Dog Gone It

Filed Under Farmers Market | 26 comments

Saturday mornings at the Farmer’s Market, if one arrives just as all the vendors are setting up their booths, can be very quite.

 About 30 minutes after the die hard– “fresh produce only’s”– guys make their way  around all the booths– there seems to be a revival of voices, laughter and dogs on parade. This is the high-light of my day! 

I adore dogs– sorry to Sammie the wonder cat (who wrote his own blog– check it out here) maybe it’s because I can’t have a pup right now but it seems to me that I am craving to be near them.

Frankie had just spied a wayward hot dog recently out of the mitts of a baby – he would not make eye contact with me.

Oliver, on the other hand, not only cocked his head to me but I swear he whispered to me to borrow him permanently. Isn’t his smile adorable?

Ranger, I promise, stopped in his tracks for me to snap this handsome shot of him.

But still Buddy the Basset is still one of my favorites!

When putting this post together I couldn’t help keep myself amused thinking of all the cute Dog songs out there. Here’s a couple:

Gonna Buy Me a Dogby The Monkees

Who Let the Dogs Outby Baha Men

How Much is that Doggie in the Window by Patti Page

Me and You and a Dog Named Booby Lobo

Hound Dog by Elvis

And Oh yes– a tribute to Utah–

 OK, so this one’s not really about a dog, but it’s a cool song, nonetheless:  Puppy Love by Donny Osmond

Can you think of any other Dog songs I am missing? Join me and the other outdoors lovers with Susan at Southern Day Dreamer.

Here’s to my wonderful new friends!  TTFN~~Claudia ♥

July 29, 2009 at 1:03 am | Farmers Market | 26 comments

New Toy – Metamorphosis Monday

Filed Under Photography | 20 comments

Long ago when I took Wedding photos as a part-time job/hobby, (back in the film days) it cost a fortune to see how wonderful or poorly a shoot went. Lucky for me the majority of my shots turned out OK, but frankly not many clients or friends for that matter, ever saw  my BAD shots. ( and there were grundles of them)

Then along came the DIGITAL CAMERA!!I was not only back in my Groove… I could take a millions and gazillions  of the same thing and it would NOT cost me a dime until I had them printed. Woo hoo!!

After the fun of the shoot– THEN COMES THE WORK. As many of you know getting the photo exactly like you saw it or tweaked just a bit– takes TIME… and a lot of understanding of Photoshop. My boyfriend (Canon Rebel SLR Camera to be exact)  came with the shorten version of Photoshop called Elements.  This took me many hours of tutorials and still I find myself lacking. Besides, the $699 to $1000 price tag of the full blown version of Photoshop, keeps me from the purchase. 

As I have said too many times to count (sorry about the redundancy) I love, love, did I say LOVE  my blog! However, I have to get geared up to do it some days– especially if I want to boost my photos. Most of the time I just post them SOOC (straight out of the camera) but when I tweak it can take me a couple of hours of work.

Ladies and Gentlemen– “Help me Rhonda!!” … I have found a life savor for myself!!  AND…. its FREE!!  It’s called Picnik –  This wonderful program has taken hours off my photo manipulations. It talks in terms I understand… like  “shine be gone”    yes that takes the glare off a face, or “wrinkle remover“… uh huh… (now if i could only figure out one of these programs for my daily make-up application!)  Ohhh! and one I particularly enjoy… “Sunless Tanner“. I get this program!! I understand it! It even has little tiny icons to the left of the application to show me what I want to be accomplished.

DISCLAIMER– I simply grabbed a cute shot I took some time back for demonstration purpose only.

This was the original photo….

Then this fun example—I  just cropped and then boosted the color and added some fun text– then put a couple of different frames around it. I promise on a stack of very tall bibles this took me 10 minutes to do. HAD I tried to this on Elements it would’ve taken me at least an hour and I would’ve tired out of frustration and NOT posted the picture.

I know I have mentioned my divine sisters… and this is just a funner version of us all.

 A long ago pencil sketch of us all (Sharon is the blonde of course on the left–so kinda rearrange till it matches the above photo)

Do any of you already use this program??? If so, where the heck have I been? I have been floating around all day long after I stumbled upon this. Can you tell I am excited??

Be sure and check out Susan at Between Naps on the Porch where she not only has a fantastic post of her covered porch but where you can check out the other Metamorphosis participators as well!

TTFN~~Claudia ♥

July 26, 2009 at 11:44 pm | Photography | 20 comments

Farmers Market

Filed Under Farmers Market | 12 comments

Garden Magic

This is the garden’s magic,
That through the sunny hours
The gardener who tends it, Himself outgrows his flowers.

He grows by gift of patience,
Since he who sows must know
That only in the Lord’s good time
Does any seedling grow.

He learns from buds unfolding,
From each tight leaf unfurled,
That his own heart, expanding,
Is one with all the world.

He bares his head to sunshine,
His bending back a sign
Of grace, and ev’ry shower becomes
His sacramental wine.

And when at last his labors
Bring forth the very stuff
And substance of all beauty
This is reward enough.
-MARIE NETTLETON CARROLL

Words can not discribe how enjoyable I find wandering around our wonderful Famers Market. Not only is it just heaven for me and my boyfriend ( my camera) But along the way you find new Friends!

Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, for hosting our Pink Saturday and to Melissa at Inspired Room. Stop by and say Hello to the tons of participants!!

TTFN~~ Claudia ♥

July 25, 2009 at 12:53 am | Farmers Market | 12 comments

City Walk- Salt Lake City

Filed Under Photography | 36 comments

 

Have you ever taken a City walk? I know I hadn’t really walked my city.  I thought pretty much that buildings were just buildings, until this past Saturday when I had the opportunity,  along with about 50 other fellow Salt Lake City photographers and my dear dear friend Ms Joanie, to walk  the streets  and get up close and personal, together.

Saturday July 18th was the world wide City Walk; where over 900 cities participated just as we did. I really enjoyed our outing.  It was close to 100 degrees out and I am very much a pantie-waste when it comes to the heat. But I bucked it up and  thought I caught a couple of  interesting shots.

Look at the details… I loved this clock. (which reminds me I have a great clock post coming up– so stay tuned.)

Check out the Buffalo and the Dental molding and fruit basket. I picture the artisan who crafted this and the pride they must have had. 

Face and Lace

Then we came upon a simple carnival set up for the Big Brothers and Sisters. Isn’t this cute Chef charming? I wonder if he helps Santa in the Winter?

Typically I am not a huge Clown fan– ok call me a big ol chicken — but this fellow was a bit on the shy side and I thought he was beautiful.

Around the corner from all this was a fantastic Farmers Market (more on that to come) where I found this Flower Vender.

The roads we choose to take in our life are very Serendipitous! Oh what a happy accident I found! I am so enjoying my Dipity Road. Do you have any City walk experiences you can share? I would love to hear about them.

Meanwhile, thanks as usual to Susan at Southern Daydreamer where she is hosting our Wednesday Outdoor celebration.  Also, what others are “hooked” on … at Hooked on Fridays with Julia and of course the ever INSPIRING Melissa at The Inspired Room. Check out some of the other fantastic spots around our Blog-osphere!

TTFN~~Claudia ♥

July 21, 2009 at 11:38 pm | Photography | 36 comments

Hydrangea

Filed Under Pink | 18 comments

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Visit the ladies at How Sweet the Sound and see what they are up to this PINK Saturday.

TTFN~~ Claudia

July 18, 2009 at 1:34 am | Pink | 18 comments

Comments

Back  Back to Top   Next Page »