Tag Archives: Sea Glass

Creating artwork

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I ordered a canvas print of Red to fill in the space to the right of our fireplace. A neighbor who is an artist and an expert at hanging paintings helped me with it. There used to be a Remington statue on this cabinet. But she moved it to the other side of the fireplace and placed this plant under Red. i’m excited with how it looks!

I was so excited with the canvas print I ordered of Red that I ordered one of the sea glass photo above. I’m not sure where it will go. Maybe in the casita. I’m having fun creating art with my photography. It’s a new way for me to enjoy it!

Finally, I ordered a third print of a pen and ink drawing of mine. This is the house I lived in from second grade until I went off to college. While I was in college my mom had to sell our home after divorcing dad. She couldn’t afford the upkeep, electric and gas. It was sad to lose our beautiful home, but she ended up leaving Snohomish and moving to Olympia. She married someone she knew from her high school days who lived there.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a Bird Buddy video of the star of my show, Red. There’s a smudge on the lens that you may notice. I’m thinking that mean old thrasher did that! But it was easily cleaned.

What’s on your agenda for this week?

The Final Project

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It’s time to turn in my final project for photography class. I’ve been taking photos of sea glass that I’ve shared along the way HERE and HERE.

Sea glass has both Meaning and Memory for me (FYI, that’s the theme of this semester’s final project.) My memories are from summers at the beach which were my favorite days of being a mom. As for meaning, one is that change always happens. For example, the purpose and original form of bottles change through time. Bottles turn into beautiful glass pieces tumbled in the sea. We also change — but it doesn’t mean that we no longer have purpose or beauty.

I took photos for the past few months of sea glass. Outside by the pool at different times of day. On glass tables by the pool, inside in jars, glasses and on glass with light coming from different directions.

For this project, I looked through photo albums and found pictures from our summers at the beach. Every year, I took photos of our kids and used them for Christmas cards. I scanned old photos and improved them using Adobe Camera Raw. The quality of the old photos taken with film are fuzzy compared to the new photos using a DSLR. But they have memory and meaning as well.

Here are the photos for my final project:

The Palm Springs gang on a beach day.

In the original photo, the hand looked like it was boiled bright red. A little Adobe Camera Raw and it’s more natural looking.

One of my favorite sea glass photos.

All that’s needed for entertainment is sand, the ocean and big stick.

Two more sea glass photos I took by our pool in the morning light.

I never heard the end of making my kids sit on this rocky outcropping. They asked me, “Why did you make us sit on an ashtray?” I didn’t know that this was a favorite place to smoke for locals. It was covered with cigarette butts!

Our daughter with a fist full of sea glass.

College age kids.

The final sea glass photo taken on a glass table with a light underneath.

I hope you enjoyed my final project.

Which photos do you like and why?

Sea Glass Anyone?

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I’m trying a few ideas for my sea glass project that is due the Thursday following Thanksgiving. What I did was bring in a glass table from outside and put a lamp under it. That way the light is shining up through the table and glass so it looks backlit. The only issue I have is the glass table is a smoky brown and I think it changes the color of the glass.

It seems heavy green and yellowish — which I’ve tried to tone down in Adobe Camera Raw. The photo below I played with in ACR and changed the colors. I’ll be back to the drawing board with more ideas to take sea glass photos that come out in a better color.

Here are the colors of sea glass that I prefer. I took these a few weeks ago out in the sunlight.

I have a few more days to play with my sea glass and try to get some unique photos. Then I also need to work with my scanned images from our beach days to tell a story about hunting for sea glass and summers at the beach with the kids.

I found sea glass on Etsy and there are artists who make jewelry from sea glass. Something else that caught my eye was bird art using drift wood with sea glass birds on it!

Cute.

Which sea glass photos do you like and why?

Too much, too fast

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One of the sea glass photos I took yesterday in the morning light. Two more photos are below.

I was on the phone Friday with a neighbor, talking about a funeral for another neighbor when my son called and called. I got off the phone, called my son back and was hit with the news that his surgery had been moved up. He asked if I could change my flights and hotel and come up to help him.

The level of panic and stress I immediately felt was due to the chaos at our Phoenix airport. We’re number three in the country for delays. Plus I’ve read that they may need to cancel 20% of flights.

I talked it over with my husband who decided to go with me. I called Southwest and they quickly changed our flights and it was at no additional cost. I also made sure they had Waffles the Pug on their guest list. Arranging new dates for the hotel was a little more difficult because of a poor connection and the person helping me had an accent that I struggled with.

I was relieved to get everything all arranged. But we are scheduled to leave in a day rather than two weeks. So, I’m feeling overwhelmed.

At our neighbor’s funeral on Saturday, we turned off the ringers on our phones. (It was an amazing service and it was an honor to be included for a celebration of life for such a unique, kind, intelligent man. I’m glad we got to know him during the past few years.)

We forgot to turn the ringers back on. My friend from Santa Barbara was stranded at the Phoenix airport and wanted to spend the night, but we missed her call and her husband’s. She was traveling back from the East Coast after visiting her mom. Her Phoenix to Santa Barbara connection was cancelled.

