Chicago Botanic Garden

Spring has arrived at the Chicago Botanic Garden, located on the north side of Chicago.  For years it has been a goal of mine to go see these gardens, and on April 29, 2010 I finally did. 



I knew from the flowering trees around Milwaukee that the gardens might be at a peak time for spring, and so my daughter Miranda and I took the day to go check out the flowers.


The gardens did not disappoint - in fact, I became a member and plan to return several times this summer.

The tulip colors were incredible.  I see why speculators in Holland went wild over tulip bulbs several century's ago, resulting in a economic crash.  Tulips are so much more exciting then financial derivatives will ever be. 
 

It is easy to take all the color around us for granted.  In pioneering times, you really wouldn't see much color all winter.  Blue sky, whites, browns, grays and blacks, dark evergreen colors.  The occasional red cardinal or red berries, and occasionally vivid sunsets.  Spring brings welcome green and the colors of flowers, but rarely would you see such a cluster of colors like I got to enjoy on Thursday.  

I love being part of this century - with all the colors of dyes for fabric that are available, the vivid print colors of inks that I can printout even at home, or view on a screen.  I can take a photo and even as the memory dims the colors a day later, I can review them within minutes on my PC monitor.  Wow.

OK, so this blog post kind of rambles, but spring makes me happy,  flowers make me happy, and colors make me happy.  I hope you get out and enjoy spring.

Click on the images to see them larger. 





If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy...

Chicago Garden

Elves Chasm

Bonsai Wisteria

NY Egg Hunt

Spring Needlework

Prague Wreath

Spring Gift Tags

NY Windows Part 2

I am linking up to these memes:
The Tablescaper: Oh the Places I've Been party. (I was entry 34) April 2013

Scenic Sunday 94 (I was entry 15 of 68)
Outdoor Wednesday. (I was entry 52 of 150).
Wordful Wednesday (I was entry 175 of 179).
Macro Flower Saturday (I was entry 20) 
Favorite Photo Friday (I was entry 4)
Watery Wednesday.  (I was entry 137 of 138). 2nd image has water!

Chicago Cloud Gate

Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, USA is the home of the  sculpture "Cloud Gate" designed the British artist Anish Kapoor. 

This sculpture is huge - 33 feet high and 66 feet long, and weights 110 tons.  The "gate" in the middle is 12 feet high.  The sculpture encourages you to interact with it - and your reflection in it, which includes the Chicago buildings around you in with your reflection.  As you walk through and around it, you wonder how the sculpture was transported and assembled.  There are no visible seams in the highly polished stainless steel plates.  This was the first public installation of Anish Kapoor's outdoor art in the USA. 

I'm sometimes disappointed with modern sculptures, but this artwork appeals to all ages, and I rate it a 5 out of 5 stars.  A cool and fun hi tech sculpture to welcome in this millennium.

This is a view from the North end of Cloud Gate.  
 

Click on the images to see them larger.
This is my contribution for the 'meme' Scenic Sunday. (I was entry 12 of 70+)
This is my contribution to the 'meme' Outdoor Wednesday. (I was entry 50)

 

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy...
Misty Morning post with another covered bridge photo from Cedarburg



Another Covered Bridge View in this post.




My 1st Scenic Sunday post Elves Chasm, Grand Canyon, USA

Africa collage

When I heard the I Heart faces challenge this week was going to be a collage image, I thought of this poster I created for an exhibit about three years ago.  

In fall of 2006, six members of Crossroads Presbyterian Church from Mequon, Wisconsin, USA, traveled to Swaziland, Africa to meet children they sponsor through World Vision and Crossroad's church.  Crossroad church members individually sponsor over 200 children in Swaziland, an area that has one of the highest rates of children orphaned by AIDS in the world.   

I had the privilege of curating an exhibit from the over 6000 photographs taken by the travelers.  It was a huge undertaking, and I loved it.  I felt like I could have been a National Geographic editor sorting through all the photos, selecting and editing and cropping them with a photographer's eye.   

Because I find faces so fascinating, I created this poster for the exhibit.  I spent hours arranging the individual faces for what I hoped would be the best impact, composition, and balance.  I tried to make the faces face in toward the center, or have eyes of some people interact with other people.  I look now and can see some areas I would change...  Oh well.  That is the process of learning.  Color correcting was a challenge, but in the end I was really happy with my collage accomplishment.  I hope you enjoy it. 

The poster was 24x36 inches, but it seems to display fairly well in this web resolution.  Click on the image to see it larger, then click on the image again to zoom in. 
 
