Weekly Photo Challenge 

This weeks subject is suggested by NEVRAGN

“a day in the life of”

I have considered carefully for this challenge.  It has taken some difficult decision making for the display of each photo not wanting to exploit or hurt its image.  I hope my creative efforts bring tears to your eyes and a box of kleenex into play.  My offering for this challenge:

 ”A Day in the Life of ’My Nose’”

I have been blessed with what some might consider an “unfortunate nose”.  As I have always felt I fit in with the majority of humanity, the less than outstandingly beautiful on this planet, I have never allowed my nose to get in my way, of happiness.  It’s been a good nose, failing me only when I have had the worst of what noses suffer from.  I can’t remember ever having breathing problems or allergies associated with pollens, pet danders or dust.  Dust may choke up my throat but my nose remains always loyal to breathing though it has had assistance from Altoid Mints when in trouble. 

“My nose”, practically speaking, has most assuredly been ”one of the best”.

Working with my eyes, my nose wakes me in the morning.  Sleeping below a window facing East, the morning heat from the sun streams through my window along with eye blinding sunlight.  My nose, takes note of temperature changes and when the sun hits the window like the faithful nose that it is, it alerts me to the fact day has come. 

This is my nose in repose.  You will find it this way at night and at regular times during the day.  It has, as it has gotten older, demanded naps.  My nose prefers cooler temperatures and sleep with a window open at least a nose width so nostrils or full blown nose can breathe cooler air, comfortably from beneath the covers.

My nose loves the smell of food cooking, and the daily aroma of french press coffee.

It also loves fresh mown grass, perfumes, scented powders, flowers, fresh washed babies, laundry hung on a line and

my sweetly cologned husband.  It takes time to smell the roses and snuggle time into his sweet smelling face and neck.  It also takes daily note of all other pleasant aromas it catches in the wind.

My nose is not fond of garbage, dirty socks or diapers, underarm B.O., skunks, rotting potatoes, spinach burning on the stove, air pollution or smoke.  It wrinkles unappreciatively at the thought and attempts shrinking away.

That is “a normal day in the life of my nose” and in fact, week or month or year.  Preferring predictability over the unknown it avoids problems by avoiding all sneezing or coughing in any given area.  It will however rise to any occasion involving regular use, any hour of the day or night its motto being,

“we consider all sniffs, large or small, of great importance”

 

AN EDIT IN:
A friend reminded me of the wonderful speech about “the nose” in Cyrano De Bergerac.  You can read his comment AND the dialogue by Cyrano by CLICKING HERE.  Or, find more of the dialogue HERE.

 

Keep on taking those photos,
 

 

 

The PictureHeaven challenge:
 Textures and Patterns

Everything has texture and pattern though it may not always be easily distinguishable.  Coffee doesn’t look to have texture but if you play with it in your mouth you can feel the smooth texture of the cream you use.  I love texture and pattern and always look for it when I plan a photo. 

See some examples below.  A portion of the original photo sits on the left and on the right, the photo delineated with the help of my art program Paint Shop Pro.  The pattern and texture are enhanced and each photo becomes a graphic.

    

The texture and pattern in the arrangement of these sausage and eggs helps make it beautifully appetizing on the patterend plate.

    

This is a nice little restaurant in Delaware, Ohio.  It has wonderful color, texture in the brick and pattern in columns and brick and window arrangement and ??

    

This tree sits in the yard where my husband grew up in Kilbourne, Ohio.  It has gorgeous texture and pattern.

    

I love a fence row and will always try to catch it in a photo if it stands out.  It created a lot of wonderful pattern for the field the barn sits in.

On this last graphic, I took the pattern from the photo above and layered it over a totally different photo to create a story of its own.

 

 Click the links to See My other Challenge entries for the week:

See my Weekly Photo Challenge “Magnificent Buildings”  
See my Art Rage Challenge “In the City”

---

 

Keep taking those photos,
 

 

 

 

 Weekly Photo Challenge 

This weeks subject is suggested by HereAreLindasPhotos

Magnificent Buildings

I have never seen what would be termed magnificent buildings like the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal .  I’m what you might call a country girl raised in a small community, never been much of anywhere and never having felt a great need.  Simple pleasures have always been satisfying and I could have done well with less if I had used my head more than my greedy side.  I’ve gotten smarter with age, another story altogether.  Cincinnati does have some dated buildings that might fit the challenge as expected, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cincinnati Symphony Hall and others but I don’t have photos of these and decided the truth is,

“MAGNIFICENCE” is in  the Eye and Mind of the beholder . 
So:

Magnificence, large or small takes planning.  The strong boss in this case is on the left, my sister.  She does the building planning at her house from the design to supervision of materials purchased for whatever the job is.  On this particular day, my husband was the help.

