Some great tips for achieving that soft light blue colour

Some great tips for achieving that soft light blue colour

Cloud on a bee beach

 

Colour lightens our life and adds such a beautiful dimension to all we see.

How clever is our God to come up with a concept like colour. Through our eyes we absorb the beauty of creation in an array of colours. Each sunset, each green grassy slope, each red harsh desert, the ocean, greens to deep blues… one certainly could write pages of descriptions, endless and timeless.

We need light to see these colours, darkness cannot comprehend or display any colour at all.

 

One of the most tranquil and calming colours apparently is light blue.

Soft and gentle, cool and clear. From snowy mountains captured in the South Island of New Zealand to brilliant coastal sights captured in South Australia.

Light blue is good for your health and your soul. As we view this soft colour endorphines are released and we are calmed and soothed. Being a cool colour it also has a cleansing and refreshing effect on us.

Tips to get that soft light blue colour.

*Editing your photos becomes a must, as the blue of the sky or the ocean is quite a vivid blue and very often is not that soft gentle shade we want. I generally desaturate my images and try and tone down the brightness of the blue. I often raise the exposure a little as well.

* You may try adding a haze of white over your blue sky to soften it. I use photoshop for this.

* Snowy scenes are often perfect for that light blue shade. The sky in the early morning around the mountains can look quite spectacular. Once again try the desaturation slider if the blue is too intense.

* Try photgraphing on a cloudy day and try different settings. Experimentation is a great way to perfect your art.

* In South Australia there are some magnificent salt lakes that are that exact soft light blue shade. So if you are fortunate enough to live near some salt lakes, try your hand at photographing those.

* Dial the shutter speed down a bit so your images are a fraction lighter. Take a look and make the necessary changes.

Good luck and have fun.

 

Gallery

Black and white images of our coastline

Black and white images of our coastline

 

Black and white images stand out as being simple and yet bold.

Two basic colours at the end of the spectrum provide room for our imaginations. Two extremes of light and dark with many shades of grey in between. It’s perhaps the shades of grey that provide the connections between the black and white. This makes it easier for our eye to roam around the image, appreciating the variations.

I have been experimenting and making some of my black and whites lighter. Not so much contrast. I enjoy doing this type of editing although I think it may not be so good for framed images on your wall. It could look a bit bland and monotone.

 

pink sunset and a distant lighthouse
pink sunset and a distant lighthouse
Big waves and distant lighthouse
black-and-white -simplicity
Seagulls resting
sailing boat and waves
Seabird flying over seaweed
Two yachts
Moon over ocean in black and white
Lighthouse in black and white
Girl fishing in black and white

Me fishing off the back of our boat. Gotta love a striped T shirt in black and white photos.

Black and white is timeless, unique and helps the viewer focus on tones, patterns, lines and texture instead of colour. Black and white is always a favorite of mine.

 

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Locating Yorke Peninsula’s lone apostle.

Locating Yorke Peninsula’s lone apostle.

Embarking on a walk over the towering cliffs of the south end of Yorke Peninsula, we made a journey to try and discover the one lone apostle. A lonely fisherman had reported seeing this legendary rock from his boat in the ocean. But no land living creature, that we knew, had ever pointed out this amazing discovery to us.

Did we really have an apostle? Victoria had twelve, (Yeah right!! There are really only eight and rumour has it, there never, ever were twelve, it was simply a marketing ploy.)

Could South Australia possibly have just one for a few isolated adventurers like me and my husband?
Well we were about to find out!
We felt like the explorers of oldā€¦.phone, water, sun hat, insect repel, camera, good shoes, snake protectors etc.

I think the explorers of old had note paper instead of a camera, old boots instead of good Nike trekking shoes, kerosene as insect repellent, and as the movies depict they always lost their water on the way so almost died of thirst!!

No dying on the journey for us weā€™re far too clever and modern.

Cliffs South Australian coastline

Above…looking forward along the coastline

South Australian coastline

Looking back you can see the West Cape light house way in the distance.

Coastline
Coastline South Australia

And there it is in all its glory. We found it!

Green sea water

Looking down.

Coastline South Australia
Coastline South Australia
Rough countryside
The lone Apostle South Australia
Waiting for the surf to come up

Yeah that way mate!

Two kangaroos
Rough terrain
The lone apostle
Beautiful rock formation

TIME TAKEN: Just under one hour to walk there, 30 minutes of taking photos and resting. Basically it took the best part of two and a half hours.

APOSTLE LOCATED: Yes bought a tear to my eyeā€¦ majestical.

LIVING CREATURES: One shingle back lizard and quite a few kangaroos, and crows.

SIGNS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY: Not a single beer bottle, or cigarette butt, or foot print, now thatā€™s worth seeing!

YES, South Australia does have an Apostle, difficult to find, but picturesque and worth the walk!

How to photograph with your heart and soul.

How to photograph with your heart and soul.

 

If you could photograph with your soul, what would your photos look like?

Art is what you see in your soul. Art is a dream you have inside your heart.

 

How do you transfer what you feel in your heart and soul into a photograph???

1. I photograph what I consider to be some of the most beautiful elements of our earth. Then I add my own interpretation of how I see this picture in my heart. Therefore photograph what you consider to be beautiful. Photograph the things, the people, objects or landscapes that give you pleasure.

2. A painter can paint the thoughts of his heart. A photographer must photograph a scene that is, as it is. If you know what I mean?
Therefore I will remove a piece of rubbish, or add an extra star, or colour the sea a shade greenerā€¦.and so on. I love to add the painters element to the things I see with my eye. So let your heart dominate when you are editing.