This doesn’t bode well for our upcoming flight to Oakland. But hopefully, we’ll make it in time to be helpful post our son’s surgery. The reason why they moved up his procedure? The nurses are going on strike the week he was previously scheduled. Oh my! What could go wrong on this trip?

The sun reflecting in the pool behind my mountain of sea glass.

Do you have any flights to be concerned about in the next few weeks?

Which sea glass photo do you like and why?

Sea Glass, Flora and Fauna Photos

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I was surprised to get an email Tuesday that I needed to submit my Sea Glass Work In Progress for Thursday night’s photography class. After traveling to Northern California to help my kids, I hadn’t had a thought about photography in more than 10 days. Before I left town, I sent a few photos to my professor that I took with my Macro lens and asked him for suggestions. He pointed out that I needed to adjust a setting for “exposure compensation” to zero. It was set at -.7 and my photos were too dark.

So, Tuesday and Wednesday with my camera adjusted, I set out to take more sea glass photos. I also looked through my scanned images of kids and beach photos. Finally I settled on some and sent in my WIP. As I’m writing this, I haven’t had my Thursday night class yet, so I’m not sure what my feedback from the professor and students will be. It’s more than a little nerve wracking.

Here are photos I’ve taken this week since coming home:

Bougainvillea blossom from a new plant. The last plant was eaten at the roots by a raccoon, skunk or javelina.

A house sparrow at the bird bath. The little birds like the bird bath, rarely do the bigger birds use it.

Someone in Laguna decorated this city structure with shells and sea glass. This was an old photo I scanned from our summers in Laguna Beach.

Another sea glass photo from this week.

I identified this pretty shrub with blue flowers as “Imperial Blue.”

Red on his flamingo buddy.

Mrs. gets a turn.

Three more photos of Red, just because:

Happy Friday and weekend!

Which photos do you like best?

What plans do you have for Saturday and Sunday?

Days of Summers Past

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After several hours, I finally got my new scanner to talk to my laptop. This was the first photo I scanned. It’s of me and my kids, one of my best friends and her two girls, plus assorted kids we brought along with us for a beach day.

I’ve spent this week going through my half dozen photo boxes, looking for pictures to include in my photography project of Memory and Meaning: Sea Glass.

If you missed my description about Sea Glass and my project, I wrote about it HERE.

Going through all my old photos from summers’ past, brought back so many memories of a life I’ve left behind. Carefree days of summer, hanging out with my kids. Every year, I’d take photos of them together for our Christmas cards. It always took more than a few days to get something good. Sometimes they’d cooperate, other times they enjoyed torturing me with their silly faces or looking away.

Here are a few photos from my beach memories. I haven’t decided yet what gets included in my Memory and Meaning Sea Glass project. All of the photos spark memories and have meaning to me.

Angus at the cottage. He wasn’t allowed inside, but at our home he was. It was a difficult transitiion for him, but he loved being near us.

This is the cove where we collected sea glass.

Our daughter with a handful of sea glass. Her preferred method was diving under waves for it.

Boogie boarding was always a hit.

When they were young.

Then I had one teen and a preteen.

College-aged kids. Where did the time go? Now they’re grown ups!

The bootlegger’s house was second from the end. Because of the bootlegger and a shipment of his booze that went overboard from his boat, this cove is filled with sea glass.

A handful of sea glass in unusual colors.

Happy Friday!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Sea glass project update

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I’m working on my Semester project “Sea Glass: Memories and Meaning.” This photo was taken in the morning light with sun rising in the east. My professor gave me lots of ideas of how to take photos and recommended backlighting. So this is an example.

He also suggested sorting by color, size or shape and creating patterns. I did try that, but it was in noon light and not as dramatic. I’ll try the color arrangement in the morning light another day. Other ideas were to place the sea glass on white paper or even aluminum foil. He must have given me 10 separate ideas to try. I spent a few hours sorting colors from greens, browns, whites and aquas. Then there are some special colors of only a piece or two: royal blue, yellow and lavender.

Although I like the first photo of sea glass better, I do like the pattern our pool made in the background.

In my proposal for the project, I mentioned that I had photos of my kids collecting the sea glass, but no longer had the negatives. He suggested scanning the photos and using them in the project, which could be a slide show, photo book or who knows?

In our last class we learned all about scanning images and the best equipment to do that — a flat bed scanner. I used to have one, but it died. No worries really because it was so old it couldn’t talk to our computers. A tip I learned, if you are scanning a two-sided document or a photo with words written on the back, place black construction paper behind the document. That way the back side doesn’t bleed through.

My other project is a new month of reading (see Wednesday’s post HERE.) I realized I don’t own any of the books. I ordered a few from Amazon, paperbacks that weren’t expensive because the books are relatively old. I’ll check out my library before I order more.

Now for a couple bird shots:

I believe this is a Song Sparrow. I have trouble differentiating between sparrows and finches so I googled it and the article said that sparrows tend to hold their tails horizontally while finches tails are more up and down. Also, it said to check out the color of the legs. These have color!

Red looking sharp as always.

Mrs. on the rock.

Have a great weekend!

What projects do you have going on?

What plans do you have for the weekend?