For a good photo - a little somethin' somethin'

Here's a really quick and easy way to make your photos "pop" - oh you didn't know your photos could "pop" you say? Well, yes they can. If you have a photo you really like and want to share it, on the web or with family and friends or even print it, before you send it off try this little trick in Photoshop (either Elements or the regular version). I do this with both my wonderful Canon P&S pics and with my Nikon DSLR pics...It's easier than messing with the contrast and saturation settings (or even curves for the advanced users) if you have a photo that is good in your eyes but you just want to give it a little "oomph".

Go into Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask and set the amount to 20, the radius to 60, and leave threshhold at 0. Here's an example SOOC (straight out of Camera - my P&S)This little trick will make your pictures go from
This:





















To This:






















Another Example:















Now you can also do this in Gimp and maybe some of the online editors, I haven't really looked at those..but I know many of you have Elements as it comes with a lot of cameras..Technically the term for this is "Defog" and for the Lightroom/ACR users - this is what the clarity slider does..

Brought to you by: Your own personal Geek: NGG

Lost and Found - Part 1

What do you do when a beloved animal dies
(our sweet Miss Lass)
that has a special place in your heart?

Well if you are me, and your special loss was a rescue, you notify the rescue group from where you got her. Why? Well, maybe because I know that as a person who has fostered animals before, I always enjoy finding out the good (and the sad) of these animals. It helps to validate my feelings of hopefully helping the animal in some small way. With Miss. Lass, we had a lot of support from our rescue group during some difficult times. They were very appreciative of the email and offered such nice words of comfort for our efforts and our loss.

Sitting at my desk on Tuesday night, looking at Lass' ABCA pedigree papers, I took serious notice for the first time, the previous owner's name. Being the geek that I am, I decided to google the name. I got a hit, and not only did I get a direct hit, I got an email address with it. What to do? What were my feelings? My heart was racing. Do I send an email? What would they think? Would they welcome the information that she lived a long and happy life. Would it stir up emotions in them that they cared not to revisit? Were they a heartless, selfish person who threw away many other things in their life, like they "threw away" their dog..Who was this person? When we got Miss Lass from rescue, we only knew that she was given up because the girlfriend of the owner did not like the dog.. We looked at each other and said "NOT LIKE THIS DOG? How could that be, this sweet sweet animal?"

Miss Lass changed our lives. She challenged us to search the depths of our beings to understand what a committment to an animal meant. Thank goodness we (Steve and I) were both on the same page when it came to Miss Lass. If anything, Steve was even more adamant about her than I was. I will always think of that when I want some sort of gauge of his depth of love for this or any of our animals. Now don't get me wrong.. she didn't change our lives in such a way as to permanently hinder us in anything going forward. But for the last 7 years we have not been able to be away from home together more than 4-5 hours at a time. We always had to be aware of the weather too, lest we be away and a thunderstorm occurred. But we adapted and really didn't feel it was much of an imposition except when there were times we got the itch to travel again. It was hard for us to believe our last trip together was in 2001.

I sent the email. A short, somewhat curt email, that asked if this was the correct party that gave up Miss Lass to rescue in 1998. If this was the party to whom I was emailing, I said I didn't know if they would be interested in knowing that we had adopted the animal, loved her very much and had her for almost 10 years and that we had to put her down. I said there was no need for a response to the email.. I didn't want the recipient to feel obligated to engage in a dialogue. I probably put that last statement in as much for me as for the recipient because I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing. What did I hope to accomplish by sending this email? I didn't really think this through. I just knew I was hurting for a dog that I loved very much and I was home alone and spending a lot of time thinking about her and I really wished Steve was home to give me the hugs that I know we both could use.

The next morning, I received a reply...I was suprised and I think you will be too..but first I need to answer their reply before I continue this post.. that is why this is Part 1..

Into The West

I sat down at the computer this morning and started my media player on shuffle and this song was the first song it played. I had never heard it before.. Cap'n Steve says he never downloaded it .. The song is from The Lord of the Rings, performed by Annie Lennox who is one of my favorites... Needless to say it brought tears to my eyes. Click the link to be taken to Ms. Lennox's full recorded performance of this beautiful and haunting song or enjoy her abbreviated performance at the Oscars here...



Into The West

Lay down,
your sweet and weary head.
Night is falling.
You have come to journey’s end.

Sleep now, and dream
of the ones who came before.
They are calling,
from across a distant shore.

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see.
All of your fears will pass away.
Safe in my arms,
you’re only sleeping.

What can you see,
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea,
a pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
to carry you home.

And all will turn,
to silver glass.
A light on the water.
All souls pass.

Hope fades,
Into the world of night.
Through shadows falling,
Out of memory and time.

Don’t say,
We have come now to the end.
White shores are calling.
You and I will meet again.
And you’ll be here in my arms,
Just sleeping.

What can you see,
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea,
a pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
to carry you home.

And all will turn,
to silver glass.
A light on the water.
Grey ships pass
Into the West.

