Shades of Blue: Part 11 – Happy Halloween!

If you’ve been reading my Shades of Blue posts from the beginning you might notice I’ve skipped ahead a little from late summer but we’re hours away from Halloween and some pictures really need to be shared in the moment.

John thinks/dreams/plans for Halloween year round and by mid-summer he starts gathering materials and planning each room.  Even though everything looks best at night lit only by candles and a few carefully placed spot lights I try to take plenty of photos and share them here for everyone to enjoy!

 

Lisa12 Comments

Shades of Blue: Part 7 – Crab Pots and Donuts

As an antidote to the wet, windy weather outside I’m remembering a sunny day in July and returning to my Shades of Blue series.  Today’s post is picture heavy with only a few words so we can all enjoy the pretty blue skies, colorful flowers and peaceful waterfront views from our early morning outing with crab pots and donuts.

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Shades of Blue: Part 6 Summer Skies and Garden Flowers

Football is on the television, fresh rain is clearing the last of the forest fire smoke and I’m reaching for a fleece vest while looking back through my pictures for another summer gallery.

Today’s choices are all about summer skies, summer flowers, summer nights and summer salads.  Plenty of flowers and time by the water with fresh salads and cool drinks make my happy place complete.  🙂  What are your favorite ingredients for a happy summer place?

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Shades of Blue: Part 5 – Dusty Corners

Walk, run, cycle – When you live inside your head for such long periods of time, you have to open the windows, air it out a bit, let sunlight stream into all the dark and dusty corners of your mind. Twinkle Khanna

I like to think of summer as a time for some personal “deep cleaning.”  There are vacations to look forward to, school routines are forgotten and we open the windows to fresh air both literally and figuratively.  I knew this year would be a little different but my plan was to spend at least one day each week outside enjoying the best the Pacific Northwest has to offer.  I could take plenty of photos along the way and re-emerge in September with months of new post material and a renewed outlook on life.

Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. Today is September 1st and Ryan and I made it outside for 5 days of hiking, I have a library full of new pictures to share and as I write this my windows are wide open but I’m still searching for that sunlight moment that means the cobwebs have been brushed aside and the corners are clean.

We’ve had a busy three months as a family, John started a new job, Ryan rested and recovered after a stressful school year and some oral surgery, I’ve continued to work my two jobs as well as run our two online stores so our days are full from morning to night.  When you add in politics that I just can’t turn away from, weeks of forest fire smoke that put a damper on our hiking calendar and now the hurricane in the Gulf States and I have to admit finding my focus for creative work and blogging has been a challenge.

Through it all though I’ve continued to take pictures and hope soon I’ll be ready to start sharing them because there is plenty to love about 2017 and I’m determined to shine some light on the bright sides.

The photos in my first gallery above are from some lovely June nights while the gallery below is from the hike we took on my birthday.  Our first outing of the season and the beginning of my summer quest to get outside of my own head.

 

Lisa9 Comments

Shades of Blue: Part 4

I’ve got a photo filled post for you this week as we continue my June walks through town and along the beach.  You get to see my mother’s day flowers blooming by our backdoor, views from the marina, an accidental shot of beach sand when I was trying to put my phone away and if you look closely at the left side of the last photo above there’s a quiet seagull waiting patiently for dinner.

 

We’re lucky here to have not one but three public beaches with plenty of room to explore and the hardy summer roses are a must see for me at each stop.  We slowed down to see a tiny crab, found our place on the map and were surprised by a big boulder with a perfect peep-hole to the water. We sit by this spot all the time but this is the first day I’ve noticed the opening…

If you’re new to this series and wonder why these photos are all shot in Hipstamatic or why I call them Shades of Blue my first Blue post explains it all.  I haven’t decided how long the series will last but I have plenty of photos for a few more weeks at least so I hope you’re enjoying them. 🙂

Lisa11 Comments

Shades of Blue: Part 3

I’d better pick up the pace with these spring themed posts or I’ll still be working through May photos after the 4th of July. 🙂  Today you get to see Ryan and I out in the neighborhood looking signs of spring, roaming the beach skipping rocks and finding interesting driftwood/seaweed combinations. To keep things interesting you also get to peek at one eclectic corner of our garage…

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Shades of Blue: Part 2

Continuing my thoughts from last weeks post about Hipstamatic and Shades of Blue I have a new series of small photos from my walks around town.  This was a surprising spring morning filled with fog that could have passed for fall if you looked past the brave new blooms.  The air was damp and cold but since I was out I thought I’d make the best of it and see what I could see.

My day started with the early morning walk to the bus stop next to this warning sign for motorcycles.  Later I detoured to the beach on my way to the gym and our day ended wine tasting with friends.

All photos shot with my iPhone 7+ using Hipstamatic and the Elijah/Love 81 combination.

Lisa8 Comments

Shades of Blue: Part 1

If you’ve been with me for a while you might know I take all my photos with my iPhone and if you are a details person you’ve noticed I typically tag each photo or post with the editing app used in case a reader wants to try something new with their own work.  I’ve got more apps than I want to count and each has at least one unique feature that inspired me to download but when it comes time to edit images and post my results I skip over all of them and open one of these favorite three every single time.

In no particular order my favorites are Snapseed, VSCO & Hipstamatic.  Sometimes Oggl substitutes for Hipstamatic if I want to process a straight out of the camera shot into something with a Hipstamatic filter but really I like the immediacy of shooting and finishing all in one.

Snapseed is a great easy-to-learn app that quickly offers subtle balance corrections, straightening, cropping and some fun filter effects if you want a more dramatic change.

VSCO also offers corrective features, a large library of soft and pretty filters that mimic film photography and has a vibrant online community full of like-minded photographers.

While Snapseed and VSCO are my apps for subtle changes Hipstamatic is where I go to explore small moments in time.  When I’m overwhelmed and tired of the chaos that comes with a busy life I like how the square format directs my focus to just one or perhaps two things.  It’s a photographic chance to slow down and take a breath while tuning out distractions.  I know some people find the editing heavy-handed but I like it for just that reason because when I use Hipstamatic I’m not trying to capture a realistic image of the moment, instead I’m exploring how each little square is a work of art hidden in the day.  The lens/film/flash combinations add a painterly quality that transforms something easy to overlook into something that makes me think.

All of this is a long-winded way of introducing my next series of posts.  For months I’ve wanted to post more regularly but I was out of new pictures to share and as a result out of anything interesting to say.  Now I’ve got a series of Hipstamatic images ready to go and I thought I should give you a little behind-the-scenes insight into why they were shot this way.  Over the next week or so I’ll have several posts full of images from my daily escapes outside but instead of big, beautiful PNW vistas these are small in scale and more personal. Now you’ll see the one element in a big space that drew me in instead of a panoramic shot with something for everyone.  I have those too and will share them another day but this week will be all about Hipstamatic and shades of blue.

All photos shot with my iPhone 7+ using Hipstamatic and the Elijah/Love 81 combination.

 

Lisa14 Comments