artismysanity

My words and my pictures. All I have


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Purple flowers in the morning light

Summer meets fall. Is there a name for that time in between seasons? Whatever it’s called, it’s here, and it’s time to get the warmer clothes out and see what chances for photography this time of the year offers.

Going back in time a little… I took these photos almost two months ago (seriously? where did the summer go?), and I didn’t have the time to edit them until now. I guess it’s flower photography season for me :). Enjoy!


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Flower explosion

I can’t believe it’s been a week since my last post! Where are the days going? I’ve been working on so many projects that time is flying by and 24 hours a day aren’t enough (it doesn’t help that my computer is working at slow snail-speed, either). But it’s a good busy, so I don’t mind. Of course, the amount of photos I have to edit has reached an alarming size by now, so I guess I’ll be able to indulge and stay indoors on those frosty winter days when I’m too lazy to brave the cold and go shooting.

Last week the theme on my Flickr group was “In the morning”, so I grabbed Freedom and went exploring around the garden in the early hours. If my neighbors had the suspicion that I was a little touched in the head, they’re fully convinced by now and whispering about the young woman that was climbing a garden chair in her front yard and twisting in weird positions over a bush of white flowers. It’s better than being known as the crazy cat lady, though – at least it’s original!

I edited these in Color Efex Pro 3, and I must say I’m in love. I gave Lightroom a chance, but I’m a Photoshop girl, especially with these filters. I was playing around, so some of these aren’t exactly realistic colorwise, but I love the results. Hope you like them!


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Pretty water drops

It’s almost dawn as I’m writing this, and until a few minutes ago it was raining softly. It was a very welcome rain after three days of scorching heat, during which I gave up shooting around the garden and moved my suffocating self to the beach, where life is good and the sun is welcome. I could live at the beach for a whole month and I wouldn’t get tired of it.
So, at last, I got to shoot a few sunsets with the new camera. I got Lightroom, too, and I love it already, but I’m editing at the pace of a snail, so bear with me. I’ve also been reading and watching lots of online tutorials and making a list of everything I want to try. It might be a few decades before I’m done, LOL.
These photos are from the backyard, taken before the heat wave. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I ever have to move to a house without a yard. Having the chance to go out every day and see what new beauty I can capture so close to home is one my favorite things in the world. But then again, the world always provides.

Shutter speed 1/100 f5.6 ISO 320 Edited in Lightroom


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Lantana flowers and bokeh

I hope you all had a great start to your year! Mine is peachy. I’m spending lots of time with my new camera, taking lots of shots that vary between awful, tolerable and the few nice ones. The rest of my time I spend reading either The Lord of the Rings (again), my camera manual, or some online tutorial. Life is good in this corner of the world :).

I’m enjoying Freedom as much as I thought I would – it’s like discovering a new world hidden within the one I thought I’d already discovered. These are some of the “nice” shots I’ve taken in the past couple of days, learning my way around through a mixture of practice and theory. I’m having trouble getting warm colors, even though I’ve figured out how to adjust my WB settings, so if anyone has any tips, they’ll be more than welcome. Enjoy!


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Red tulip

Sunday was the Argentinean Mother’s Day. For whatever unfathomable reason, the universe decided that on that day I should become mother to a second adorable kitten. If you’ve been following my blog you already know about my unruly gray male cat Robin, who’s about a year and a half. On Sunday morning my Dad let him out and seconds later had to intervene in a heated fight between Robin and a stray black kitten half his size and over half his age.

Somewhere in the next twenty-four hours we went from all-out war to siblings, and Mora has become the newest family member and the loveliest mother’s day gift. At first my parents were reluctant to let me keep her, and they had actually set out to drive her to my aunt’s who is looking for a female cat when (they told me) she looked at my mother and meowed, inspiring them to return.

If any of you have ever brought a second cat into your home, I’ll welcome any advice or tip you can share. I’m currently keeping Mora in the laundry room (when she’s not asleep on my lap), since a couple of articles I read said to keep the new cat isolated and slowly let them get used to each other’s scent and presence. So far there’s been a lot of staring and hissing.

I’ve been trying to get these shots edited and this post up for a week, but as you can see things haven’t stopped happening. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who read this blog, and I hope you like the flowers :).