A Picture is Worth... Photo Relevancy on Facebook

Parachute Jumping Turtles

"Kaleidoscopic Gears'

 I wanted to show a few photos that I've posted on  facebook in the   past that have received a lot of attention. As those of you who use facebook know, a post with a photo is much more popular than one without. My theory is that if the photo contains several different things it will get extra attention~ folks will look at it more carefully and often pick out their favorite and tell you about it thus making the post more 'relevant'.

 

Making Faces

And since we're all about relevance and SEO (search engine optimization- or maybe, in this case, FSEO because it's on facebook), it's a fun thing to try out in your spare time!

Even a photo showing rod colors can be popular

Focus on Life Week 46- Reflections

Oh my, it's been a long time since I've posted a photo. New place, new life, new work to be done- it all adds up. I wanted to be sure and tell y'all about a book I just read: Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto. I don't usually recommend books, but this one was wonderful and very inspirational- it's historical fiction with an emphasis on the lives of women throughout the 20th century.
On to this week's prompt- I love to look at things in mirrors. I'm having a hard time choosing from the photos I took last night- the three part mirror in my bathroom is so much fun to play with! I've always been intrigued by the idea of multiple mirror reflections. Here's a little something that explains a bit about it and shows some cool examples.

 I also like to put some of my beads on mirrors- like these marching hedgehogs. I know, I'm supposed to be reflecting on my life- instead I'm reflecting on mirrors! Check out the blog links at the bottom of the page to see what others are reflecting on.

Focus on Life- Week 35- Growth and Change

The Chicken

Part of the Wall

Well, I have been focusing on change so much lately that I haven't even written anything or shown any new pics for weeks! It feels like I've been moving, moving, and moving some more- to cabins, sublets, tents and, finally to the seasonal place I'll be care taking for the winter- a big house and carriage hose that can have up to 25 guests! Wish me luck (I just may need it...)

As far as photos- well, hmmm... I had cause to go back to a campground I stayed in a bit over a month ago- I'd built a few rock sculptures, with the intention of having them go all around a wall. Lo and behold, most of my sculptures had fallen (we've had a few pretty good storms), but there are now rock sculptures standing all around the building- so many different styles-and I just had to add a few more! Community art at work.
Sorry these photos are all a jumble- I can never seem to make them appear where i want them to.
To see what everyone else has been up to, start at Sally's Blog.

Perched Bird

Samurai!

This little guy was there to greet us

Focus on Life Week 32, From Where I Stand

This week the prompt from Sally at focus on life was 'from where I stand' so, as you can imagine, Fats Domino singing 'I'm Walkin' was one of my theme songs. Had to just take this literally and show you some of the places my feet took me this week.

 OH, and I found some new shoes- cheap! And the question is- socks or no socks? I was informed that they looked wrong with the socks. Just old fashioned, I guess!

I'm sending you to Islandgirl's Insights to see where others are standing this week!

Catch the Sun- Focus on Life Week 30

Roiling water by the ford- you want us to drive through that???

The swimming hole after the storm.

Oh my, I've missed a few weeks- though Sally's prompts always influence what I'm paying attention to on any given week! I've been moving halfway across the country (again) and have landed in upstate New York (again). Anyway, this week I've been humming  'I'll Follow the Sun' for days on end. Sometimes I feel like that's what I'm doing. I was staying in a cabin in a state park and, because I am addicted to white noise, was quite surprised when I woke in the morning to see that there had been a deluge of some kind. One bridge was covered with water and pieces of the other had been taken out and floated down the stream. Though I was looking to get some nice photos of sun glinting off of all of the water action, I just mostly took a lot of photos of whatever I saw- lovely scenery! To see what everyone else has been up to, start at Sally's Blog!

No Diving! (No Kidding...)

Some Indian Pipe flowers reaching for the sun

A spot of sunlight!

Focus on life week 26 ?????

 Well, this being week 26, we're just about to embark on the second half of the Focus on Life Challenge. Most every week, Sally's blog sends me out and about on a walk to see what I can find- that's one thing I love about this project - getting out of the house, thinking about something I wouldn't normally be thinking about on my weekly 'Sally Walk', camera in hand.

A couple of weeks ago I started noticing some of the little plants that grow up between the cracks in the sidewalk. Ever since I saw the book Wild Green Things in the City, I've been enchanted with these little wonders. Kind of make me think of my own life, forever pushing my way past this and that obstacle and (hopefully) coming out on top. 

When I went on my walk today, the first thing I saw was this lovely feather out on the sidewalk. Thought I'd photoshop it up a bit- I loved the week we all altered our photos- what fun that was. Something I really want to continue investigating.

Thanks Sally, for all the great ideas, and for getting me a little ways further outside my box. Looking forward to the next 26 weeks! Come see what everyone else is thinking about this week at Sally's blog!

