Loving where you live

Loving where you live

Wendy Philip loving where you live

To love where you live is about….finding freedom, peace and security in your chosen location.

Especially when you can’t travel your home and environment needs to appeal to you.

 

It seems every man and his dog, (or every woman and her cat) seem to travel the globe today, or they are planning and prioritising their future around this forever trendy occupation of TRAVEL.

Since the dawn of mankind, (and particularly in this last century since the aeroplane was invented.) we long to explore, to investigate other lands, to see how others live, basically I guess, to experience a small segment of life in another part of the world. It’s human nature to be inquisitive and knowledge seeking.

However when you can’t travel, you can still find freedom in your given location.

Maybe we are too old to travel, maybe we have a sickness that limits our travel, maybe we don’t like cars, buses and aeroplanes, or maybe we have done all the travelling we want.
With myself it’s basically all of the above and a few other reasons, the delays with air flight, the sitting in one spot for hours, the stomach aches from foreign food, the difference in time etc etc. All seem to contribute to the cessation of my travel urge.

AND one other major reason for myself is……I have found freedom….I have found a place that I am at peace with, completely contented with, and a place that has a natural beauty that can compare equally with any number of touristy, exotic locations anywhere in the world. In fact I find it better than most ….

Exploration for me is local,

Finding new places and walking, bike riding or boating to these new places keeps me more than fulfilled and occupied.

Why not look at your chosen location, look through a visitors eyes.

Where you live might just be a slice of heaven. No one knows your location exactly the way you do.

You get to experience it in all seasons, and in all temperatures, and in all its comings and goings.

There is actually a heck of a lot going on right where you live today. Why not make the most of it? It’s about attitude…
Paul the apostle sums up an ideal that we can strive for:

Philippians 4.11. ..I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound in any and every situation, I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We can do all things, in time, and with patience and gratitude along the way.

However it could be time to move….

I am not saying you must live in the same location all your life. Maybe your neighbour has a pesky barking dog. (Seriously we have moved because of barking dogs!!) Maybe you are not suited to the climate, maybe you need to fulfil a lifelong dream and move to the country…. Whatever your situation you still have options, a caravan, or building a new home, or buying an old home, building a small cost effective beach home, (as we have done).

Whatever you can afford, and have a vision for, you may want to downsize, or upsize to a prettier location in the same area you live.

Finding freedom is generally about being healthy and content in your current location, at your stage in life. It’s also about dreaming a dream and planning for a contented future.

 

 

Below are my images of my neighbourhood.

Hat and towel on the front of boat at salmon Inlet Yorke Peninsula
Red striped towel on the front of the boat, cliffs in distance.
Wendy Philip sitting on a surfboard at Wilder beach Yorke Peninsula

Boating is our great love, fishing and exploring new islands and inlets, many times places only accessible by boat.

Sunset at Marion Bay jetty
Marion Bay jetty with two yachts in the distance

Marion Bay jetty.

Yachts in the early morning moored at Marion Bay Yorke Peninsula

I often stroll along our local beach. The yachts that stop overnight at Marion Bay are ideal for the keen photographer, like myself!! 

West Cape beach misty day. Yorke Peninsula

West Cape beach, notorious for huge waves which apparently come thousands of mile from the Antarctica. The South Australian coastline is in the Southern ocean, known to be rough and erratic.  It is ideal for a long walk when the conditions are right.

Young girl at the beach with red striped towel
Grandchild strolling along the beach Penguin Point Marion Bay

Family with the grandchildren often visit. Penguin Point.

Outdoors at the beach house pink door and yellow sun chairs

Our very small home is adequate and has all we need.

Blue bottles on our dining table
Bedroom decor white sheets and wooden walls
Log fire at the beach house

What is your vision..?

Get ready to explore your neighbourhood, or get ready to build your dream.

Proverbs 29.18. Without a vision the people perish.

(All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.)

