Finding Color and Space

From scooter love yesterday to Burano love today. I am sharing "color" today, in honor of the wonderful Rachael Taylor who has featured me on her blog. Rachael is a surface pattern designer I met at the Do What You Love Retreat in May. Her work is beautiful and simple, and she loves bright colors, just like me. Stop by and visit her blog here to see me featured, and stick around to see her work. You will find something you love, I guarantee it. My favorite is this orange bag, which I brought home with me from the retreat. I'm so excited that it arrived with my goods from Italy, and I can start using it again. Orange Power!

I'm celebrating negative space on Mortal Muses today, so thought I would share some "space" here too. Have you stopped by and visited Mortal Muses lately? There's been a lot of change! We celebrated our first year at the beginning of August and now have five lovely new muses bringing their beautiful images and words your way. I have always loved how having nine different people working together creates a place of such beauty and diversity, and that has not changed. I hope you will join us there.

PS - Don't miss the giveaway on yesterday's post, there is still time to enter.

The Answer

So, what's your guess for today? USA or Europe? Just kidding, I won't drag you through another day of suspense!

Today's image is from Carbondale, Colorado.

Yesterday's image was from Old Colorado City, Colorado. Old Colorado City is the historic part of Colorado Springs.

Monday's image was from Burano, Italy.

What do you take away from this little exercise?

Exploring with a Camera: Frame within a Frame (2nd Edition)

[Author's Note: Through the summer months Exploring with a Camera will be "Second Edition" postings of previous explorations with some new images. You will find a new link up at the end of this post to share your photos, and your photos are also welcome in the Flickr pool for the opportunity to be featured here on the blog. I hope that you will join in!]

"Frame within a Frame" is a compositional technique that I've had on my mind to share here, but was waiting for the perfect "frame" shot to lead off with. I found it in this shot from Bologna, looking through a bridge window into the buildings and canal beyond. Now that I'm writing this post and reviewing my archives, however, I am seeing that I use this technique more than I thought!

Frame within a Frame works for a couple of reasons:

• First, it serves to focus the eye of the viewer on a specific subject. When you look at a frame within a frame photograph, you are usually drawn directly to the frame and what is inside of it. Then you kind of visually take a step back and take in the whole of the image. In the photo above, you are immediately drawn to the jumble of windows and walls and the distant bridge within the frame. Then you back out and see that you are looking through a wall with graffiti.
• Second, it provides context for the image. You are looking through one thing - the frame - into something else. You have a better feel for where you are, as the viewer. It places the viewer of the photograph into a slightly different role. Instead of just looking at the photograph, they are looking through the photograph, from the frame into what is beyond. They are immersed in the image more completely. 

The "frames" that are within photo don't have to be windows, although these are used to good effect. Basically you are looking  for anything that serves to contain or frame the subject. The nice thing about a frame within a frame is that it doesn't have to be a straight line! The edges of our photographs are typically straight lines, with rectangular or square shape. Compositional frames we can use within our photographs can be any shape, from natural or man made.

In this image the eye is immediately drawn to the subject framed in the "white" of the overexposed window, and from there you move into the room to get the context of the boy (my son) standing at this very large window.

In this image from Padova, the subject is the bookstore, but the context is provided by the frame of the store window at night. The person walking by serves to punctuate the fact that we are looking into the store from outside.

I find that I use arches all of the time in my photography to frame a subject. It helps that they are almost everywhere in Europe! An arch is a nice contrast to the rectangular shape of the photo, as shown in this image from Brescia.

And here is one from Marksburg Castle, in the Rhine River Valley of Germany. This arch frames both a near and far vista, looking down the Rhine. It shows the strategic view the castle had of the surrounding area.

Yet another, this time an arch internal to the building, at Casa Battlo, in Barcelona. This arch frames the beautiful lines of the staircase curving upward.

Don't ignore the good old, square doorway though! This doorway serves as a frame, giving more depth to the alley beyond and leading your eye right to the window at the end.

