Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: details

(+2 insets) (looks best at full size on black!) (And please forgive me for the length of this entry, I had nothing to do for hours!) I planned to get up at about 7:15am this morning, but just as Pumpkin and I were beginning our morning conversation of happy chortling and contact calls, the house power flickered. This caused several devices around the room to beep in surprise and more importantly, the overhead lights automatically turned on. BLASTING RAYS FROM A THOUSAND SUNS BURNED THROUGH MY EYELIDS. Inside my head I screamed, "OMG MAKE IT STOP!!" The power went off. The lights went out and I relaxed in utter relief. A few seconds later, the power flickered again, the overheads went on and devices beeped at me. Pumpkin gronked at the unfamiliar sounds. I shielded my eyes with a hand and grumbled about the stupidity of lights that automatically turn on with power fluctuations. After going on and off for a moment, the power officially died. That's when our bedroom UPS* decided to speak up *(uninterruptable power supply). It's hooked up to our tv and dvd player. Yelling at me in loud, plaintive beeps in series of three, it screamed, "I don't have enough power to keep running these devices!" And that, quite frankly, made me very annoyed. How can a UPS which is less than a year old, no longer holding a charge in its battery? "BEEEEP-BEEEEEP-BEEEEEP!!!" I lay there in bed, mentally glaring at the stupid UPS. We have more problems with those dumb things. In the game room--which is down the hall, around the corner, down the short hall and hang a left into the room—I could hear another trio of bleating beeps...make that two pairs of triple beeps...both of our computers are plugged into their own UPS, and they were loudly objecting to the loss of power too. Soon Steve had the UPS's in the game room turned off along with the computers. We decided to go back to sleep for a while in hopes that the power would be back on soon. Thoughts of no espresso had us drifting away like innocent babes. Not that the feathered alarm clock cared. Pumpkin peeped at me every 15 minutes for the next hour until I really couldn't pretend to sleep anymore. Thankfully our hot water heater is large so I had a lovely shower and Pumpkin didn't seeme to mind the dim room, lit only by the light coming through the blinds in the bathroom. Once downstairs I realized that I neglected to cut up Pumpkin's veggies and fruits yesterday so I busied myself with that task while getting Molly's breakfast ready. Soon Pumpkin was set up in her day cage, the room bright with light coming in through the many windows. Steve readied our little generator with four intentions: power to our Monitor heater, to Pumpkin's floor heater near her cage, to the music ipod so Pumpkin has her Sarah Brightman/Annie Lennox playlist to listen to, and of course to the espresso machine! I went out on my walk and when I got back, Pumpkin was comfortable and rockin' out to her tunes, the house was warming up and the espresso machine was ready to go! HUZZAH! As I sit here typing away on my laptop, the power is supposed to be back on within ten minutes but who knows? We've got our fingers crossed! Can you see my glowering face as I stare daggers at the time on my laptop? 12:25. The power was supposed to be back on at 11. We did get a call from the power company saying that the updated approximation was 12:30. *drums fingers on the arm chair* Steve is off to get our two propane tanks filled. We had the brilliant idea to cook breakfast in our new RV! GREAT PLAN!! We busied ourselves with the gathering of 4 eggies, bacon, seasoning, a pan, plates and utensils and marched over to our "home away from home". Steve was hoping that there would be enough propane to cook our food but alas...though he got it fired up, the flame soon dimmed and spluttered out. He checked the propane. Yep. Empty. Well, it was a fine idea. We marched back over to the house, Steve gathered the propane containers and headed out to the local gas station. We need the tanks filled anyway, and his hope is that by the time he returns the power will be back on. He's back, it's 12:36 and nope...no power yet. *sigh* On top of that, there was no power at the gas station or anywhere for many miles in all directions. Thus, he wasn't able to get any propane either! ARGH! Well, at about 2pm we finally got our power back…what an ordeal! :D After all of the fuss of the day, I think it would be very nice to post a picture of a beautiful flower to look at. I ask you: what's better than sharing another dahlia from San Francisco's Conservatory of Flower dahlia exhibit? The only problem is choosing which to post…they all yell and scream for attention, the high-falutin' divas! Well, since they wouldn't stop jumping up and down, I picked the first one in my finished folder: she with the ever-so-fancy hair and amazing graduated colors of yellow, peach and orange. Totally outrageous beauty! Along with that picture I'm including two more: one of them is a group of breathtaking peachy-orange dahlias who are all trying to shove in front of each other to get a better position in front of my camera…CALM DOWN LADIES! You're ALL beautiful! The other picture is a rear view of a glowing, hot pink dahlia who's much too lovely to be bothered with the lime light! (I cannot help but assign personas to these flowers, they have so much pomp and character!) Pam, do you have any favorite flowers other than your beloved Snow Drops? I would understand if you can't choose one, since well, that's how I feel too…but I am curious if you do! I went to your photo stream and picked out a picture that made my heart swoon…and I fell upon your ridiculously gorgeous collage of bearded iris! I remember seeing that picture years ago and I was so smitten by the colors of your flowers that I put them in order of favorite so I had an excuse to stare at them and decide which I liked better. They are truly incredible! Here's hoping that you guys are doing well and that your heart is soaring on the warm winds of affection I am sending your way! *BIG HUGGGSSSS*!!! Explored on 3/13/19, highest placement, #1.

