Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: black and white

(+7 insets!) I so rarely work within the realm of b/w photography, even though I adore the medium. I just can't bear to lose the color on most of my pictures. However, a few years ago a friend tagged me for a photo challenge on Facebook where I had to post a week of black and whites. It was really fun to be "forced" to use b/w, so I didn't scream when I dropped the color, since the pictures had already been shared in color! (also included are the other pictures I showed in that "7-day challenge" and the full-color version of the main image) You Need This: Google Nest Hub--$49 from Walmart Right now Walmart is having an incredible sale on this cool device that you really should have. It's a gorgeous photo frame that displays slide shows of your wonderful photography and the moment we got it working, I told Steve we must get another one instantly! The size seemed a little small at first (3.5" tall x 6" wide/1024x600px) but the image quality of the screen is simply stunning and the size is fine! You do need to have your pictures uploaded to Google Photos but once there, you just point the photo frame to show images from the folder you choose and it will then show image after image that you'll really enjoy. We will have one for each of our photos so I can sit and stare at Steve's images or enjoy memories of my own!) (By the way, this clever device is also a music player, a clock with alarms, shows you the weather, recipes and news, videos and whatever else you want…it's part of the "Google Home" suite that includes endless gadgets. Finally, if you want a larger screen size, the Google Nest Hub Max is larger but the price tag will make you scream--it's $230!! EEK!) Explored on 1/23/21; highest placement #1.

(+1 inset) I don't know what it's like where you live, but in southern Oregon the weather seems to change from comfortable to "blasting inferno" in a span of what feels like just a few days. It seems like yesterday when it was too cold to go out for my walks without needing to warm my hands and feet when I got back inside. Now the days are often reaching 90 degrees outside and soon our lovely green meadows will be dry and brown again. Ah well, 'tis the way of things, right? That being said, fire season is just around the corner and we must clean up our property to help ensure that our home is safe. We know all-too-well about the reality of fires here. You may remember me mentioning that a few years back a squirrel ran up our power pole, managed to get itself electrocuted, fell into the grass and started a fire which quickly ate our tool shop and everything in it. As part of the fire wolfed down our shop, the rest of it raced up our hillside, eating every bush and tree in its path. Our house was saved and we had insurance to cover the damage but my heart aches from the loss of the trees on the hill. It is our hope to keep the rest of our property safe from future fires so clean-up is mandatory. A few days ago, Steve went around the house with both our powerful DR mower and the "Beast", a heavy-duty wheeled string mower. Yesterday he put the flail mower on our tractor and spent hours working on one side of our property. Today he went around the other side, taking down everything to near-dirt level. He still has a bit more to do but we feel a lot better about the condition of our property now. As for me, I spent the morning raking up all the dried grass and weeds that Steve cut down the other day. Once bagged, I marched up to the top of our septic leech field hill and added the contents to the place I reserve for lawn trimmings. It makes me laugh that the plants there are so lush and happy…they really like all of the stuff that I dump there! While I've been going about my day, I've been thinking about Pam and Marie-claire and I've also been thinking about people who I've lost in my life over the years. Some people meant a great deal to me, even though I never met them. That list just goes on and on. One person who died not too long ago was Leonard Nimoy, a man who I respected and admired very much. My family used to watch Star Trek every night at dinner and it became quite the tradition. Through the years I learned more about Nimoy and thought he was a wonderful person--someone I would have dearly loved to have met. Today is Macro Monday with the theme of "Hands". I thought a fingerprint would be fun to share (see my inset for that one!) but then I couldn't resist making Spock's famous Vulcan greeting because it's so much fun and it makes me think of Leonard. Then it hit me--that it was the perfect picture for the day. If you do not know, the greeting goes along with the saying, "live long and prosper," with a reply of "peace and long life." In fact, Nimoy used the real Jewish blessing which looks the same, to create this Vulcan gesture. My picture today is a salute to my leading ladies, Pam and Marie-claire! (I had fun processing this image to be sort of sci-fi and hopefully interesting to look at!) (By the way, if you would like to know more about this gesture, visit the following link: Wiki: Vulcan Salute ) Pam, you have been in my thoughts all day long and I hope that your bumps and bruises are healing…left-side neglect really sucks. :( I'm sending love and *HUGGGGGGGSSSSS* over the airwaves my dear! Explored on 6/4/19; highest placement, #2.

