May 29, 2011

Timeless Taos - Courtyard Arch



The doorway below this white-washed adobe arch leads into the front courtyard of the San Geronimo Chapel in the Taos Pueblo.  Use of a polarizer helped capture this brilliant blue sky.

May 27, 2011

Timess Taos - Cemetery Entrance


A cemetery is located on the northwest side of the Taos Pueblo. It is situated along with the remains of a previous church and enclosed by a low adobe wall. Many simple wooden crosses can be seen over the wall. This sacred site has been used for countless generations for the local people.

May 26, 2011

Timeless Taos - Adobe Walls and Red Door

I had a perfectly miserable working day. I need a little good cheer. You probably do too. How about another photo of timeless Taos, New Mexico? Yes, I thought you would like that idea! 

I found the texture of adobe to be irresistible for photo opportunities. So you could see it clearly, I emphasize the texture of this Pueblo home during the digital processing. The rustic door also provides a nice pop of color.




Authentic adobe buildings are made of from real adobe. A combination of earth, straw, and water are mixed and poured into brick forms. After they have a chance to dry in the sun, the bricks are then stacked and bonded together with more adobe mixture. The walls are frequently several thick feet thick! Interior walls are coated with washes of white earth to keep them bright and clean. Because of the wear and tear from seasonal weather conditions, the exteriors are plastered every year with more adobe.

May 24, 2011

Timeless Taos - A New Series

It’s our one-year anniversary here at Grey Havens cottage! Alas, I don’t have a new picture of it to share with you. Whenever I have had spare moments lately, the weather has not been the best for snapping some photos to show how the little homestead looks now. Considering that we are not in the path of destructive weather conditions afoot this spring, we are counting out blessings! We adore our home and have thoroughly enjoyed getting acquainted with it this past year.

So instead of entertaining you with pictures of our house right now, I’m going to start a wee series of posts featuring charming scenes in Taos, New Mexico. I’ve already shared a couple of pictures, featuring the majestic steeples at San Franciso de Asis Church and the delicate stained-glass window at San Geronimo Chapel.

We spent a couple of hours in the Taos Pueblo, the first Living World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO. About 150 people live full-time within the pueblo. Its two main structures are called the North House and South House. These structures are believed to be well over 1000 years old. Below is a view of the North House. This large building is comprised of many individual homes, built side-by-side and in layers with common walls and no connecting doorways.  Isn't it an amazing place?


And to give the scene step-back-in-time feel, I also converted it to a black and white version.


May 22, 2011

On a Mission to "Embiggen"

In this day and age of supersizing, I am declaring myself on a mission to “embiggen”. This quaint slang word means to make larger in size. So what exactly do I intend to embiggen? 

Photos, my dear readers. Last year, I started to use Flickr for loading and linking my finer photos. This was right after I modified my blog’s main column to show bigger photos. 

And now that I have a pro membership with Flickr, I’m going a step further. I will be loading bigger photos on Flickr. So when you see one of my special pictures (not an everyday snapshot), you will be just a click away from seeing it in a larger size. I won’t be going back and resizing all of my past pictures. That would be hugely time consuming to load up replacement photos and repair web links. So this practice is just from here on out. 

Embiggen. Marty says it’s a good thing for photos…


May 21, 2011

Photo Challenge: May Flowers

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge and the theme is May Flowers. With all of the showers we’ve been getting this spring, we certainly have a profusion of May flowers brightening things up! And it was refreshing to take a little break from mentally wresting with the computer last weekend and take some new photos for this challenge. Because it was a cloudy day with a hint of rain, the tripod came out of its case to lend me some assistance in the endeavor.

This first photo begged for a square crop to show itself off properly. So after a little snip-snip, here you have it. This cheerful yellow gerbera daisy bloom is in a neighbor’s flowerpot. The camera settings were f/7.1, 1/30 second, and ISO 320.


