Camellia

Today, I will share a little about me. Here are photographs of a pink camellia bush. Yes, I do always drive and walk around looking for flowers. No, I don't carry my camera with me all the time. I find I have to be in the mood. Plus usually, if it's worth photographing (for me) it's worth driving back to. I can tell you where a lot of pretty flowers live.

Since, I didn't study flowers in college, I am learning hands on and really marvel when I discover something new. I remember specifically the first time I saw a camellia tree blooming. It was at the children's dentist. You know that shocked feeling... that's what I sense when I find a new flower or discover something I didn't know about flowers. I usually photograph a flower during its peak. Each time I have ideas about what I want from the picture and may wait a whole year for the right shot.

I discovered what may be a camellia (no flowers, yet) growing in my yard today and cleared out the ivy from nearby. Happy Thanksgiving!

Use Photoshop's Guides

It seems like I am always needing guides in Photoshop, so I thought I would share a project completed with guides. I am introducing calendars this week. I used the guides to align my objects. Click and drag in the ruler area and pull a guide down onto the project or to the right into the work space.  Guides are turquoise lines. Remove guides by dragging them back to the ruler. Above I bring in the dates and boxes and align them to the blue lines.

My monthly calendar Southern Belles 2012 is officially produced and sold too! Printing more now. And I have a yearly version too. Here is 2012 Pink Wall Calendar.

 

Crepe Myrtles are Pretty Addition to a Garden for Fall Color

Crepe Myrtle Adds Fall Color

Marietta is filled with pretty crepe myrtle trees this Fall. The flowers decorate for many weeks during the summer and just now displayed vibrant leaves. The best time to plant crepe myrtle trees is in the winter... so add one or two to your yard soon.

New Crepe Myrtle

But be careful if one pops up in the middle of your yard. Dig it up, if you don't want it there before it establishes roots. The plant is considered invasive by some. Here someone has decided to let a crepe myrtle planted by nature take off. They are fast growing trees. 



Nature Undisturbed Photo Contest Deadline is Dec. 17

Nature Undisturbed is a Georgia nature photography contest. There are several Georgia sites and an open category for the contest. In preparation, I visited Line Creek in Peachtree City yesterday. Here are some of my images. Entries are due Dec. 17. Learn more here.


The juried show is a fun opening on March 17 at the Dogwood Gallery in Tyrone. Make plans to attend.

CMAs, Music and Art

The Country Music Awards event brings together an amazing collection of professionals to celebrate their music. More and more as I listen to country music I think about about each song as a product. Each single is carefully designed to make a point and take the listener somewhere special.

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood's "Remind Me" is a great example of a song that takes you to the early days of a relationship. The song makes a picture without a camera.

But there is a lesson in their lyrics, notes, and presentation. Each single has a life of its own and affects people. The goal here is to do the same with each photograph.

Lantana makes a pretty Fall garden!

Lantana is an easy to grow plant, which attacts butterflies all summer long. Here are photographs from Chastain Park in Atlanta, which I have taken recently. So you can see it is still going strong in the Fall. The park system planted a pretty yellow colored version next to deep wine plants, which really stands out.

The pink lantana in my yard grows by leaps and bounds all summer even in the sweltering Georgia heat. It retains water, so it doesn't need my attention. The only draw back to lantana is that it spreads... so give it plenty of room in the beginning. It is not meant for the mailbox area.

Add this plant to your list for planting next spring. Click here for the Chastain Park map. The park is part of the PATH foundation in Atlanta. I shot these images in front of the Chastain Arts Center.