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What is Gods word on creativity

What is Gods word on creativity

Taking photos at the beach Wendy Philip

What is Gods word on your talents and creativity?

When I was younger I heard beautiful singers and longed to be able to stretch my voice to the same heights as their vocal cords went to. But no such luck…A dream, but no physical manifestations of my dreams. 

I adored ballet as a child and  for years I watched brilliant ballerinas and longed to perform those ingenious stretches and poses, but Oooooo my muscles and tendons never became as flexible as my fine feathered swans from Swan Lake. 

Often with photography I feel the same, I see the earth in all its magnificence, I see a picture in all its graciousness, I see another photographers precise and exotic creations, and my hands and fingers don’t seem to want to go in the same directions as all that I see with my eye.

Why can’t I soar to such brilliant heights as Picasso, VanGogh, Michelangelo, Ansel Adam’s, Steve McCurry….?

Why aren’t my efforts as gargantuan as theirs?

Oh wretched person I am. Am I forever bound to the confines of my incapacities?

But is that the truth, who says that these works of art are to be highly prized above all others. Who declares that these creations are better than all the others?

I think God does not say this, there is a story in the bible,

Matthew 25.14-30 

For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 

Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Perhaps the moral of the story is:

Even if you have one talent it will be useful to someone.

Even if you have doubt and fear, you still put your talent to work regardless of your feelings.

Even if others are supposedly far better in their creative abilities and have amazing talents, comparisons are futile and who says that their work is more beautiful than yours. Beauty is supremely selective and differs vastly from individual to individual.

Each and every human is a unique and gifted person. Don’t fear the scary and wary human boss, but ignore him/her and invest your talents into something worthwhile. 

There is room on this earth for vast amounts of unique and productive creativity. 

If indeed you want to benefit this earth and its occupants, your talents are equally as good as all others, make sure you put them to good use.

We can connect our art to this biblical story and thank God that with His creative ingenuity, he decided to create us with a wonderful array of amazing talents.

My images below are of myself out taking images working on my craft. However my husband was the photographer for most of these images.

Girl photographing birds
Girl photographing birds
Wendy Philip photographing some birds on a line
Photographing the waves
Girl in yellow jacket with tripod taking photos
At Ethels beach taking photographs
Girl at the beach with a camera
camera and material
Girl taking photos at the beach
Wendy Philip taking photos at Ethels beach

Thanks for dropping by. Next blog I would like to talk about the way art brings peace and happiness to our souls.

All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.

Adding the vintage touch to your photography

Adding the vintage touch to your photography

Sun umbrella on the sand with rocks surrounding Vintage effect

Adding the vintage look can change an image into a warm and beautiful classic shot.

 

This last week I have simply had a bit of fun with some old images. Adding a few vintage presets and also trying my hand at making my own vintage style photographs.

Vintage style photography is extremely popular at the moment with some photographers using only this type of image in their portfolios. I have collected some great links for you to peruse.

I love the colours that Wes Anderson has in his photography, I could not find a website but THIS SITE seemed the best to view his images. take a look truly amazing.

Lucy Laucht is one of my favorite photographers, all her prints seem to have a slightly vintage feel. Lucy Laucht.

I also enjoy minamalist photographer Richard Misrach. He has a few lovely vintage shots. Richard Misrach

Brearts presets has loads of photographic information on their blogs and some nice presets. Breart presets

Overall for my own vintage look here is what I did :

Increased the temperature slider towards the yellow, to make image a more orange color.

Pushed the tint slider a little towards the green

Brightened the image using the exposure slider.

Increased the saturation only a little and decreased the vibrance a little.

I didn’t add any grain because I am not so keen on that effect.

I decreased highlights and increased shadows.

I pushed up the contrast a little.

Then I generally played around with the colour calibration sliders until I got the colours I liked.

I had loads of failures, but you have to keep trying and if you like your preset and you are using Lightroom you can save it.

For the ready made presets I used:

Lightroom vintage

Lightroom retro

Color Efex vintage.

