Creepers”, and “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).” He received nineteen Oscar nominations and won four Best Original Song Oscars.
I have a soft spot for black and white photography, I was once again reminded about the importance of exposure, light. It is the key element in these photos.
This house in the corner of the street in Savannah appealed to me, with its tall arched windows and ornate ironwork balconies and fences. The peeling paint gives it a artitic feel that looks great in photos, well that’s my opinion anyway:-) With this first edit I tried to capture a old time feel to it. The two others are more clear and crisp with slightly different composition.
A house in Savanah – Black and white photography erases time from the equation.
“There’s something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery.”
Talking about Belles, in the afternoon we rode the free Savannah Belles ferry on the Savannah River. The ferries sail a triangle between the Waving Girl Statue, the City Hall and Convention Center. The view wasn’t that great but at least we can say we were on the Savannah River. Also, we met a very nice Polish American couple from New Jersey on the ferry. I guessed their origins from his accent. However, it was the lady who did most of the talking and boy could she talk. After we parted, she walked back to us and gave us their email address in case we ever need a place to stay in New Jersey. Nice!
After the ferry we walked along the River Street enjoying its old warehouses with their shop, restaurants and bars. We had drinks at the Warehouse Bar & Grillissä and then we had to hurry back to the hotel for the complimentary cocktail hour. The evening was spent on the River Street again having dinner at the Vic’s By The River, where we had the pleasure of tasting Shrimp and Grits.
Couple extra facts: If you paint the front door of your home or business red in Savannah, Georgia, it means you have paid it off and are the 100% owner.
Comgrats, paid it off and are the 100% owner.
Savannah has the McDonalds with walk-through window. There is a restaurant where you can get deep-fired peanut butter and chocolate chicken wings,
After breakfast we took the Old Time Trolley Tours Hop-on Hop-off busses. We were able to use our hard-earned vouchers from Hilton Head Island ��. The tickets were $51/person, so I felt like a winner. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the Ghosts & Graves Tour. There was so much to take it during the tour – old historic buildings, squares and parks and the bus drivers/tour guides were such a wealth on information. We rode with three different guides, and some parts of the tour were the same, but the stories were a little bit different according to the guide. The most entertaining driver was an African American woman named Red . She was a barrel of laughs. All her stories were in a told tongue-in-cheek style, but I have no doubt they were all true, all the same.
First hop-off at the Forsyth Park were we also had lunch in the café. The park had plenty of artists and Jehova’s Witnesses. Luckily the JW people don’t bother you anymore on the street. I guess they have different approach nowadays or they save the push tactics to home visits. There was a filming of another tv-program or movie on the way in one city block.
Didn’t see any famous actors. Quite a few movies have been made in Savannah and guides pointed out, for example, where the bus-stop for Forrest Gump was situated and renowned Six Pence Pub on Bull Street is where Julia Roberts’ character and her on-screen husband play out a significant film scene in Something to Talk About.
Can’t forget the Mercer House, the home of songwriter Johnny Mercer, where the events for the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt and the movie by the same name by Clint Eastwood, happened. I’m not going to list all the historical buildings or places where we stopped but needless to say Savannah is a true Southern Belle.
Needles to say these are just some of the beautiful old buildings in the city.
I have a soft spot for black and white photography, I was once again reminded about the importance of exposure, light. It is the key element in these photos.
There’s so much grey to every story – nothing is so black and white.
Lens-Artists Photography Challenge #237 – Bringing softness hosted my Bren at BRASHLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
for #Lens-Artists #The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge
For this weeks’ challenge, show us how you soften your images. You don’t have to stick to flowers, landscapes and architecture are also ideal subjects. By lowering the clarity and creating softness in those areas frames the subject in an image, be it a tree, path, bridge, even a door or house or just a dreamy looking image.
This is a fun one, softness is a great too to use a photo that is not too sharp in the first place to make it usable. 🙂 But seriously a great way to change a mood of a shot as well place the focus where you want. For this challenge I decided to edit some recent photos with this challenge in mind and not to use previously done.
Enjoying a day at the beach
Just slipping into the soft relaxed mood with the photo above and below
Sand atthe Beach
I find dusk to be a very lovely time to take photos as the light is already soft. The shot below is from Boone Hall in Charleston
Boone Hall
This sunset was lovely,(below) but the photo itself was not, it was grainy and out of focus as I shot it from a moving car from the side window in rather high speed. Adding soft focus made it presentable
This shot was full of distractions so the softness in the background helped to clarify the whole shot.
A horse that I have brought to be a very clear topic with soft background
I have taken so many flower shots, mostly with a macro lens, here I picked two that were not but I edited them. First rose is a rose.
Below orange leaves on a tree
Then you can find a selection of random shots with softness as one element
As I’ve stated before I am not a very technical photographer, more into composition, mood. I do my magic on the edit table mostly, if you can call it magic, more like my interpretation of places and people. I am also not one to write all that much, let the photos speack for themselves.
I have two cameras an old reliable SONY SLT-A65V, and I have two lences I use with it one for Macro Sony Macro 2.8/50 and portraits. The other for nearly everything a Sony 18-200mm.
The Sony has been in less use since I bought a new lighter one to carry around, its a Olympus E-M10 Mark II with a 14-150mm lense and I have a OM-D M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8 for street and portrait photography
Savannah, the first of these posts, I have way too many pictures of the city to try to get them all in one post. Just not possible. Let’s get started with the arrival.
I have to add that for years I have wanted to go to South Carolina and Georgia, after reading books by Pat Conroy and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. And finally we arehere! It only an hour drive from Hilton Head but it was already dark when we got to Savannah. Driving along highway 17 and across the Little Black River Bridge was an experience itself.
Once again we drove towards beautiful sunset, just have to show these beautiful colorful sky’s.
Finding the hotel parking was really hard because of some road work. The hotel had sent us an advance warning and instructions, but they were of no help. Finally, I was able to navigate to the River Street below the hotel and walked to the reception. Luckily the parking was right next to the hotel and we didn’t need the car for two days.
We were really pleasantly surprised by hotel, Olde Habour Inn. It was originally built for Tidewater Oil Company 1892. Set between River Street and Factors Walk, this storied hotel is housed on the shores of the Savannah River in a former (and allegedly haunted) warehouse. Our 1-bedroom suite had a nice sized living room, hardwood floors, old logs and iron works were partly visible. Turn-down service included ice cream. Included in the room price was nightly cocktail hour from 5.30 pm to 7 pm with wine and tasty snacks. Breakfast included coffee, orange juice and muffins in the lobby. I have to add that front dest clerk Martin and the bell man/waiter Kevin were really friendly and helpful with everything. We also inquired about possible extra night, but the hotel was fully booked for the upcoming MKL-day long weekend. Only one 2-bedroom suite was available for the price of $400. If you are visiting the city and need to book a room, I can recommend this one.
I am ending this post with two more sunset pictures taken also from a moving car.
I had a plan to get all my trip posts done last week, but flu got in the way. It totally left me tired, sneezing, coughing and drinking tea, that’s is what I have been doing past week and watching television. I took a lot of effort to get the previous post done.
I had comfort while laying in bed, Tinka kept me company.
Amy’s topic for this weeks Lens Artists Challenge #236: East Meets West, This week we are exploring the different cardinal points East – West or South – North
I thought about this, as I live in North, in Finland. Arctic Circle is about 850 km from my home – so I live in the south of Finland.That could be one way to look at this challenge, or even more extreme could be Finland versus Australia down under. Or I could think about it as just the directions seen from my summer house as I sit in the yard and watch the sun move around it. … still thinking about about this:-)
First is the difference between light in the north and south of Finland during winter and well also in the summer.
There are four distinctly different seasons as far up north . However, locals think the conditions are in a constant state of change and say there are up to eight seasons in the year: midwinter, snowy spring, spring, summer, harvest season, autumn leaf colour, first snowfall, and Christmas. The photo is from Santa’s village.
The blue twilight of the Polar Nights last from mid November to Mid January. the light is this blue hues. Not black. This is Midwinter. This period takes place in January-February and is also known as the heart of winter. With only a few hours of daylight, a rather mysterious air of silence and peacefulness shrouds the natural surroundings.
The Midnight Sun is a natural phenomenon that takes place on and above the Arctic Circle in the summer months. On the Arctic Circle, the sun officially stays above the horizon for a full 24 hours on summer solstice, 21st or 22nd June. However, the Midnight Sun period in Rovaniemi lasts for a month, from 6th June to 7th July; this is due to the Earth’s slightly tilted axis and refraction of sunlight. The nights are white throughout the summer from late May until early August
So below you can see the blues of the day on North of Finland during the day. Also the landscape of southern Lapland is quite flat. There are few lakes, but forests, swamps, rivers and streams form diverse ecosystems. In Western Lapland, the flat and same level coast changes as you go further north: there are more and moreforested hills, the highest or northernmost exceed the tree line, and are therefore already actic hills.
