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The art of photography is complex. It is not just a world of point shoot and voila! There are pre-processing steps and post-processing. Pre-processing involves making sure you have a good shot – the right lighting, focus and composition. Once you have taken the shot you enter into the world of post-processing and that has many forms in the digital age – anything from cropping to adding texture.

If you’re interested in textures the place to go is Kim Klassen’s Cafe’. Kim is the queen of textures in my mind and really enjoys creating and sharing them. Check her out here.

So I thought I would try and play around with textures recently and these are the results. I’m no master and I haven’t truly developed an eye for what it is I want to see yet, but its fun to play around.

Moon Before

After using Kim Klassen’s “life is good” and “if only” textures.

Using “if only” and “life is good” but with different methodology.

The middle photo is a bit dark, but closer to late night shot. The last photo gives the idea of an unsteady atmosphere and an earlier time of day. So what do you think?

Enjoy!

As the sunsets on Lake Erie

 As I reflect on the loss of my cousin, I am drawn to remember the little things that make life the joy that it is. Recently I celebrated my 9th wedding anniversary, but a few days before that I had the pleasure of just enjoying the majesty that is a sunset with my husband.

I am most appreciative of the little things! These are a few of the sights from that evening.

Playing with night photography, a shot of RKR as the sunsets on Lake Erie.

I recently had the pleasure of participating in the “Liberate Your Art” Postcard Swap hosted by Kat Sloma of The Kat Eye View! What an experience and what a pleasure.

I rarely think of myself as an artist, or even artistically inclined, I do however love photography and that is a form of art. I have dabbled in photography since I was about 15 when my parents purchased my first 35mm SLR camera, but I have always steered away from this joy because when I was in college and wanted to pursue photography courses I was told I had to take art classes as a prerequisite. Part of me understood the reason for this, but my angry twin refused to enter into these entry level art classes because I can not draw!

So instead I just pulled out my camera and took photos, not necessarily thinking about the composition, lighting etc. It worked for me! For the most part I take great pictures and because they are usually of people they were fine. As long as they weren’t blurry and out of focus I was doing good – capturing the moment and usually coming away with a good shot.

Recently I have decided to develop more into photography through the use of Internet sites and photo prompts offered by a wealth of women online. I’m still not going to call myself a professional photographer, but I have a better understanding of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture but most importantly how these three functions come together to give you a great exposure!

With that in mind, and after taking a number of shots over the last year I decided to look at some of my favorite shots as art and liberate them and myself by participating in the Postcard Swap! It was a freeing experience for me because I am not always a fan of my work and this was an opportunity to say “You can do this and someone will enjoy it (hopefully)!”

While I didn’t receive a lot of feedback, I did receive some and I enjoyed the art that came my way. I had the opportunity to connect with women from as far away as Germany and as close – if you want to call it close as New York City!

Below you will find photos of the Postcards I received and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I would gladly participate again!

The works of art I received during the Postcard Swap!

Wow, this has been a very busy summer and it has kept me away from this page – Not Good! I haven’t posted in nearly almost two months, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything to tell you guys about instead I have been swamped with planning my biennial Family Reunion and life!
The Shockley-Beatty Family Reunion is now under my belt and all-in-all it was a fabulous event! More than 120 Shockley’s and Beatty’s converged on Cleveland, Ohio for four days earlier this month and it was a lot of work, but I hope a lot of fun for all those who attended.

One of the best parts of this event was the fact that family members came from all over this wonderful country of ours – as far away as South Dakota and as close as Elyria, Ohio. Many of my cousins met one another for the first time and reunited with family members they had not seen in many years.

The Shockley-Beatty 2011 Family Photo

The true highlights are the Family Olympics when young and old form teams and compete in some of the wildest games you have ever seen – it’s a blast and has become a staple of our reunions. This was our third Olympics and teams are already talking about the next Olympics.

Family Olympics – the Snail Race

One of my personal highlights was the production of “The Shockley’s Journey to Oz” my adaptation of the Wizard of Oz! This is the family’s second production and because of the popularity it is also becoming a family tradition. In “The Shockley’s Journey to Oz” I traced the family journey from Marion, Tennessee in 1915 to present day. It was a blast!

Easing on down the road, a scene from “The Shockley’s Journey to Oz

With the reunion behind us I am returning to my writing, photography and life journey. Thank you to Kat Sloma over at The Kat Eye View of the World, for today’s blog title. Today I read her newsletter and the topic was removing rust – a task I will be completing over the next few weeks.