Once in a blue moon

Blue Moon Aug 2012

Since I have not posted in a while I thought having a blue moon was a perfect time to get back in the groove of blogging again.  The saying 'Once in a blue moon' came about because of the rarity of blue moons and my blogging had indeed become a rarity.  However my life is getting a little more settled and predictable so back to blogging I come.
I researched what a blue moon is; which is two full moons in a month and they are indeed rare. The next one is July 2015.  I also found a really cool website on all things moon, where whatever you want to know can probably be found. Click here here where a photo  moon phases calendar for Sept can be found.
I experimented with my camera settings (shutter speed and aperture) and my preset settings and my zoom feature and came up with some very distinctly different photos.

Blue moon Aug 2012

Although The first photo is not the best technically, I like it best.  I was actually kind of impressed with my second photo, it was the clearest moon photo that I've been able to accomplish in a long time.  My last photo is even clearer but not as artistically rendered. Sigh.

Blue Moon Aug 2012

 Hope you enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina ☺☺☺

Back to Kingsport Tenn

Rest area on I-75
All in Bloom

Took a break from visiting my daughter to continue working on my health, but I traveled back last week during the heat wave.  I made it back to Kingsport in record time.  Last time even though I thought I left at the right time to miss Atlanta traffic it still took me 2 1/2 hours to get from Locust Grove through Atlanta to Marietta.  This time it took 45 minutes.  It always amazes me at the time difference that can occur while driving in the city. Sometimes for no apparent reason your time can double or triple.  How do those who commute everyday figure this out?

Blessed shade on a hot day

The other thing that continues to surprise me is the different personalities of the rest areas.  Each has it's own beauty.  The difference between rest areas between states is even more remarkable.  Georgia's tend to have lots of wide open spaces with minimal landscaping mostly around the main building and they are not staffed except at the main You have entered Georgia Rest Area.

Georgia rest area picnic site

Tennessee has smaller rest areas with more landscaping spread across the entire area.  They also have the bonus of being having an attendant on site.

Beauty at the rest stop
Art edit

At one of the Georgia rest areas I saw some evergreens that where in some places dead, dying, and other places growing and thriving.  I loved the textures and color combinations so I snapped a shot.

Life goes on

I have been looking at a lot of abstract photos and art lately so since I really liked the colors and textures I decided to try my hand at turning this photo into an abstract art piece.

  I edited it in Photoscape (available for free on CNET) using the swirl filter then I added a lens flare.  I added three lens flares in three different colors and turned down the opacity on the flares.

I then transferred it to Gimp and layered the edited version with the original. (Gimp is alsoavailable for free on CNET). This was my first attempt at using layers. I then cropped it to emphasize the center flare and came up with this:

What do you think?
Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Greetings from Kingsport TN

View of the mountains from my daughters apt complex

I have recently been to see my daughter in Tennessee.  As my health increases my life expands and I am able to do more and more.  A couple of months ago a trip to Atlanta required someone else to drive me there.  About 3 weeks ago I drove  by myself from Griffin GA to Kingsport Tenn a little over 6 hours of straight driving.  I did take breaks and it took me about 8 hours but I did it.  HOORAY, HOORAY for me.

Pretty park and landscaping at Apt complex

While Laura and the boys were busy elsewhere I was able to take a walk and photograph some of the beauty of the area in which she lives.

As the subtitle to my blog says; See the Beauty; A Survivors Photo-Art Journal I still find much beauty in my everyday surroundings and continue to enjoy sharing it with you.

Another Mountain view

The only downfall to my returning health is as I am more and more active my time spent on the computer is less and less.  Hopefully I can someday soon manage both as I truly miss my online friends.

Hopefully that day will be soon.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Rose Garden

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Oscar Wilde

In my last post I gave you one of the reasons why I have been missing from the Internet and in this post I will give you another one.  This is more personal.  Those who have followed me know that I have multiple health problems and they got to the point where between the instability of the Internet and my health deteriorating combined to make the Internet experience more frustrating than I could handle.  I did however miss the friendships and the relationships that I had formed here which is why I am back.  Thank you all for your support.

While I was away I did continue to take photos and edit them.  I did not do as many as I had done in the past as my health would not permit it.  The roses pictured in this post are a few of my photos that I had fun editing.  Hope you enjoy them.

Serendipity stepped into my life once again when the Internet went down as it gave me the impetus to improve my health.  I did much research and have been able to make some lifestyle changes that have done much to get my on an upward spiral of improving health.  More on this in a later post.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the beauty of the roses that bloom in my front yard.

  

Enjoy

☺♥☺Johnina☺♥☺

Happy Mother's Day

Every year my family works on my front flower garden, rearranging plants, planting annuals and generally setting up my garden for a new year of beauty.  This tradition has brought me years of joy as every time I go out and come back home; I am greeted by beauty that my family has created for me.

I have been missing from the web for several months now due at first from problems with our Internet provider, which took several months to even get them to realize that we really did have a problem.  They kept telling us every thing was fine.  We kept after them and finally got a tech who found a problem, fixed it, sort of, but we continued to have various problems.  After being a squeaky wheel for weeks on end and several different techs later we now have a temporary fix.  The Internet is now fairly stable, but it is still on a temporary basis. (Roll of eyes)

  

Anyway I decided to come back to the web today despite the temporary nature of our fix to share with you the beauty that greets me as I return home.

Hopefully this will be a good welcome back to the web as I greet you with the beauty that greets me daily and continue to share with you the beauty which part of my life.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺



Groundhog's Day

Although this is Groundhog's Day, we here in Griffin don't need a groundhog to tell us that spring will be early this year.  These photos were taken today and it would appear that spring has already arrived.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Morning fun



Fun Sunrise

We've had lots of nice to spectacular sunrises lately so this morning with it's nice sunrise I decided to play with my camera features.  This is the fisheye feature.  Since I have a bridge camera not a DSLR and am unable to change lens this is only an effect that is built into the camera.  It's kind of fun.

View from the other side



One of the things I have noticed more this winter is the wonderful shadows and light patterns that are present with the sun low on the horizon.  This was taken this morning facing west as the sky in the east was losing color.  I think this is just as pretty a skyscape as the sunrises.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