(please view large) Oh dear. I'm terribly late again today! And on top of that I'm totally exhausted so there is only one picture tonight! What luck! Today was Medford's annual Pear Blossom Parade and street fair--the perfect event to bring Steve's sister to! In the dozen years we've lived here, Steve and I have never actually gotten our act together to go so we were delighted that we finally got to take part in the festivities. None of us minded walking so we parked the truck well-away from the parade route and then made our way over to take a look. I was immediately drooling at the Corvette Club's 25 entries that drove by in as many models and colors…they are one of my favorite cars and it was such fun to see them. We decided to walk towards the street fair area and we were walking at the same speed as one of Medford's high-school marching bands. As they played, a smile bloomed on my face and I fairly beamed in absolute bliss. The piece they played was one of my favorite songs, "Shake Shake Senoroa" and you'll recognize it from Beetlejuice, which is also a cult favorite of mine! (I've linked the YouTube video) For the first time in many, many years, I was hearing a band play very close to me and could feel the music course through me. The magnificent beat of the drums, the horns, the flutes, all of the instruments thrummed through me from head to toe. It was the most wonderful feeling to be part of the awesome music that unfolded as we walked along. I absolutely couldn't get enough of this awesome experience. Not only was my whole body completely captivated, watching them was pure, high-octane eye-candy! In front were the "color guard" or flag-twirlers and they spun their colorful flags and danced to the music…what fun they were to see! Such cute outfits, all of them were full of energy and each wore a big smile. Then the conductors in their festive hats walked backwards the whole time, leading their flock of musical sheep. Then the reed instruments, the drums, the horns, and others, with a row of officials to bring up the rear. I saw it all. I got the unique experience of being a part of their outstanding performance for nearly an entire mile!! When they got to the end of the song, they did some fancy drumming and then started over again…I felt like the world's happiest purring kitty. What a show! What a delight! It was fabulous. We then walked around all of the booths at the street fair and there I got to enjoy people watching and saw lots of really neat arts and crafts for sale, and endless types of food offered by a myriad vendors. The smells were so mouth-wateringly delicious…I felt like I was gaining weight just from the smells that wafted everywhere! HEAVEN! The sound of a band began to encroach on our senses and what we were hearing was one of my favorite kinds of music, bluesy-soul and the woman singing was AMAZING! Again I could feel the performance and just stood and enjoyed every song. (I found the band: "Not Too Shabby" and here's one of their pieces on YouTube: (click the words) ) Steve and Deanne both wandered off to get food and I had a bite of the sausage Steve got to tide me over. I loved watching the kids dancing to the music and the occasional adult that couldn't keep their bodies from moving to the rhythm. It was so neat. Eventually we had our fill and made our way back to the truck and headed over to the historic (albeit incredibly touristy) town of Jacksonville where we started off by going to our favorite coffee house there and enjoying perfect creamy coffee. Then we spent a couple of hours wandering around and enjoying the sights. Me? I had my camera with me and lost myself in hundreds of pictures of spring flowers and other cool sights. (I took a few at the festival but I had my 100mm with me and it's not conducive to street photography so I didn't really bother…no worries, I wasn't really in the mood to deal with possible agro from people.) We finally left and were completely happy with the day and totally exhausted from our activities. What fun!! Oh…yeah…I didn't forget about today's photo assignment! The Saturday Self-Challenge theme is "Your pet in black and white." OK! I suspected I'd be wiped out at the end of the day so before we left this morning, I had Steve handle Snakey McSnakerton, our beautiful 4-foot-long California Mountain King Snake for a photo shoot! I got lots of super shots but I don't have the time or energy to process any more than my main image. Isn't he gorgeous?! We adore him! Pam, it looks like you don't have any snake pictures on your stream but you did have a lovely skink picture which I really loved! Super cool to see this fellow, we have them on our property but I've only seen them a few times. I hope all is well with you, I enjoyed reading about your scorpion encounters and I'm glad you haven't been stung by any. *BIG HUGS*!! Thinking of you!! Explored on 4/14/19, highest placement, #3.