Keepin' Busy

Well It's best to keep busy when you have a heavy heart.. I luckily have many things on my "honey do list" the first being mowing..Oh I forgot to mention that Cap'n Steve had to go to Florida to do some important errands. His timing was in no way coincidental to Lass' situation. So I needed to step in and do his "part".. This means a 4 -5 hour mow (We have 4 acres that we groom and 4.5 acres of woodlands).. A 4-5 hour mow isn't bad when you don't have to do it every 5 days. We share the weekly task and my side usually takes 1.5-2 hours while Steve's side takes 2-2.5 hours. Cap'n Steve normally powers a commercial size mower, the Snapper, that he handles beautifully, a throwback to his younger days when he worked on golf courses.





I have a John Deere lawn tractor.. a heavy duty one - not one of those you see in Home Ripoff.. okay - so I am proud of the machine.. but it has earned it over the last 6 years... not a hiccup.. and perfect for me - but not for the entire yard. We purchased this jewel after we realized I could not manage the Snapper - my hands were just too small.. Now I don't understand that since we all have seen many commercial mowers with people operating them who hardly seem taller than my 5'5" but alas I just couldn't span the grip/gear shift. Also we knew it was best to have a two mowers in case one went down. The yard can quickly get away from you if you miss a mow and then it is hell to catch up. The Snapper can operate like a zero turn radius when you walk behind it, thus getting in lots of tight corners easily that the JD can't even think about..My normal mowing is what we affectionately call the fairway (an easy 7 iron - par 3), not too many trees and a lot of wide open space..When Cap'n Steve must venture away I also mow "his" side of the property that has the trees and planting beds. The JD does a good job and I am along for the ride - so to speak...but I just can't get as close to the trees/fence line that Cap'n Steve and his fine machine can.


Mattie loves to roll in fresh cut grass.. one of the simple pleasures..

Sad Times

The Passing of a Beloved Companion

Miss Lass 12/21/93 – 08/01/08

Our Miss Lass came to us in late 1998 by way of Appalachian Mountain Border Collie Rescue. Everyone thought she was about 2 years old when we adopted her, but to our surprise, when we obtained her ABCA registration, she was 5 years old. She was a sweet animal from the beginning, but definitely had some idiosyncrasies. She did not know what toys or treats were and had no desire for the Frisbee or thrown tennis balls. We tried her in agility and she was not enthused. She did not seem interested in herding. She grew to love treats, but never developed an interest in any of the "normal" dog activities. She was smart and did well with obedience training. She tolerated the cats, and preferred to spend her time jumping at the grass and barking. We came to refer to this activity as herding bugs. She loved to be sprayed with the hose.

I mentioned that she was sweet. She was a gentle dog with soft eyes and would let you do just about anything to her up until she was around 12 or so, and like most of us, she started to get a bit cranky as she got older. She used to love to have her back scratched and would gladly sit for you as you rubbed or brushed her back. She also loved her rides. Every errand that we ran, weather and time permitting, she was along for the ride.
She was very much loved by us and she will forever remain in our hearts.
Lass, we hope that we have helped you to go gently into that dark night and that there are no more thunderstorms and only beautiful warm sunny days with cool breezes.
We love you very much.

Odds and Ends

It's getting toward the end of the Gladiolas.. I have enjoyed them so much. I thought I would share these two pictures.. I only had this one gladiola that had multicolor like this.. I thought it was beautiful. Wish I had more of these - Also I shot this around 9:00 am but the light was too harsh even then..

Also we are arranging for the carpet for the Guest Quarters today. So probably in the next few weeks we will be completely done. We are both looking forward to it. Cap'n Steve is definitely ready to move on. He is talking furniture making and I am encouraging it so that should keep him occupied and not driving me crazy! He did rebuild our back steps earlier this spring. Our BC, Lass, is to the point that she has problems going up stairs. These back steps were starting to give her fits. I couldn't pick her up and carry her up/down like I did with the corgis as they became unable to negotiate them so Cap'n Steve redesigned them to be wider and smaller rise. We just put the outdoor carpet on them this week as Lass was really starting to slip. Mattie, my ham, is modeling them for us. Lass is definitely a camera shy BC.. I have come to the conclusion it is the infrared focusing that makes her uncomfortable...

Love, The Second Time Around

My Aunt and Ira are coming to visit for the next couple of days. She and her husband Ira are an inspiration. They were married in 2006 after both had lost their spouses. They have spent the last two years traveling and seem to be enjoying themselves so very much.

I love this picture of them. I had my camera for all of a month when I shot pictures of their wedding. That is the day I developed a very healthy respect for wedding photographers and I follow several wedding photographer blogs for inspiration. I will sound like a broken record here, but I just don't have many people to practice on and practice makes perfect... and I am too shy to just shoot people randomly in the streets. I don't want to be known as that crazy woman with the camera.. Our town has only 1 stop sign and 1 traffic light...so I could easily be spotted and "tagged".

We seem to have a bit of a break in the weather here, actually feels like North Georgia again, so hopefully we can get out and I can show them a bit of our little corner of the world without all of us dripping in sweat..