Wordless Wednesday - Inspiration is Everywhere!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday and THANK YOU for visiting today!!  Wishing you an INSPIRING Day!!
~Trina

Happy Day!!

Just a little shout-out to all of you, to wish you a Beautiful and Inspiring Day!!!

Inspiring Quote of the Day...

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  THANK YOU for visiting today!!  :)
~Trina

An Autumn Walk...

As we step into October... (Oh, I just CAN'T believe it's already October, can you?) The colors are beginning to change, here in our part of Michigan, and it's so pretty!  I love driving around and taking walks this time of year, there's so much beauty to take in.  In fact, I went for a little walk around our yard today, and found all kinds of really cool things to take pictures of... Nature's inspiration!!!  I thought I'd share a few pictures here with you.  

Happy October to all!! 

 Side view of our front yard... 
And part of our long driveway that is such fun to shovel in winter! lol!

  This is the tree stump I want to make a flower planter out of... 

 We have a perfect view of it, when we look out our front window,

and I think it would be so pretty with cascading flowers 

falling all around it in the springtime!

Our Apple Tree... We sure had a lot of apples this year!

And behind it is our pear tree... Lots of pears too!

A better view of the tree stump, wouldn't it make a cool planter?

This Willow Tree in the front yard is looking a little bare already... 

Love this tree!

The Funi sure grew all over this tree stump, didn't it?!

Pampas Grass... Grows like crazy in our yard...

Mushrooms and Moss...

I think it looks so cool, how the fungi is cascading down like this...

Yes, I do believe that beauty and inspiration is ALL around!!!

I always have my camera, and my eyes open, for those shots that inspire me!

I hope these pictures have inspired you!

On a different kind of inspirational note...

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ I've been busy, busy, busy in my studio creating all kinds of new wedding cake toppers and clay creations.  I'll be posting them soon, and can't wait for you to see all my new designs!!  

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you so much for stopping by today!  

~Trina

Etsy Finds Friday - Carol Walker

It's *♥*Etsy Finds Friday*♥*

Today I am featuring

the Awesome Photography 

by Carol Walker

About the Photographer:
Carol’s passion for photography started at an early age, with animals as her favorite subjects. She studied literature and photography as an undergraduate at Smith College, and continued her education in photography after graduating, studying portraiture and nature photography. She has travelled all over the world photographing wildlife for the past 28 years. In 2000, Carol started her business Living Images by Carol Walker, specializing in photographing horses. Carol’s images illuminate the relationship between horses and their people, as well showcase the beauty of horses with her stunning images of horses at liberty. 

 

 

 

 Four Young Mustangs Play

Carol teaches workshops for amateur photographers on equine photography. Her commercial work includes catalogue covers for leaders in the Equine industry. She has had numerous calendars published featuring her work, and she markets her fine art prints from her website www.LivingImagesCJW.com as well as in several locations on the Front Range of Colorado. Carol has done presentations on equine photography and on wild horses at Equine Affaire in CA, OH and MA as well as at the Western States Horse Expo. Seven years ago, Carol began photographing wild horses. 

 

 

 A black Freisian stallion comes close on a foggy morning in Ojai, CA

 

 

Seven years ago, Carol began photographing wild horses. As she followed several herds in Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, she became aware of how precarious their situation on public lands has become. Since then, she has dedicated herself to educating people with her photographs and stories about the wild horses. Her book Wild Hoofbeats: America’s Vanishing Wild Horses is available at www.WildHoofbeats.com. The award-winning book was released winter of 2008 and is currently in its second printing. Carol just released her second book, Horse Photography: The Dynamic Guide for Horse Lovers and it is available as well as her blog with weekly horse photography photo tips at www.HorsePhotographyWorkshops.com  Her new website, www.WildHoofbeats.com is dedicated to providing information and education in order to save America's wild horses.  Carol uaes the money generated by the sales of her artwork to fund her efforts to help keep America's horses wild and free.

 

 

  

The Stallion and the Tree

 

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Click HERE to visit Carol's Etsy Shop, Wild Hoof Beats, and see more of her incredible photographs!

   

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you for stopping by for my Etsy Finds Friday post!!  Please stay tuned for next Friday's Find... It could be YOU! :)   Happy Friday!!   

~Trina

 

Wordless Wednesday

...Well almost wordless... Just wanted to share this great shot my daughter, Melissa, took of this adorable Tamarin!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - Our Little Emmi

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday

Well... Maybe just one word... 

SPRING?

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thanks so much for visiting today!  Wishing you a great day, hope it's warm and cozy and spring-like!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - Nature's Beauty!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed my photographs of a little bit of winter and a little bit of spring!  Wishing you a great day! 

~Trina

An Important Prop for my Photographs...

