Around the "plantation"

We are lucky (or unlucky) to have a large yard here. It's lovely, has at least 51 rhododendron bushes on it (yes, Chris counted them), and all sorts of things springing up that, since we've not yet been here in spring, are all new to us.

The flip side of the big-yard coin is that it's a lot of work! And now we're wondering what the hell were we thinking?

And yet, and yet . . . it's extremely pleasing to the eye, methinks.

Up at the top of the driveway are two hellebore plants. I think they're hellebores -- I dare not waste bandwidth looking them up right now (2GB over our data plan and still another week to go). Anyway, the deer do not eat these flowers (gasp!). I used the cellphone to shoot this one, then altered it using the Brushstroke app.

And then down below, the shrubs that have been pretty nondescript since we've been here turn out to be forsythia plants, usually the first things to bloom in spring. I shot this from the house, again using the cellphone and the Brushstroke app.

See the dark space to the right of the big fir tree? That's where I saw a light-colored coyote suddenly appear one morning. He took a look around, found no rabbits to chase, and then blended back into the woods.

Happy almost-spring, everyone!

©Carol Leigh

Foggy morning

The fog moved in, and suddenly the surrounding trees became mysterious, quasi-silhouettes against a slightly brighter background. Yellow leaves on one tree appeared to hover in mid-air, their tiny branches obscured by the mist.

All was quiet. All was still. The air fresh and cool.

But I'm not stupid! Way too cold for me to venture out in just slippers and a T-shirt! So I grabbed the DSLR and stood at the windows, as close to heater vents as possible, and photographed.

And then, just because I could, I took one more photo using the iPhone and the Brush Stroke app.

The fog broke and the "real" day began. Spell broken.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

iPhone Photo of the Day

I'm of an age and a generation of photographers who remember "enhancing filters." The first time I looked at a scene through an enhancing filter I began hyperventilating. Look at those colors! Especially the pinks and reds and oranges. I used that damned thing on EVERYthing! The result was a lot of horribly magenta-colored sidewalks and tree trunks and overly-saturated colors that looked absolutely barfy.

Well, today with the iPhone and with an app called "Brushstroke," I'm doing it again. And by now I'm old enough to know better! But you know what? Better to have unbridled enthusiasm than to have it and tamp it down.

So here we go. Here's what I did to an iPhone photo of a paintbrush that I subsequently tweaked using Brushstroke. And I kinda like it. At least I do today! Check back in another 30 years!

©Carol Leigh

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!