Natural elements make great frames. I think you can probably conjure up images you've seen or captured looking through trees at a distant object or vista - the trees are the frame. The palm tree in the image below from Split, Croatia serves to frame the subject of the lighted building while also giving the context of where the photo was taken from, the waterfront promenade. I have photos of this building without the palm tree, and they are not as interesting as this one.

This may be a familiar photo to you, as I've used it in Exploring with a Camera before. The branches of the trees arching over and hanging down to the water, along with the reflections completing the the arch below, serve to frame the path and draw your eye right along it to the water beyond.

Finally, here is a more literally frame within a frame from Bologna. Instead of looking through the frame, you are looking at what is inside the frame. It takes the random jumble of advertising, ties it together and gives it context. It becomes street art on it's own.

So, now that you've seen a few examples of frame within a frame, how can you use this compositional technique?

1. The easiest place to start is to look for the obvious in our everyday lives - windows and doors. Look at these as frames. What do you see when you look through them? What do you see reflected in them? Consider the point of view from both sides of the frame - looking out and looking in.
2. Expand beyond the obvious to look for other opportunities for frames in our everyday spaces - hallways, mirrors and furniture are a few places to start. What other ideas can you come up with?
3. Look for frames in architecture. As with arches, architectural elements can make great frames for something beyond, as well as provide the context of where you are at when you take the picture.
4. Look for frames in nature. Trees make great frames, what other natural elements can you use to highlight your subject?
5. Try changing your focus point and exposure - focus on the frame as the subject, focus on the image beyond the frame as the subject. What works best? Why? For many of my Frame within a Frame images, I have done both and then picked the one that had the best feel.

Chances are you are already using this compositional principle without thought, as I was. The lead in photo, found in a back alley of Burano on my last trip to Venice, is a great example.

Take a look at your photos, and see where you have used frame within a frame and what effect it had. Keep an eye out, notice how it is used in the images you see around you everyday on the web, in print, in TV and movies. See where you've used it or go out and try it, and then link up below and share your photo in the Flickr pool. I'm sure we'll have lots of creative frames!

FYI - Links will be moderated. Please use a permalink, ensure that your linked image is on topic, and include a link back to this site in your post through the Exploring with a Camera button (available here) or a text link. Thanks!

Letter from Amy + Favorites: Primarily Color

Primarily Color

Burano, Italy, 2010

In addition to posting some favorite images as I move from Italy to the US, I'm also posting some letters from friends. These friends are former ex-pats, who have lived abroad and moved home. I've asked them to write a "letter" to me, telling me about their experience returning home to give me an idea of what I'm headed for. I thought you might also like to hear the experience of returning ex-pats. Who knows, it just might help you relate if you ever have family or friends returning from living abroad.

This first letter is from Amy Peyton, a friend in Oregon. I first met her a few years ago through a mutual friend, as she returned from her most recent experience living abroad. I look forward to seeing her again, very soon!

_______________________

Home:  The World (but fairly happy for the time being in Forest Grove, Oregon)

Expat-dom: 4 years in Japan, 1 year in Romania, 1 year in France, 6 months each in Korea/Australia, 4 months in South Africa

Country Count: 44 (Top 3: Croatia, Slovenia, Japan)

Hey KatJ.  I’m not a blogger, but I’m a fairly talented rambler, so here goes.

Ugh, coming home.  Coming home from overseas bites.  It reminds me of the “Sludge Test” in high school when the H.S. chemistry teacher would give you this black, oily, hairy blob and then (through a series of tests you’ve studied all term), you would come up with all 17 ingredients (motor oil, bubble bath, sand, etc.) .  “Reverse culture shock” has all these hidden emotions that eventually burble up to the surface….

When I’ve come home from long sojourns overseas, I feel ___.  No, it’s not frustration.  It’s not hatred (although I have felt that a fair bit in the past).  It’s not exactly shame (but I have felt that, too).  It’s like someone made you swallow a bubble and that bubble is pumped up inside of you, right up under your skin.  And the littlest things just make you want to explode sometimes from the inside out: consumerism, materialism, indulgence, grandiosity (the SIZES of everything), superficiality, political ignorance, geographical stupidity (Australia versus Austria, among others), etc. etc.  When you mix all of this with homesickness, wistfulness, and desire to be “anywhere but here,” it’s pretty heady stuff.  At least it was for me.