First, before getting to the important prop for my photographs, I would like to share some great information with you.  My friend, and incredible polymer clay artist, Anita ~ of Melody O'Beau Designs ~ posted a two part series on her blog, highlighting her favorite polymer clay studio tools, gadgets and glues.  Both of the articles are filled with useful information and great tips for working with polymer clay.  I thank Anita for so generously sharing all this information with us!  Below are the links to each of her articles:

Click HERE for Part One

and 

Click HERE for Part Two

I have both of these bookmarked and I know I will refer to them often.

Thank you Anita!

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And now I'd like to share with you the story of a very important prop for photographing my Wedding Cake Toppers...

I'd been talking about how I wanted to create a prop for photographing my wedding cake toppers for quite a while, months probably... Never taking the time to actually sit down and DO IT.  While my Mom was here visiting, she made sure that I took the time to make that happen!  I wanted to somehow create the top tier of a wedding cake out of clay.  After much brainstorming and suggestions from my Mom, we decided to go to Michael's ~ We love Michaels!!  Anyway, we looked around, got sidetracked many times, and then I thought, why not look in the cake decorating isle... So my Mom went right to the 6" cake pan and turned it upside-down and we both said at the same time, "That will work!"  I was certain that she wasn't going to go home until this project was finished!  My Mom ALWAYS knows how to keep on task and get things done.  I really do hope that I inherited some of that tenacity!!!    As she prepared the outside of the cake pan, covered it with white clay then stamped in a floral design, I created clay roses and rope to decorate the 'cake' ~ It was such fun working in my studio with my Mom!  I really appreciate her gently nudging me to make the faux cake tier.  It works perfectly for picture taking...

Yum... Now, doesn't that cake look good enough to eat?

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you for visiting today!  Wishing you a beautiful day! 

~Trina

A Nest Left Behind...

Getting ready for fall, cleaning up the yard, George found an abandoned nest... Little eggs never hatched.  I thought I would take a picture, I thought the feathers would make a cool photograph.  The eggs, however, they are a picture of nature that was kind of sad to see.  Then, as I walked back toward the house, there was a butterfly, so still, even though I was very close, not moving at all... Then she began to flutter her wings and opened them up beautifully.  It was great to get these shots of the butterfly!  Nature can be sad, and at the same time it is awesome!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you for stopping by today!  Wishing you a great day! ~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - Seasons in Photographs

Hello everyone, and happy Mid-Week!  I hope you are all having a good one!  Today I am sharing some photographs that I've taken over the last year.  The seasons in photographs... Enjoy! :)

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you for stopping by!!  Wishing you a great 'rest of the week'!! 

~Trina

Photo Editing...

As you may already know, photography is a favorite hobby of mine, and since moving to Michigan, I've been enjoying taking photographs of all the beautiful scenery here.  I've also been playing around with some of my photographs using the fun options in PicMonkey (a free photo editing site that my Mom told me about) and Picasa 3...  

If you haven't tried either of these, you can click on PicMonkey and Picasa 3, above, to check out the sites... And have fun editing and organizing some of your photos.  It's very easy to navigate around within PicMonkey, I love user friendly sites! Once in PicMonkey, click on "Edit a Photo" and download the picture you would like to edit.  There are all kinds of things you can do... Crop it, re-size it, touch it up, and there are a lot of cool 'Effects' and 'Overlays' ~ There are fun fonts too, so you can add wording...  Once you have your picture the way you like it, just SAVE it and you're set to go.  

To learn my way around in PicMonkey, I downloaded a picture and tried all of the options on the photograph, just to get familiar with the site.  Below I have shared some of the photographs that I have edited.  The first picture is of a log and flowers that I took in our yard and then edited in PicMonkey... I darkened the edges, saturated the colors a bit, and added a frame around it.  Next is a photograph that I took of a butterfly and below it are two copies using different effects.  The first effect is called "Daguerreotype" ~ I like the look of it.  For the next one I used "Holga" effect, then I added frost edges, darkened the edges and added a frame.  Scroll down, below the log and butterfly photographs and there is a picture of Emmi, along with the same picture after using "Pencil Sketch" in Picasa 3... I thought it turned out kind of cool.  :)   Which ones do you like?

 My Original Log and Flower Photograph

After adding some effects... made for a more dramatic look.

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My Original Butterfly Photograph

Daguerreotype Effect... Cool look!

Holga Effect with frosted and darkened edges...

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Click on the 'Pencil Sketch' of Emmi, below, to enlarge the image... 

It really does look like a drawing.

 Emmi

 Pencil Sketch Effect

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ I have Picasa 3 downloaded and use it to organize my photographs.  There are some options for cropping and touching up photographs, and I used PicNic (within Picasa) when it was there as an option.  I searched for other photo editing sites when I learned that PicNic was closing down.  I found a couple that were okay, but I was so glad when my mom told me about PicMonkey.  Have fun!  ~Trina