Please tell me what you think!

Okay, this is definitely one of those pictures that I totally love and I want your honest opinions on. I woke up around six and came downstairs only to find this beautiful picture of the light streaming through the clouds. Unfortunately I didn't look at how dusty my lens was when I took it. This is the first shot unedited!

I spent some time editing, cloning and getting rid of the dusty marks as well as adding a filter to disguise my ineptitude (is that a word?) at photography, resulting in this image:

Then I decided I still wasn't happy! I wanted to create a lake reflection of these clouds instead of the same old foreground of the trees, my driveway, and 67. Boy this was taking me a while! I worked hard on it and finally got what I mostly wanted:

Now don't be afraid of hurting my feelings....really give your honest thoughts on the lake reflection. Now that I know how to do it, I can change the way the "water" looks. Let loose!

Come with me

Come with me

Let us walk along the river bank

Hidden among tall shady trees

Walk with me

In this ancient canvas

Where the leaves whisper secrets to us

And the mysteries of the rocks cry out

Laugh with me

Let us trade our sorrows for sunbeams

our tears for the songs of birds

and let us use the blanket of green living things

to keep us warm as the sun goes down.

Come with me

Take my hand

and just be

A surreal sunrise

Hazy, but depthless clouds clung to the skyline this morning, making the sunrise a smoky blend of light and dark, symbolic of my day.

Thursday assignment: Rocking Chairs

Luckily, I have a great boyfriend who, despite only having one arm right now, was more than willing to get an old rocking chair out of his stash of treasures and place it on the porch for me.

I took several shots as I rocked the chair to create this simple animated gif. Not quite seamless, but not too bad.

New trick!

After a long day fraught with complications and allergies galore, I walked out to the beautiful decaying barn to get a picture. It is un-save-able so at some point, it will have to come down. I took a few pics of the barn, then turned around and shot some cat tails in the sun. Then I came back in and played with photoshop. I still figure out the multiple exposure thing on the camera, but I figured out how to merge two photos, one being the main photo and one being more transparent. Here are the results: Which do you like better?

I also took the cat tails and transposed it onto my eye from last week. The resulting shot is, I think, pensive, thought provoking. I could see it as a book cover. What do you think?

Houston, We have Internet!

Finally re-connected, I realize that I really have not missed much (other than 33 spam messages in my inbox) and happily I discovered that I am not as dependent on the internet as I originally thought I was. I also was glad to see my bunnies again. I had discovered that I am highly allergic to them, so my grandparents have been watching them for several months. Now, I can keep them in the garage which has much better ventilation and which Mike spent all day cleaning. If you know anyone who wants them for free, I have a great cage and everything!

Here, Milo (white) and Baby (brown) investigate a freshly picked batch of clover in their cage. Also, as I am walking back into the house, I see this picture which I thought was pretty though slightly crooked because of the angle. I still can't catch up on sleep. I'm exhausted every night at about this time!

A new view

This was outside of my new house this morning! Wow, I'm loving it here already! I am posting from school and still without internet at the new house so I will comment on your blogs as soon as humanly possible:)