 In keeping with their jobs, the planner is off somewhere doing wishful thinking while the help is doing the heavy work, weighing and loading rock.

 There are a lot of beautiful buildings planned in lots of neighborhoods across the country and in fact around the world.  After the decision making for your beautiful building, you contract a builder and

 dig holes for the foundation and then prompt your builder into working before Winter sets in.

 

When all is said and done, you have a building, possibly worth a lot and possibly worth very little but “magnificence” lies in the comfort found there.  If it’s a big building or a shack or a shed or a pontoon, and you have found comfort within, satisfaction becomes your bedpartner. AND satisfaction is worth more than most magnificent buildings.  My dream was always a hole dug into a hill side, big rooms and lots of space outside.  It didn’t happen but I still have the dream and hope to remember it if there is a next time around.

 

 

 See my Art_Rage_Challenge  for the month of August CLICK HERE

 

Keep on taking those photos,

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks subject is suggested by Wingsofdesire

 The subject is Abundance 
The dictionary definition: Abundance is wealth or prosperity.  
My definition is: Abundance is Enough.

If you have:

Food to Eat,

Clean Liquids to Drink,

Some time to relax

 

and Play a little,

If you can sleep comfortably at night,

And can wake up, willing, to share a few smiles;

You have ABUNDANCE

  

From the tiniest creatures to the human animal; food, water, sleep and some pleasure in everyday existance are uppermost on the list of life sustaining details that equal ABUNDANCE. 

Keep taking those photos,

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks subject is suggested by Marycarimom

The subject is Hope Another difficult subject to relate my photography to as the subject is not tangible but is instead a DREAM, a WISH, a DESIRE, or ASPIRATION

Hope has a softness about it, A HOLY SOFTNESS, as it intones a religious quality that attempts leading towards better or more satisfying than the general / harsh struggle of everyday life.

My interpretation of hope:

True hope has everything to do with religious faith.  WITHOUT HOPE, there is no everlasting life and

WITH HOPE there are DREAMS of a KINDER / BETTER / MORE BEAUTIFUL, Hereafter.  None of us can know what the hereafter really is but we can imagine.

 I imagine ”Hope” using my photos

I hope there are beautiful clouds and silhouettes
of trees to peek thru
for continued photo taking.

I hope the riverbanks my husband enjoys are always a part of the landscape.

I hope flowers remain as exotic and beautiful as they are now.

I hope beautiful places to see and visit continue
as a part of whatever it is that life becomes.

This is my granddaughter in my sister’s apple tree, enough years ago she doesn’t like this photo.  It’s one of my favorites.  I hope there are always plenty of trees for children to play in, just like this.

I have a lot of hopes.  I would love to see some of my major hopes in the, here, now.  Until a time I can make deliberate changes to everything around me for the better, I will feed my hopes, with even more.

I hope everyone has beautiful hopes and dreams.

Thank you to every visitor for all the kind comments on any of my posts.  I appreciate all of them.  I should probably visit and thank each individual but I am fortunate to be keeping up with seeing each of your posts as we get each new challenge.

Keep taking those photos,

 

 Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks subject is suggested by Sagiscoobious

  Identity Crisis  

 This was another challenge I needed to think about.  I don’t think I have ever had an identity crisis as I have always known exactly who I am and my limitations.  I will say there is a heartfelt desire to add to my identity and that is explained in my last graphic.

 Falling back on some older photos and graphics.

One of my favorite things to photograph is Pumpkins.  I also love to manipulate them in my graphics programs and one manipulation you see above turned them into green tomatoes.  Therefore, the identity crisis of the Pumpkin.  Things are not always what they appear and reality may not always be what you see so, Identity in Crisis.

This horse lives in the UK.  I know this because my friend Tim took the photograph.  Now, living in the UK / world at this time everyone knows of Harry Potter including the above horse.  Having heard all the stories he has become desirous of becoming a Unicorn.  Therefore the identity crisis of this Horse.

These Elephants were photographed by my daughter in Thailand.  I took them from the Thai photo and placed them into a photograph I took on a drive to Ashland, Kentucky.  Therefore the identity crisis of these Thai Elephants as they had much rather be free roaming in Thailand.

This is indicative of my mind as it whirls with photos I take and graphics I create with them.  The only desire I have left for myself  posing an identity crisis is that of becoming known in the world of graphics and photography.  Therefore my identity crisis. 

