New Camera

This is our beagle, Piper. 
 She was out in the very back of the yard. 
It is the first zoom in shot that I did with my new camera.

  It warned me that I was shaking so it is out of focus but not bad.

  I have a nice camera that my husband got me two years ago for Christmas.  It has interchangeable lens, one being a telephoto, but I have never gotten a shot this good without cropping.

This is my second zoom.  Without my glasses Welcome is very fuzzy to me.  As I look at these pictures I am getting more and more excited about this camera. Below are pictures of my daylilies.

A Couple More Pictures of Piper

 

My first portrait with the new camera. Not bad!

 I have only taken a few pictures with my new Canon Powershot and I can already see that I am going to love it.  I think I would give it five stars.  I want to thank my brother for guiding me toward this camera.

  I still like my other camera but being able to take pictures without dragging so much stuff

 around is going to be great.  Since I'm only into taking pictures for fun and not to make money, 

this camera should be a great one to travel with me wherever I go.

Happy Independence Day

Fireworks on the 4th

When I see the Stars and Strips waving in the breeze in my backyard so many things go through my mind.  I think of all those who gave their lives so that we can live free.  I think of all those whose lives were changed forever fighting to keep us free.  I think about how a lot of people think our country is doomed, but people have thought that since our forefathers first conspired to break away from England.  And most of all I think of how lucky I am to have God place me in this great country.  That is what I will be thinking about tonight as the sky lights up across the country.  I will be thinking “Thank You, God, for placing me in what I think is one of the most wonderful places on earth”.

 

 To me there is nothing more beautiful that the

sight of the flag flying in the breeze. 

 My husband made this rotating flag pole after seeing them

in an RV park.  They are simple to make and inexpensive.

Just Google PVC rotating flag pole.

The Lake

This painting was inspired by our trip last year to Yellowstone.  One night I saw this in my mind but putting it on canvas was much harder. 

Sunrises

Sunrises and sunsets are among my favorite things to photograph.  The sky changes so quickly and the clouds create such amazing colors and shapes.  These photos were taken at the Matagorda Nature Park in Texas.  It is not a touristy place which was fine with us.  The beaches weren't pristine but the sunrises were magnificent.

The sun this morning shining on the pier gave off a beautiful golden glow.  Capturing the bird was quite unexpected.  I was the only one on the beach on this cold day in November.

The black silhouette of the plants against the bright colors of the sky made for a beautiful shot.

The beginnings of another morning painting by the angels.  It seemed to change with each passing second.

Every morning I jumped out of bed and grabbed my camera.  I did not want to miss a single day of photographing the sun rising over the ocean.  A lot of people like going to Disneyland.  Not me -- just give me beautiful things in nature like this sunrise and I am in Heaven.  Our son planned this trip for us.  It wasn't a trip that a lot of people would have enjoyed but it was the perfect trip for us.  We loved it.

"Live each season as it passes;

breathe the air,

drink the drink,

taste the fruit, 

and resign yourself to the

influences of each."

Henry David Thoreau 

Special Gift

I decided to paint a special picture for my husband for Father's Day.  He has been wrestling with the fact that the house he grew up is a total state of disrepair and it seems the only option is to either tear it down or burn it.  It is really hard to lose a place that is close to your heart.  I know this because the house I grew up in and the farm where it was located was taken to build a dam.  My parents rented the farm back until they were finally forced to leave. A few years before that the house burned.  I remember standing there and watching my childhood turn to ashes so I know how hard that can be.  No one has lived in my husband's old house for years.  This is how it looked in 1989 when we decided to try and save it.

Since then we have spent a lot of our time, money and energy trying to keep it from falling down. The last two years have been a struggle and we have lost the battle.  We kept the yard and surrounding area mowed but the house became more than we could keep up.  When you don't live in a house and only go down in the summer time it is almost impossible unless you want to spend a lot of money.  Something decided to tear a big hole in the roof and move in.  They chewed holes in the walls and fell through the ceiling.  The rain has poured in and everything smells of mold.  There comes a time when you have to give up and let it go.

So I decided to paint a picture of how things looked in my mind.  We have no other pictures so I just painted from memory.   It is so hard to let go so I hope this will help him have something to hold on to.

I read this somewhere and I failed to jot down who said it:

"One of the hardest lessons in life is letting

go whether it's guilt, anger, love,

loss or betrayal.

Change is never easy.

We fight to hold on and

we fight to let go."

Just Do It

I often felt that I was literally losing my mind.  Then one day I talked to a lady who was selling her flower shop.  She said she told her husband that she had to have a place to continue her passion or her soul would die.  I automatically connected with her.  I knew at that moment what was wrong with me.  My soul was dying.  I had let obstacles keep me from creating and in doing so the creative juices had stopped flowing and my soul was dying. 