There are a huge variety of presets on the internet at the moment if you wish to purchase some. Simply type in Vintage presets and literally thousands will come up. But I do suggest trying to style your own vintage shots first, it really is quite easy.

 

Ethels cliffs at the beach vintage look
Girl in water with wet hair vintage style
Girls on beach under pink umbrella vintage style
Yacht moored at Marion Bay with soft mauve sunset
Chairs by the seaside
Red chair and girl at the beach vintage style
Bike vintage style
Sheep walking in the field vintage style
Red umbrella in the wheat field
Flat lay bowl, fruit and red gingham cloth, vintage style
Yellow coffee cup
Port Clinton diving pad in the center of the bay
Yacht sails past Seal Island Yorke Peninsula
Pink umbrella on the beach vintage style
At the beach, sun chair and pelicans vintage style
Yacht moored at the beach side
Chairs in the sun
Girl by the beach vintage style
Book and red and blue cloth vintage style
hall pegs with hat and bag hanging, vintage style
A frame house New Zealand vintage style

I hope you enjoy my vintage style photos. There are no set rules, just go with your gut, use presets, copy other vintage photographers ideas and simply do your thing!!

Here is a great link on editing your photos to create that vintage look. READ HERE

All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.

AI and the future of photography and blogging

AI and the future of photography and blogging

Power lines in the clouds black and white

AI here to stay or just a flash in the sky?

 

For now photography and blogging are here  to stay according to google.

AI is still in its infancy stage and has a long way to go to compete with the uniqueness and creativity of the human brain.

For myself, personally  I have found AI also lacking in humour and personal experiences. Seriously what personal heartaches, sadness, or tragedy has touched Mr AI? What profound joy, pleasure and satisfaction has Mr AI revelled in? What hilarious moment has Mr AI been able to illustrate in an image or in writing.

Mr AI (or Mrs AI) is or are, lacking in so many human qualities, that make us authentic and powerful beings.
Another malfunction of Mr and Mrs AI, they lack the capacity to have children. A spirit, mind and body is a supernatural form of life, which is conceived through love and grows into a mind boggling human being……nothing else compares. This experience cannot be replicated.

Isaiah 44.24. The Lord says, I made you and formed you from the womb. I the Lord am the maker of all things. Stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

AI is, at the moment not capable of making a most intricate and unique human or creating the earth and the heavens, the planets, the stars, the comic universe.

Photography

– my personal experiences
With AI  images I find them sterile and often a bit faulty. Eg in one image I looked at, I noted a table leg stopped halfway down. It simply floated in mid air.
I find many AI images so perfect. Sterile and lacking life. Not a spec of dust, not a leaf on the ground, not a small spider web in the corner. Give me the imperfections of a unique and somewhat faulty image any day. For me many of the AI generated images look so very fake.

AI images portray humans as faultless with all the right parts in the right place. A face with no spots, no blemishes, perfect teeth and hair. Their bodies, if female, have the finest and biggest breasts known to human kind. Barbie fainted with desire when she saw all the Grok images of women. Their waists are tiny, their legs long and golden and that tan did not come from the sun, so not a hint of skin cancer for those babes. What more can I say… the men all have six packs, and arms so well developed they struggle to scratch their backside. Arnie was somewhat jealous and headed straight for the gym after viewing these images.

Blogging.

Well I’m no expert, but I have used chatgp regularly and have had to go through those particular blogs and remove the wording created by chatgp. Here are my reasons:

1. The sentences were super descriptive and used adjectives that I would never have thought of. Far too technical and embellished with terminology I was not remotely familiar with.
I found it lacked my personal touch and now I rarely use it. As far as scoring on my SEO, chatgp scored very low. When I wrote out my own keywords and descriptions the SEO scored much higher.

2. I discovered that I did not have to use my brain, chatgp used their brain and my brain just lay resting getting “bored out of its brain”…..and fat and lethargic. Creativity disappeared and tiredness prevailed.