(+ 5 insets) (please view large) :) It was another crisp, frosty, and beautiful morning for my walk today! In fact, it was warm enough this afternoon that I took my bike out for my first ride of the season! Just for the 15 minute distance around the block but it was lovely and I got the chance to look for Saturday Self-Challenge "signs of spring" in case there might be a flower or baby animal to take a picture of. Not much to find but I had a great time! Today I'm sharing an image I took yesterday on my hunt for "signs of spring" pictures. I wandered down to our seasonal pond in hopes that I might possibly spot a strand of frog eggs clinging to the algae. I knew it was a long shot but I thought I'd go see just in case I got lucky. I took a long time slowly creeping around our pond, crouching down and staring intently into the water. In the water I found aquatic beetles in large and nearly microscopic sizes, water skimmers racing around on the surface and little gnats in tiny clouds here and there. I found lots of aquatic plants growing like crazy in the water and rafts of algae floating on the surface. But I didn't find any frog eggs…or frogs for that matter. What I did find was an enormous sense of peace and serenity. Crouching silently, I could hear birds singing in the trees and I was quiet enough that a frog or two ventured a croak back and forth. Looking into the water was soothing, as were the soft plants I saw and the gentle movement of the insects swimming and flying around. I made my way around the edge and spotted something white clinging to some weeds. When I got closer I saw that they were feathers! I took some pictures just in case they turned out to be interesting. When I looked at them on my computer I was surprised at the detail and wonderful bubbles that I hadn't noticed before. And, as I worked on this picture I realized that it was a perfect candidate for a black and white image! I immediately thought of Valfal , who I'm dedicating this picture to. She's one of the admins for Saturday Self Challenge and a longtime friend here on ipernity. We'd had a really interesting conversation over the past few days about why we like black and white photography and why I don't often post them but I love the medium very much. This dedication is both a nod to our love of b/w and a tribute to spring. Ducks land in our pond to see if it's good for raising ducklings, but I'm happy to say they don't stay because it's not safe. However, I sometimes find a stray feather or two like this one and I've learned that pictures often turn out well! (I'm also posting a few of my favorite b/w images from my archives for you to see) Pam, I know that you don't prefer black and white photography but I happen to know that you do love dogs that are black, white, and a mixture of the two! :D I found a collage of black Flicka and black and white Lucas that was an instant favorite when I saw it the first time…I covered it with notes because I loved it so much! What fun to revisit this wonderful gathering of lovely images of your dear Rainbow doggies. How we love them. hope that today has been treating you ok…I know you've been through a lot lately so I'm sending many virtual hugs your way!