Foodie- Focus on Life Week 22

“In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.”
― Julia Child


Well, I don't have a lot to say about the Focus on Life prompt this week- foodie. I started this journey with the blackberries in my back yard, made my favorite tahini- oat cookies, took a little unplanned walk by a food pantry, found a foodie mural and even had a bit of pizza and pepperoncini.Want to see more fun food? Start at Sally's blog!

I don't have a real recipe for those cookies, but here's the list of ingredients. These cookies really remind me of halva. We used to make something very similar when I worked at a natural foods bakery. I always made these and ruggelah. You could tell who the baker of the day was by looking to see what was available! None of this- tahini-oat cookies on Mondays business, it was pretty well catch as catch can!  One day I will try these with 1/2 tahini and 1/2 almond butter. I can practically taste them already!

 Here's the list of ingredients for about 12-15 cookies: 

1/3 cup tahini 

1/2 cup honey, 

1 t. salt, 

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts or sunflower seeds

1 1/3 cups oats

Mix up the wet stuff, add the dry stuff.

Add an extra T. or so of tahini if it seems too dry.

Put on greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees (or a little less) until the bottom gets a little bit brown 

( I didn't pay attention to how long- 12-18 minutes????)

Let cool. Put in the freezer for 5 minutes if they're stuck to the pan and they should come right off. Eat!

Looking Up! Focus on Life Week 20

My backyard

Well it's time to look skyward! I really wanted to see a hot air balloon, or get a shot of one of the multitudes of helicopters that fly over my house, or maybe just some of those mammatus clouds we saw a couple of weeks ago. And then I thought perhaps there would be some animal shaped clouds flying over. I did see a lot of birds, for sure! We spend a lot of time looking down and around. Looking up was a bit of fun!

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

Ghost plane

A very vocal starling

A gingko tree- so lovely!

See what everyone else was looking up at here!

Abstract Photos- Focus on Life Week 18

'You like it, that's all, whether it's a landscape or abstract. You like it. It hits you. You don't have to read it. The work of art-sculpture or painting-forces your eye.'  Clement Greenberg 

 Sally's prompt for the focus on life challenge this week is Abstract! Woohoo! I had no clue when I read that word what I would be doing. Sally had some suggestions and told us about making a light trail in our photos. Fun stuff, so that is the first thing I tried. But then she suggested that we distort our photos for more abstract designs- I think I could play around in photoshop all day trying out different things!. So this first photo is a distorted light trail taken right off my front porch.

But my own epiphany came when I took my camera out on my weekly Focus on Life Walk- I took a LOT of pictures, and when I was almost home I stopped to shoot into the window of the local bike shop. Ummm... have you ever tried to shoot a picture through a window? Well, there is a little something called a reflection. The window is right on a busy street, so there were cars going by and folks walking by too. These pictures seem pretty abstract to me! Even though I know what these are photos of, I have a hard time figuring them out. Yes, it's been photoshopped...

The local hair salon was even cooler! 

Another abstract trick?  Simply laying a photo on its side can do wonders to make it all quite confusing! Start here for more abstract fun.

Observe the Curve- Focus on Life Week 12

Music is the expression of the movement of the waters,
the play of curves described by changing breezes. - Claude Debussy
 Our prompt this week from The Studio Sublime was 'Observe the Curve'. My first thought was- huh? Is she kidding? What the heck does that mean?? And then 'things' started happening in my wee brain. My first thought was of architectural elements. There is a little construction going on down by the river. So I trooped downtown to see if I could see some of the workers doing acrobatics up on the curved roof. But wouldn't you know they'd blocked it off (not enough hard hats to go around, I suppose). Of course if they hadn't, I never would have gone around the other side to see this sight. Women hold up half the sky, after all!


I can look right out my studio window and see the dome (It: duomo) of the Arkansas State Capitol building. I've always loved looking up into domes, so one day when I was shipping off a wee package- because the Capitol houses my nearest post office- I brought along my camera (and set off the alarm) to shoot a few pictures up into the glorious dome. I wanted to lie down on the floor, but I thought that might get me just a little bit more attention than I really wanted. So here is the capitol- inside and out!

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.
- Mae West

And just one more picture, because I like it! Want more more curvaceous observations? Start here...

Focus on Life Week 10 ~ All Wrapped Up

I'm a late joiner to the Focus on Life Blog. I have been enjoying what I've seen so much that I wanted to be a part of it. What is it? Each week for the whole year we are given a subject or idea for a photo to which we lend our own interpretation.
This week's theme is 'All Wrapped Up'. My first thought was- sushi! So I took my camera to the grocery store and realized that practically everything we eat is wrapped up. I was thinking of doing a kind of green theme with photos from the grocery and my own home.

And then I went out for a walk and carried my camera along- no sooner had I thought that a photo of a plant wrapping around a tree would be cool than I saw this. Isn't it interesting how these two things support each other? I'll bet if the plant were removed, the structure would just fall over!

Want to see more wrapped up images? Start here!