Water reflections – obviously easiest to do.
In terms of topography, Southern Finland is a low plain. On top of the bedrock there are fine-grained soils. The climate is favorable for cultivation, so agriculture is productive, especially in the areas of the clay fields in Eastern Uusimaa.
Considering the large population, nature can be close to people even in Southern Finland. The most difficult and rugged areas can have natural areas.
There are rocks and small lakes in the Nuuksio National Park. There is a forest area of several thousand hectares in Sipoonkorpi, with rocks, groves, natural streams and traditional meadows. The Repove National Park has steep rock cliffs and the Valkmusa National Park has an oasis nature. Porkkala, which I have written about before. Porkkalanniemi is in Kirkkonummi, that is where I live.. The area consists of rocky shores, pine forest, and beautiful outlooks onto the sea. The Porkkala cape stretches far out to the sea and is one of the best places to watch arctic birds migrating. Seabirds thrive in the area due to its rich and diverse habitat. Porkkala has a considerable population of common eiders and is also an important resting area for long-tailed ducks. Lucky visitors may even spot moose or white-tailed deer in Porkkala.
The light is different in south, the sunrises here in the winter even if for a short time. Less snow for sure. In the Summer, the sun sets even if for a short time, but it does not get really dark. More humidity as we are closer to the sea.
Porkkalanniemi – Kirkkonummi in Southern Finland
As I’ve stated before I am not a very technical photographer, more into composition, mood. I do my magic on the edit table mostly, if you can call it magic, more like my interpretation of places and people. I am also not one to write all that much, let the photos speack for themselves.
I have two cameras an old reliable SONY SLT-A65V, and I have two lences I use with it one for Macro Sony Macro 2.8/50 and portraits. The other for nearly everything a Sony 18-200mm.
The Sony has been in less use since I bought a new lighter one to carry around, its a Olympus E-M10 Mark II with a 14-150mm lense and I have a OM-D M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8 for street and portrait photography
Driving from Charleston to Hilton Head Islandille took us couple of hours. We set the navigator to Coligny Beach. We barely got out the car when a trolley driver, Zanden, offered a ride to the beach, which happened to be only 200 meters from the parking lot. We hopped on and right away Zenden started asking if we would be interested in having a vacation costing only like 20 dollars per night. I smelled time-sharing and told him that we are not interested. Then he asked where were headed and hearing Savannah he offered free city tour and Ghosts & Graves tour for two, if we were willing to hear Palmeras Resorts sales pitch. So, we ended up going, knowing full well what was ahead of us.
So we went to see a condo close by with the sales person Taquian once she had done the surveys of us and told us the rates – $29,900 for 60 months. After the tour of the condo, she asked if we were interested, and we said – no. Then she had to ask for her boss to come and ask the same question. And the answer was still the same but only the boss could sign for our Savannah Tour vouchers. They claimed that about 20 percent of the people that listen the sales pitch sign up. I very much doubt it.
Anyway, after about waisting 90 minutes of our time we got the tour vouchers in a envelope that read Mr. Sillauwaki. I guess it’s understandable to turn letters n and m upside down if you have dyslexia or something?
Eventually we made it to white sands of Coligny Beach. The beach was very easy to walk because close by the water the sand was quite hard. By the beach there was a bar that had an excellent three-piece band. At first, I thought they had a female singer because one of the voices was so high tuned.
Beach Band
Please do not walk on the dunes
Sand fencing collects windblown sand to create new dunes and the beach plants help hold the new dune in place with their roots.Stay seaward of the fences and don’t store or leave anything in the sand fence area.
Dunes provide important storm barriers that protect upland property from the effects of wave energy, and can store storm water in the troughs between the dune peaks to minimize flooding. For these reasons, we need to protect our beach-dune system and encourage the formation of new dunes.
Many of our native species have habitat which is only found in dune fields including dwarf live oak, prickly pear cactus, sea oats, six-lined racerunner lizards and Spanish bayonet.
Our beach and dunes provide important wildlife corridors that can get animals from one end of the island to the other without crossing roadways.
Harbour Town with its light house
Next stop on the island was the Sea Pines area. It was sort of a gated community and you had to pay $9/car to get in. It was worth the visit because the area included Harbour Town with its light house and the Heritage Links Golf course. I not a golfer, so the world-famous 18th hole of the links meant nothing to me but the view from light house to the 18 th hole was nice.
Last pit stop in the island was at Salty Dog Cafe in Sea Pines Beach.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 