One breakdown I had in particular was when I returned to the States from Japan.  My friend dropped me off at Safeway to grab some shampoo while he waited outside in the car.  After 20 or so minutes, I emerged, with nothing in hand, except tears and (probably) snot from a fairly colossal meltdown in the shampoo aisle.  SO many kinds, sizes, flavors, colors…do I have oily hair?Normal?Dry?Blended?Colored treated?Curly?Straight?Flyaway?Small bottle?Big bottle?With attached conditioning pack?Without attached conditioning pack?Hairmasque?Dandruffcontrol?  In my neighborhood store in Fukuoka, Japan, there were maybe 6-7 choices, none of which I could read anyway, so who cared?  In Romania, I bought whatever was *there*.   So, in this situation, the balloon was pumped up and all it took was a choice between PertorSuaveorHeadandShouldersorAussieorTresSemmeorPaulMitchellorInsfusiumorPantene orNexxusorVidalSassoonorWhiteRainorSt.IvesorVo5 to set it off.

It’s also a challenge to be one of the only people you know who travel.  People asked me all the time:  “So how was it?  Did you have fun?”  And my mouth would slightly hang open, and I would be thinking: “Ummm, yeah. I was in the middle of South Africa where nobody had apparently gotten the news that Mandela had been elected and the townships still had curfews and black taxis/white taxis.  *Yeah, I had fun*.”  It chokes you up when this magnanimous experience you’ve just had is whittled down to a couple of polite sentences to a disinterested few.  Your family and true friends will save you—the ones that really want to know how you drank tuica and played Uno with school principals and how the Japanese customs officials bowed and excused themselves out of the room when they discovered your trove of feminine products.  (Ha!!)  When you return home from overseas, those who really know and love you will envelope you like a blanketJ. 

And this especially includes Patrick and Brandon—what a gift to be able to give each other “reverse culture shock” therapy at a moment’s notice.  I did 99% of my traveling/living overseas by myself, so maybe these words are streaked with a bit more spit and fire than most people, who knows.

I did manage to find solace….  I talked with other expats, joined language conversation groups, and made new friends with people who had the same obsessions.  I planned my next overseas trip almost as soon as the plane skidded along the tarmac.  When I got homesick for Japan, I went to Uwajimaya and ate Udon, when I was homesick for Romania, I sang to my Romanian rock CDs and made ciorba while making care packages for those I left behind.  I kept busy with work.  I had purpose and a whole list of plans. 

So, there are my two cents.  Just get together with lots of friends and lean on your familyJ.

I’ll be thinking of you,

Amy

Favorites: For the Love of Pink

For the Love of Pink

Burano, Italy, 2010

[Note: I'm in the midst of moving from Italy to the US right now, so instead of letting my blog sit idle I'm sharing some of my favorite images from the last two years of living in Italy and traveling in Europe. If you like them, you can vote for my portfolio in the One Life 2011 photography contest.]

Learning from the Lulls

Friday night I came home from work exhausted. I don't know why, it hadn't been a terribly stressful work week and I had a holiday on Thursday. Saturday morning I woke up looking forward to a morning on my own. My husband and son were heading off early to watch a bike ride and I had the house to myself. A rare treat. I sat at the computer to get into some of my creative work and what happened? Nothing. There was absolutely nothing there. No motivation, no inspiration, no creativity.

This had never happened to me before, around my creative work. This was new. This was scary. My mind quickly went from tired and unmotivated to panicked. So I took a deep breath. Centered myself. And then did something I never do: I turned off the computer.

Here's what I did instead:

Took a bath.

Read a book in a sunbeam on the couch.

Colored a zentangle, so nicely provided to me by my blog friend Karen, only a day before. (Visit her here to download some zentangle book marks, if you have the urge to color.)

Baked popovers.

Read some more out on the balcony, finished the book. 

Ate pizza.

By the end of the day on Saturday, my creative inspiration was back. I turned on the computer, and my work was easy again. Sunday I continued my unplanned hiatus from creative projects and just let myself be. A few more things I did...

Started a new book.

Spent some time journaling.

Baked a cake with my son.

Started to color another zentangle from Karen.

Made origami cranes.

Photographed origami cranes. Multiple times.

Went for a walk with my son.

Ate gelato.

I finished the weekend refreshed. It's Monday morning, and I'm ready to start my week. The small, unscheduled break from my creative goals turned out great. It refocused me, showed me a tiny bit of where I need to make changes to keep my inspiration flowing. I learned from this little creative lull. I know it's not a big deal - it's not as if I was completely blocked. It was just enough for me to get a glimpse of what could happen. To show me that I need to be careful, to listen to these moments, so I don't get to real burnout.

Has this ever happened to you? How do did you respond, what do you do when a creative lull hits?

(The first photo is from Burano, and fills me with a sense of peace and calm. I can imagine sitting quietly in that chair, gathering my creative strength. It is a companion to another one I've shared previously here.)

Are you ready to Find Your Eye?

(For info on how I processed this photo, see end of post.)

I am so, so excited to tell you that registration for my Find Your Eye: A photo course with heart and soul is up on wishstudio.com!  You can read the description of the course and get the registration details here. Instead of repeating the course description, today I want to share with you the story of what's behind this course, where it came from, and why I'm doing it now.

For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you know what an amazing creative journey I have had during my time in Italy. (If you're new here, you can get a sense of it from my About Me page.) I have come in to my creative, artistic self through my photography and experiences, and I've chronicled each little step and realization along with way here. Being able to say my mantra has taken a lot of personal work: I am an artist, my medium is photography, and I have a unique vision to show the world.


Along the way of realizing this truth for myself, I've realized that this is true for everyone. We all have a  unique vision to show the world. Every one of us, whether we realize it or not. Whether we are able to see it and own it, or not. With that realization, came the growing feeling that I might have a way to help others interested in photography learn to see their unique vision, by tapping in to my experiences. I could help others to gain the confidence and freedom that has come for me, as I have found my eye.

This feeling started to grow on me, and I would jot down notes here and there. Ideas would come randomly during my walks or the shower - you know how creative ideas happen when you least expect them. I started to carry notebooks every where with me to capture these ideas so that they would leave me alone. After a while those ideas started to build themselves into a framework for the class. But not now, I would say to myself, I'll wait until I move back home, to Oregon. 


The ideas didn't leave me alone. I call it my "creative nag." All of the excuses I would come up with for not doing this now, my creative nag would slowly dispel them. Until finally, I relented. Six months ago, I sent an email to Mindy at wishstudio with this crazy idea of doing a photo course that was not like most photo courses out there, from a completely unknown quantity (me), and donating the proceeds to charity. Surprise of all surprises, Mindy was interested and even excited to see the proposal. You can see the result, it's all coming together now...

I have been given a gift, with this experience of mine in Italy. I have been given a gift, by seeing how I can help others find their eye too. It is time to give that gift back to the world, and that is what the course is about. It's not the usual digital photography course. Yes, there will be some on aperture and shutter speed and things like that - more to ensure that everyone has a foundation than to teach these in depth. That's not what I really want to share with you.  The core of the course is giving you tools and exercises that help you learn to develop, recognize and find your eye. Gain confidence in your unique vision of the world, the way you express your heart and soul in photography.

Are you ready to Find Your Eye? I hope so, because the world needs your unique vision too.

+ + + + + + + + 

Many thanks to Liv Lane of Choosing Beauty for featuring me as one of her Monday Mavens today with the announcement of my e-course! Stop by and say hi to Liv for me, and look around her wonderful, inspiring site.

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway I have going on for the Burano Color postcard set! All you have to do is leave a comment on last Thursday's post to enter. I will randomly draw the winner and announce here tomorrow morning.

