The Way I See It
""I think God's going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding." ~Steven Wright
I think He just did.
This virus has forced us to literally drop everything we were doing and everything we were all planning in just a matter of days. It has thrown some into panic and others into outrage. We are all waiting for the punchline. Like this is a joke right?! It is like a really bad meme and we are living right in the middle of it.
It's a huge inconvenience.
OR
Is it a blessing?
We are being given the opportunity here to stop and breathe (albeit on our own because breathing near others may be cause for catching Corona, lol). How many times are we given this chance? And I don't mean like during the holidays or spring break. During those times we are still rushing around buying gifts, planning parties, packing for a trip, wrapping up our work projects so we can pick up and leave.
Now, everything has stopped. Everything has been cancelled. We can literally. do. nothing.
If we are healthy we need to count our blessings, we need to keep those who are sick in our thoughts and prayers, we need to reach out and offer help to those who may need it. If we are sick we need to take care of ourselves and get better.
You know what is safe right now? Nature. Nature is safe. Go outside with your family and breathe the fresh air and feel the sun on your face. Listen to your thoughts.
This time will pass and we will be back to the grind and the craziness.
Ireland : Summer 2016
Free·dom
ˈfrēdəm/
noun
-
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
It's only taken 7 months to post my pictures from last year's trip to Granny's in Ireland. Better late than never.
As I went through all my images I noticed an overall theme: freedom. There's a palpable feeling of freedom in most of the images whether in relation to my children or in relation to the world around them. There are no confines during our stay with Granny. There are no digital devices. There aren't any other kids for them to play with so they are forced to play with each other. I don't drive when we are there so there is no racing around like we do in New York. The farm and the surrounding area is so vast ... there is so much to explore. And you know what? I never hear "Im bored."
In the Shadows
Shadows, the space where there is absence of light; but couldn't exist unless there was light.
Isn't that magical? Something that exists because of light and absence of it all at the same time.
Shadows are powerful and can tell more of a story than the actual subject casting the shadow. The darkness of that space draws you in.. It's human nature to try and find something where nothing exists or where we think nothing exists. The unknown is the attraction...the mystery, the curiosity. We are always in search of something...in search of feeling...in search of understanding...sometimes you can find these things in the darkness more easily than in any bright spot surrounding it.
The darkness is not a bad thing or bad place, regardless of how we regard it as the opposite of its' brighter, more trustworthy counterpart: light. It's just dark. We can get lost in that darkness; getting lost in search of something. Sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found.
The possibilities are endless staring into the abyss that is the darkness of a shadow. Something is there. The next time you see a shadow, just look. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you find?
The Art that is Landscape Photography
I love photography. I love everything about it. I love to capture emotion and connection between people, children and families and I feel the desire to document life with every ounce of my being. If you know my work you already know this.
I photograph people. I am not a landscape photographer. I absolutely love to document the surrounding lands in a beautiful location. There are photographers I admire who can photograph the landscape and make the land come alive. You can literally feel the landscape and its' emotion through their photograph as if it were a person. It leaves me in awe and makes me feel a connection with the area they are documenting. Landscape photography is an art all on its' own. I often feel I fall short in this area of photography.
Then I discovered the landscape presets and brushes from the Sleeklens called Through the Woods. Now! Only Now do I feel I have found my tool to create my landscape vision! Just Wow.
Up until now I have been using presets that I would use to edit photos of children and families. Well, you just cannot mold the true essence of landscape with those presets.
Will you get close? Sure.
I know there are those out there that are saying to themselves right now, "It's not the presets or editing process that create the perfect landscape photo! It's the composition and the use of light!" Well, of course! However to create the final piece of art these presets by the SleekLens certainly helped ME in creating my final vision.
Here are some of the landscape photos I have taken in the last few months. Some of them are from my trip to Ireland and some are the Long Island sound. Two very, very different landscapes. I think you will see that the Through the Woods landscape presets are an amazing tool to have in your tool box!
Then go try them out for yourself : https://sleeklens.com/product/landscape-lightroom-presets/ and https://sleeklens.com/product-category/lightroom-presets (These presets are also available for Photoshop users...I use Lightroom).
View from a hill in West Cork Ireland
Before RAW Image:
After: cropped and edited with Heavenly Warmth
The Point West Cork Ireland
Before RAW Image:
After: Edited with Calm Sunset
The Cliffs of Moher
Before RAW image:
After: Edited with High Dynamic Range
Cliff of Moher 2
Before RAW image:
After: Edited with The Real Teal
New York Waterscape
Before NY Waterscape Raw:
After: Edited with Pressed in Time
Farmland in Ireland
Before RAW image:
After: Edited with Color Pop
After version 2: Edited with Love Me Tender + Clarity
After version 3: Edited with pressed in time
I hope this helps you! Now, Im off to photograph some awesome landscapes!!
Navigation
Here's the thing. There's no navigation system for life; no map, no clear path. Just a series of twists and turns....we guess which way to go, get lost, turn around and try again. Sometimes we end up on the right path. Sometimes, we think we are on the right path only to find out, often too late, that it's the wrong path altogether. Then we are left with yet another choice: stay the path or hop off into the unknown (again)? The kicker is this, there's no right or wrong answer. Confused yet? If not, then you are better off than me - LOL!
I think I am an optimist. If something isn't right, I figure it out, look for the positive aspects and move on. You can cry over the "spilt milk", which will help and is perfectly acceptable, but at the end of the day, it's still your "spilt milk". The tears don't make it go away. So cry, mourn what isn't (or what is) but accept it and move forward.
As I watched my daughter weave in and out of the weeping branches of this tree, I had these thoughts. She dodged, weaved and pretended she was lost. In the small gaps of clearance between the hanging branches she smiled and laughed. As she approached clusters of twisted branches she carefully maneuvered through them, parting them ever so carefully. It felt so much like life. I just clicked away even when I didn't have a clear view of her....again, so much like life. Things will rarely be clear to us. Oftentimes it won't be until very much later that we understand the reasons why things happened as they did.
Acceptance...
