From the Wabi Sabi Ranch

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Breezes At Dawn, Life In the Bogs, Maryland, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, photograph, Photography, photography blog, Robin Simmons

Up to now, this blog has been leaning more and more toward my growing interest in amateur photography, although it didn’t start out that way.  My original intention when I started this blog was to highlight the down-home Ozarks lifestyle.  And my photographs, however inexperienced and crude, do highlight that.

As I learn photography and become somewhat better at it (I still have LOTS to learn), I want to also highlight some of the bloggers who are really talented at their photography and for whom it is a passion.  I have learned a great deal and a multitude of skills from these bloggers.

The photographs in this post are taken by Robin, whose blog is Breezes At Dawn.  Robin recently moved to her home on the Eastern shore of Maryland with her husband, who she calls M, and lives on some acreage with a lake and a dock, plenty of flowers and foliage and a multitude of animals and insects.

Robin refers to her home as the Wabi Sabi Ranch, and it is fertile ground for many photographic opportunities, which she takes full advantage of.  Robin has a good eye for picking out things that will make a picture beautiful, stunning, interesting, and/or just plain neat.

Robin is about to enter her first Fall and Winter seasons there at Wabi Sabi ranch, so it will be so interesting to see the photographs in her future blog posts during these upcoming seasons.

Last Fall and Winter Robin was at her former home she calls Breezy Acres.  For those of you who would like look at Robin’s stunning pictures from there, her other blog is Life In the Bogs.

Robin also has a tutorial or two included in Life In the Bogs and Breezes At Dawn, which help us have a clue to a few of the ways she gets the fantastic results she does with her photographs.

A place to purchase some of Robin’s wonderful work can be found on her page at Redbubble Portfolio.  These photographs would look wonderful adorning any home.

For now, Robin has given me permission to feature some of her work from her blog, so sit back, admire, and enjoy!

Check out Robin at Breezes At Dawn for your daily dose of inspiration, fun and loveliness.  I’ll end this post to you wonderful bloggers with her own sign-off:

“Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just be.” — Robin

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5 ways to produce perfect Product photography

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Beginning photography, Blogger, blogging, photograph, Photography, photography tips, product photography

 

If you do food or product blogs or are trying to start a business, this post has some good points! The whole blog is full of ideas!

 

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Family Bugs Crochet Designs

The product photo is your first chance to grab your customer.  This goes for online shops.  How many of these online marketplaces involve typing a word in the search bar and scrolling through thousands of pictures to find what you are looking for?  All of them.  Every single one of them.  THAT is why it is so important to have good photos.  Now, I am sure you are wondering “if it is so important, how do I get them?” Doesn’t matter what product you are selling, if your craft can be worn or is purely decorative, or whatever it is that you craft.  The reasons and the methods are the same, so listen up.  Here we go.

 

1. Use natural lighting.  Not direct sunlight, which can wash your image out, but use the light that God created whenever possible.  Really, even a white light bulb will…

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Just A Few Things I’ve Learned About Posting Photos

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bad photographs, bad picture, Beginning photography, blog, Humor, Image, photograph, Photography, Picture, post, posting, posting bad pictures, Posting tips

We all have them — the posts we just don’t post.  We take the pictures or write the content, but somehow it just doesn’t seem worthy of a post, so we just count it as a dud for whatever reason and don’t post it.

My posts are not always the most entertaining posts for everybody (and sometimes not for ANYbody), and I understand that.  Nobody can be entertaining to everybody every day, and I try to improve more as time goes by.  Right now, since I’m forming a new hobby of taking pictures, there are some things I have learned in picture-taking that I try to spare the world from as far as photographs.  Believe me, more of my pictures get put in the for-my-eyes-only pile than ever see the light of day in a post.

How many times have you had a photo posted of you somewhere, be it Facebook, a blog, bulletin board, or someplace like that where a lot of people would be seeing it, and the photo was just not your best look?  We’ve all been there!  Mostly without meaning to I’ve taken a lot of pictures of people like that, and I make a point of trying not to post any that might be an embarrassment to the person in the photo (unless, of course, I’m mad at them).  Here are a few I’m talking about:

1. People with goofy looks on their faces — lips pursed, eyes closed, mouth wide open, angry look, etc., or any combination of looks.

