The Little Birds Are Urging Me: March 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Small Town USA

More from Bethel .... Main Street USA (one photo edited several ways)

Monday, March 29, 2010

An old house on the back roads between Delmar, Laurel, and Bethel, DE. Sits way back down a dirt lane, almost hidden from view. In fact, we only glimpsed it in passing and then turned around to go back to capture a photo. I parked at the very end of the lane and zoomed all the way in with my 200mm lens. Love the fact that there are still daffodils blooming in the front yard, even though the house is abandoned. Click on photo to enlarge and see more detail. Editing was done in Topaz Adjust 4 and Nik Color Efex 3.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Quaint Village of Bethel, Delaware

The entire town of Bethel, a quaint village of Victorian and Italianate architecture with a population of 199, is on the National Historic Register. Bethel was founded in the late 1700's and incorporated in the 1880's. The town, located on the north bank of the Broad Creek near Laurel, was a prosperous shipbuilding community in the 1800's and many of the homes were built by ship carpenters for sea captains of that period.

My sister Bonnie and I visited the little town of Bethel yesterday, driving through for the very first time, even though we have lived in this area all our lives and have gone many times to the popular greenhouse business just outside of town. Wow. What a sweet and beautiful little place. Picket fences, flowering shrubs, Victorian houses with attached little cottages, waterfront property, a little general store .... and a place small enough that one could park her car right in the middle of the street long enough to jump out and take a couple of photographs. I'll be posting more pictures as I edit them, but wanted to get this one posted since I have it as today's entry in the 365 project. Click on photo to enlarge.

Friday, March 26, 2010

A Sweet and Tender Rain

"And the birds' and angels' wings shake downward on her heart a sweet and tender rain." (A. Procter)

You will almost never see me post a picture of myself. But I wanted to include this one to show my son Mark that his Momma has developed a tiny sense of adventure in pursuit of this new photography hobby. There is a park a few miles from where we live. My husband and I occasionally walk the paths back through the woods and open fields. For some time, we have noticed a small bridge, seemingly inaccessible because of the trail of weeds and thorny vines and snakes and spiders that one would have to encounter in order to reach it. Last week, we took the plunge and made our way over to it. It was the perfect time, as it is too early in the season for the vines to be growing and hopefully too early for the spiders, etc. The recent flood waters had receded enough for walking to be possible. So .... here I sit on that "inaccessible" bridge .... a small thing to most people but a tiny bit of excitement for me, who never does such things. (click on photo to enlarge)

With Frail Blue Wings

"The air is like a butterfly

With frail blue wings.

The happy earth looks at the sky

And sings."

- Joyce Kilmer

A pond in Laurel, Delaware ... located beside an old country church and graveyard ... edited in LucisArt, Nik Color Efex 3, and Topaz Adjust 4. Please click on photos to enlarge. For fun, I added a little girl from one of my scrapping kits (by Lily Designs) ....

Thursday, March 25, 2010

"Gather Your Wheat Into The Barns"

It's beginning to appear that I have an obsession with barns. I spent almost three hours yesterday, driving along local back country roads, in search of buildings or landscapes to photograph. Since I live in a farming area, I guess it's natural that there would be an abundance of barns, in all conditions. Here is one I found on yesterday's journey .... it's nice to show you one that is still in use. I edited the original photo in Nik Color Efex 3 and in Topaz Adjust 4. Please click on photos to enlarge. They are so much nicer that way.

and here it is, using a "note paper" filter in PSE8

one last edit, using "old photo" filter on top of the already-edited Nik & Topaz version

This property is located on the outskirts of Laurel, Delaware

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring Kissed Me

"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. " Langston Hughes

(Photos I took yesterday in Annie's yard .... click on pics to enlarge)

Monday, March 22, 2010

Frozen Music

"I call architecture frozen music." --- Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goeth and Freidrich Schiller

This abandoned house is located on the outskirts of Easton, Maryland. Another site that required a "turn around" by my husband so that I could capture some photos. Another "posted" property, bringing forth nervousness as I walked through open fields, wondering whose eyes might be upon me. It was worth the stress. I need to learn how to do research on these types of places. It would be so meaningful to know a little about the people who used to live here; to maybe see a photo of the house in its "newer" days. At one time, it must have been glorious. In my eyes, it still is. Just in a different way. "Frozen music".

I took several photos at different angles. I will be adding more to this posting as I edit them ..... please click on picture to enlarge and see more of the detail on this wonderful treasure.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Barns of Delmarva ... The Continuing Story

You get up early on a Friday morning and head towards the nation's capital, two and a half hours away. About a third of the way there, you spot an abandoned barn way off in a field. You say rather loudly to your husband ... "Oh, look at THAT!" Husband immediately puts the car into the turn lane on a busy highway and heads back in the other direction, as the scene of attraction has now been passed. You get your car headed back in the right direction, find the correct road, pass the field with the barn so you can see it at all angles, go a little farther down the road, turn around, pull over to the side of the road ... and then you have to decide if you are brave enough to walk past three artists who are set up on the side of the road, painting the house that sits near the barn. You walk way out into the field on property that is probably "posted", though you do not see a "posted" sign. You tell yourself that this is what you do for the sake of art. And you keep walking .....

You get your much-longed-for photos ... you pick which one of the dozen you want to edit ... you spend an entire Saturday afternoon editing ... your husband occasionally stands behind your back and says ... "May I make a suggestion?" .... sometimes you go with the suggestion, sometimes you don't .... and finally, you decide that the piece of art is finished ..... and then you think ... "I wonder how it would have looked in black and white?"

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." --- Marcel Proust

(click on photos to enlarge and see more detail)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Vietnam Through the Eyes of My Sister Nancy

My sister Nancy and her husband David live and work in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nancy is an amazing photographer, and is even more creative and skillful with photo editing. It's so wonderful to be able to see the sights that greet her eyes from day to day; to get just a small taste of life in a country half a world away. It's hard to have so much physical distance between us. But I'm thankful for today's technology, which allows the day-to-day touch that was missing for so many families in past centuries. Here is a sampling of Nancy's most recent photos ..... please click on each one to enlarge and see more detail of her editing (truly, it does make such a difference when you see them larger).

First of all, here are Nancy and David ....

and photos from a recent outing with friends ...

I will be sharing more of Nancy's work in the future. It would be easy to create a blog with nothing but her photos. She has some of the best pictures of Vietnamese school children I have ever seen. Stay tuned ...