Best Sunset 2007

I’m furiously working away on a black and white series that I’m submitting to my church for their Holy Week “Walk to the Cross” so there’s no time to shoot, edit or print anything else.  I realized as I was thumbing through some old images that I don’t think I ever showed you my favorite sunset of the past year.  It happened in November and was a series of changing tones, colors and moods all rolled into one dazzling night.  Here are a few of my favorites from that night…

Best of 2007

It seems that many of the photobloggers I read are putting out their “Top Ten” this morning so I thought I’d give it a shot.  I bought my Canon Powershot S3 IS back in January, getting me as close to a DSLR as I could afford at the time and it has definitely done its job at helping me take my images to the next level.  Then, in late summer, I bought a copy of Photoshop Elements 5, took an online course and bought the indespensible book, “Photoshop Elements: The Missing Manual” and that also helped me take another step forward by changing how I post-process my images.  By the end of the year I was adding actions and presets into the mix and now I’m just beginning to see all the different ways I can creatively take an image I see in my head and make it come out looking uniquely my own. 

This next year I am going to do everything I can to get my hands on the Canon 40D and a few prime lenses and continue to delve into learning Photoshop layers. 

Here, then, are my pick of my top ten images of 2007.  (To see my top 100 shots for 2007, head over to my Flickr page and view the slideshow!)  *Click on images to see the full size photographs.*

My favorite macro shot of all my flower images, this one just filled the frame with upclose detail.

My favorite butterfly image from the 200+ I shot at the Butterfly festival in Powell Gardens on an August afternoon.  I cannot wait to go again next year! 

This has to be my best cloud photo of the year.  It was used by Stanford University for their brochure announcing a new weather major at their school.

Gotta be my best sunrise image for 2007.  The golden tones just blew me away that morning and it’s luminosity shined through in this photograph.

My favorite plant photo of the year.  Love the bokeh on this one and the contrast between the soft leaf and the hard-as-nails thorns.

This has to be one of my best insect macros of the year.  I love the bokeh on this one as well as the detail of the tiny hairs along his legs. 

I hate snakes…but this one got me over my fear as he posed for my camera in the driveway of my home.  This is the first snake photo I’ve ever taken where I didn’t cringe when I first saw it. 

I’m a leaf girl…no doubt about it.  It was a three-way tie for my favorite leaf image this year but this one won, hands down.  The texture of the mud against the texture of the leaf sealed the deal as I found it lying in the parking lot of one of my nearby state parks.

This one is probably more sentimental than anything else.  I have access to squirrels 24/7 what with the 16 trees in my immediate backyard and this image really did it for me this fall.  I was so happy with his expression, the angle of the shot and the great bokeh in the background. 

My favorite black and white of the year, this was my second favorite leaf image of the year.  It was my first attempt at taking a color image and converting it to black and white using PSE and I was very happy how it turned out. 

And there they are…the ten best of 2007.  

I Wish I Had A River

I pulled out an old CD the other day with the Joni Mitchell song, The River, on it.  I had heard the song being played on one of the radio stations and it reminded me that I had purchased the CD a few short years ago when I was so depressed that I could barely get out of bed each day. 

I remember playing that song over and over again that Christmas because all I could imagine for my life was leaving it all behind - to “find me a river so long that I could skate away on.”

This year, as I was listening to the haunting words of that song it dawned on me that three short years later, I have everything to live for - and then some.  I no longer want to skate away but, instead, to skate towards something…something bigger and brighter than I could ever have imagined back when that depression clouded my every thought. 

Tonight I listened to a friend tell me that she gets to this time of year and she wants to do the same - to skate away - only on a more permanent basis.  She wants to be done with all this hullabaloo of presents and trees and colored lights once and for all because none of it holds anything of any real value for her  anymore.

I know how she feels because I’ve  lived through some of those same feelings.  And when there was nothing left for me to do but to try to permanently “skate away,” I was met, instead, with an unboundable dose of mercy and grace.  His mercy and grace. 

Tonight, I wish I had a river so long that I could carry those troubles and hurt feelings and pain and struggle for her, far away; so far away she’d never remember what they felt like in the first place.  Lord, let it be so.  Help her cross this river in her life safely.     

Amen.    

Goodbye, November

This time of year the light of dawn and dusk take on special qualities that you really only find between November and February (at least in my neck of the woods).  November proved to be a beautiful month for both sunrises and sunsets and I added many new images to my collection just watching the sun do its thing.

This was the last sunrise of November; I took it on my way into the office.  It was a really nice way to start the morning…

Blaze of Glory

There’s more than one way to catch a rising sun.

Full House

I got a new finch feeder a few days ago. It didn’t take them long to see it and flock back over to my house again.

I love how muted their colors are this time of year. By the time the snow is flying heavy in January / February they will have traded their muted yellowish-brown coats of autumn for the bright hot yellow ones they are so well known for.

Kick Back

I really love this image. Whether you see it representing a mother and child, a husband and his wife, or God and one of His followers, it seems to be all about relationship. Take rest in me. I will carry you through.

Nothing like some place soft to lay your head, is there?  I say a big “amen” to that…

Orange on Blue

I stopped by a small local park for about an hour this morning and shot off about 200 new leaf photos.  Some are not bad.  A few are rockin’.  But this image of the yellow/orange leaves hanging off the tree directly overhead of the small pond stole the show so its my photo of the day.

Cracked

It all seems so beautiful until you get in close and see that all that gorgeous color is really just hearlding in death.

Out of all the new leaf images I took today at West Bend State Park, this is one of my new favorites. The dried up leaf lying on the dried up mud just seemed to be a perfect pairing.

Out To Pasture

Here’s another image from my afternoon at the ranch with my friend and her new horse, Glory. What a beautiful autumnal afternoon it was that day!