And on today's photo... it is from one of my favorite places - Burano of course!  You've seen a lot of this tiny, colorful island recently. I wanted to share a bit about the processing on this photo, since it's not a straight color photo with minimal editing like mine usually are. I really wanted that blue to pop amidst the colors of the other buildings so I started by using a "color bleach" action in Photoshop Elements to desaturate the colors. I didn't want to go completely black and white with the image, I wanted the pink hues to come through on the other buildings. Then, I carefully erased the effects of the action over the blue of the building using a layer mask, so the original bright blue color would show through. It's a fun effect, and makes for a unique image. 

There are many, many different ways to do selective processing like this. Search "layer masks" or "selective processing" for your photo editing software to find some tutorials on the web.

Oh, and Happy Monday to you all! :)

Thankful for YOU!

Yes, you. No, don't look behind you. If you are reading this, I'm talking to you. I want to thank you for joining me here. Thank you for reading my words, commenting on the blog, dropping me a note via email, visiting me on Mortal Muses, liking me on Facebook. Even the lurkers who read via feed - I see my stats, I know you are there. And I'm thankful for you. The stats are not just numbers, they are connections. Each time I post, each time you visit, we connect. Thank you!

This blog and the interactions with you all in the online world have brought me so many wonderful things - it truly has been an amazing journey. Today I want to not only share my image and words, but a little something "real" with you too. To thank you I'm going to giveaway some of my new postcards, the Burano Color set. To win, leave a comment here on the blog through Monday. I know it's a holiday weekend in the US, so I'm giving you some extra time! I'll do a random drawing and announce it on Tuesday.

(You can find more info on the photos I used for the Burano Color postcard set in the following posts: Color is Like Music, Be Still My Heart, What do these colors make you think of?, Complimentary Color, Color and Texture)

Now it's time to Hop! Link your blog in below, and join us in visiting blogs from all over the world. (If you want to display the link tool on your blog too, grab the code here.)


Oh, and by the way, thank you!

Pieces of the Puzzle

In the last day, I learned something new. Another piece of the puzzle that is me, my creativity, my art fell into place. I started to see how the exploration of other art provides insight into my own. Influences my own. Directly.

In September, during my solo weekend trip to Paris, I recognized that I was really drawn to colorful abstract paintings. In a post on that observation, I wrote:

What does this mean for my art, my view of the world? What does the appeal of color and form and abstraction tell me? I don't know now, but I do know it will show up in some way.

Well, here it is, in the form of the colorful abstract images I captured in Burano a couple of weeks ago. My desire to capture color for color's sake, the interest in the color and form as the primary elements of the photograph.

I've known for some time, that seeing art in its various forms has been a huge influence on me during my time for Italy. I've known that this is an important part of my creative journey. I've just never recognized the direct link between the two like this - the viewing/observation of an interest in other art and then the relationship to it in my own.

I think many people believe that my creative inspiration is all Italy. "Of course your photography is beautiful/great/improving, you're in Italy!" I hear. But I know that's not true. Being in Italy has helped me for sure, but only because it's caused me to take an active role in exploring and observing and creating, and then learning from it all.  I believe that you can too, no matter where you are in the world.

I Colori di Burano / The Colors of Burano

I mentioned that on this latest trip to Burano I was attracted to color for color's sake, and this little mosaic captures a few of those images, to show you what I meant. Such interesting colors, broken only by texture and a few forms and shadows. Even more interesting, when grouped together, to show the variety of it all! Burano is a candy store for photographers who love color.

When I finished this mosaic, my brain immediately saw a cover page to something, although that wasn't the intent when I started. Maybe a calendar? I made a mental note on this as a project for next year, when I return to the US. For now, there are too many images to capture in Europe!

Along with this mosaic I must give a little thanks to Kim Klassen for the square mosaic template, which she posted in the Photoshop Test Kitchen. I am loving the Test Kitchen! It's a membership site that I joined because I liked the idea of a place where tutorials and things were posted on a regular basis, so I could pop in and learn something new when I had time rather than commit to weeks-long classes. I love Kim's videos, they are bite-sized mini-classes on using Photoshop.  This weekend I watched a couple and learned some tips on making a (better) blog button, and using the high pass filter for sharpening. Along with downloading this mosaic template, I downloaded all of her past freebie textures, which she offered up to members. Fantastic! If you are interested in learning more about Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (which I use), I highly recommend visiting Kim's site and checking out her Photoshop Test Kitchen.