Thanks to a little prodding by the residents, the empty lots in the villa section of our subdivision are looking a lot better this year because of regular trimming. But it is a good thing for the birds (particularly gold and purple finches) that a few wild thistle plants are left to bloom. The spikes on the plants and their flowers are wickedly sharp, but photogenic nonetheless. Here is a bloom that hasn’t yet opened to reveal its purple petals. The image was taken at f/7.1, 1/6 second, and ISO 320.


And when hubby came home from a trip to the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago, he surprised me with a couple of lovely geraniums to put in a rustic twig basket on the front porch. You can’t help but smile when you looking at these cheerful pink and white blooms. The camera settings were f/7.1, 1/6 second, and ISO 320.


I hope that you click on the link at the top and check out the photos of other challenge participants too!

May 18, 2011

Let the Heavens Sing

Yes, I am alive and well.  Slow blogging will continue for a while yet.  It seems like I am running more behind than ever with the new computer.  I’m muddling through, LOL.  Our new (extra capacity) external hard drives arrived today from B&H Photo, along with Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 software and Nik Complete digital software to compliment Photoshop.  Let the heavens sing!  Slowly, but surely, we’re getting there!  I am glad to have a Word processing function again that I actually understand.  I can also now set up the “time machine” function to do automatic backups of my hard drive.  The Nik Complete software is for fun and playing!  I’ll start to tinker around with it this weekend.  (It gives me something to look forward to!)

The backyard sod addition got its first mowing trim an hour ago.  It is looking good!  No, I haven’t forgotten to take some pictures and do a post.  I was waiting until the all the landscaping changes got settled in a bit and our flowers were planted.  So there’s another thing I need to add to my to-do list this weekend: new pictures of the yard for a blog post.

Since we are singing along with the heavens, we need something inspirational to look at, don’t you think?  Here is a photo I took at Zion National Park of three rocky peaks called the patriarchs.

With a view like this, it’s easy to shout out a few hallelujahs!

May 14, 2011

It's Photography's Fault!

We are still struggling with the switcheroo from a Windows PC to a iMac, but it is getting easier with each passing hour.  Yes, we are trying to go full speed and that is taxing our poor little noggins.  I finally got into Photoshop CS5 today and then quickly realized that I had to reload my brushes; my custom actions and patterns are gone (will reload later on); my signature brush didn’t work and had to be recreated; preferences had to be reset; Topaz filters had to download all over again and installed; and new keyboard commands and layout are different.  Whew!

After spending several hours today tinkering around here and there, I rewarded myself by processing a few photos.  And here is a special treat for you, since you have been so patient and supporting!  Below are two versions of a stained glass window image I captured of the San Geronimo (St. Jerome) Chapel in Taos Pueblo.


I was able to bring out the weathered texture of the adobe mud and the charming stained glass designs with one of the filters in Topaz Adjust.  For a little extra fun, I also created a black and white version using another Topaz Adjust filter.  Way cool, huh?


I have gotten a few questions about why we did the computer switch.  Well, it all comes down to it being photography’s fault.  My computer was a nice one when I bought it three and a half years ago.  But I was almost completely out of hard drive space (over 200 GB in images alone); the processor was too slow to work with large image files; the hard drive was at the end of its predictable life; and the processor and RAM would not support many of the newer image software now available.  Goodness knows that I have really gotten into digital imaging in a BIG way since I started down this learning path a few years ago!  It was time for a new computer.

We have both experienced problems with various brands of computers over the years, including HP, Gateway, and Dell.  And when you have problems, the manufacturers readily blame Microsoft programs for the causes.  In turn, Microsoft points back at the manufacturers, claiming that the problems are caused by hardware issues.  Back and forth, consumers like us get tossed about and get little recourse that is straightforward.  And then there are the well-known issues associated with PC security and viruses.  Don’t even get me started on those headaches!

We had been toying with the idea of going to a Mac platform for quite a while.  But we thought that we would have to buy a whole new Photoshop CS5 program.  Just last month, we discovered that assumption was not true.  All we had to do was request a license change from Adobe.  (It was easy and quick, costing us only $6.50 for shipping us a new program disc.)  So that revelation was a game changer.  We also have been waffling back and forth about what tablet to buy to take along on our travels instead of a laptop.  Then last week, Apple announced that the new iMacs were released and they incorporated the new Thunderbolt chip from Intel (for rapid data transfer), among other improvements.  The scales clearly tipped.  Hubby didn’t even take a nanosecond to affirm my proposal to get new iMacs and an ipad.  So off to the Apple store we went last Saturday!  The rest, as they say, is history.

