After Winter’s  cold and frost, we  look forward to Spring with each little bud that raises it’s head; bringing new hope as all Springs do. I have always thought that Spring and Fall were my favorite seasons; but this year’s Summer, because of a very very rainy Spring, was particularly green and abundant with fantastic color blasts. I love living so close to the pulse of the seasons.

Mother Nature delights us with each flower that grows to it’s fullest potential. Spring metamorphosis‘ into Summer with excitement. (join others at Susan’s Metamorphosis Monday)

Here is a little Metamorphosis example- SOOC (straight out of camera)

With a little help from Picnik - Add some “Boost” and Vignette”  (little darker edges) — don’t forget to SAVE AS.

In my creative dreams, this is how I would like to water color. 

Summer time helps bring out our Funky sides — don’t you think? I’m LOVIN these pots!

As I took a drive late one over cast evening… I came upon this bounty of daisies! I often perform dangerous dashings from my car just to get a shot. One of these days someone is going to run me over; but I could not pass this  by with out capturing this lovingly tended yard. Yes, some times I am a fool for beauty.

Do you supose the owner of this tire swing would mind if I took it for a Summer evening ride?

I can imagine that perhaps an 8 year old little darling could probably kick my butt if i tried.

Susan at Southern Daydreamer is throwing her usual Out Door Wednesday party; come see who is showing up.

Waving goodbye to sweet HOT August 2009!! Even though the days are long, some how Summer is too short.

TTFN~~ Claudia ♥ ♥

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 ♥

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 ♥

What makes you think of Summer? Lemonade, hot-dogs, fire-works, running through the sprinkler? (wow… now that’s a blast from the past!)

One of my most favorite events of the year is, the Utah Arts Festival, held in down town Salt Lake city. This year, a dear friend asked me to join their family for the evening.

Meet Ms. Armani, my hostess for the mostess that night. (Jacque don’t kill me for miss spelling her name

Something about these polimar clay journalsand kaleidoscope immediately drew me in. The artist (sorry I didn’t get your name) from Artmakesmehappy@etsy.com said, “I especially like creating journals with the focus on rendering the mundane portions of our lives sacred through journaling.”

Then I ventured upon Kathy Ross’ booth, with her sculpture and bronzes. I was particularly taken with these “over alls“

Look at the DETAIL

The Gardener

The Birdwatcher

This gracious artist, Kathy Ross, was so very kind and loved the idea of me spotlighting her works on my blog. *waving at Kathy* when she reads this. “My current obsession is globes and maps and book pages. I like mice, elephants, bubble wrap, doll eyes.  I like the secret places, the story behind, the inside of things, the dark side, the underside.” Visit her at krsculptureanddolls.com.

Guitarist by SugarPost

How about a bit of whimsy in your Garden? (check out the monsters carrying out the Gnome)  He does have a bit of a twisted flare.

This SugarPost artist is from Salt Lake City, find him HERE  His website says: “You’d think Fred Conlon was raised by negligent parents out back of a junk yard with 18 pitbulls and a make-believe friend named Krull.  And yet maybe the truth explains more about this college-educated Rocky Mountain high artist than you’d think”

Then there was Sacred Stone Garden Art  Their site says, ” The Buddha and Kwan Yin are designed as fragments of monumental scale sculptures. As fragments, they are designed to be placed in a garden as though they fell there hundreds of years ago, or just yesterday.” I think these would be such a fun conversation piece in ANY garden!

When I walked into this booth, the Artist said I looked like a little kid in a candy store! I do love scarves (they are my fetish) and I must wear my heart on my sleeve because I certainly did love her work. (above the before and after)

Look at this divine wall of color and YUM!

Stop by and check out Siobhan, HERE Siobhan said, “Each piece goes through 13 steps from start to finish. During each one of those steps, I infuse my work with love and empowerment, insuring many generations of enjoyment.” 

The Evening wound down with a very cool group from Africa– their band was good but their drums were amazing. (picture them on the far left of the screen! haha)

My little bit of ART created that night – dontcha love when your camera does funky lil things like this? Now that’s Serendipity!

We were all pretty tired after all the fun. I left refreshed, inspired and with very tired feet!

TTFN~~Claudia

 This week visit Susan at Southern Dreamer, who always takes time out of her family’s life to make sure we have a great Outdoor celebration party.

Im hooked on Artists and their creativity and of course my Pinks for the week; be sure and check out the parties at both of these lovely ladies sites.

This week I found my pocket book quite empty,  still I went shopping!! Not necessarily shopping for “things” but shopping for great shots.

I stopped by a quaint boutique, The Emporium. In I went –camera in hand.

I’m not really sure who said it… Probably Martha Stewart, but it really is…

 ”All in the Presentation.”

Long a fan of the window merchandiser, items working hand in hand  to create the artists’ vision, I love the Presentation. Especially when a shop keeper gets it… and understands how to showcase their unique treasures.

Black and white Classic

Piles of Pink Polka Dots

Color the only similarity

Yummy texture

Displaying simple white with touches of color

These darling lil shoes, for a second, had me thinking I should at least “RENT” a little girl with feet just this size.  (emphasis on the “just for a second”)

So, today I am hooked on Merchandising and it seems in reflection, lots of PINK and dont forget to check out its a beautiful life over at The inspired room.  So be sure and check out all three  of these spots. (click on the Purple words)

TTFN~~Claudia

side note: My thoughts are with Farrah Fawcetts family– an icon, an artist and free spirt… I thank her for her inspirational hair, which I never quite achieved.♥

We had a huge storm Tonight– after the storm–  if you look very carefully you can see the DOUBLE rainbow.

To enhance the viewing experience CLICK HERE { Then click on the song, I often go walking–it will open on a new page} then you can come back and view the pictures.

Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point

This morning 60 degrees, no wind and blue skies! It couldn’t have been a lovlier day to take a walk with my boyfriend… oooops! I mean my camera.

Look how yummy and thick these leaves on this tree are. I was amazed how lucky I was to be able to enjoy and take such fun pictures and not have any people walk into the shot! Do you think my shot gun  on my back scared them off?

Do you see the Princess over seeing the tulip boardered water fall?

Close up and personal.

Another Dipity Road— Serendipity, finding fortune by happenstance!

Start tappin your toe.

All I was doing was driving down the high way when I saw this curious sight ahead of me.

Always armed with my camera ..

 Oh my gosh!!  I’m serious when I say that  I probably put several other cars in grave danger… (please forgive me– seriously.. I could not help but take these characters’ photo.  They are a lil on the blurry side… but I’m hooked on having a great photo op!

Above: Heading down the highway… looking for adventure…

Now for an UPCLOSE and personal picture of Rascal…

He probably was saying to himself, “dang, lady … you are VERY weird driving 60 miles an hour down the road hanging out of the car like the pop-er-ot-ze”

I think seriously this was one of my favorite times of shooting– a drive by! And I think I have said seriously, entirely too many times. Seriously.

Also, don’t hate me for getting “Born to be wild,” stuck in your brain all day!

Check out Julia’s weekly challenge Hooked on Fridays– she is awesome and it was fun getting to share in what we are hooked on today.

Thanks — Claudia