The exhibit's images and stories are available via the web so that others may learn more about Swaziland and the opportunities to help and/or sponsor children in Swaziland and other areas where great need exists.  More information and images from this exhibit can be viewed at www.selepimaging.com at The Swaziland Africa Exhibit 

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Family Portrait

Fun Outtakes

Bundled Up

I am participating in these memes:

I Heart Faces (I was entry no. 20 out of 522).
Mosaic Monday.  (I was entry no. 118 out of 126).

Chocolate Delight

The I Heart Faces challenge this week is actually "I Heart Desserts".  (I was entry no. 24 out of 303).

Peacock - Outdoor Wednesday No. 24

While I wait for spring colors here in the Midwest, here is an outdoor shot from a previous year. Sigh... The lucky people down South already have flowers to take pictures of. Enjoy!

This is the 24th time I have participated in Outdoor Wednesday. Click here to visit Outdoor Wednesday

High School Senior: Dramatic Black and White

I am very excited to see the entries for this weeks "I Heart Faces" challenge. The theme for the week is "Dramatic Black and White". Photographers are to submit a photo with at least one person's face, that shows "dramatic, sensational and/or moody" Black and White. Conversion and editing technique is important for this theme.

I have been studying Black and White photos (and conversions) over the last decade. My "style" for Black and white conversions comes from classic film and vintage photography. In the pre-digital photography days, photographers carefully considered backgrounds, textures, and contrast. Photographers thought out and could plan out what areas of a photo would look dark and what areas would be light. Colored filters with black and white film could be used to control what colors "looked" the lightest in Black and White.

Color photography doesn't remind the photographer to remember what a background will look like in a photo - will the greens look dark or light compared to the subject. Will the blue sky look darker then the skin, or lighter? Some photographers strove to make the skin (of a Caucasian) look creamy and light, a point sometimes overlooked when converting a color photo into Black and White today. Today's photo kiosk Black and White conversion frequently leaves skin looking too dark, which the eye perceives as gray. These details are the reason some people are vaguely disappointed when converting a beautiful color photo into a black and white photo.

My current philosophy (tendency) in converting a black and white photo is somewhat classic - make the skin one of the lightest components in the photo (again, for a Caucasian subject). When you have a bride or subject in a white dress, make the white dress the lightest (but still show fabulous detail in the lace and beading); and then make the skin light, but significantly distinct from the dress.

The High School senior image I choose for the challenge shows my current philosophy of black and white conversion. The result does not feel vintage - with the relatively modern white backdrop paper, I believe the look is contemporary and stunning.


If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Family Portrait

Fun Outtakes

Bundled Up

I am participating in these memes:

I Heart Faces (Week 13, 2010)
Click here to see the winners. 
(I was entry no. 6 out of more then 1250)
I think this is a record for the number of entries to I Heart Faces.

Stained Glass Treasure

I think every treasure hunter has a "Treasure of the Year" find that sticks out in their mind as the best find of the year. This window is that find for me from the year 2008.


I had taken my 4 children to Wisconsin Dells, and on the way back I stopped at a moving sale at a gorgeous Victorian farmhouse somewhere between Wisconsin Dells and Milwaukee.

The sale was on the first floor of the house, and you could tell the house was being entirely cleared out. (Carpets rolled up, built in cabinetry emptied, all furniture removed or tagged, a room taped off as "Not for Sale" with packed boxes, etc.) The Victorian house, like lots of quality houses "of a certain age", had beautiful custom made and installed beveled windows, polished wood built-ins with beveled glass, etc. It was super clean, polished, decorator curtains, the works.





The sale had a lot of nice quality antique items, but I only got a couple of trinkets for under $5. The four children had already gone back to the car (no toys, no fun...) and I had just paid. Then I noticed this window leaning against the wall. It was "dusted" but still quite dirty (brown streaky dirt, the kind that does not come off with a light finger wipe.) (As opposed to the installed windows in the house, which were crystal clear.) Perhaps it had been stored in a garage or basement, and only recently brought inside. I said "Would you take $40 for the window?". The lady said, "Oh, it's not for sale... wait, how much did you say?" I quickly said "I'll give you $50", and she was like OK!

I ran to the car and scrapped up the last bit of cash from the trip, and borrowed some of the children's leftover souvenir money. (My children frequently have more cash then I do - and guess where they get it from? Then they charge me interest, too.) She had time to change her mind, and I was sure she would. But the window was very dirty, and it does have one piece of cracked glass that would be expensive to replace. (I'll let you find it, I will not point it out.) It was the only loose window, maybe from a remodel? It didn't match the installed (larger and more ornate) beveled windows that I saw.

