Emergency Number Teaching Tool

Let this cute kitten assist you when you have that important talk with your children about calling emergency services. The photo of a kitten sitting in a tree and the text "Need help?" serves as a reminder to your child that the number is to be used when they need help in an emergency. The product is customizable so that you are able to change the number to match the emergency number for your area. Please be sure to only use the magnet with children who understand that magnets are not toys. I would be devastated if a child was hurt by chewing on and swallowing a magnet or found some other harmful use for it.

Kitty Emergency Number Reminder Magnet

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Rosie reading the latest blog post~~~

Happy New Year and 2012 Calendars from the Visual Journey Zazzle shop

Sales of calendars have been very good this season, thanks to our wonderful customers at our Zazzle shop. I'm pleased about both of our best sellers, but I'm especially happy about the sales of the Raptor calendar. Half the money from sales of that calendar will be donated to the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center to help in the care and feeding of the birds as well as educating the public.

The Artsy Fartsy calendar includes photos of sail boats, wisteria blooms, Texas countryside, New Mexico mesa, Colorado mountain stream, hot air balloons, railroad tracks, autumn foliage, and more, all of which have been edited for a very dramatic look.

The Raptor calendar includes red-tailed hawks, screech owls, barn owls, kestrels, falcons, and more.  Each month includes two photos of a particular bird of prey as well as their common name and Latin name.

A big thank you to everyone who has purchased from us this year!  Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

October Fog

I love this time of year.  The terrible heat and drought of summer has finally departed, the angle of the sun makes for some really nice views that are so much more appealing than the harshness of summer.  Best of all, I love the foggy nights.  This week we had a soupy night that drew me out of the house.  I grabbed my camera and headed out to enjoy it and ended up staying out from 1:45 am to 7:30 am.  Most people think it's odd that I would prefer spending all night enjoying the sights and sounds of nature rather than sleeping, but I've never really been normal by any standards.

Areas where the cloud cover was still a few feet off the ground were amazing - to seeing the light illuminating the different cloud layers and passing through the tunnel underneath the veil of mist, hearing nothing but my own footsteps or my car's tires crunching on the gravel in areas where I was driving.

Awesome creepy spot

Then there was the little country road.  No houses.  No businesses.  No traffic of any kind.  Total darkness and total silence.  It was the most deliciously creepy experience ever.  I have great night vision, but it was so dark that I couldn't even tell if there was anything to photograph.  I set up my camera on the tripod and pointed it north.  All I could see was a ridge of trees far in the distance but had no idea what was between me and the horizon, so I had no idea what would show up in my photo, if anything.  Who doesn't love a surprise, right?  I was just hoping that it wouldn't be a photo of a house because that would spoil my experience of being out in the middle of nowhere.  As you can see from these two photos, definitely the middle of nowhere.  Not a house or barn in sight.

Another view of awesome creepy spot

 All those hours out in the fog and yet I took very few photos because I was too busy enjoying the sensations of the creepiness, the darkness, the eerie fog, the almost total silence, etc.  It's amazing how the fog amplifies some sounds...or maybe it was being alone in a creepy place that did the amplification.  My heartbeat thumped along pretty loudly, as did the sound of my footsteps.  The occasional thundering footsteps of elephants were probably actually mice or bunnies.  Bird songs were beautiful and haunting and made my hair stand on end.  I wish I could convey the whole experience to you all, and I wish I had more photos to show, but please enjoy these few offerings.  Thanks for stopping by.

Water tower than appeared out of the fog

Grain silos

Farm yard

Wonderful trees

Birds of Prey

I haven't posted in a while so I'll take this opportunity to tell you about my visit to the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center during the spring.  More than a year ago I posted about meeting Sweetpea, one of the feathered ambassadors from the raptor center, at the North Texas Irish Festival.  You can read the post about that meeting here.  In May I had the privilege of meeting many of her fellow ambassadors and learned more about the important work carried out by the staff of the raptor center.  I love helping charities and conservation groups so after visiting and learning about their work and their financial and material needs I decided to do what I can to draw attention to their important work and help as much as possible.  To begin, please visit their website. Also, visit my shops at Smugmug, Zazzle, and Redbubble where you may purchase prints, canvas prints, and a variety of products such as greeting cards, keychains, mousepads, iPhone cases, and much more, printed with photos of the birds from the raptor center.  All money earned from the sale of these items will be donated to the raptor center.

All of the birds living at the center are non-releasable due to injury or as a result of being raised by people.  Birds raised by people have been imprinted by humans rather than their species and cannot care for themselves in the wild.  The directors and volunteers at the raptor center provide excellent care for the birds, they rescue birds of prey who are in need, and they educate the public about raptors and about the importance of protecting them and respecting their place in the world.  The executive director of the center also teaches ornithology classes for people studying to become Master Naturalists.

Each year the center holds a photography day for anyone wishing to learn about the birds and photograph them in a natural setting.  The human ambassadors do a great job and many of the feathered ambassadors really seem to enjoy showing off for the visitors.  One particular show-off was the young, male red-tailed hawk.  His age is the equivalent of a human teen and he is every bit a teenager - strong, handsome, confident, in charge and wanted everyone to know it.  He insisted on facing into the wind and sent an unmistakable message to any small birds in the area...he runs this place.  He lives at the raptor center because he was found with both wings broken when he was younger.  He is able to fly but not well enough to survive in the wild.  Just don't tell him that.

