holiday spirit

memories of holidays never included the ocean before.  

it is a beautiful place to spend december.  

but it does not yet feel like Christmas. 

so much of holidays past were driven by retail photography craziness, 

along with frantic rushing to shop in whatever few minutes i could find.  

now, we don't buy presents for each other nor do we work.  

our family is pretty far away.  

it has not felt holiday-ish yet...

so we find Christmas where we can and create new memories and traditions.   

and we consciously count our blessings

we are together.

we are happy and healthy and stress-free. 

 we have Christmas right here on cape cod

 it is our place, 

a link in its own way to our past and and to our future.

turns out, the Christmas spirit IS everywhere

sweet autumn stuff

it has been a pretty fall.

crazy busy for about a month and then a total slowdown....

glad to have the time to stop and look around :)

bittersweet and beach grass together.  i love cape cod in the fall :)

and misty mornings on the cranberry bogs...

 and leaves. lots of leaves.

fall is currently my favorite season :)

 

all textures from Kim Klassen

before and after

i love photography

i also love paintings

combining the two loves is an art all in itself

i now love painted photography :)

for this image, i first opened it in snapseed to straighten the horizon and sharpen the details.

then i brought it into Photoshop (elements 9) and cloned out some distracting grass in the bottom corner 

and a branch in the top right. 

i added a layer of Kim Klassen's texture (KK_99) at 35% soft light and saved that image. 

 i again went into snapseed, added some drama and grunge, and saved again :)

Finally, back in photoshop, i added a texture layer from Melissa Gallo's Painted Texture (Confetti Canvas). 

i kept that in normal mode, then painted some of the texture layer off.   

i loved the way it changed the image, and gave it such a vintage feel :)

here is the original image...

cape cod light

soft air...

light and color...

peace at the end of the day...

frozen in time...

the polar vortex...

here in united states,

our world was frozen for a few days.

it left it's mark.

waves at the ocean were stopped, mid wave...

bubbles froze as they landed...

i am grateful it has warmed up.

but i will miss the frozen beauty...