MY YEAR IN PHOTOS 2012 :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying life :)

For the past couple of years now I have been keeping score of how many photos I take, each year, with my Nikon camera and also sharing with you some of the photos that I really hadn't got around to sharing as the year flashed by so quickly :)

For the record I only took close to 10,000 photos in 2012 compared to the previous years, I feel a bit of a slacker, LOL!!!! :)

You can see the previous posts and photos here; 2011 and 2010 :)

Note to Self; you do tend to write a lot about being sick at the beginning of every year, stop partying so  much over the Holidays, LOL :)

So, here is my 2012 in Photos :)
(it was really hard to keep it to just 2 photos for each month but you didn't want to be here for a whole month looking at them, LOL!!! :)

                               I Hope you enjoy them :)

                                       JANUARY

                                             click on photos to see larger images :)

This Rose was from a lovely bouquet and as it started to fall apart, I realised it was pretty symbolic of how each of my New Years' do begin.

A winter walk at the local park. A glimpse of a blue sky, clouds and trees reflecting in the Tualatin River :)

FEBRUARY

A lovely Hellebore at the Rose Garden, P.Town, Oregon :)

This would not be Portland, Oregon without a "BIKE" sign or shop :)

MARCH

Sunset shimmering on the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California :)

Came home to "SNOW" and one of the worst rainy March's on record :(

APRIL

I love to decorate for Easter; Alabaster Eggs with a soft blue Fenton Glass Basket, I love the reflection in the window :)

Blossoms in my Garden, could not resist doing this in Black and White :)

MAY

I think by now you all know I have a "thing" for Poppies, here are a couple from my Garden :)

The "Rose" arbour in our back Garden has been taken over by the beautiful Wisteria (well, I let it on purpose, much to the horror of my Hubby)

JUNE

A day trip to the coast with my Son :)

On the way I saw this decaying tree stump and love the textural qualities that were happening, then when I looked thru the lens and saw the vibrant greenery in the background it was the perfect combo of "Old and New" :)

JULY

Beach Grass shot thru the window of the Ocean front rental house we stayed in :)

Haystack Rock, Pacific City, Oregon as the sun sets, gorgeous :)

AUGUST

An "old" Fire Hydrant in N.W. Portland, Oregon, looks like it is growing out of the tree root, this was a fun shot :)

On one of the Hottest days of the year, I went to take photos at the Rose Test Garden in Portland Oregon; I wanted to see how the Roses were fairing in the heat.

SEPTEMBER

Scarecrows at the local "Allotments" or community gardens, so fun :)

The Beautiful "Multnomah Falls" Columbia Gorge, Oregon, 

OCTOBER

Couldn't resist taking this shot, what a colourful face and expression :)

One of the fun bars to hang out in "en" Portland :)

NOVEMBER 

Red Chairs and Tables stacked for the Night, P.Town, Oregon :)

A frozen "Dead" leaf at a local park, Lake Oswego, Oregon. I LOVE everything about this image, the lighting, the textural quality of the leaf, the shapes and the movement, even as its season ends it is beautiful :)

DECEMBER 

Beautiful Fire in great room, Skamania Lodge, Columbia Gorge, Washington.

Xmas Lights and Red Bows on the tree lined streets of Hood River, Columbia Gorge, Oregon :)

So this past year, I have been working again with multi layering photography, as well as challenging myself to continue my quest to produce beautiful imagery with SOOC (Straight out of camera) photos.

There are a few candidates in this post that I think I will add layers to, so when that happens, I will do another post with before and after images and you can tell me which you prefer. :)

So, I hope you enjoyed my 2012 Year in Photos :)

Have a lovely Wednesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Trying to Keep Sane :)

Hi All :)

Well, the past few weeks have been Exhausting, Confusing Frustrating and Stressful :(

Not to bore you with too many details but we have been going thru the crazy process of getting ready to move, pricing a household move (totally scary, the price not the movers, so much, LOL :) They told us it would take 3 days to pack our household belongings and 2 days to load the truck (Do ya think we should get rid of some stuff??? He! He!) 

Then Costing everything that needed to be done to our house before it was market ready (Even more scary! :) And on and on, you know all the little things that suddenly add up to a huge pile of stuff to be done when you are planning to move. We thought it would be worth the stress and a calm transition in the end.

Then it all feel apart in a hurry and now we are sitting shell shocked and baffled, trying to come to terms with what happened. :(

On top of that;

I have also had 3, yep, THREE C.T.Scans in as many weeks, multiple doctors visits and then a Spinal tap tomorrow, a Mammogram and an E.E.G. next week. I am totally exhausted and I guess this is what happens when you put off doing stuff or aren't up to doing stuff or you change Neurologists and they have a different approach on trying to work out what is causing all the symptoms I am experiencing, Oh The Joy :(

So, now you know why I haven't been around much, blogging, commenting or FB - ing (does that mean something else, He! He!)

Anyway, I have so many photos from my trip to Eastern Oregon I want to share with you but working on them right now is going to be challenging but I did want to share this one with you :)

click on photos to see larger images :)

Sunset over Mt. Hood

As my Hubby and I were driving on the East side of our beautiful state of Oregon, across high dessert, we saw this beautiful site and of course I just had to get out of the car and take some photos :)

I had never seen the Mountain from the East Side before :)

Because of all the smoke from the forest fires in Oregon and Washington State, at the time, it made for a beautiful sunset :)

I didn't want to photo - shop out the telephone wires, as for me it added to the surreal environment we found ourselves in. It was amazing, warm high desert for miles and miles, not a tree in sight, not a building for miles and a great paved roadway where few cars passed us and it was so, so, so quiet, I truly believe we would have heard a pin drop on the roadway :)

For this City Girl it was absolutely magical :)

This is our wonderful Mt. Hood, that we can see from Portland on most days :)

This is a photo I took of Mt. Hood a few years ago, on Thanksgiving Weekend, from the West Side :)

I hope you are all doing well and life is treating you kindly :)

Have a lovely Tuesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.