On my three hour trip to Pittsburgh yesterday to see my friend I came by an expansive field of sunflowers.
I have never seen so many sunflowers growing together before. I immediately stopped the car to take some pictures.
Their beauty was breathtaking.
It's early in the morning and already the air is thick with humidity. It is going to be another day in the eighties. We have had weeks and weeks of this hot weather.
We had rain during the night which was so welcomed. I'm sure the dry lawns were happy.
Today I will go to Olean to return all the decorating books I borrowed for my sisters to look at and pick up some new reading material. It's good weather for reading when you don't feel like doing much else.
Here is the finished leaf project. I like the way it turned out. The next time I would like to do one where the concrete just was where the leaf was. But I'm happy with this. I used a big hosta leaf but I'd love to find a rubarb leaf.
We had a rather stressful day yesterday. Don told me that he lost vision in his right eye from the center to the ceiling. I knew that this was an emergency and got him right into our excellent eye doctor. After many tests and dilations it was discovered that his optic nerve was swollen. He had to immediately have a blood test to rule out vascular issues. He went back today for a field of vision test (required by our insurance in order to have a CAT scan. ) Next will be a CAT scan to rule out something pressing against the optic nerve (like a tumor). The doctor was pretty sure that it wasn’t that but had to rule it out. The doctor told us that Don had a stroke in his eye. The blood didn’t flow correctly and that caused him to lose vision. There is a 50/50 chance he may regain his sight. It was a one time event and the damage is done. Now we are looking into the cause of that happening.
This has cause a little more stress in my life when I am already stressed out about my best friend who is still hospitalized on a ventilator. She will be moved to a rehabilitation facility today. I am watching her Pomeranian for her while her husband is down there.
When I was younger I think I didn’t realize how important heath issues were going to be when I aged. I am so blessed to be able to move around.
Saw this sign outside Chefs 117 when my sisters were here. We all got a chuckle over it. If you want a great breakfast or lunch Chefs is a wonderful place to stop. Very small and everything is homemade. Yummo !
I hope that I am not boring you with my little learning lessons. Today I put the camera in Aperture priority mode and took two pictures ..one with a wide open aperture (love number)and one all the way closed.
This is the first that shows the trees behind.
The second allows for blurriness in the background. 
I have probably told you many times how much I appreciate other bloggers. This is especially true to those who are willing to share ideas freely. I have learned so much through taking free and paid courses. I am indebted this week to Kyle Schultz who is offering a free photos course. He calls his little lessons snacks. Today’s snack is how to blur the background without using aperture priority.
1. If you have a zoom lens, zoom it all the way out.
2. Get as close to your subject as you can. The closer you are the more the background blur.
3. Choose a background that’s at least 5 big steps away from the subject. More is better.
I had always envied those photos on the web that had those dreamy blurry background. Before I had my Canon I achieved it through Photoshop by layering on a blur and then erasing it over the subject. But now I can use my camera to get that blurry background. Here are my practice shots from today.
Summer is passing. The heat, the flowers soon will all be gone and once again the grayness of winter will descend. That is why I’m practicing my photography and trying to capture all the colorful flowers I can. Today I’m trying the technique of filling the frame…doing closeups instead of huge horizons. I love to use Photoshop to enhance the pictures.
I’ve been blog hopping a lot lately. It’s a wonderful way to pass away these hot summer days. You can find out a lot about a person by reading their blog. There are blogs I read just because I love their philosophy of life. Some I like to see how they decorate their house or the projects they do. Some for their life story which they share on the pages of their blogs. Some just to learn more about a subject that I am interested in. Some who share information and help me become a better photographer and blogger.
Some women I find that I have a lot in common with. Some are so very different than me that I feel I can learn something from. I think different personalities are interesting. It helps you grow to see all the people who make up the world.
We mold our lives by our actions. Our little daily rituals stabilize our life. I am so lucky to be in the stage of my life where I can only do exactly as I please. Each day I try to create happiness.
While the girls were here we did a craft. I’ve always wanted to make concrete leaves ever since I saw them at a craft show one time. I looked pretty simple (of course we said that about Gallery Glass and button necklaces too). We always used to do some kind of craft when we were together. After gathering the materials we started working on the project (with a little help from Don).
The first step was putting sand in a container. (we used kitty litter pans from the dollar store).
Next you mound it up in a hump and put plastic wrap over it. Then place a big leaf (we used a huge hosta leaf) face down. Then mix up some Quickkrete vinyl concrete patcher with water (that was where Don came in) and put it over the leaf. (don’t forget to wear gloves).
That’s all there is to it. You have to let it set for a week before lifting it out. Then brush the leaf off of it and you have a little bird bath or bird seed holder. In a week I’ll show you how it all turned out.
Oh, and I made a flat spot on the bottom so it would sit well.
As you could probably tell from my lack of blogging I have been on a whirlwind with my sisters all week. Having them here is so much fun and we were busy all the time. They said they had such a relaxing week but I feel that we were on the move. Here are just a few highlights.
They arrived Thursday. Friday we went to Olean a nearby town to Cutco, a knife factory. If you buy a cutco product they are guaranteed for life. Linda brought 14 knives up for free sharpening. I once melted the handle on a bread knife and they replaced the knife for me. They are excellent products.
Saturday was Buffalo and the Garden Walk. Monday and Tuesday we read, relaxed, ate and had a great time and also ate at the Beef and Barrell, a favorite spot for beef on weck (that’s kummel wick rolls) sandwiches. On Wednesday we all went to Pittsburgh to see my best friend Kay who is not doing well at all. She was transferred from Bradford to Erie and then to Pittsburgh. She is in very serious condition.
On Thursday we had the girls out for lunch. We love to fuss and the menu was: tuna, egg, and chicken salad on a lettuce leaf, fresh fruit salad, puff pastry cheesecakes, chocolate cake and zucchini bread.
Do you see the floating candle? I found the neatest thing in Hobby Lobby. It is a little floating glass container that you put a tea light in. That way you can use it over and over.
I also bought some starfish and sand dollars for the table.
An
The sisters were on the move Saturday as we ventured to Buffalo for their garden walk. Hundreds of homes open up their gardens fronts, sides, and back as people view their creations. There were so many gardens with amazing flowers. There were a lot of ideas that I'd love to steal. Here are just a few of the most unique ones I saw.
I have had my Canon for a few years now and I must admit that I rarely take it off Auto. It takes wonderful pictures that way so I thought…why change things. But through the course that I’m taking I am learning that you can control a lot of things yourself. So today I experimented with aperature priority. This is controlling how much light goes into the camera. I used the f stop 7.1 for these photos and my 50mm lens.
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