Week 8 - Ain't that Great! My 365 days of Photos.

I'm terrible at titles and rhyming. But that is okay, because I'm good at other things, including Photography. 

This week was very Black and White.

Downtown by the Art Museum 51/365

I just love Black and white photography.  Street or Urban scenes look especially good in Black and White. Don't you agree?

Blues Guitars B&W 52/365

I had an assignment this week that was all about the blues and guitars, and because of that, I ended up posting a lot of guitar photos.  Keep wondering if I should put them in my Etsy shop to sell, as I think they came out great.  What do you think?

DMNS outside 53/365

Before we get to the rest of the guitars, I have one more shot from Denver.  We were up there for just a few days on a family trip, so I didn't get a whole lot of photos, but really loving these two.

Dark Blue 54/365

And now we are back to those guitars.  These were take at the Candyman, and Santa Fe music institution.

Fender in Blue 55/365

Blue Resonator 56/365

I use a blue tone on the Black and White, just to remind us of the Blues.

I haven't posted today's photo yet, so it looks like there may just be 6 photos this week. 

Next week who knows, there may be a lot of photos of Girl Scout Cookies, as I have volunteered with my daughters troop to run booth sales.  Cases and cases of cookies are going to be filling up my car.

Have a wonderful week.
Lorissa

Photo a Day. Week 7 of 365 days.

This past week flew by.  What a busy weekend with St. Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day.  A few of this week's images are taken on my cell phone because of a quick trip to Denver over out 4 day break from school.  I hope you enjoy them.

Winter Finch 44/365

Okay, I do have one image, taken on Valentine's Day, that is themed.  This is just one of my little flying hearts from Mexico.  Love these Milagros.

Heart 45/365

And the next few are follow our trip over the weekend.  A hotel room, museum shots, and dinner on the way back home.  And a final image of the week is a photo of the mountain above Santa Fe in the Fall.  Sometimes we get an early snow and it is so beautiful with the fall aspen tree yellow.

Traveling 46/365

Prehistoric 47/365

Art Museum Fun 48/365

Waiting for Dinner 49/365

Aspen and Fir Landscape 50/365

Thanks for stopping by.
Lorissa

Cyber Monday Sale - Two Days! Get Great Gifts Now!

Get 25% off photos now though the end of Cyber Monday!  I've got great prices and quality.  Right now there are many listing that are Ready to Ship!

The Route 66 and Ghost town images make great holiday gifts for him.

Which Way Today 11x14 - 25% off

For her, maybe some flowers:

Bleeding Hearts 8x10 - 25% off

Check out LJLonfellow Photography for more and remember everything is 25% off for a limited time.

For more great sales on Photography, check out fPOE's blog.

And there are lots of great handmade and vintage gifts on Etsy:

Route 66 - Blue Ford in Holbrook

I love to just drive and see what is out there. On a road trip it takes me forever to get anywhere because I keep stopping and exploring little ruins and other sites along the way. I love to take the back roads and stay off the highway. This spring break a friend and I ventured to Vegas and on the way home we stopped for the night to stay at the wigwam motel. This is the second time I've stayed at this Route 66 classic and it is always so much fun for the kids. The family has classic cars sitting around the parking lot and it is just such a great place to get some pictures. This is done with two exposures merged using HDR. I saturated the blue paint and the red rust for fun.

I have so many photos taken and just archived that I really need to get to work on them. I hope your like this new addition to my collection.

For more Route 66 photos visit my etsy shop.

Village of the Past

Each time I wander the southwest I seem to be called back to a small group of prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages located in the southeastern corner of Utah. Hovenweep National Monument, a landscape of canyons and mesa tops, is a small but captivating part of our National Park System. I don't know if it is the beautiful ruins, the natural, undeveloped nature, or just the its solitude of that draws me, but I find each time it is worth the drive.