(This picture also wants to be seen at full size) :) What a difference a day makes! The sky had some clouds when I arose but I could see that it would be a beautiful, sunny day. At one point on my walk I had to stop and look out over the valley towards the Rogue River because of the racket I was hearing. There was a huge flock of Canada Geese flying around the Rogue River and they were making so much noise I could hear them from miles away! I hoped they might fly overhead but instead they landed on the river for a break before setting out on their migration (I'm guessing, anyway). I snickered at the boisterous fuss they made but was also very pleased to hear them. It is so nice to live in a place with so much wildlife! Tromping up and down the driveway, it was fun to think about my friends on ipernity and all the good times I've been having with back-and-forth comments, letters, and the delight of the wealth of awesome photography. ipernity really is such a wonderful community and I feel like a new person these days because of this upward spiral. There are no words to express my gratitude, but I do my best! The past few days I've been taking some time to process some of the pictures I took of the gorgeous dahlias at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers. There is a total bummer about that photo shoot. When I got home and took a closer look at the images I was horrified to discover that the flowers were FILTHY! I didn't remember seeing this at the time but when the gardens were watered, it was obvious that a lot of dirt particles flew up and hit the blossoms. In fact, most of my tight shots looked like someone had taken a pepper shaker and covered the entire flower with a million black specks. YUCK!!! If I had any thoughts of posting a close-up, it was going to take a lot of work. However, I have finally been in the mood, and these flowers truly deserve the attention. And so, I present to you one of my successful clean-up jobs! What you're looking at may look like a pristine, perfect blossom, but to get to this state took over an hour of dirt removal! Every petal was covered with dots of dirt! What a mess. But truly, the effort was totally worth it because now I can show off this stunning wedding bride of a dahlia! And, it isn't so bad to sit and click away the dirt when I have some nice music to listen to. In fact, I saw a picture on Explore of a henna-painted hand captured magnificently by Boro (Thank your Betty for the proper ID), and the music to accompany the picture was a French artist I'd never heard of... Bernard Lavillier ...and I loved the piece so much I went over to YouTube, queued up a play list and spent the whole time listening to his fabulous music while I cleaned up this picture. What fun. Pam, this beautiful dahlia is only a fraction as lovely as you are, my dear. I hope you enjoy its radiance and maybe it will give you some warm fuzzies to help you on your way to recovery. I am thinking about you all the time! *big hugs* Explored on 11/25/18, highest position, #7 .

