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Showing posts from July, 2010

Favorite Photo Friday: Getting Up at First Light

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For my favorite shot for this week's Favorite Friday, I'm choosing this one. I took it about a month ago, but it brings back SO many memories of Venice, a place I went back to in June after having experienced it first many years ago with the love of my life. There's a story here, one that has nothing to do with my current single-ness. It does relate, however, to my current affair with my Nikon.  I'm not the world's biggest fan of getting up before sunrise. When the light began to seep in around the edges of the shutters at my windows in a faint blue-gray, I thought I could cheat and snap a few shots leaning  out my 4th story window so I could stay in my nightie  and wake up only a little,  just enough to point and shoot a couple of times and then go back to bed and sleep til 9 or so. Spirit had other ideas. When I saw the light, the stillness of the water, the cloud formations,  the mere handful of people moving along the canals.  a totally unpeopled Rialto B

Thursday Challenge: Blue

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The Thursday Theme challenge is Blue. I can do that. How do you like your blue? windy  watery  saintly neon full of boats bobbing birds slightly potted Take your pick.  ( This montage combines my photos and snippets of my art.)

Lens Day Wednesday: Unique

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Never before had I seen a bird choreographing a new ballet. I have titled his new production "Against the Wind." Unique. Without question.  Dance on!

Ruby Tuesday: Madonna and Child

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A banner stretched against a wall of bricks adjacent to Santa Maria della Salute. Non-traditional madonna and child. For other Ruby Tuesday interpretations, click the button on the sidebar.

Mosaic Monday: Abydos

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Such an incredible place ancient full of resonant energies  pulsing from past to present Abydos. For more Mosaic Monday fun, click   HERE .

Sepia Saturday: A Real-Life Spy

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Not that I'm endorsing spying, you understand, but somehow I think of spying in wartime as a guy thing. So it was intriguing to find these old images of Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy, in the Library of Congress Photo Collection (images from the Brady-Handy Studio in Washington, D.C.). She gathered intelligence for the South from her father's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia. Her information proved so valuable  to General "Stonewall" Jackson during the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley that he commissioned her as a Captain and aide-de-camp on his staff. She was eventually betrayed by her lover in summer 1862 and imprisoned for a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. She was then part of a prisoner exchange and was released. She, undaunted, continued her spy career. She was arrested again in June 1863. She was released from prison on December 1, 1863 suffering from typhoid and went to Europe to regain her health. While in England, she had a career on t

Favorite Photo Friday: Stone Circle

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Looking through my stash of photos, I found this one "Stones at Carrowmore" © 2007 Meri Arnett-Kremian a favorite because it shows the stone circle at Carrowmore, a sacred place in the landscape of Ireland, a place where the veil is thin and Spirit is palpably ever-present. Taken with a Nikon D200 f/8 shutter speed 1/250th of a second ISO 100 - no flash max aperture 4.8 focal length 90 mm For more FAVORITE FRIDAY PHOTOS, click on the link on my sidebar. ENJOY!

Photo Friday Challenge: Sky High

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The theme this week is SKY HIGH. I thought of this shot taken with my new wide-angle lens in portrait orientation in San Marco Square in Venice just a bit after daybreak when the only people stirring had tripods and cameras.

Thursday Challenge: Hot

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The theme is HOT. George Clooney comes to mind. But let's get real. Here's heat you can use.

Ruby Tuesday: Red Mandala

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These geometric mandala designs resonate with a place deep in my being. "Heart Medicine" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian I don't know why. I just know they do. For more Ruby Tuesday reds, click on the link button  to the right.

Mosaic Monday: Green

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With all the environmental damage done to the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal areas, I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to be more green. So I thought that was a great theme for this post. Green. What can you do to honor Mother Earth? To see other Mosaic Monday interpretations, go visit Mary at Dear Little Red House (to get there, click the MOSAIC MONDAY button on my sidebar.)

Favorite Photo Friday: Portrait

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My favorite photo  taken this week is this portrait  of a young man  who'll be a freshman in high school this fall. He's at that age when sometimes he's an angel and sometimes, well. . . . In other words, your typical teen. This was taken with a Nikon D5000, ambient light in a dim parking garage on auto ISO (1600)  70 mm focal length aperture at f/11 exposure time 1/50th of a second white balance set for shade. If I were doing it again, I'd set the ISO at 200 and then alter my settings and shoot at about 1/20th of a second in ambient light so the photos weren't so grainy, but I actually had forgotten that I had set the camera on auto ISO. I'll have a chance to reshoot on Monday when I take portraits of his older brother. I just hope that graffiti artists don't paint over this great background by then. To see other Favorite Friday Photos, click on the button at the right. Or maybe, just maybe, you'd like to play along.

Thursday Challenge: Palm (and Weather, too)

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Blue sky. Palm trees overhead. The muffled sound of the waves shhhhushing as they lap against the soft sand. The sounds of ice cubes clinking against glass. The click-click of feet walking in flip-flops. The rustle of pages turning, one by one, as books are devoured next to the pool.  A breeze blowing off the Pacific cools my skin as the sun bakes it. A little slice of heaven.  Especially when it's shared with friends. For more Theme Thursday , follow the link. There are some amazing pieces of writing.

Lens Day Wednesday: History

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Since I suggested "history" as a topic for this week's LensDay Wednesday, I just had to play along. I've talked about the Farm Security Administration's collection of photos taken during the Great Depression. FSA hired amazing photographers to document the hardships faced by Americans during this historic era, particularly those in rural areas. Some of these photographers are not well-enough known. One of these is Marjory Collins (1912 - 1985). Project Occupant in Trailer Camp for African Americans tending his Victory Garden - photo by Marjory Collins I didn't find readily available biographical  information about her online,   so I'll have to let the photos speak for themselves.  Little girl saving Sunday paper for paper drive during World War Two - photo by Marjory Collins These photos all come from the Library of Congress photo collection and are in the public domain. 

Ruby Tuesday: Red Tablecloths

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Sit a spell. Have a frothy cappucino and as you sip, admire the colors all around you.  Or if it's too hot for cappucino, walk up the street a bit and buy a big bowl of gelato. I chose Bailey's gelato.  Yum!

Mosaic Monday: Around Venice

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My trip to Venice was worth the over-used and cranky knee, getting soaking wet in the downpour two days in a row, and feeling like the new kid on the block when it comes to camera technology. And though I didn't do much of it, it's a fantasy land for ladies who love to shop. Gentlemen, too. Anyone want to sign up for a shopping tour of Venice? I'll be happy to lead it.

Thursday Challenge: Sports

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I've posted this on my Tacoma photo blog but it's one of my favorites and fits nicely with the sports theme. Take me out to the ball game!

LensDay Wednesday: Texture

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How's this for texture? "Closed Opening" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian Venetian brick. Weathered shutters. Ancient metal hinges.

Ruby Tuesday: Starbursts

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Are you tired of firework displays? Of great big flowers of light filling the sky? I didn't think so.

Mosaic Monday: Old Fashioned Fourth of July

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On July 4, 1776, a fledgling United States Congress declared that the time had come for the thirteen colonies to sever their bonds with England and become an independent, sovereign nation. Of course we know that, having said it, our Founding Fathers were not finished. The crown was not about to walk away  from its investment. And so a war for freedom was fought and won by revolutionary colonial forces. The document that threw down the gauntlet, our Declaration of Independence, is preserved for posterity at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Americans celebrate this historic event annually with fireworks, cookouts, Naturalization Ceremonies, and parades in towns and cities. Happy Birthday, U.S.A. I hope the sun shines  on your parade.