Red-tailed Hawk (male)

The Great Horned Owl was a particularly endearing creature.  He has all the fearsomeness of a great predator but speaks to his handler in baby talk - tiny, adorable chirps and squeaks.  He was found as a baby and raised by people and as a result he never learned the vocalizations of an adult.

Great Horned Owl

The center's two Eastern Screech Owls also charmed us all.  The raptor center has two adult screech owls - a male red phase and a female gray phase.  Red phase screech owls are more common in the eastern United States, the gray more common here in Texas.  There are also variations of those colors seen across the US.  They look somewhat like tiny great horned owls.  I think it's safe to say the screech owls are the cutest creatures I've ever seen in person.  The little female was raised by a human family who found her as a baby and she is completely at ease around people, which of course makes her non-releasable but very appealing.

Eastern Screech Owl (Red-phase)

Eastern Screech Owl (Gray-phase)

 There were several other birds for us to see on this visit, all of them knowing full well how awesome they are.  No matter the size, cuteness, or age of these birds, they all have that look that tells us they run the place.

Peregrine Falcon

American Kestrel

Mississippi Kite

Red-tailed Hawk (female)

Barred Owl

Red-shouldered Hawk

Barn Owl

On the center's website you may learn more about each bird in their care as well as read info about all the types of raptors found in the area. There is also a schedule of upcoming events and a donation page where you may make a monetary donation as well as a list of needed supplies in case you happen to have items they need or connections to get the items.

I hope you enjoy seeing these wonderful birds.  Keep well everyone, and enjoy life.

Run For Cover - I'm Experimenting Again!!!

Wrapping my brain around Photoshop and Gimp is not easy. I'm slowly learning to touch up my photos, but the major things still elude me. Learning about the "overlay" setting for a layer was reason enough for a celebration to me. In fact, I'm still a bit giddy about that one. Anyway, I've done lots of experimenting lately and thought I would share some before and after images. The unfortunate part of all this experimenting is that when I do achieve something fun, I can't remember how I did it. *sigh*

Here is an attempt at HDR. 

Light unedited image

Dark unedited image

Created in LuminanceHDR and tweaked in PS/Gimp

Edited in Photoshop/Gimp

I'm not entirely satisfied with the results so far, but with a bit more tweaking perhaps.  These small sized images are difficult to really show the result, but I like the image achieved in Photoshop better than the HDR version but neither has a sky that works yet.  And the trees and grass in the HDR version are oversaturated.  Eh...I'll keep working on it.

I've also tried my hand at using texture layers to make photos look old and worn.  I know there are many effects that artists are going for with the use of textures, but I've been looking at old family photos lately and wanted to mimic that look.

Original image

Faded and texture added

Original image

Faded and texture added

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The resulting images in my experiments with textures look exactly like the old photos I was attempting to mimic.  Not sure if anyone would find them artistically pleasing, but it was fun.  I did post the faded rose on my Tumblr and it got lots of likes and reblogs so I guess there may be a niche for that type of work.

 

My brain may be too full already or perhaps just getting too soft, but it's been an uphill battle learning to do this stuff.  Hopefully it will all get in there soon.

The cool thing about art is that there is no right or wrong.  There are guidelines and accepted practices, and there are opinions, likes, and dislikes, but if the artist likes it, it's right.  There is always room for improvement, of course, and adjustments that can be made to make one's work a bit more likely to find an approving eye elsewhere, but if it achieves the artists intent or makes the artist happy, it's a success on a basic level.  It's worth the effort for me to continue trying to learn Photoshop and Gimp as well as working on improving the artistic value of my work, because I hope to create images that add something positive to other people's lives.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Armageddon

Driving through the Texas countryside has always been scenic and peaceful.  I expect to see lovely rolling hills, a variety of trees, horses, cows, and occasionally a sculpture made out of bales of hay.  Saturday I saw something I didn't expect - Armageddon.  Well, okay, it wasn't really Armageddon, but it looked strange enough to make me wonder.  It was an insanely bright day with the winter sky blanketed by cirrocumulus clouds, complete with herringbone patterns and puffy cotton balls, a long line of unbelievably intense blue sky was visible through an unzipped portion of clouds, the sun burned through the thin clouds making a huge white disc overhead, and there was a peculiar hole in the sheet of clouds with a haze inside veiling the entrance to heaven.  It was an awesome sight.

And of course, I must include my tweaked version...Armageddon

Hiking at Tyler State Park

Due to a family medical emergency I recently found myself making the two hour drive to Tyler, Texas several days in a row. Tyler is known for its roses but I didn't realize the tremendous beauty of that area. On the approach to Tyler hills get hillier, tall pines and numerous other types of trees pop out of every bit of soil, lovely farms and ranches spread out to the horizon.  We decided a hiking trip was in order. Once the dust settled from the emergency, my son and I made an early morning drive to Tyler State Park. It was still dark when we arrived and we spent the next several hours hiking through the woods, over the hilly terrain, over the soft ground blanketed in colorful oak leaves, and surrounded by tall pine trees. We were all alone except for a heron, and egret, an adorable bobcat that I wish I had been able to photograph, a few deer, and an incredible number of song birds. There was a light rain off and on all day and it was pretty chilly since it was the 24th of December, but it was a perfect, peaceful, beautiful day. *sigh* We plan on returning to the park again for future hikes so we can see the beauty of the different seasons.

I hope you enjoy the photos of this beautiful state park and I wish you all a Wonderful New Year!!!