I can't tell you how happy I am that I started this photography project. I feel like I've woken up from a very long hibernation and now my virtual tail's wagging nonstop and I'm seeing pictures everywhere I look. I no longer spend all of my time playing computer games and instead I'm reacquainting myself with my friends at ipernity, I'm meeting awesome new people, I'm checking out all of your inspiring photography and I'm having a great time letting each of you know how super your pictures are! The wonderful comments and letters I've been getting have made a huge difference to me and I'm feeling so much better about everything these days! I think it would be nice to give everyone a big hug, but since I can't actually do that, I'm doing my best to repay your kindness by letting you know that I appreciate the time you took to post pictures for me to enjoy! Today was the first really rainy day of the season and it was GLORIOUS!! I opened the front door this morning and was hit by the most wonderful autumn perfume!* When rain falls on parched grass, leaves and dirt after months of sizzling heat and drought, the fragrance in the air is intoxicating! I thought to myself, this air is a kind of nature's wine…sweet, rich and subtly complex with a myriad of individual scents that you can easily identify. Mmmmmmm…I stepped out, stretched, and couldn't stop pulling in enormous nose-fulls of air, enjoying every lovely whiff to the utmost. I set off on my walk, nearly dizzy from the deliciousness of the air swirling about me. I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate this day with a picture of something pretty for Pam. I spotted my little friend—a tiny, glistening, ancient mushroom, withered and exhausted after a long life of two weeks. I strained up on my tiptoes to stare at the droplet-laden sporophytes which made their home on top of the brick posts of our gate. It looked like a party up there and I thought it would be lovely to share an image of this. Was I going to be able to get a decent picture? Plenty of other ideas came to mind by the time I finished my walk and grabbed my camera. As it turned out, and even though I had my flash set up, I wasn't happy with my sporophyte or mushroom pictures. They weren't special enough or had focus issues, or they'd take too much work to turn into something I'd be happy with. But on the way down to the gate, something grabbed my attention and I turned to look. OH!! Would you just LOOK at that leaf!! It was caught on the way down to the ground, a sight that I never tire of. Dripping with rain, the oak leaf was painted with a rich and juicy mélange of autumn shades and I knew I'd found something special. At the time, I figured this picture would wait for another day. But as it turns out, this pretty leaf is my star to share. Pam, I was thinking about you as I looked at my subjects today, imagining what you would say, and I wondered how you would photograph them. What fun it would be to take pictures together. I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving my dear! *A HUGE THANK YOU to George ( tiabunna ) for letting me know that there is an official term for this: Petrichor ! Explored on 11/23/18, highest position, #11.

I didn't plan on taking any more pictures as I made my way back down the Upper Table Rock trail the other day. I'd already overdone it and the last thing I needed to do was burn out my newly rekindled passion for photography. Of course if I saw something that really got my attention, an exception was in order (The red honeysuckle berries I posted were a good example!). Have you ever noticed that once you begin to notice photographic subjects, it's really hard to turn this sense off? As I walked along the meandering dirt trail, subjects flashed by trying to get my attention. Countless glowing leaves, interesting bark, trees, branches, plants, moss… This can be a bit maddening and it's exhausting to process the flow of information, continuing to say, "No, I have enough pictures. I can appreciate this for myself but no more photos." Another flash got my attention and the unfamiliar shape turned my head and stopped me in my tracks. I peered closer…what was I seeing? Why, it looked like a tiny Japanese lantern! Approaching to get a better look, I could see warm rays of light illuminating a pair of poison oak leaves which had dried up facing one another, creating the lovely and unique effect. Ok, now THIS was something worth taking a picture of. In the many years that I've been exploring the woods on our property and here as well, I've never seen anything like this before. I made sure to include the important clue which helped me to identify what I was looking at: a remaining poison oak berry which makes these leaves instantly recognizable. Pam, I hope that you have had a very nice Sunday! It was very cold but beautiful this morning and the sunshine warmed the day considerably as the hours passed by. I took pictures for the Macro Monday 2.0 challenge and had a really nice time figuring out which would be best to post! Hope you're doing well my dear!

Please see our new group, Pictures for Pam , we would love to have you! You may read the latest news of Pam`s recoverery here (11/9/18): www.ipernity.com/home/christine.bentley ------------------------- Put on the brakes!! Where did THAT flower come from?!! Ok, ok, I admit it—this lovely Dahlia was most certainly not growing along the Upper Table Rock Trail. Granted, there are flowers to be found here which rival this one's beauty, but last time I checked it was late autumn, not springtime when endless wildflowers have exploded into bloom. No, this beauty was photographed over two years ago when Steve and I went down to San Francisco to visit my ailing father. We'd decided to bring our cameras with the idea of taking pictures at some point to get our minds off our worries. Specifically, I wanted to go to Golden Gate Park which is full of wonderful plants and flowers, including the beautiful Conservatory of Flowers. Funny enough, I haven't been inside since I was a kid. It's not free to enter and why bother? The acres surrounding the building are lavishly planted with outrageous displays of ornamental plants and blooms everywhere. Most specific of all, they have a jaw-dropping Dahlia garden that I visited once with my previous camera and I had hopes of updating my pictures with higher quality images from my Canon 5D Mk II. As it turned out, Steve and I did get about two hours to explore one day and had a marvelous time filling our memory cards with countless images. I got my wish and came home with so many Dahlia pictures that attempts to browse the hundreds of pictures have often ended in overwhelmed horror! Still, I have been able to work on a few photos. Last night I stumbled across the images I'd finished and my jaw dropped in amazement—why hadn't I done anything with them?!! I thought, "You know, Pam would adore these…let's share some!" I hope this picture pleases you Pam! I have a veritable truckload that I need to clean up but I have you to thank for making my inner tail wag again and I've already finished a few more! Hurray! Explored on 11/18/18, highest position, #11.

