Saturday, April 19, 2014

Round Robin Challenge: Spring Time! + A Week Of Yellow Day Six: Soft Yellow


Soft Yellow California Poppy
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Spring, 2012

"It's spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart."

~Rainer Maria Rilke

RRC: Spring Time

I think I should probably begin this post with a heartfelt I am Sorry Karen, because I know that flowers are not at the top of her list of favorite subjects, both to look at or to photograph. But here's the thing, I found myself absolutely drawn to them this year, probably because of my illness last Spring which kept me housebound for most of the season! I didn't get out to do much photography from late February thru early June, and by then, most of the first young lovely flowers of spring, were moving over for the more hardy plants and flowers of summer! 

The summer flowers are beautiful, and you know I would give up all the flowers of both seasons, in favor of the leaves of autumn, but when you can't photograph them, you learn to not take them for granted. So, this post is quite flower heavy, with flowers from springs past, and a couple from spring of this year! But hey, it's not a total loss, there is also a furry wild creature or two to break up the flower monotony! :)

My Spring Gallery...

Happy Squirrel
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Spring 2010


Purple Flowers
Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
Spring 2006
 

Yellow Flower With Bee
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Spring 2005


Spring Bouquet
Berkeley, California
Spring 2014


Spring Balloons 
My Favorite Color Combination
Spring, 2011


Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Spring, 2005


Purple Ice Plant
Pacific Grove/Monterey Bay, California
Spring, 2010


Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Spring, 2005


Spring Blossoms With Bee
Berkeley, California
Spring, 2006


Pink Blossoms
Pleasanton, California
Spring, 2014


Tree Blossoms
Golden Gate Park
Spring, 2013
 

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want... oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"

~Mark Twain

Okay, now that you have seen my post for the Round Robin Challenges, how about joining in? I know Karen would be thrilled to have a new player joining us. Just click the link at the top of this post to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog, where you can find all the information you need to play along, plus the links to the other participants for this challenge. Please consider joining us!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Friday, April 18, 2014

A Week Of Yellow Day Five: Put On A Happy Face! :)



"If you are reading this... 

Congratulations, you're alive.
If that's not something to smile about, then I don't know what is."

~Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head

Just a quick nod to yellow today... the smilie face! The man who sold me my new car gave me two smilie face stickers. Too bad my smilie face has been upside down to a frowny face. The repair to my dashboard was supposed to take 8 hours, but when the service department took the brand new, from the factory dashboard out of the box from GM it had not one scratch on the dashboard... it had 4! All deeper than the scratch I was having repaired! So, instead of 8 hours... it's going to be at least 5 more days before I get my car back.

Great.

Fine.

:)

Still, I am alive and that puts it all in perspective... right?

:)


Mood: Happy

~Me :)


Thursday, April 17, 2014

A Full Moon, A Sunflower, And An Egg Salad Sandwich...


Full Pink Moon
April 15th 2014
11:30 P.M. PST

"I want to fly like a butterfly around this beautiful world, till the last frame of my life and click the last click of my heart."

~Biju Karakkonam Nature And Wild Life Photographer

Well, I was a bad blogger yesterday, I didn't post to my blog. I was, however, a good photographer, because I didn't let the Full Pink Moon escape me. I got a photo of the April full moon! I am happy about that, but not too happy about having skipped posting 3 days in just this month! It has been... well... a stressful month. Lots of negativity. But I realize that I can control how I choose to look at things. I will explain it all in a different post, in a couple weeks or so, but for now I want to just focus on the assignment at hand. The color yellow, and of course, April's full moon.

The Color Yellow 
Day 2: A Sunflower 

Photographed August 2010
 

Now A Little Photo Editing Magic (Illusion)


The Color Yellow 
Day 4: A Starbucks Egg Salad Sandwich

What does a slightly stressed out photographer eat for lunch? Well this slightly stressed out photographer loves Starbucks Egg Salad Sandwiches! In fact, she is addicted!


Mood: Good

~Me :)


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Full Pink Moon With The Added Bonus Of The Apocalypse



"So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you... everything makes music if you really want it to."

~Giles Andreae

The Full Pink Moon and the added bonus of the Full Blood Moon wasn't really what one would call spectacular from where I viewed it, in fact it didn't have much color, probably due to the light cloud cover that shrouded the moon. I have helped the color out a bit here... very little... just enough to show it in the proper light. Every once in a while I have needed a little help to shine, I am just passing along the favor.

:)

And look Ma... No Apocalypse!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Monday, April 14, 2014

A Week Of Yellow Day Two: Eggs. Plus A Note About Tuesday



"There are at least two sides to every issue, and I like my issues sunny side up. I also like bacon and toast on the side. Are you eating what I'm saying."

~Jarod Kintz, At Even One Penny, This Book Would Be Overpriced. In Fact, Free Is Too Expensive, Because You'd Still Waste Time By Reading It.

Scrambled Eggs. My favorite breakfast meal. Well, scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. I have never been much for bacon or sausage, although once in a while I will have some, but it's not too often. I just don't like that weighed down feeling that breakfast meats tend to leave me with. Breakfast has never been my favorite meal of the day, I am definitely a lunch person, or maybe brunch. I know, I know... breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I just don't do breakfast. Shrug.

Note: I am posting a new yellow picture every day this week with the exception of Tuesday's photo which will be RED. You see, this month there will be a full Blood Moon. You can read all about it here. If you want to join me in photographing it, please do, then come back here with the direct link and I will include in my post. :)

Here is my photos from the Full Sturgeon lunar eclipse from August 2007...

The Full Sturgeon Moon
Blood Moon Eclipse













It was a long night of photography, but it was very rewarding. It was August, so it was plenty warm, and I had by Elvis by my side, so all was right with the world. He was my angel. I still think about him every single day, and miss him so much!


Mood: Happy :)

~Me :)

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Feng Shui Of The Mind... Well, My Mind Anyway



"Yellow is a very favorable vibration for mental or intellectual activity, as it promotes a clear state of mind. Yellow heightens your awareness and alleviates depression, sadness, or any kind of despondency. Yellow vibration foods are: pineapple, bananas, grapefruit, lemons and corn."

~Tae Yun Kim,  The First Element: Secrets To Maximizing Your Energy

Feng Shui-ing Of My Mind...




I am giving myself a photography assignment for this coming week. I want to find as much YELLOW as possible, and photograph it. Yellow in all things. Food. Clothing. Flowers. The Sun. Maybe even yellow in a sunset if the opportunity presents itself. You see, my Fibromyalgia has been wicked the last few months, which means an almost complete lack of energy. So, I need and want to change that. And I am willing to give yellow a chance. Sure...  why not? Right? The day-lily in this post is from last spring. It's pretty isn't it? I thought it would be fun to show the original photo and the motion swirl edited version.

I like them both. 

See, I am happy and more energetic already!

Good Plan!

Mood: Hopeful

~Me :)