Apparently I had time to play this weekend because yesterday, after posting this photo on my blog, I decided that it would look good with some textures. Again, reaching into my toolbox from Kim, I used some of her textures and created this version. I like this one - it conveys the mood and the age of this place better than the original. The "recipe" I used (textures and blending modes) can be found here.

I hope you had time this weekend to play too!

The World is a Canvas

Wandering the back alleys of Burano, I found this. Sometimes I wonder, do the people who leave these things out, for me to see, know what they are doing? Do they see what I see in them? The fusion of textures, the contrasts, the repetition of color? Sometimes I think they do, and I am lucky enough to see it with them. Sometimes I think no, this may just be a chair someone set here, to sit outside their house on a summer evening. I wonder.

This morning I picked up Eric Booth's book, The Everday Work of Art, for the first time in a long while. Here is something I read on this topic:

The moment we see that the world we inhabit is not just a sequence of hard, dead surfaces with fixed absolutes, but that it also can be seen "as if" it contains many non-logical truths, many mysteries, we head into a better future. The "as if" transforms artifacts into live media for the work of art.

I don't quite know if that makes sense outside of the context of the book, but I see it in this photo. This chair, in this location can be a place to sit, or it can be seen as a work of art. How do you see the world?

Colorful Expressions

While it is wonderful to travel to new places, it is also nice to go back to places you love. Places that inspire you in some way, that sing to your soul. I have been so lucky to be able to visit the Venetian lagoon so many times. It is a place like that for me. And every time, I seem to find a different focus for my photography. I am in a different place in my life, my creative development, and I see different things.

This time, in Burano, it was all about color and form. Color for color's sake, how color and shape and light come together to make a beautiful composition. The primary colors of the interior of this boat, are just one example. I could see beyond the colorful canal vistas of the houses lined up in a row, the lace shops, the bussolai (which are the yummiest cookies ever!), to see some of the most wonderful details of colorful expression to be found.

Think about that... if you are always traveling to new places, you don't get to uncover the layers of the places you love. A trade-off that must be made, one of the hardest, I think!

By the way, the postcards arrived yesterday! Yay! You still have time to go comment on yesterday's post and enter to win them. I'll pick and announce the winner tomorrow, and tell you all about what's new around my little world here.

Share Your View: Frame within a Frame

This perfect frame within a frame image presented itself to me last weekend in Burano. Have you been seeing frames all week too? Now's the time to Share Your View! Link up to your image, recent or archive, using the link tool below. Then we can hop around and enjoy all of the marvelous frames that the world has to offer. I'm looking forward to seeing through your eyes this week!

Exploring with a Camera: Thresholds

Time for another exploration! This time of a subject: Thresholds. By "threshold" I'm not referring to any technical term, but a physical place. A place where you cross over, from one locale to another, whether real or imagined. Threshold images are not merely images of doors or gates, but they are of portals that transport you to somplace different in your imagination.

The photo above is an example of the type of "threshold" I am talking about. This image is from the Roman Arena in Verona. When I look at it, I get a sense of time travel. In my imagination, if I walk through that curtain, I will be transported back to Roman times. There is a magical quality of the unknown on the other side of that curtain. It beckons me to come through.

Here is another, of a gate to Parco di Monza near my home. This image gives me the feeling of looking into another world, some sort of magical winter wonderland. The gate is merely the portal, the threshold to this place. I want to explore down that path.


And here is a threshold that I captured that has become sort of an anti-threshold to me. One that I don't plan to pass through. You see, later this year I turn 40 years old and I started looking for places with the address 40 to capture my threshold. This image is from the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon, one of my favorite places on earth to photograph, but this is one of the most depressing images I have photographed there. After I reviewed and edited it, I realized that is not my 40 threshold at all - there is no hope, no happiness, no creativity in this threshold. It's pretty bleak and closed off. It showed me that I have no problem with turning 40, that I reject the idea that this milestone is a bleak thing. So there is power in that too - I began to imagine what my internal 40 threshold looks like and it's nothing like this.