Please see our new group, Pictures for Pam , we would love to have you! You may read the latest news of Pam`s recoverery here (11/9/18): www.ipernity.com/home/christine.bentley ------------------------- Yesterday's blog was full of what I'd done the day before and so I didn't mention what I actually did yesterday! I hiked to the top of the LOWER Table Rock trail! I originally planned to hike both the Upper and Lower Table Rock trails in one day but I realized on the way up the Upper that it was too much to expect that I do both trails AND take pictures too. So I axed the Lower and figured I'd do it the next day if I was up to it. As it turned out, I was! :D I also didn't bring my camera since I'd taken so many pictures the day before. Better to come back another time for that. However, as we all know, the time that you don't bring your camera is the time you see something incredible but you don't have a camera! As I was about one quarter of the way up I encountered the most adorable and fluffy grey squirrel, which was very close to me and spent a lot of time low in a nearby tree. I just stood and enjoyed the moments before I finally walked on. Yeah, I could have pulled out my phone but I didn't feel like it. What a great experience that was!! This morning I was greeted with frost on the ground which twinkled up at me as I walked up and down our drive, listening to my Niven audio story, "Dream Park.". The sun soon melted what little frost there was, as it was just at freezing, but I loved seeing the tiny crystals on the leaves, grass, and our cars. While I trooped along, I also thought about the past few days. With the help of Peggy C, I started up a new ipernity group, Pictures for Pam. Heidiho suggested the idea, and thus our new group is a reality! It has become quite an instant success and the crowning prize is that Pam is having a wonderful time looking at all of the pictures that we've been submitting. I hope our combined virtual hug will give her an extra push towards recovery! Today's picture features a group of lovely little wild honeysuckle berries at the end of their show. In truth I was a bit surprised that the picture turned out at all because the two attempts I made were really just quick clicks without much care. I'd been heading back down the Upper Table Rock trail when I saw a flash of something red as I went by. I stopped and returned to the spot…oh! Berries! Neato! At that point I was ready to be done so snapped a couple of pictures and called it a day. Well, what a nice treat when I went through the images and found that one of them was actually nice enough that I am posting it today! Pam, I know that you love and appreciate pictures of things that may not be in perfect condition, but still deserve an appreciative stare. These berries are on their way out but that very quality adds to their interest with some cool texture and notable areas to look at! Here's hoping for a nice day and plenty of rest! All my best!!