I returned, paid, and we were both beaming. (Maybe she thought I would change my mind?) She was retiring to somewhere South, (as I remember) and as I left I had the vague feeling some relative somewhere should have picked up that window sooner if they wanted it. [She had commented that her children were going to be coming back later to pack up all the left over items, it was the last day of the sale.] Lucky for me!

My heart beat faster and I glowed all the way home. I have loved stained glass windows and beveled glass windows for years, and have contented myself with taking pictures of vintage windows I would love to own, because the ones I like are always out of my price range. (Perhaps the photos of ones I can't buy will grace a future post...)



When I got home, I carried it in, dirt and all, before any of the luggage. Water, Murphy's wood soap, Windex and lots of rags. (This cleaning job was way beyond paper towels).  My husband Carl rolled his eyes and said - and where are you going to put it? (He knows that I don't consider that detail when I buy something, I have lots of finds that I'll someday find a place for.) Amazingly, it is almost a perfect fit for the windows in the second floor of our house. It was meant to be.



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Heart Window

Angel Window

Madonna Window

Beveled Window

Stained Glass

Tree Pins

Book Treasure

Garden Horses

Antique Trunk

Marbles

Eggs of Stone

Egg-stavaganza

Other memes I am linking up to: 
Visit Romantic Home for Show and Tell, (I was entry 20 of 160)
Diane for 2nd Time Around, (I was entry 9 of 23)
Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tues, (I was entry 95 of 104)
S Hospitality for Today's Thrifty Treasures, (I was entry 87 of 90).
Bloggeritaville for Thrifty Thur, (I was entry 78 of 88).

Irises

Wisconsin is just starting to experience nice weather days, and trees are budding out, (but not with green), but it will be months before irises appear... This is a photo from a previous year.


Click on the images to see them larger. 

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy...

Flower Bouquet

Bonsai in Bloom

Winter Garden

Bluebirds

Lotus Garden

Flowers

Orchids

Lilies of Valley

Spring Nest

Daffodils

Art in Bloom 3

Art in Bloom 1

Art in Bloom 2

I am linking up to these memes: 

This is the 2nd time I am joining Macro Flower Saturday. (I was entry 5 of 17)
This is the 22th time I am joining Outdoor Wednesday. (I was entry 19 of 117)

Angles - I Heart Faces No. 10

I am making a lot of blog posts for photo 'memes'.

Here is my easy definition of an blogging Meme:
'meme' -(rhymes with "theme") - are themes that a hosting blogger will suggest to other other bloggers to post about, and then other bloggers make a post and "link" their post to the hosting blogger's post.

Photo meme's usually have a photography topic suggested, recipes meme's share recipes (perhaps with a theme), some meme's have bloggers write about a particular idea.

The photo challenge at the "I Heart Faces" meme is the largest meme that I participate in. Sometimes over 800 photographers submit a photo for a theme that is changed weekly. On the "I Heart Faces" meme, (and many other meme's I participate in), an internet widget known "Mr. Linkey's Magical widgets" manages the links that people submit.

The "I Heart Faces" theme for the week is "ANGLES". Photographers are to submit a photo with at least one person's face taken from an unexpected angle.  This is the 10th time I am joining this meme.

I took this family portrait for one of my earliest Selep Imaging customers, a friend I have known since shortly after our oldest son's were born. (15 = years now, and counting!) While I have taken photos from this angle since, this remains one of my favorite photos from above... (maybe 'cause I felt so cutting edge at the time. Ooolala.) The three sisters, their spouses and children are smiling and trusting me to not drop the camera!

I am a fan of photographs that capture more then one great expression at a time - because great multiple people photos are exponentially harder to get then a great photo of just one person. ESPECIALLY with children. (Although some adults can can be problematic also.)

Here is my own personal mathematical formula for the difficulty of getting a good photo.

DIFFICULTY = (n) squared ;
where n = the number of people in the photo.

If the difficulty of getting a great picture of one person were rated 1,
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 2 people is 2 squared = 4.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 3 people is 3 squared = 9.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 4 people is 4 squared = 16.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 5 people is 5 squared = 25.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 6 people is 6 squared = 36.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 7 people is 7 squared = 49.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 8 people is 8 squared = 64.
the difficulty of getting a great picture of 9 people is 9 squared = 81...

This formula is NOT to discourage anyone - it is just to encourage photographers with larger families... Take a deep breath and KNOW that what you face (pun intended) will not be easy!
 

The I Heart Faces challenge this week (Week 12 in 2010) is ANGLES. Click here to see the winners.  (I was entry 10 of 802).  

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Black and White

Fun Outtakes

Bundled Up