French boutique in Amish country

Posted on July 20, 2010 by pearlsandprose

I love unusual juxtapositions, don’t you? While in the Amish country recently, we discovered some pretty nice boutiques, including this one with all things French and beautiful.

Here’s another view:

 Bistrot de Paris II

See the little bird next to the glass? I missed that the first time. When I’m shooting, I don’t notice every little detail. I’m concentrating on the framing of the composition, the light and the depth of field (dof).

Now for some Amish country:

This Way Out

I edited this with some “vintage” effects on Photoscape. The sign is for a secondhand store called The Dump, believe it or not. I love vintage signs.

Farm equipment

There are silos everywhere in Lancaster County. They remind me of growing up in the Midwest and visiting my grandparents. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but all four of my grandparents did. My paternal grandfather was a “gentleman farmer,” meaning the family nearly starved. My dad learned to play violin at a young age so he and his mother could perform at private parties to make money for the family. He had a really tough life as a child, but never whined about it. Not even once. Dad was actually the most upbeat person I’ve ever known.

Two more shots of the French “vitrine” (shop window):

les fleurs

Display

This lovely shop can be found in Lititz, PA.

Thanks for stopping!

Posted in beauty, decorating, French, photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Slim Paley

Posted on July 19, 2010 by pearlsandprose

The nicest thing happened on Saturday. I learned that Slim Paley, one of my favorite bloggers, put me on her blog roll! I have to tell you, her blog is amazing. I know that’s the most overused adjective these days, but it really applies in this case. “SP” is a designer living in Santa Barbara and leads the kind of life most of us dream of.

She has two homes: one in Santa Barbara, and the other in Sun Valley, Idaho, (photos to follow) and both are stunning. SP has exquisite taste and blogs about her travels around the world; fashion, beauty, books and anything else that interests her. All with a great sense of humor. Her photos are wonderful too.

Here are a few glimpses into the Santa Barbara house: (click on each photo for a much larger version)

Is that the most beautiful table setting??

And here’s the Sun Valley house:

It gets better….

I thought this one was a painting the first time I saw it.

(All photos courtesy of Slim Paley.com)

When I posted unforgettable photos from other bloggers recently, I left SP off the list, because I needed an entire post for her blog, and wasn’t sure if her larger-than-life photos would fit in this space. Fortunately, I was able to download smaller versions.

Someday I’ll change my template so I can show bigger photos, but I’m not a technorati, so it could take a while.  I’m still trying to change the wording in my header! I have looked at the html coding many times and can’t identify the text in there to change it. Someone told me about creating a mirror blog to experiment, but I just haven’t had the time lately. Soon!

Anyway, have a great day, and check out slimpaley.com. I think you’ll love it.

Posted in architecture, beauty, decorating | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Look closely, Mel Gibson

Posted on July 16, 2010 by pearlsandprose

This post is about reflection, and I’m hoping Mel Gibson is doing a lot of it. He sounds deeply troubled. I know divorce is a crazy-maker, but yowza. I went through my divorce around the same time as the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston debacle, and the whole time I was so grateful my breakup wasn’t done in the public eye. Can you imagine having your divorce being played out on the cover of every tabloid? Blech.

Now for a different kind of reflection….

Reflection 1

I took this in downtown Lititz, PA, in the early afternoon. The sky was crystal clear, so there were lots of reflections in the shop windows. I liked the look of the chandelier, then noticed the trees mirrored in the background. I moved until I had them together, which is tricky when you want to keep yourself out of the picture.

R3

Downtown Lititz again.

R2

I’m just now noticing the fabrics are red-white-and-blue. There were lots of flags and stuff left over from the Fourth of July. I love the look of flowers in white pitchers. Old architecture too.

R4

Downtown Lancaster, PA. There’s a short stretch of very cool stores north of downtown in the 300 block. I liked the neon KOOL cigarette sign and the memorabilia in this window. Then I noticed the reflection of a guy and his dog across the street and snapped this when they paused on the sidewalk.

So, next time you see something you like in a display window, look a little closer. As for Mel Gibson, well, hopefully he’ll look into his soul and fix a few things. Soon.

Have a great weekend, everyone….

Posted in photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Antiques and Americana

Posted on July 15, 2010 by pearlsandprose

More glimpses of Strasburg, PA….

Strasburg barn

I like the color of this barn a lot. Goes beautifully with the yellow flowers. The weather was spectacular that day, as you can see. It rained the following day, so we visited Hershey. I don’t know if I had built up Hershey into some kind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dreamland, but the place was a big disappointment. The museum was so-so and “Chocolate World” was even less. Oh well, I guess the big draw is Hershey Park and we weren’t interested in getting soaked on a roller coaster. Give me Disneyland any day–I love it!

OK, two views of the same thing. Can’t decide which one I prefer.

antiques--landscape

antiques--portrait

Here’s another window shot from Lititz, PA:

The rain has stopped here, so I’m off to do errands. Have a great one!

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Trains and things

Posted on July 15, 2010 by pearlsandprose

One of my favorite stops in Amish country was a little town called Strasburg. The movie Witness with Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis was filmed near here and it’s a lovely spot. Strasburg is called “Train Town USA” because of the Strasburg Rail Road and the Pennsylvania Train Museum.

While at said Rail Road, the most beautiful cloud formations appeared. I haven’t seen marshmallow clouds like this since I lived in California. Love ’em!

clouds

picnikfile_HV9t7M

A casual stroll revealed flowers and barns….

barn door

One last shot taken at the Strasburg train station:

train wagon

Wow, that’s a lot of red. Didn’t really see all that through the lens.

