Winter Lace

Posted on January 11, 2012 by pearlsandprose

I happen to like lacecap hydrangeas a lot. Haven’t had much luck growing them, because they require a very sandy soil and we have lots of red clay. They grow especially well in Cape May.

We have a public garden not far from us that has some decent lacecaps. Here’s one of the bluer ones. . . .

blue lacecap

I went back recently and found the hydrangeas had turned to this:

Winter lace {explore}

Different, but pretty in a wintry way, I think. I did add two subtle textures to this image.

Hope your week’s going well so far. . . .I had some really good news today: Getty Images asked me to submit 19 of my photos for possible commercial licensing! I don’t know if any will be licensed, but it’s exciting to be asked.

{carole}

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Browsing in Ellicott City

Posted on January 9, 2012 by pearlsandprose

Back in October, Mr. Prose and I drove over to Ellicott City, Md., because it had been years since either of us was there. I didn’t remember anything but the old train my kids enjoyed playing around in, but was pleasantly surprised to find beautiful old architecture and cool shops. I had only my iPhone with me, but the light was good and the subjects were great.

ellicott city

According to Wikipedia, in 1772, three Quaker brothers from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, chose the picturesque wilderness to establish a flour mill. John, Andrew, and Joseph Ellicott founded Ellicott’s Mills, which became one of the largest milling and manufacturing towns in the East. The Ellicott brothers helped revolutionize farming in the area by persuading farmers to plant wheat instead of tobacco and also by introducing fertilizer to revitalize depleted soil.

The historic district houses some great cafes and boutiques, such as A Journey From Junk, my personal favorite. . . .

journey from junk

The place is filled with all kinds of quirky stuff.

boots

chocolate

queen pillow

glass knobs

Then there are antique shops with everything you can imagine. . . .

vanity2

mantel

I found this Baltimore Ravens marching band uniform kind of poignant for some reason.

uniform

Definitely going back with my Nikon.

{carole}

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A Thank You and Another Dozen

Posted on January 6, 2012 by pearlsandprose

I’d like to thank my sweet husband for all the help he gave me on the 365 project. It would have been so much harder without him.
Thanks, honey, for driving me to places with very little parking so I could jump out and get my shot, and thanks for waiting to take that first bite so I could photograph your dinner! You are the best. 🙂

As promised, here’s a mosaic of some “non-pastel” shots from the 365:

The “mosaic maker” crops the photos quite a bit, so if you’d like to see the entire shot, just click on one of the links below.

1. Perseverance, 2. No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland {explore}, 3. It’s pepper time, 4. Refresh!, 5. It’s looking a lot like summer, 6. Bouquet, 7. Eggplant at the farmers market, 8. Tournesol, 9. Blackberry bokeh, 10. Coleus, 11. Panera, 12. One slice

On a funnier note, I just saw this message in my spam folder:

“somehow identified your internet site when i was kind of stoned. very good read 269776”

Great weekend, everyone! 🙂

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Finding the Balance

Posted on January 4, 2012 by pearlsandprose

On January 1, I completed my 365 project on Flickr. As I predicted, I was glad to have done it, but will never do it again. Taking one photo every day is pretty easy. Taking a decent, creative and interesting photo every day is not. The project was good discipline for me, but sometimes I felt like the 365 was sapping the creativity. It’s a funny thing, that balance between productivity and creativity. If you don’t practice your craft, you won’t produce anything. But if you force the muse too much, you won’t be creative.

Now I’m looking forward to finding the balance, and shooting when I feel inspired. One thing’s for sure: I was very happy I didn’t have to photograph anything when I saw it was 17F this morning.

Anyway, here’s a little mosaic with some of my favorite pastel shots from the 365:

I’ll put up some of the non-pastel photos on Friday.

Hope your week is going well so far.

{carole}

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Happy New Year

Posted on January 2, 2012 by pearlsandprose

My Happy New Year card for you:

Happy New Year!

Hope the holidays were good to you this year. I had some fun with Christmas light bokeh. . .

Sterling bokeh

Happy Holidays

and I made my favorite frosted sugar cookies. Martha Stewart would not approve of my cookie decorating, but they taste so good!

Not Martha's cookies

See you Wednesday. 🙂

{carole}

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Happy Holidays

Posted on December 23, 2011 by pearlsandprose

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a happy holiday and a wonderful new year!

I’m taking next week off, so I’ll see you next year. Hopefully, Rocky will forgive me for the Santa suit by then. 😉

{carole}

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No Paper Cuts This Year

Posted on December 21, 2011 by pearlsandprose

Last year, I wrote about opening a box of old family Christmas ornaments and how painful it was. This year I felt good when I saw them. A bit like seeing old friends again. The heart does indeed heal.

I made this ornament before my kids were born, when I had more free time. Even if I had the time now, I don’t think I’d have the fortitude to stick with this kind of project. Too tedious. Anyway, here’s the front of the ornament I like to call “Up on the Rooftop”:

house ornament front

And here’s the back. This was one of my first needlepoint projects, so it’s far from perfect.

house ornament back

Hope your week’s going well. . . .

{carole}

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Prints and a Holiday Jar

Posted on December 19, 2011 by pearlsandprose

You may have noticed I have a new tab called “Prints.” After a few months of looking at websites for selling photos, and obsessing over printing companies, I finally took the plunge and signed up with Society6 to sell some of my photos. I was going to use etsy.com, but wanted someone else to do the packaging and shipping, something I really hate doing. If this doesn’t work out, I’ll try etsy.

I also like that Society6 offers framed prints, stretched canvases and iPhone or laptop skins. Not all my photos will work for everything, but it’s a fun thing to see my work on the back of an iPhone. It hadn’t even occurred to me to put an image on the back of my laptop.
Oh, if there’s a photo that you’d like to order, but it’s not on the society6 site, just send me an email and I’ll see if I can upload it.

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite activities was to cut out photos and paste them in a “book” that was held together with brass fasteners. I never dreamed I’d be doing that with my own photos one day. When I started blogging, I did it for fun. Then some readers asked about purchasing prints and I honestly didn’t know what to say. It just hadn’t occurred to me. Eventually I decided to research the idea and that led me to Society6.

But enough on that. Here’s a fun project with my favorite vintage Ball jar and some white Christmas lights. . . .

Blue Christmas (no snow)

Not one to leave well enough alone, I added some “snow.”

Blue Christmas

Would love to know which one you prefer. . . .

{carole}

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My Take on Instagram

Posted on December 16, 2011 by pearlsandprose

I’ve been having fun with Instagram for a while now, but kept finding other things to write about. Anyway, it’s a fun app for the iPhone, and is kind of like Twitter, only for photos.

You can either take photos with the Instagram camera, or use the iPhone camera (better, in my opinion) and then apply one of sixteen different effects. My favorites are “Lomo-fi,” “Toaster” and “Hefe.”

When you’re happy with the shot, you can send it to Instagram, where followers can comment or “like” it. You can also send the photo to Twitter, Facebook and other social media. I don’t have the time to be really active, but it’s fun once in a while.

Here some of my favorite “instagrams”:

Insta Mosaic

You may recognize the eggplant and pears from my farmers market post of two weeks ago. You can see that here if you care to compare.

Instagram only does square format, so you need to remember that when composing a shot.

Oh, one more thing: there’s a company called StickyGram (http://stickygram.com) that will turn instagrams into magnets. They’re small, but very nice quality.

Great weekend, everyone!

{carole}

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Autumn Roundup

Posted on December 14, 2011 by pearlsandprose

Hope you don’t mind if I linger with autumn a little longer. I’m just not ready for snow, ice and cold. Fortunately, it’s been unusually warm for this time of year. . . .

turning maple

autumn lacecap

The remnants of a lacecap hydrangea.

orange maple

“A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.”
~e. e. cummings

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