There are 6 villages in the area, but the Square Tower Group is the easiest to access and was the largest of the villages. Here is a view of some of its ruins from inside the canyon in the late morning. (I had hope to get out at sunrise, but it was raining and I was not prepared for rain.) You can see how the rocks have shifted over time and part of the ruins have fallen into the canyon. Still the towers that are still standing are very interesting. As I walk the trail I find it difficlut to believe that 500 people lived in this village. The historians base this figure on the nearly 30 kivas that they have found hidden around the village.
Of course I have more photos to share and hope to get to them soon.
Have a wonderful day!
Lorissa

Family Hiking in Canyonlands - Needles District

This past fall my husband, daughter, and I went on a little RV adventure to Canyonlands National Park in the Needles District. There is nothing much to do there except enjoy the beauty of the the area. Really, in the needles district there are no cell phone service, no showers, but a lot of trails. Backpacking, hiking, and some truly 4 wheel driving roads are the only way to explore this beauty. There are easy trails like one to an ancestral Puebloan granary and another takes you a historic cowboy line camp and prehistoric pictographs. Then there are long trails (about 60 miles of interconnected trails) to fantastic views, colorful sandstone spires, arches, and archaeological sites. The best way to explore these long trails is to go backpacking overnight with lots of water. Basically there is something in Canyonlands for every skill level and it makes a wonderful place to visit with the family.

During our visit we hiked a few of the shorter trails, along with a small section of the larger trail called the Squaw Flat Loop that was near the campgrounds. They do tell you that the longer trails are especially rough and require negotiating steep passes with drop-offs, narrow spots, or ladders, but we thought we would be safe close to the campground on a short loop between the two. LOL - We were so wrong. I didn't take my camera, because we thought we were going on a flat trail with not much to spot but cactus and lizards. The trail looped around and up and over the formation that sat right behind our campsite. It was amazingly beautiful, but I was a little worried as we were walking on the top of the sandstone structure with only five feet of rock between drops off on each side. The rock rose in a way that made it difficlut to judge what might come next and we kept just pushing ahead thinking it would be easier then turning back. We "scrambled" a lot and I even tore a large hole in my jeans from shuffling over the rock with my daughter in my arms. The photo above shows the formation we hiked over. It was just the lower part on the left, but we walked on the top of that and came down the steep slopes and sandstone rims to get back to the campground with a 4 year old in tow. Looking back it was beautiful, but I don't think I would have taken a 4 year old up there to hike if I had known. She did wonderfully though and it is a memory and accomplishment I don't' think she will ever forget.

The next day we hiked the Slickrock Trail. This is the longest of the short trails and is about 2.4 miles round trip. It was listed as having uneven surfaces, viewpoints, and sometimes bighorn sheep. We didn't see many sheep that day, but lots of beautiful views. This is actually a great trail for kids. Enough "scrambling" over the rocks to satisfy them (really very little for those who have long adult legs) and a few shady places to stop and rest when needed.

The panoramas from my blog post Hiking at Canyonlands National Park were taken while we were on this hike, but I thought I would share some more personal photos that show my hubby and daughter actually hiking.





As you can see they have the trail marked with cairns (small rock piles) which really helps you not get lost when the trail is mostly sandstone. Though, we did get off trail a couple of times and had to go back to the last cairn we were at and then scout around for the next.

The viewpoints were well marked. One you had to go out on a long thin rock formation that had a major drop off on both sides. This was the one viewpoint we didn't go all the way out to (because we had enough of our heart popping out of our chests the day before with our four year old so close to the edge of drop offs). Then, once we thought we found the view point:

Only to find this sign at the bottom once we figure out the way down:


You can actually see the sign in the last photo. I thought it seemed kind of a funny place to have the sign laying, but it worked and we found our way.

While this isn't the Grand Canyon, it is just as beautiful and a lot less crowded. It is a place that everyone should try to visit at least once.

Thanks for letting me share this adventure with you.
Lorissa

PS. I thought about being Wordless today for "Wordless Wednesday" but decided I had to much to share with these photos. Maybe next week.

Just trying out a little HDR Photography

I've been wanting to try this new digital photography tool out for a while, but I really haven't had much time lately to sit down and figure it out. I also wasn't sure it was a good fit for me. So many of the images I see are beyond reality and I like my photos to capture the true beauty I see around me. There are times I go farther with images into more of a digital art, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to use it for the right reason for me and my work/art. I've also found that I still have a lot to learn about it (which is fine, because I try to learn something new each day) and can't wait to have more time to take it farther.


This abandon house caught my eye as we were driving out of our Forest campground in Southwestern Colorado. The morning light was beautiful and abandoned buildings are one of my favorite subjects. Just meant to be. My husband pulled the RV over and let me out, but then got concerned when it was 15 minutes later before I got back. Oh, but the photos were worth it and I would have stayed longer if I was alone.