Have a spectacular day, everyone….

Posted in photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Amish country

Posted on July 13, 2010 by pearlsandprose

Mr. Prose (fits him much better than Mr. Pearl) and I spent the weekend in Amish country, Pennsylvania. What a refreshing change from the pace of city life and all the heat and humidity. Instead of traffic and high rises, we saw this:

If you’re expecting photos of the Amish, you’ll be disappointed. I don’t feel right taking pictures of them as “curiosities.” They lead a different lifestyle, for sure, but they’re not on exhibition. The closest I came was a horse and buggy.

A nice surprise for me was the architecture, and lovely shops and restaurants. Does this mean I’m a big-city snob? Probably a little. Or maybe I just forgot how beauty can be found in little out-of-the-way places. How pretty is this window display in Lititz, PA?

Boutique window, Litiz, PA

Finally, an Amish horse and buggy:

Amish horse, buggy

“Amish Country” includes Mennonites and Amish. In the sixteenth century, Mennonites and other Anabaptists were persecuted relentlessly, according to Wikipedia. By the seventeenth century, some of them “joined the state church and persuaded the authorities to relent in their attacks. The Mennonites outside the state church were divided on whether to remain in communion with their brothers within the state church, and this led to a split. Those against remaining in communion with them became known as the Amish, after their founder Jacob Amman. Those who remained in communion with them retained the name Mennonite.”

 The Amish are known for simple living and modest dress, and a refusal to adopt modern conveniences like electricity. I have heard that some have relented a bit because they needed to use telephones to stay in contact with their customers. There are several quilt shops throughout the region, plus fruit and vegetable stands. If you go, plan around Sunday, because almost all Amish establishments are closed that day.

More pics from the Amish country tomorrow….

Posted in photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Traveling today

Posted on July 12, 2010 by pearlsandprose

Hey, we’re on the road back home today, so I’ll just put up a few photos. Back tomorrow….

Cleome (spider plant)

Cleome (spider plant)

zinnia

Zinnia

Sun patterns

Posted in flowers, gardening, photography, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Unforgettable images from other bloggers

Posted on July 9, 2010 by pearlsandprose

I am constantly inspired by other bloggers. Especially the ones with great images. You may have heard about “The Pioneer Woman.” She’s the big kahuna of bloggers with something like 10 million views a week (a day?). Ree Drummond dishes up homespun recipes and photos of her ranch family with a good sense of humor. She also has free Photoshop actions. These are two of my favorite shots:

photo from Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman)

photo from Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman)

The image below has stayed with me for months. I could kick myself for not recording what blog I got it from. It’s a site where people can write confessions on postcards, and then send them to the blog owner anonymously. I tried to find the blog again, but no luck. So many were about child abuse, I had to stop reading. Anyway, there’s this….

Lastly, The Photodiarist exhibits her stunning photos in black and white (and color on another page) with commentaries on why she took them. She finds the most interesting people in New York.

Here’s a typical black & white:

Photo from The Photodiarist

Enjoy!

P.S. One of my very favorite blogs, Slim Paley, deserves an entire post, so I’ll reserve those photos for a later date. Her images are larger too, so I need to make sure they’ll fit in this space without being all scrunched up. Check it out in the meantime!

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Light

Posted on July 9, 2010 by pearlsandprose

Bigleaf magnolia

It really is all about the light, people. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t. And sometimes it’s a happy accident. Like the shot above. I was wandering around our favorite garden and something made me look up. I liked the light shining through this bigleaf magnolia tree, so took one shot. I wouldn’t ordinarily look up through tree branches, but I’m learning to see things differently. I’m a color-inside-the-lines kind of gal, so this is good for me.

Both of my sons are outside-the-box thinkers and I wish I could be more like that. Once in a while, it’s not so good. A baseball-bat-throwing contest? Towards the kitchen windows? Crash. Of course.  There were so many times when I would just shake my head and wonder, “How do they THINK of these things?” But our dinnertime conversations were the best. Oh, how I miss them.  That empty nest syndrome is a lot worse than the magazines tell you. It hurts. A lot.

Back to light. This is one of my first “set-up” shots. I arranged the candle and tissue box when I saw how nice the light was in that corner. I did boost the brightness a bit and added some “glow” with Picasa. That free editing program is nice! The only thing I don’t like is the cropping tool–it has constraints. I want to crop exactly where I need to.

hearts & polished nickel

Polished nickel is my new favorite metal. As of this year, when I found out about it. I mean, I knew nickel existed, but not that the polished version was being used as bathroom fixtures, etc.  It is beautiful. Kind of like antique silver, without the tarnish and polishing.

Remember when I talked about shooting in bright sunshine? And how it’s not usually a good thing? I got lucky with this shot because the crape myrtle blossoms were in the shade, and the trees in the background were lit by the setting sun. I’ve always loved yellow and purple….

summer sky

Tomorrow, Mr. Pearl and I are headed up to Pennsylvania for the weekend to visit the Amish country. I’ve never been, so looking forward to it. Hoping to get some nice shots of the countryside and maybe a covered bridge or two.

Have a great day out there!

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Lost peonies

Posted on July 7, 2010 by pearlsandprose

I took these photos of peonies a few months ago, but didn’t put them on Flickr because I thought they were messed up. Turns out I was looking at them through a cheaper monitor that makes bright colors appear blown out. Hope you’re able to see them as they are. One of the foibles of digital photography….

Which color do you like better? Medium pink?

Dark pink?

Or light pink? I love them all.

It’s only fitting that I put up flowers…Mr. Pearl and I were married two years ago today! I am so happy we found each other.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

Posted in flowers, photography | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment