Love, before and after

This is from a photo of a sculpture that was on our cruise ship. The background was cluttered with windows, frames, etc., not very inspiring. Through the magic of Photoshop I turned it into . . . what exactly did I turn it into? I'm not sure, but I had fun!

Here's the 'before' photo:

Playing with textures

In the waters off St. Lucia

I saw this ship way off in the distance but by the time she finally got close enough for me to take a photo - her sails were down! A bit of a disappointment but I still thought she was beautiful. I've applied several of my own textures; rust, jacaranda trees, clouds and icy branches. A few different blend modes, a vignette, and done! I could tinker with it all day but you get to the point where it just seems to be right. For a complete tutorial on how to achieve this look, go on over to Digital Scrapper (aka Scrapper's Guide) and check out the June 2010 Premier tutorial - A Touch of Texture by Jan Walker.

Here's the 'before' photo

Here are some of the textures I used

rusty car

jacaranda tree

storm clouds

icy branches

Crafty collage

While on our recent cruise, one of our ports was Aruba where we went on a catamaran ride along the coast. I didn't take my camera because we were going to be snorkeling at two different sites and it just seemed to be too much trouble. Don took a few shots with our ancient Kodak point and shoot, but, (they're not impressive). So, when we got back to Oranjestad we went to the market where I had fun taking photos of all the crafty things. I always feel guilty just taking photos and not buying anything but no one chased me away on this day (I have been chased away - it's sort of embarrassing). So here is my little collage of all the eye-candy - so colourful!

Where's Waldo?

I thought this was a perfect set-up to practice my focusing skills. Can you tell who's the centre of attention?

In a heart-beat

I'm blogging in a totally different vein this morning (no snow). I don't know what this plant is but I spied it as we were getting ready to get back on the ship in Curacao. What drew me in was the size of the leaves. They were as big as a dinner plate. I noticed how perfect and green each leaf was, and yes, I did notice the veins but it wasn't until later when I was examining the photo that those veins really popped! I'm finding that I actually see more when looking through the lens of a camera than I actually see in real life. This is not news - all photographers feel the same way. But I hadn't even noticed the water droplets! I can only imagine what wonders go over my head every day. My lesson learned? Slow down and try to see more in the moment. The perfect photo presents itself and is over in a heart-beat - you don't usually get a second chance.

Travel Travails

Travel Aftermath

Hope you are not offended by looking at our dirty laundry! (Photo kept small for that reason). We just got home from our holiday around midnight last night and I do not know where to start. So I thought a blog would be the most productive thing I could do and hence, I will just ignore the pile. Did I mention that it smells suspicious? We had a wonderful cruise but I’m finding that travelling has become harder for me than it used to be. At 5:30am (Alberta time) we were herded off the ship to retrieve our luggage, loaded onto a bus and deposited at the San Juan airport. After two separate flights and a 1½ hour drive home from Calgary we fell into bed at 12:30 am. This means we were travelling for 19 hours. Luckily Don was able to drive from Calgary without too much trouble because I was delirious. At one point when I had drifted off, I actually spoke out loud, saying “I’m so confused with the time changes”. I kind of woke myself up and tried to cover my tracks but it was obvious that I was talking in my sleep. It was embarrassing, but we had a good laugh at it anyway.

A few things about travel these days; airport security is daunting, there are a lot of line-ups, people are tired, stressed, and existing on fat-loaded sandwiches and coffee or soft drinks. And, I noticed something interesting. With the explosion of all the gadgets out there, people are always checking phones, e-mails, and working on computers for one reason or another. I am one of THEM. I took my computer so I could use the internet and also load my photos at the end of each day. I also found that working on projects in Photoshop helped to pass the long hours of travelling. But what I also noticed is now everyone wants to sit by a plug-in and God forbid if you get in the way! I had a guy drop his giant backpack on my shoulder in his frenzy to get to the one last available plug-in and he hardly took the time to apologize - I think he was annoyed that I was even there. It hurt and I was angry, but I just let it go – wishing all the time that I was at home, in my own quiet space. I don’t have a solution; this is just sort of a vent. I know life could be made so much simpler by not travelling, or maybe not taking so many things with us when we do, but in the end, would it be as interesting?

Could someone peel me a grape?

for breakfast?

Since it's a sea day there was a wonderful brunch served this morning. I seem to be eating a lot of chocolate on this vacation and am starting to think about my old friend the treadmill! as well as and getting back into my yoga routine. But until then, I'm just going to wear my stretchy pants and enjoy!

"art-sea"

Pavlos b. 1930 Greece

Pavlos b. 1930 Greece

Our first sea day! Whew! We’ve been going great guns on all the shore excursions so having a sea day is a very welcome change. Now is when I go around the ship taking photos. I love all things paper so I was immediately drawn to these bowls of fruit created from poster paper and wanted to share them with you. Keep tuned for more!

St. Georges, Grenada

Known as the “spice island”, Grenada produces cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, etc. It is 21 miles long and 12 miles wide. These colourful pastel warehouses rise above the harbour and were the first things to greet us this morning when we stepped out onto our balcony.

Annandale Falls

Collecting Tips

The fellow wearing the colourful outfit, which are the colours of the flag, was collecting tips for the guys who were jumping off the cliff at Annandale Falls. Take it from me, you were not going to get out of the area without making a contribution!

What a way to make a living!

Leaving St. Lucia

After a fun day of touring along the coast of St. Lucia on a triple deck “sport fishing boat”, spending time on a beautiful, sandy beach and swimming in the warm south Caribbean waters – we caught sight of this beautiful sailboat as we literally "cruised" off into the sunset.

National Geographic . . . here we come!

Dominica from above

Well, this morning we woke up at 7:00 am with coffee being delivered to our door. As we sat on our balcony and watched the ship pull into Roseau, Dominica we discussed the fact that we didn’t have a plan for the day. After a quick perusal of the itinerary we narrowed it down to either river tubing, or a sight-seeing tour to Trafalgar falls, ending with a ride on an aerial tram through the rainforest. Guess which one I opted for? Firstly, I really hate to get wet and secondly, you can’t take a camera on a tube ride. We rushed to the excursion desk, booked the tour, ran and grabbed some bananas and a few Danish pastries and rushed out to meet the bus at 8:30 – me with bedhead and no makeup! But really, I don’t think anyone here cared much . . . Now, I can honestly say that our ascent to the waterfalls ranks only second to a similar drive we once took in Maui. Narrow, one-lane, steep, washed out in spots, heart pounding, and WET! At one point our tires were spinning and eventually we had to go up a one-way path (as if everything wasn’t a one-way path), the van groaning and grinding and smoking all the way! ! I think the only reason I didn’t feel as horror-stricken as I did in Maui is that there was so much vegetation that I took comfort in the fact that it may cushion the crash on the way down the side of the mountain. Obviously, we made it or I wouldn’t be sitting here blogging about it. Anyway, it was all so worth it, just for the tram ride through the rainforest. It was lush and green beyond description. Peaceful, tranquil, and calming. Now that is something I wish I could bring home with me.

Well, we're almost there . . .

View from our hotel in Puerto Rico while we wait . . .

We arrived in Puerto Rico last night after a very long day of flying. We ate at Plato's where I enjoyed mafongo (major plantain pastiness) and Don enjoyed el jibaritos's (plantain sandwich!!), Julie, you were sooo right! At the moment we are in our hotel room waiting to get to the ship. It's raining (but oh so warm!) so we can't walk to the beach and this is the only photo I can offer - it's a fig tree hedge with a palm tree in the distance. I have the window open and because we are close to the airport we are getting a mix of giant roaring aircraft engines mixed in with roosters crowing - how neat! It's just plain good to be here.