3. It simply felt weird logging into a device that helped you with your creativity.

The good points.

1. Of course there are innumerable good things about AI. However for creatives I feel we must still employ our brain to fulfill those God given dreams and desires we have.

2. It can save you time when researching any topic, it’s a fantastic encyclopaedia.

3. And it just may give you a perspective you had never thought of.

 

At the dawn of the century do you think painters were intimidated and a little afraid of photographers and photography, were their jobs to be made redundant??  Maybe, but it never stopped their creativity and the world of painting still exists today.

We can read information that frightens us and seems to void our creative abilities. I believe God designed us with creativity and a talent over and above all things. Don’t be threatened or frightened. God is watching over the earth and He knew thousands of years ago that AI would come to pass.

God foreknew that man would make AI to replace man!

How strange, humans make something to replace themselves? Where will it stop? There is no end to human ingenuity and inventiveness.

But now, has man apparently done away with himself???

 

For more information check out this link.
F stoppers

Aeroplane and moon in the sky
Wind turbines in the clouds
Clock on a white wall

What time is it? The future is close at hand.

Lamp on a white back ground
Birds on power lines with blurry moon in background
Birds playing noughts and crosses

Will the birds of the sky notice the change?

Ravens in a nest on a power pole
Old tree and field of wheat

Lines of nature and lines of power

Wind turbines in a wheat field

Where does the power lie?

Birds nest in power lines

My photographs are mainly black and white, fun shots which I have taken over the years.

I hope you enjoy these shots.

All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.

Photographing the seasonal bright yellow fields of canola

Photographing the seasonal bright yellow fields of canola

Yellow canola field South Australia

It is the spring of 2025 in Australia and each year I trek out to photograph those amazing canola fields.

 

Stopping on the side of the road we see that the fields are a brilliant yellow again, not quite ready for harvest, but certainly ready for the keen photographer.

Farmers fill Yorke Peninsula with wheat, barley, canola, and many other varieties of plants.  The peninsula has apparently very fertile limestone soils, and the region is known for significant crop growth.

The canola fields can develop into a brilliant and almost effervescent yellow. It’s all about timing. If you photograph too soon, there will be an almost equal amount of green in your image. If you are a week or so too late the flowers will have started to fall to the ground and you will once again see alot of green in your image. I have the privilege of regularly driving past these fields, hence my images are at the point when the flowers were most prolific. Usually late August early September depending on when the farmer has planted his crop.

There seemed to be an abundance of crows this year, flying, chattering and then completely disappearing amidst the yellow blooms!

When photographing these fields

I try and look for suitable skies. I find daytime with either a grey or a blue sky is best for me. A pink glow at sunset is nice too, but we seemed to only be driving by during the day.

When editing my shots I will try to make the field completely yellow and take out the often hints of green in the leaves. I use the colour slider to do this.

Often its good to look for one bird or tree as this adds variety to your image.

Try close up and long distance. Use an aperture over f5.6 for those long shots and an aperture of around f2.5 for close ups.

As the photographer develops their own taste and style, you will be able to ascertain what time of day you like the best.

 

Solitary tree and a yellow canola field
One bird sitting in a tree with blurred yellow canola field in the background
Crows in a canola field with dark grey skies
Dividing line between canola field and wheat field
Bent tree and canola field
Canola field and trees
Pink salt lake in the centre of a canola field

A pink salt lake just outside Yorketown amidst the canola.

Canola and crows flying

Crows finding food

canola reaching for the sky
Vast fields of canola
Trees in the background of a canola field
Canola field and a lonely tree
Trees in a canola field
Green and yellow, canola
Two trees in a canola field
Bird amidst the canola
Canola and a tree with grey skies

Each year I eagerly wait for these fields to turn yellow so I can photograph them. Each year brings something different. Strange skies, new trees, birds flying through, and also we see the hand of the creative farmer with lines and patterns.

I hope you enjoy these shots.

All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.