So there you have my rationale!  Clearly, it’s photography’s fault!

May 13, 2011

Clueless in Apple Land


The plunge into Apple land these past few days has rendered me into a totally clueless and frustrated idiot.  For someone who has used a PC for about 25 years, switching to a Mac is not easy.  For those of you who are thinking of switching, I’m keeping it real for you!  Thank goodness we signed up for the One-to-One Program to get personal help on setup, training, and projects.  They transferred our files from our old hard drives a couple of days ago.  That convenience right there was worth the price of the program to us.

After using our new iMacs the past few days, we took my computer in earlier this afternoon for a scheduled training session so that we could ask a ton of questions on various things that have been stumping us.  (We’ve made more trips to the mall this past week than we usually do in a couple of years, LOL.)  Among other things, we had special issues dealing with our photo software interfaces, so that necessitated us bring in one of the machines.  All of our questions got answered!  I’m sure that we will have many more questions and issues in the days ahead, and we’ll just keep scheduling more sessions.  The program is good for a whole year!  It has been quite comforting for all staff at the Mac Retail Store to be extremely patient, informative, and downright funny.

We were also extremely pleased with the ease and speed in getting our Adobe Photoshop program switched over from a PC to Mac license.  We opted for receipt of new a program disc rather than a download.  For a $6.50 shipping charge, we received our new disc two days later.  Amazing.

I have gotten way behind on blog reading and visiting.  I’ll try to catch up with everyone when I can, OK?!

May 10, 2011

Bits and Bytes

10 MB hard disk


We took our hard drives into the Apple store this past Sunday.  They are transferring computer files for us.  We’ll pick up our iMacs tomorrow evening and get our first instruction session on how to use them.  We’re excited!


16K RAM card


In the meantime, we are making do with two old laptops which are s-l-o-w and are minimally equipped.  Of course, I’ve been using the iPad a bit, and I can attest to how fun and cool it is!

briefcase portability 

Hubby got our Photoshop CS5 software license transferred over today from the Microsoft to Mac platform.  They are mailing out a new program disk for us.  Hooray!  We’re looking forward to getting all settled in with our computer setups by this weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed for me to return to my usual blogging soon!

May 7, 2011

Jumping into the “Apple” Cart

American's-Delight-apple-label

We’ve been talking about it for a while. We’ve been thinking it over. We’re past those points now. We’ve gone and done it! We’ve jumped into the “Apple” cart. We’re saying goodbye to Microsoft PCs and we’re getting iMacs. The release of the latest iMac generation just tipped the scales for our decision-making. We’ve also wanted to get a tablet to take with us on our travels instead of a heavy laptop. So we went ahead and got an iPad2 while we were there at the store. The apple cart got full, LOL!

We’ll take our hard drives in tomorrow to our local Apple store, and they will transfer our files for us and get the software all loaded. Later on next week, we’ll take care of getting our Photoshop CS5 program licensed with Adobe transferred over to Mac use instead of Windows. Of course, we will be getting used to our new operating system and setups for a while!

I will sadly say goodbye to my beloved Windows Live Writer for blog posts. It has been a dream to use this past year. That means my cursing vocabulary will get a workout when I resume using the dreaded Blogger editor again. Do my dear readers have any recommendations on a good editor for Mac users?

I will try to get a couple of blog posts lined up for publishing while I go through this drastic transition phase. Wish me luck! In the meantime…

Caution: Slow Blogging Ahead!

May 6, 2011

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty...

We had a lovely day! We ate a late lunch at our local Pei Wei Asian Diner and then caught a matinee showing of the African Cats movie.  The food was delicious and the photography in the movie was incredible



May 3, 2011

Who Won the Giveaway?!

who-won

Mr. Hooty wants to know the answer! And YOU want to know the answer too!