This is Hamburger Rock Campground in Southern Utah. This place is BLM and beautiful. It is just outside of the Needles area of Canyonland National Park. The campground is fairly primitive and the road in a little rough, but it was so worth it. This is a view from on top of the rock looking down at our campsite.

These were taken from our campsite, it was a beautiful sunset.



Hope you have enjoyed!

A Day at the Beaches - Florida Vacation Part 2

Yes. I said Beaches, with an s. Well what else do you do when your on Vacation on the coast in Florida? A day at the beach of course. Or if you me, you make sure to get to two beaches in one day.
I had actually hoped to spend as much time on the beach as I could, so the second day of my visit we headed for Dunedin's Honeymoon Island State Park. The girls seemed to love it, at first. They didn't enjoy the sand on their fruit. My daughter really didn't like the seaweed that lined the edge of the water or the rocks that you had to walk past to get out to the sandy, shallow sand bars. It was also her first experience, at four, of waves. I said waves, but they were so small that I didn't even think of warning her about them. So small, in fact, they barely "crashed" as they rolled onto the shore, but when you are only three feet tall and trying to catch small fish in a net out on the sand bar, they can seem quit large as the water around you seems to push your little body around. Especially when your not expecting them. Opps.


Eventually the girls decided that the shore was a large sandbox and that building, mixing, and digging was exactly what they wanted to do. Ah, what a lovely day at the beach. It really was great till we decided to leave and we had sandy, tired, winy, and wet toddlers. "How quick can we get back to your home?" I asked my friend.

After a late afternoon nap and dinner we headed for Sunset Beach for Tarpon Spring's Music on the Beach. The night we attended the Bayou Boys played a mix of Country, American, and Rockabilly covers. Oh so, so Florida.

It was about a mile walk with the little ones in strollers and the strollers loaded down with chairs, snacks, beach toys, and the all important wine. The evening was fun, full of watching the girls play in the sand as the sunset with a background of live music and getting to know my friends neighbors. A relaxing and fun evening.

This was my last big day at the beach during my vacation because after this my daughter decided that the beach just wasn't for her. I can't say I was a big beach person while I was living in Florida, but when you only have a week or two to visit it a year, you want to make the most of it, and go as much as possible. Granted, I've ever been big on sand, partly because it can get in places it shouldn't and irritate, but I was disappointed that my daughter was more interested in spending time at a pool then the beach. But that is a story for another day.

Dinner and a Stroll in Tarpon Springs, FL

In August I packed my bags once again and headed to visit family and friends in Tampa Bay Florida. I love visiting whenever I can because it is a little bit like going home. My brother still lives in New Port Richey and I have friends in Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg. Every time I go back something has changed, but I can still count on my friends and family to welcome me and for a great time.
I can also count on The Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs to not have changed too much. I know, it is a tourist trap-ish kind of place. But it is also one of the best places in the US to get wonderful Greek food. Yummy.
The first night of my visit my friend and I took our daughters to Hella's. On the way we were talking about food and the foods that other friends won't eat or even try. I made the mistake of saying I'd try just about anything. So of course my friend called me on it and challenged me to try some pickled octopus.

Now for me, octopus is one of those foods that look too much like the animal even in prepared form. I know it's a bit silly, but I was not looking forward to this challenge. I was looking forward to the saganaki, skordalia, baklava, and a good open face gyro.
To fulfill my challenge we started off with the cold plate that included octopus, shrimp, skordalia, taramosalata, tzatziki, olives, peppers & feta cheese. Everything was good. The octopus wasn't so good I would eat it all the time. It was pickled and I'm really not a big fan of pickled anything except dill pickles.

After that we got the sapanaki, or flaming cheese, just for the fun of it (something you can do on vactaion). OPA!!!!!!!

The kids love the show much more then the cheese.
By the time we finished the appetizers and half our gyros we were full so we took our extras and headed for their bakery to bring some baklava and galaktoburiko home.
After dinner we walk for a bit and stopped in the wonderful little soap shop, Lori's Soaps. They sold hand made olive oil soaps and some of them had a sponge added right into them. What a great idea. I only got two, but now that I'm home I wish I had more.
Here are some photos I took with my point and shoot during our stroll after dinner:



To see more photos of the Sponge Docks visit my last post: Wordless Wed.: The Sponge Docks