august break week 1

this month i am joining susannah conway's summer august break along with more than 600 others!!!
one summer shot a day, for a month, i have inked in to her blog roll as nr 670....
i am using my iPhone to take the shots and process them in the wonderful collect app

my private jungle     

photo heart connection july

a well hidden oasis of green light

browsing through the many shots i took this summer month i came up with this one, taken while out with my dog Lukas. we often visit this park with its twisting paths and small bridges crossing ditches overhung with thick branches covered with fresh young leaves. the many shades of green always make me stop because they literally take my breath away.

 

photo heart connection june

creating fine art with my camera

this image touches my heart every time i look at it. from the moment i finished processing the original shot i kept saying to myself: this is it! for me it is a piece of art and it enables me to experience myself as an artist. it is 'just' a simple shot of some cheap glass objects seen through the window of a big chain store. by coaxing out the myriad exquisite colours and reflections in Lightroom i was able to create something very special. i just love it!
i am planning to have it printed on plexiglass

an embarrassment of riches     

photo-heart-connection may     

creating a royal homestead

at the end of april we got a new king. actually, the queen stepped down and her son became the first king in ages. it was a huge event, things like this don't happen very often :-) it also generated a lot of commercial activity: all the big stores pushed their own little toys, cards, crockery and other 'royal' gadgets.
i got blessed with a couple of soft furry orange balls with gold carton crowns. i kinda liked them and named them willies, after our new king Willem Alexander. after the coronation, my friends started adding to my collection by asking for left-over willies at the store. (you can say they literally gave me the willies lol!). i ended up with 49 of them and decided to give them a home. so i ordered this wooden 'palace' from a toy shop and had loads of fun glueing them in their rooms and on the roof and finally setting up this tableau in my shed window, arranging the remaining willies on the sill beside the royal home...
i call this an embarrassment of riches, because the first thing people say when they see my willies is: wow, you must have spent tons of money at the supermarket...! (they came free with every spent 15 euro)
this photo was taken with my iPhone. i love it as much as i love seeing my willies every time i walk past the shed. so this is most definitely my photo-heart connection for this month!

liberating my art     
sending my images out into the world
and receiving some beautiful postcards in return

this year i took part in Kat Sloma's Liberate your Art postcard swap
seeing my own work printed on a postcard and sharing it with other artists was a wonderful experience.
here's what i sent to Kat and what i got back from kindred creative spirits

on the left are the 5 postcards i sent. the bottom one went to Andrea from NJ and one of the others (don't know which one) ended up in Rochester NY with Karen Walker 

would love to know who else received one of my cards.....

the cards i got back are on the right. from top to bottom:

Cathy H Arkansas USA (hi Cathy, nice to meet again here!)

David Morel Nashville TN USA

Anonymous....would love to know who sent me this beautiful photograph with a quotation by Rumi

Tonia Melbourne, Australia

Shannon Gilbert  Richmond, Virginia USA

and of course Kat's wonderful thank you postcard....

go watch the you-tube video featuring work by all the contributing artists and get inspired!

below are links to the contributors' blogs

fading tulips      

photo heart connection march     

the mesmerizing beauty of decay

a week ago my neighbor came by with a bunch of beautiful tulips. i took some shots of them and put them on one of my blogs

after a week they began to fade, the shape and texture of the flowers becoming even more beautiful and captivating

these shots remind me of 17th century still life flower paintings

water magic     

reflections and distortions     

"if there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water" - Loren Eisely

a sunny day in the city, the quiet water in the canal reflects the buildings in the street

a bit of wind disturbs the tranquil surface and creates long, slow ripples in the mirror

zooming in on the colorful distortions. all context disappears, what is left is an abstract interplay of color, shape and light