That is when I really got into taking pictures – thousands of them.  But what good are pictures if you don’t share them with others?  So I started posting them on Facebook and it was so much fun to have other people enjoying them.  But I still felt empty.  I needed something that was a total expression of me; something that used my brain, heart and hands. 

I had painted in high school and loved it.  My parents gave me a wooden case containing oil paints for the first Christmas after I got married.  It was the greatest gift because it said they believed in me.  But life happened and the painting stopped.  When the kids were pretty well grown I took up craft painting but it wasn’t the same.  Something kept telling me to paint.  Then one day I saw this quote:

“If you hear a voice within say ‘you can paint’ then by all means

paint, and that voice will be silenced.”  Vincent Van Gogh

Yea right!  Just paint!  Where?  On the kitchen table?  In the dark basement? Who are you kidding – you can’t paint -- I kept telling myself.  I used every excuse I could come up with and then I read another quote (I think God sends me quotes when he wants me to understand what he is trying to tell me)…..

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way.

If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”  Jim Rohn

That is what I was doing.  I was finding excuses.  So I went to the basement, cleaned off the desk, got out the brushes and the acrylic craft paint and started painting.  The first two I throw away.  This is the third attempt.  I didn’t finish it.

The Lake (unfinished work)

We went on a camping trip to the farm.  The ticks were awful and then it rained…. a lot! I was stuck in the camper. I sat at the little table and watched the grass wave.  I looked at all the beautiful colors all around me.  The paints came out and this picture came to life.  It wasn’t very good but I was feeling better having actually finished a picture.

Barn by creek

Looking out the window, I saw the old farm gate.  I also watched the beautiful sunset that night.  They were the inspiration for this painting.  I actually had now finished two and I was learning how to work with acrylics.  I was really starting to feel the creative juices starting to flow again.  It felt so good.

Gate at sunset

When I got home I went to Wal Mart and bought an easel.  It was the first time I had ever used one.  I soon fell in love with it.  The lighting in my dark basement was so much better using the easel and I wasn’t all cramped up on the desk.  It was so fun to go down there and paint in total silence or with my favorite music playing softly.

Barn at sunset

I was drawn to a stack of old Birds and Blooms magazines that I had thought about throwing away.  I picked one up and thought that it would be fun to paint one of the birds.  This painting is my favorite so far, but then birds are some of God’s most beautiful creatures. My Grandmother and Mother could name every bird that they saw.  As for me I just like to watch them and occasionally I can capture one with my camera.  They just fascinate me.

 Bluejay

When we throw away our excuses and just do things because a little voice is telling us to, we come alive and our juices start to flow.

"There may be a great fire in our hearts,

yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it,

and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke"

Vincent Van Gogh

Happy Birthday to my dad.

June 29,1919 to December 17, 1997

I recently went back to the little Bear Creek Church that I attended when I was a child.  I went there for the 50th wedding anniversary of the neighbor boy who was my brother's best friend so long ago yet it seems like yesterday sometimes.  Things have changed so much in the area where I grew up.  The old home place is no more.  It is now part of what the government calls progress.  It was taken from my family and turned into a lake.  My father's family had homesteaded the area along the banks of the Osage River.  They worked long and hard to turn it into productive farms.  They raised cattle, hogs, chickens, crops and kids.

 Dad in California early 1940s before war

My father was one of five sons.  One brother died in infancy.  One brother farmed just to the south of our farm.  My great-grandparents had originally built the house where my uncle lived with his wife and two sons.  My grandmother had moved into their home, which was located between the big house and our home.  It was so neat having Grandma just down the road.  I didn't realize when I was young just how lucky I was to grow up in such a wonderful place.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad.  He always dressed so dapper back then.  As a kid I remember his well shined cowboy boots and shirts starched and wrinkle free. He never went to town unless he changed out of his dirty work clothes.  He always smelled like Old Spice.

He rescued this beautiful horse when she was nothing but skin and bones.  Most people probably wouldn't have bought her but he did.  He named her Stardust.  I think it broke his heart when he had to give her up.

 This young lady is one of my cousins. This is the way I like to remember my dad.  He always had that smile, even when he got so sick he still managed to have that smile.  I remember one of the last things he said to me was be sure and take care of your mom.   He used to go out and pick wildflowers when he would go to get up the milk cows. That was a side that few people probably ever saw.  He taught me so much.  He taught me that there is a lot more to life than material things.  I think he is the reason that I find so much joy in the simple things in life.  That is why after visiting the church and the area where I grew up the day before his birth date that it was important to give him a little tribute.  You earned it Dad.  I miss you so much.