Echoes of Winter is yet a third version -- re-cropped and colors changed -- of this over two year old photo. This version, I think, captures the shapes and lines I most like in the original picture. The coloring was a last minute shot (pardon the pun) in the dark before giving up, and a total surprise. I read somewhere that most of art is accident, and that has certainly been my experience. In any case, "Echoes of Winter" may work for me now because I'm feeling more than usually sentimental today and beautiful snowy winter trees are something I will almost certainly never see again except in pictures and dreams. Hey, I can't have everything and I do have some wonderful memories. Even living in a large city (New York), I could stand on my terrace on winter nights right after a snow fall, and gaze at the always mesmerzing moonlight on the trees and streets below.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Don't know why, but can't come up with a name I like for the above photo. So The Greening is (hopefully) just a temporary moniker. This photo is only a few months old and is the second version of it I've cropped and colored. Below is the previous one, Butter Side Up:

More and more, I find I become "enamored" of the particular shapes in some photos and want to play around with different crops and colors.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Yup, I'm again totally indulging my inclinations and the habits I've developed in this brand new version of a very old picture, Nexus. This, in spite of that fact that an important message from one of last night's dreams is that I'm stuck in old ways of learning and understanding. However, I need the comfort and ease of the familiar today, and I can challenge myself to explore in new ways some other day.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

The Heart of the Matter is another of that recent batch I just took. I hadn't realized the garden had just been watered as all the rest of the photos I took up til then had been in bright sun, and any water drops had dried off. So I was a little surprised to see tiny drops in this picture once it was up on my screen. It was one of those I had to take at a distance because I could not get in close, intending to crop. What drew me to this rose center was the contrast between the unruly seeds and the somewhat orderly surrounding petals. And that's what prompted me to keep changing the colors and saturation until a really good contrast appeared.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

Night Light is another in that brand new batch of photos I've been posting from the past couple of days. Also one that I've clearly indulged in reversing the colors and extensive cropping. It's actually the center of a dying blush colored rose. I really liked the shapes but until I tried reversing (and slightly saturating) the colors it just sort of sat on my screen saying "Well, so what?" Now it has a little "ooomph," IMHO.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

EVENING STARS

... and Evening Stars is exactly what these were to me as I passed by on the way to dinner, night before last. Especially as I'd tried getting some shots of them that afternoon in bright sun that I was fairly certain would be problematic. So I whipped out my camera and caught this shot in slight shadow. I've taken pictures of these Painted Ladies, as they're called, in years past. Their color is always a challenge as it can tend to shine white -- you can see that in this shot above -- and mess with the clarity of the photo. So this one I'm rather content with. If I had my druthers, that darker "casing" out of which they grow (on their upper left) would be paler. Ah, for the patience and the steady hand to neatly change that area's color.

Below is another picture from that same batch of two days ago, Introversion, taken in our Memorial Rose Garden. It's obviously been subjected to heavy color manipulation and cropping. What can I say? Something called to me from the center of this bright red rose that did not "show up" until it took it into the blue part of the spectrum:

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

The title for this one, The Lid Comes Off, unintentionally reflects how I'm feeling since I took the first batch of photos in many weeks, yesterday afternoon. However, although I was very enthused most were ultimately disappointing. I'd forgotten how unpredictable my camera's focus has become (and I think it's a progressive decline as my admittedly low-end camera ages). What works one time in a particular light on a particular subject, will not work the next time under the same conditions. But I did manage to harvest a few pictures I'm content with and several I will work on later. And it felt quite delightful to work on spanking new photos.

Here's another from yesterday's batch, One Source:

I've noticed, more and more, that I tend to a certain style of cropping, and choice of subject (e.g. flower centers) and colors. So I've been experimenting with other crops, colors, and subjects for a while now. That's how I came to the coloring for "The Lid Comes Off" -- resisting my usual bent for the purple and blue family. (I hasten to add, that I like the dusty pinkish hue.) And though the crop for "One Source" is rather typical of me, in my defense it was the best available given all the picture's givens.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****