(+7 insets!) (Please view large) :) Well, you know what day it is...it's MACRO MONDAY! The theme this week is porcelain. Plates and dishes were mentioned as examples but I could have gone for something different like a porcelain figurine. The thought crossed my mind because I have some lovely porcelain horses packed away that would have been very nice. But no, what I really wanted to do was play with subtle patterning on dishware. Specifically, Steve gathered some dishes from a thrift store years ago to use in food photography. I am crazy about pure white dishware and I've wanted to take pictures since he got those plates so I wasn't interested in straying from the obvious this time. Whenever I do a Macro Monday photo shoot, I intentionally refuse to look for ideas online because I want to see what I come up with on my own. Playing around with different ideas is such fun. The whole process of learning what works and what doesn't is really cool because you slowly solve the challenge of creating a compelling image from something rather ordinary. Some ideas don't work out at all so I have to try again. Or later I'll think of something to try that I didn't think of initially. Adding to my own difficulty, only a couple of plates had interesting patterns to work with but that was enough. I ended up with six extras to share along with my main image that I hope you will all enjoy. I played around with the colors on some of the insets for fun because they are always so cool and pretty! The Macro Monday 2.0 group has been such a great experience for me. Because I'm in the US I am the last person to post pictures each week and for some reason I love that! I make a point of not looking at the contributions until after I've posted my pictures (though I do see a few sometimes because I comment on pictures throughout the day and there are usually a few MM submissions in the mix). One of my favorite things to do is to visit every contribution after I've posted my pictures. It's so much fun to see what everyone else has come up with and to be blown away by everyone's clever ideas and beautiful subjects. I love being able to give a pat on the back to each person too, because everyone likes encouragement and congratulations on doing such a great job! You will also notice that I've posted a panorama of snow on the far hillside across the valley...if you've been reading my blogs, I mentioned yesterday that it was supposed to snow today. Well, it actually DID! The snow fell just the tiniest bit here and the flakes melted instantly but it DID snow. Our altitude is just a bit too low for anything to stick but I thought it would be fun to include some proof of snow. Pam, I did a search for "plate" on your stream and found some very festive images that made me want to run over to your house and demand a feast! I also found this gorgeous image of an actual FLAMING Christmas pudding!! AMAZING!! What a lovely picture, Pam. I have to admit, I didn't have a clue what Christmas pudding tastes like, so I looked it up! I found a super page that talks about it if you're interested, just click on the highlighted words here . Oh dear. Dried and candied fruits and nuts...please forgive me for running away and holding up a chair to fend you off! I am not a fan of candied fruit, but I expect that your pudding was absolutely divine! The flame is incredible too! Thank you for the fun holiday memories, and I'm sending a virtual *HUGGGGGG* your way! Explored on 2/5/19, highest placement, #7.

1 picture above in a note! :) I looked out into the meadow this morning and saw the frosty mist rising up around the lone Oak there. Even though I have taken pictures of this tree in the mist before, I thought it would be wonderful to have a picture where it has snow on its branches and very few leaves! :) (roll your mouse over the image above to see the other misty Oak picture I posted a while ago!)

The theme this week is "Cold", so I went for something easy and fast, since I had a lot of moth pictures to finish up for my presentation. Although I got lots of nice choices to pick from, I only have time to share one this week! Next week I'll be more prepared!! :D

1 picture above in a note :) Here is the same image after using Topaz Lab's Black & White Effects. I chose a lavender wash and I really cannot say which version I prefer...do you like one better than the other?

1 more picture above in a note! :D After the "halter" classes where stallions, mares, geldings and foals are shown, they had a costume class. This entry was especially wonderful, a very nicely made Renaissance costume. I liked this picture of the mare champing away on her bit while they waited to go into the arena. (You can see the entire costume with the rider in the inset image above! :) Both the image above and the inset were processed with Topaz Lab's Black and White Effects. There are zillions of different choices to achieve the look you desire! Check out their free trial here, you will LOVE this set of filters!!!! Topaz Lab's Black and White Effects

Last Sunday, Steve and I had dinner at a friend's home, and I couldn't resist taking some pictures as we left, though the light was horrible. This picture was a tiny bit blurry but I thought that if I worked on it, I could get a nice result out of it. Using a texture was the answer and I was so happy that I could save this picture because this cluster of roses is so interesting and pretty. After I finished this version, I thought, "Hmm...I wonder what it would look like if I tried this on the color version?" I was really surprised how much I like the color version, because I expected this black and white version to be the easy winner. What do you think? Either or?

This image was taken during the month of October, 2011.

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

[best appreciated at full size against black] When you go to most Asian restaurants, you will notice that the usual condiment for flavoring a dish at the table is soy sauce, a very salty liquid made from fermented soybeans, which has the consistency of water and it has a unique flavor which I love. While Steve and I were waiting for our order to be prepared, I had fun taking some pictures with my camera. Without moving a thing, this grouping of soy sauce, salt and pepper sitting on the table next to the frosted-glass window made a cool still life! This image was taken in November, 2011.

[best appreciated at full size against black] There's something so cool about the way fog rolls over hilltops and through valleys. This is one of the ridgelines across the valley from our property covered with morning fog.

This image was taken on Saturday, November 12, 2100.

Here's another angle of the tunnel, showing the light at the other end. This image was taken on Saturday, November 12, 2100.