3. Photograph when you get that awesome feeling of…..YES this is what I have been waiting for. Get up early or stay up late. That feeling is often not there, but that is what we wait for. It can be pure chance that the light is right, the land is right, the weather is right….etc. The first image of the lighthouse was one of those days for me, truly magnificent.

4. Some images are when things were not quite in alignment with no awesome feeling, but I practised my art regardless. The sun does not always shine and the moon is not always full. Ā There are days when things just dont go right. Persist and persist again.

5. Be passionate about your art. Don’t leave it alone for too long. Your passion will come out in your images. They say… “Out of the adundance of the heart the mouth speaks!” We could change that phrase and say. “Out of the abundance of the heart, art is created.”

My images are of the distant lighthouse. Most times the lighthouse stands alone on these sparse and dangerous outcrops of land. Beacons of hope for sailors in the night. The wild ocean is to be revered and auspiciously navigated. A lighthouse illuminates that which is to be avoided.

A lighthouse gives us direction, a lighthouse can be a metaphorical word for a sailors safety…Psalm 119.105. Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

 

pink sunset and a distant lighthouse
Big waves and distant lighthouse
Yacht and lighthouse
A sunset of soft orange and a yacht
waves and Althorpe lighthouse
Yacht race
Light house in the distance
Seaspray
West Cape
West Cape in the big storm
Yacht and Althorpe Island in background
West Cape light house sunset
Cape Spencer lighthouse
Cape Spencer lighthouse

 

A side note…The Althorpe Island lighthouse in many of my photographs is accompanied by three cottages. Three families lived there for many years manning the lighthouse. Their only access to the island was by boat. Ā A life devoted to preventing shipwrecks.

 

 

 

A strange and eerie place to visit

A strange and eerie place to visit

I am very excited to share this blog because it is a Ā moment I will never forget.

Whilst out fishing one day, we discovered at the back of Althorpe Island, a tiny inlet. (called Salmon Inlet.) As we drove the boat in closer the water colour turned from sea blue into a magnificent deep oceanic green. Very beautiful, very majestical, and quite strange. We journeyed in as close as we could and dropped anchor under a cloudless sky and glistening sun. The steep cliffs rising straight up out of the green depths were dark, rocky, and cold. The saturated green colour of the ocean kept changing as the sun moved over the sky. A bird or two appeared and then disappeared. The silence only broken by the occasional cry from these seabirds.

Even though it was winter I could not resist a swim. Freezing!!! I certainly did not stay in for long, perhaps not a swim just a dip! But as short as the swim was I wanted to jump in and experience this magical spot to the fullest. To immerse myself in the beauty of nature. To feel this dark green effervescent water on my skin.

After my swim we had lunch and simply basked in the peaceful, and arresting vista.
Itā€™s a feeling, a longing, an ethereal presence that comes ever so gently when you discover something so unique and special, like this amazing place.

Do you know what I mean?

Beautiful beach at sunset
Sparkling turquoise beach
West Cape at sunset
A sunset of soft orange and a yacht
pink bedroom
my armoire
Lounge room
Walking along the shoreline
Waiting for the surf to come up
Galahs in the evening light
Althorpe Island in the distance

I wonder at the creativity of God. Depths that cannot be touched and heights that cannot be accessed by our human brain.

How I overcame a lifelong habit of rushing

How I overcame a lifelong habit of rushing

I do tend to like this idea of slow living.

For I often find I am in a rush. I have this anxious feeling of rushing through all my daily tasks, to bring them to completion asap.
This anxious, rushing, feeling, I can trace back to my childhood. You see from the age of seven, I have had to deal with migraine headaches. Very debilitating and painful.

From somewhere around my teenage years, I felt I had to rush to get everything completed in case I got sick with a migraine and had to spend hours in bed with a massive headache. This became a very deeply entrenched habit. More especially in the years I was raising children, you see everything had to be perfect and in order in case anything went wrong.
But as I got older, I have had to retrain my brain and remind myself, why the panic? Tomorrow is another day with a new beginning and a little mess is not going to hurt. If I need to rest then I must rest!
SLOW DOWN, and focus on the fact that this is only temporary, soon the events that I am drowning in at the present moment will not last.Ā 

A wonderful side note, as I grew older those terrible migraines lost alot of their severity. I no longer vomit for hours and the headache is quite mild. You see, life can change.Ā 

Just how do you slow down?

*Gather less stuff. We take nothing into this world and we take nothing out when we leave.
*Read the bible and pray. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
*Begin the day with peaceful, positive thoughts. Your self talk will set you in the right direction if it is life giving and positive.
*Retrain your mind to stop and enjoy.
*Be grateful and make an effort to thank God for all the good things in life.

Thank God for the beautiful sights and sounds…..

 

Below are some images that have brought peace to my heart and soul.

A yacht moored for the night swaying in the breezy evening air.
The pink galahs singing in the trees.
Sipping coffee in a garden.
Children singing in the background,
The Ā laughs of children climbing the sand dunes.
A moonlit night.
A person bathing in the salty seawater.
Children swimming till dusk.
A blue and white wave crashing on the shorelineā€¦ā€¦
A pink bedroom to relax in.
A pink sunset
A trip on a boat out to sea.
A sea lion relaxing in the cool waters.

Those are truly the things that will make us slow down a little and become enchanted with the daily simplicityā€™s of life.

A sunset of soft orange and a yacht
Galahs in the evening light
Coffee and magazine
Waiting for the surf to come up
Wedge island
Walking over sand dunes
Two fishing boats in the moonlight
Children and mother walking
Beautiful beach at sunset
Yacht parked for the night
Children swimming in the twilight
Out at sea, blue towel
pink galahs flying
Sea lion relaxing at sea