None of the above is reality, only dreams to be fed or suppressed whichever might be desirous at one time or another by myself or any individual.  As identity crisis comes from dreams we may be desirous of or from dreams we may want to suppress, identity crisis can become hazardous to one’s health.  I like to think my dreams though possibly not achievable are health giving as they motivate my artistic appetites.

Keep on taking those photos,
 

 

 

Weekly PhotoChallenge

This weeks subject is suggested by Susu

Inside out / Outside in

I wasn’t sure what I would do with this challenge.  I finally decided I would go with reflection and imagination.

The nice thing about photos is you can see some of the inside outs of things.  This photo was taken in June  at our local Hamilton County park, Lake Isabella.  The reflection is “Inside Out” or “upside down”, does that count?

This is one of my favorite reflective photos taken in 2004 or 5 from inside the window of our local Skyline Chili Parlour.  You can see portions of the restaurant in the window as well as the outside brought in thru the miracle of glass.  I think this fits quite well for inside-out and outside-in. 

This image was taken by a friend in the UK.  It was given as a challenge to a group with the challenge to replace what was in the windows and then mask or cover up portions of the finished work.  The nice thing about graphics is, you can take what exists and change it altogether so, in this graphic a variety of outsides in – thru – the – window.

This is my husband John doing some personal reflection while leaning on the fencing.  The Window frame is in the UK and the outside being brought in is on a drive from Cincinnati to Ashland, Kentucky, USA to meet with a fellow Xangan, Wordwarrior39.

Here, the same UK window and our local lake at another Hamilton County park, Sharon Woods.  I would like this view outside my livingroom window.

Here, the cats live at my daughter’s home in Virginia, the window is from the UK and my image peeking thru the window was taken to prevent boredom while driving in the car on our way either to or from Illinois, USA.  All of the editing is done with Paint Shop Pro while I sit at my computer and I am situated in Ohio, USA.  So, the miricle of digital, totally new images and some fun for all of it.

 See my ArtRage Challenge entry for JULY “Water”, CLICK HERE

Keep on taking those photos,

 

ArtRage Challenge

The topic for the month of July 2007 is:

Water

 

Using one of my daughters photos, my grand daughter and her dad on the beach. I did the graphic changes you see below.

I had fun adding the ship in the background and worked at adding some ripples where they are playing with the Jelly fish.

I don’t live near the ocean so most of my water photos are taken of local rivers and lakes.  I do have a stream that borders our home that becomes subject matter off and on.  This is a Little Miami River shot taken in April 2007.  Looking down into the water from a ledge created by the tree trunk and it’s roots which are in the foreground I got the reflection from the branches of the tree above. 

This photo is my Grand daughter at her swim meat in Spain.  I added it to the photo above to get what you see next.

It doesn’t look the safest place to swim and it needs a lot of wave in it to break up the reflection.  I’ll work on that.

This photo was taken the same day as the tree / water ledge shot.  It is one of my favorite shots as the sky was so blue and reflected into the river below, its same colours.  It was a gorgeous day to be out and enjoying the scenes.

See my Weekly Photo Challenge entry “Inside Out / Outside In” CLICK HERE.

Most of my graphic manipulations are done with Paint Shop Pro.  I love the program and playing with it.

Best to everyone and I have enjoyed making my first entry for the ArtRage challenge.

 

Weekly photo challenge

This weeks subject is suggested by Spongebobpal

Refreshing

This challenge can go so many ways so I will attempt running with as many of them as my photos might cover. 

Is there anything more ”Refreshing” than dew drops on a Spring flower and in this case the flower is ”Bloodroot”.   A sprig of peppermint to the left, use it, minus the bug, to refresh your tea.

Tired and hungry? food is “Refreshing”.  This is Mexican cornbread mentioned in my previous entry and I can assure you John and I both love this recipe.  Recipe at the bottom of the page.

Spring flowers popping up after a long cold Winter, now that’s “Refreshing”.

I believe on a hot day, this is called “Refreshing”.

Just knowing there are some things that weigh more than I weigh is “Refreshing”.

Hot, dirty, sweaty? this is my choice for “Refreshing”.

 

I think all of these photos have been posted before. 

 ~Absolute Best Mexican Cornbread
Tasty and moist it’s really delicious.  Original recipe yield: 8-12 servings.
 

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
1/2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained (you may want to adjust the amount of chopped chile peppers as they are hot)
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

——————————————————————————–

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in cream corn, chiles, Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to corn mixture; stir until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into center of the pan comes out clean.
(Becca’s preference for cooking:  use a deep iron skillet, grease it and put it into the oven to get hot while preparing the batter.  Pour the batter into the hot skillet for a crisp browned crust and adjust the cooking time by watching and checking with a toothpick.)

 

Have a super week and keep on taking those photos.