Please see our new group, Pictures for Pam , we would love to have you! You may read the latest news of Pam`s recoverery here (11/9/18): www.ipernity.com/home/christine.bentley ------------------------- Yesterday's hike to the top of the Upper Table Rock was great fun, partly because I took my husband's Canon 5D Mark III with me! I told myself to be reasonable with the pictures, but you know how it is…"OHHHH LOOK AT THAT!!!" A moment later, "OOOOOOOOH!!! HOW BEAUTIFUL!!!" And so I made my way up to the top, clicking away and immersing myself in the bliss of photography and appreciating the world around me through the lens of my camera. Do you feel as I do? That your camera is like an extension of yourself? I am so very thankful that I enacted my idea to take pictures for Pam to enjoy. After such a very long time, my unquenchable passion for photography has finally been reawakened. What a priceless gift. I truly did not know if I would come back to life again…I'd tried over and over again to reignite my inner flame, but it always sputtered out. Now we're cookin' with GAS!! :D By the time I got up to the top of the trail, I'd captured over 100 pictures, slightly embarrassed at my lack of control, but pleased that I was having such fun. I walked out from the shady oak forest and onto the brightly lit mesa, adjusting to the full sunlight with a big smile on my face. It's so cool up here! Covered with volcanic rocks everywhere, a prairie covers the top of this flat plain and makes a home to a myriad critters including a rare shrimp that completes its lifecycle every spring. A few moments later I was at the edge which looks out majestically over the lovely Rogue Valley. What a sight to see! I was perplexed at the haze in the air because I thought the forest fires in southern Oregon were pretty much out. Obviously I was wrong, I sighed. Snickering to myself, I peered through my camera's lens knowing what I would see. Hardly anything of course! That's because my 100mm macro lens is NOT wide-angle, and if I actually hoped to get an image of this view, it wouldn't be with this camera. Awww, poor I00mm…I do use it for everything but there's just no pretending with a huge view like this. So I pulled out my Samsung smartphone and took some pictures, including a corny selfie for my husband, which I sent to him as I always do when I hike up the Table Rocks. I wandered back along the mesa, taking some time to crawl around looking for some sporophytes to photograph or other nifty macro subjects. Drat--I'd neglected to bring my knee pads. Oh well! I did prepare myself with the likelihood that any macro shots would probably be blurry. Hand-held macros are something I'm pretty good at but I hadn't practiced. This meant almost certain failure, as macro photography is totally unforgiving. It takes patience and the willingness to make sets of various apertures and distances to ensure at least one good picture of a given subject will be a keeper. I wasn't in the mood. So I took a few pictures but didn't expect anything useable. I confirmed later that I got close with a few images but none of them were worthy of seeing the light of day. Deee-leeet! My hike down the trail yielded another few dozen pictures to be excited about. What a great day! How wonderful to be back in the game again! I looked forward to getting home to see how many turned out. Looking through my pictures on my computer, I was extremely pleased to find that the majority of my images were "keepers." It really does blow me away how much our photography skills mimic abilities such as driving a car…even though you may not have done it for a while, the skills come right back and merely need a brush-up to get back to where you left off! GROOVY!!! :D Working through the pile of images, I cropped each "keeper" into a pleasing composition in Canon's Camera Raw, chucking duds or unfavorable duplicates and after a while I looked up at the clock and realized I wasn't going to have time to create the collage I'd planned on. The Samsung snapshot came to mind which I quickly copied over and made it my picture for yesterday. The rest of the images I kept could be doled out over the coming days and weeks if I chose. It was a better plan. Today I sat down and opened up Adobe Bridge. I already knew the picture I would post for Pam to see! I remember walking up the sun-dappled trail and seeing a brilliant flash of yellow catch my eye. Coming closer with my camera, I found this lovely leaf glowing on its branch, with an added bonus of lovely spiderwebs to give it extra character. Talk about a winner of a leaf!! Hooray! Pam, I hope that you enjoy this beautiful treasure from the Upper Table Rock trail…it is as rich and warm as you are my dear! Feel better and take the glow of this beautiful leaf into your heart! :) Explored on 11/14/18, highest placement, #18.

A couple of years ago I had my raised-bed garden, and decided to splurge on a variety of flower bulbs, including a bunch of anemones in different colors. Such elegant beauties they are, with stunning details like their crisply veined petals and lovely fuzzy centers!

This image shows some of the cool details of an icicle up close and personal!

Today was very blustery and I wasn't sure if I'd be successful getting pictures in such wind, but out I went for an adventure! I ended up wandering along the upper edge of our larger meadow and following a deer trail up onto our hillside. There I found myself staring at a magnificent old Madrone tree which stood some 60+ feet tall. I went up to it and put my hand on its cool, smooth trunk, and stared up into its branches, feeling its age and wisdom of so many years. This tree stood tall and proud, and yet, I could see that it was a survivor from a wildfire that ravaged this area some years ago. I could see a singed branch and charcoal areas around the base of the trunk. Amazing that it not only survived, it was massive and doing fine! I wanted to take a picture for my 365 project, but as you may have discovered, it's not easy to take a picture of a tree in a forest. So I decided to take lots of pictures to show the lovely details that I found in this old warrior. You will see that most of the images highlight the wonderful curling bark of this tree which leaves the trunk and branches smooth and glowing. They are my favorite type of tree on our property because they're so interesting and have such lovely colors and textures! It was such a treat to discover this wonderful tree and share its details with all of you. William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. As an author, illustrator and medievalist, he helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, and was a direct influence on postwar authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK. Wikipedia: William Morris Explored on Flickr on February 25, 2013. Highest position: #363.