Aside from looking like I’m squeezing the life out of Precious Baby, this picture isn’t embarrassing to either me or a future grown-up Precious Baby

This, on the other hand, makes both of us look constipated

2. People doing unsavory things.

Frank “picking up” after Lucy at the Texas Welcome Center during a break from traveling

3. People eating or drinking.

Although blurry, this picture of Becca and Precious Baby would still have been a pleasant one, if not for the old lady in the background with a mouthful of food, taking a drink and sporting a shirt wet from attempts to wash off baby puke

A request I get, mostly from women, is “Don’t post any pictures that make me look fat!”  ‘Nuff said.

These are things I never even used to think about.  I didn’t even pay attention when I took pictures of a church potluck, or of people in social situations where they were animated and talking, singing, bending over to pick something up, etc.  These are things we do every day.  But in the moment a picture is snapped and that movement becomes a still-life, the way a person or thing looks can become totally different.

Let’s not forget animals!  I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to take a picture of Lucy, for instance, as she scampered around in the back yard, only to have her suddenly decide to squat and “do her duty” just as the shutter button went down.  

But probably the biggest nemesis of all for me as far as picture-taking of any kind is the blurry picture.  I have seen a LOT of pictures posted in other places that are fuzzy (and I will occasionally post moderately fuzzy ones like the one above if I’m desperate and they are the best ones I have of the occasion), but if they are too far gone, I can’t see posting them.  And I take a lot of blurry photos, mostly due to the shakiness of my hands from my avid chocolate abuse.

For a food post, I may take twice as many pictures or more than what I actually use.  And sometimes the pictures look so bad that I chuck the idea of even making the post.  For instance:

This stuff was actually good. Really, it was. But the pictures looked so unsavory that I didn’t even post about it.

The above picture actually started out with kind of a green hue before I processed it.  Yum.

Most of the “bad” pictures I get are of other people besides me and things (naturally, since I’m the one usually taking the pictures), but for this post I’ve mostly used pictures of myself and Frank to keep from embarrassing anybody else.  Bottom line is, no matter how boring/aggravating/goofy my posts are, they could be a lot worse!

I have learned over time to use a little sensitivity when I make posts — you know, the “Do unto others” attitude, since I hate it when people say negative things or post bad pictures of me (well, worse pictures of me) and I don’t want to do to them what I would hate for someone to do to me.

So, tomorrow is a new day, for learning and living.  I am looking forward to doing just that, and wishing all of you out there in Blogland a blessed day!

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Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood

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camera phone, cell phone photograph, Cell Phones, Mobile phone, neighborhood, photograph, postaday, Trail

This week’s challenge was especially hard for two reasons — my Android takes really awful pictures (and it’s not just me!), and I post about my neighborhood all the time.  But, that was the challenge, so good or bad, here is my picture for this week.   

This was taken on a walking path a few houses down and across the street from where our house is.  It’s a very pleasant little place to walk, especially since most of our streets in town don’t have a shoulder to walk on, and some places have high traffic.  Having a place to walk like this that is traffic-free is nice.  I bring Lucy here in warm weather, and she likes barking at the other dogs.  

So, I’ll go lower my head somewhere in shame and vow never to post another cell phone picture again, at least until I get a phone that takes halfway decent pictures!  I took some camera pictures on the same day I took this one, so I’m getting them ready for a future post (hoping it will make this picture forgettable, lol!).

Love these sunny days!

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Blogger, clouds, lunar, moon, nature, night photography, photograph, photographs, Photography

This blogger takes the night time pictures I only wish I could take, lol!

sethsnap

The moon, clouds and wind were on stage last night here in Ohio.  The moon and clouds danced to the howling song of the wind.  They gracefully interacted in ways that only two lovers could.  The intimacy, passion and chemistry enveloped all who saw and implanted wild and adventurous dreams which were to be realized, though not remembered, later that night in the deepest of sleep.

Visit my store.Visit my galleries.

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Enchanted Forest, forest, haunted forest, mountain, mountains, nature photographs, Old-growth forest, photograph, photographs, Photography

A fellow blogger visited a haunted forest, and I wanted to share her visit and magnificent photographs with you!

Today was an alpine day as we climbed past the timberline to the Martial Glacier. First we had to past through The Haunted Twisted Lenga Forest. Take a peek:

Next we had to cross some flimsy plank bridges…….

Then we had the view to the Beagle Channel far below.

And we joined the ant people climbing to the Glacier. Look for the tiny ant people climbing, it will give you perception of the mountains and their immensity.

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