The winner of my grand giveaway to commemorate my 500th blogging post is…

Kim of Homesteader's Heart!

Congratulations, sweet friend! You’ve been a faithful reader for several years now and I greatly appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement! I know you will give all of these birdie treasures a great home!

May 1, 2011

May – A Look Ahead


May-header

Ah, I am looking forward to another one of my favorite months: May! It is a sea of green here in east Tennessee right now, and folks are tending to their landscaping and gardens. As I noted in an earlier post, our little landscaping improvement project finally wrapped up. Yes indeed, I’ll be taking some pictures and sharing with you the changes that we made. Though the project took the contractor much longer than we had planned, we’re happy with the final results. We like the new hardscapes so much, we are considering adding a block retaining border/wall on the left side of the house too. We asked a different contractor to prepare a bid for that possible improvement. In any event, we can now dress up the flowerbed area around the mailbox!

The irrigation system for the villa community and the general areas in the subdivision is not working yet. So hubby is faithfully watering the new sod that was extended into the backyard. We are all convinced that last year’s irrigation contractor folks were direct descendants of Neanderthals. The system never did work right. The developer has secured a new contractor to assume the maintenance task, and we are quite hopeful that it will work better this year. However, the new guys are discovering that extensive damage was done to the system last fall when the local cable company dug new lines for another subdivision phase. It’s always something, LOL, isn’t it? We are crossing our fingers that it will get fixed and running sometime this week.

Though the natural world and an inviting back porch will both be calling my name loudly this month, I will be spending some time processing my New Mexico photos. You have already gotten a small sampling. And based on your comments, I know that my blog readers and armchair travelers want MORE! I hear you, ha-ha!

There were a few days on the trip that we had some glorious clouds. Hooray! And I also tried to deviate a bit from my typical framing through the viewfinder. But like any traveling photographer, I had to take the conditions as they presented themselves. Many times, I thought to myself a myriad of “if only” statements. If only I was here in the afternoon, with the light coming in from the other side. If only those 794,521 eight-year-old schoolchildren were NOT bolting into my pictures (and not screaming either). If only there were some puffy clouds in the sky. Thus, it is always a bit of a challenge to take good images despite the conditions. It’s the old “making the best of it” philosophy! And that is when I really have to stretch my creativity or perform magical feats in Photoshop!

You can see by my latest blog header and special “May” graphic, I have birds on the brain! We put up our bird bottle last month on the front porch and are anxiously waiting to see of a charming little wren claims it to build a nest. You may remember my May 2009 post about these unique bird houses from Colonial Williamsburg and a special watercolor-processed photo I created later on (see below). We were delighted to find that a robin built a nest at the top of one of our gutter downspouts, of all places. It successfully weathered the bad storms last week too! Yesterday, a male hummingbird flew up and hovered right outside our kitchen windows. I guess he was giving us a not-so-subtle hint that he arrived and is hungry! So hubby quickly fixed up some sugar-water solution and hung up two feeders on the front of our home. I have one hanging right outside of my office, and it is already a regular hangout for the hummers! Of course, we still have the regular bird feeder up and also the thistle sock. The new Grey Havens has gotten to be quite popular place with our feathered friends!




Since we have returned from our latest journey, we’ve made a commitment to eat a bit healthier. This month’s dishes from the kitchen will be including more fresh vegetables and fruits, now that they are in more abundance at the grocery store. Our one-year anniversary at our new home will be the 25th this month. And we can say that we sure are glad that we didn’t skimp on the budget when it came to outfitting our kitchen. It gets a workout on a regular basis! To supplement our large collection of dried herbs and spices, we are growing fresh herbs, potted up right next to the front porch, and we’re already harvesting them for various dishes. This year, we are growing basil, parsley, thyme, cilantro, and chives.

Well, I think I have rambled long enough and need to wrap this up. If you have stuck through this extra-long post, you ought to get an award! Which reminds me – please be sure to enter my 500th celebration giveaway for a chance to win some wonderful birdie-related prizes! You can’t win if you don’t enter!