To capture a special threshold image, here are some tips:
1. Look for doors or gates that have some contrast in what is behind versus what is part of the wall or structure the opening is in. This could be a contrast in light or in scenery. The greater the contrast, the greater the opportunity for the "threshold" feeling.
2. Try getting in close to the threshold. By cropping in close on the opening so you don't see what is surrounding it, you create more opportunity for creative story telling because there is not as much physical "place" presented to distract the imagination with reality.
3. Look for openings that are not fully open, that just give a hint of what is behind them. This will give a tantalizing, magical feeling. In this case, the imagination is not distracted by the reality of what is on the other side of the threshold, but is allowed to go wild.
4. Look for thresholds that have meaning to you, whether it's the address number or the physical place or the imagery you find there. Later, take some time to examine that image to see what meaning you find. Does the image match your imagination or feelings? Why or why not? Can this threshold be useful to you to learn something about yourself?

Photography, like any art, is symbolic. The images we capture have meaning, whether or not we know it at the time. Explore the world around you with the idea that there are magical thresholds available to you all the time, and share what you find! Post a link to your photo here in the comments or join the Flickr group set up for my Exploring with a Camera series.

Nature's Paintings

Reflections are one of my favorite things to photograph. They are like nature's paintings. Sometimes realistic in the flat calm water, sometimes impressionistic in the breeze. They are never exact, since the surface that things reflect off affects the image whether in color or shape or orientation. Always beautiful, showing us a different point of view, when we stop to notice them.

On my last trip to Burano, I got lucky. It had rained all day, all the way on our trip to Venice, only to clear up shortly after we got there. By the time I got to the island the sky was mostly blue and the late afternoon sun was lighting up the colors. That was my first stroke of luck. The second was wandering over to the pretty, off the beaten path canal I found on my previous visit, only to discover it was completely empty. No boats of any kind, because they were working on the canal and had the ends blocked off.

Oh, what luck! What joy! To have all of this color, light and uninterrupted reflections to play with. Nature's paintings, to capture with my camera.

Be still my heart...

Bright, fun color, peeling paint and such texture. Could it get any better for my creative soul? I don't think so! This picture just makes me happy. It is from one of my happy places, Burano. It made me happy when I first saw and captured the image last week, and it makes me happy to share it today. I hope that it also brings a smile into your day, if only to chuckle at my fascination with peeling paint lately!

Sunny Saturday

It's a beautiful, sunny Saturday here in Italy so I thought I would pick a photo with some bright sun and color. This is from a Saturday a few weeks ago, in Burano (of course!). The first two times we were in Burano it was overcast so I had been hoping to get there when there was some sun. When we left for Venice on Saturday morning it was grey and drizzly. We even were rained on as we exited the train station. But after lunch, the sun came out and we headed directly to Burano. Do not pass Piazza San Marco, do not stop in Murano. And I was rewarded with sun on the beautiful colors! Often when traveling, you only have one opportunity, one visit to get the images. It is nice we have the chance to go back someplace once in a while!

Drowsing

Time for a little nap, in a warm and comfortable place. Cats know what they are about! My thanks to this cat Burano, who so nicely dozed in a place that was good for my artistic composition. Learn from cats - when in doubt, nap!

What do these colors make you think of?

Today my son Brandon picked out the picture for the post. This is part of a building and window in, where else, Burano! I loved the bright, unlikely color combination and the hint of the items for sale in the shop window.

I asked Brandon what these colors make him think of, and he answered flowers. My answer is: they remind me of a party! How about you? What do these colors make you think of?

Time for some Color!

I hope I don't hurt your eyes today, with all of this color. I had a marvelous time capturing the color in Burano on Saturday, and had to share some of it here. (If you read this in a blog reader, come visit to see my new blog header!) I hope you have a color-filled day!