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“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Mahatma Gandhi
The quote that I have chosen for today really resonates. I completely, totally and one hundred percent agree that happiness is a by-product of your daily choices and actions. In fact, I had to include a second quote to underscore the first quote . . . I’m a very happy person these days. So much of my life is in harmony with who I am deep inside. It has not always been so. I’ve been on a journey to harmony in my life, and have seen healing and happiness in the lives of those around me as a result. There was a time when I had division, discord, depression, unhappiness ruling my experience of life. I am so fortunate to be in a place now where I am happy, healthy, and able to share that with the people I love.
This photo was taken with my iPad as hubby, baby girl and I were out for a walk on a beautiful sunny Bay Area day. I took it with an App called HDR Pro that creates the HDR right when you are taking the shot. Thus it is a little fuzzy. That’s Ella’s curly mop on the lower right.
The little one was so happy to be out in the fresh air, walking, picking up sticks and playing with acorns that have fallen by buckets off the trees. It’s one of those afternoons where everything is right with the world. The birds are singing, the air is clean and crisp . . . and our only concern is keeping her from falling in the creek!
Happiness.
– 318-365
“One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. “You’d be destroying what makes it special,” she said. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.” Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
Today we’re on the way back to SF Bay Area after a truly amazing Meetup with my fellow 365’ers. On our drive to Vegas, I was quite taken with the Joshua Trees all along the Mojave Desert stretches. I decided that I had to take my 365 Photo with one of these beautiful creatures. The average “tree” we saw was less than a few feet tall. This was one of the biggest we saw from the road. There were a few massive ones that we could not get close to because of fences etc.
Truly breathtaking that something like this can survive for hundreds of years in the dry hot desert . . .
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“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” Stanley Horowitz
We have several huge Katsura trees in the back yard. They are luscious green in the spring and summer, and an absolutely stunning orange/yellow/red in the Autumn. They are at their best right now. Stunning.
The Katsura tree is a very distinctive landscape tree known for its delicate leaves and bright autumn colour. In autumn, the heart shaped leaves smell of burnt sugar when crushed, and the tree turns bright yellow, pink, and orange-red. The botanical name is Cercidiphyllum japonicum.
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“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, Fluttering from the autumn tree.” Emily Bronte
It’s that time of year again . . . how quickly summer seemed to pass! The leaves on the trees are turning their gorgeous shades of red, orange and yellows, and cascading to the ground leaving a beautiful rich carpet. I just had to get out and play around a bit. I had a vision of creating a “waterfall” of leaves showering down on the camera. It didn’t really work out exactly like I wanted . . . but I do like the blown out image. I would have liked the leaves to be a bit more defined. I’ll keep working at it, but it’s now raining – our wettest weekend here since May. I enjoyed playing in the leaves though – brought me back to my childhood in Northern Ontario!
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“In every drop of water, there is a story of life.” Leena Arif
I’m playing around with my D800E and the 105mm Macro lens. Since the sprinklers were on in the garden it was a prime opportunity to get some cool water drop pics. I have alot to learn to maximize the potential of this lens . . . but I was pretty impressed with what I did get. Can you see my reflection in several of the water droplets? I had to really decrease the size of this for posting purposes. These images tend to start out (in RAW) at around 40 mb. I’m finding I really don’t need to do much post processing other than maybe a tad bit of sharpening. The SOOC quality is quite stunning. Coming from a crop factor camera (the D7000), it’s quite incredible.
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“You’ve got to push yourself harder. You’ve got to start looking for pictures nobody else could take. You’ve got to take the tools you have and probe deeper.” William Albert Allard
Well . . . today I got out and started shooting with my new Nikon D800! Hubby and I went to a local park just around dinner time, that we haven’t been to in years. It was fun to try out the new lenses on both the D800E and the D7000. The D7000 is a great camera and will continue to be my go-to for portraits and kid shots. The files are more manageable considering I take so many pictures of the little ones. The D800E will be my workhorse for Stock and Fine Art Photography. I’m so excited after seeing the results from the shoot today . . . some really awesome nature shots that will soon be up on my Smug Mug site.
This was taken with the D800E, and the 70-200mm 2.8 VRII.
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Nurture Self 365 