March 1, 2015 Photo of the Week: Old MASTERS - PHOTOGRAPHERS and DIGITAL ARTS

I am so thrilled and honored! This image below and three other images of mine are in Featured Artist of the Week on Fine Art America in the group called "Old MASTERS - PHOTOGRAPHERS and DIGITAL ARTS". This group is for artists/photographers over the age of sixty. The page administrator, Lenore Senior, wrote this in comments: "CONGRATULATIONS, Tam!~You are the Featured Artist of the Week in the group, Old MASTERS--Photographers and Digital Arts! Your work is consistently excellent and appealing!! v/f and FB promotion!"

I traveled with four other photographer friends to visit this amazing wildlife area for water birds. It was a first time visit for all of us. We were in awe of the Sandhill Cranes and their graceful beauty as they flew by in pairs and groups. This is a color photo. But, due to the complete overcast of that day, this appears as monochrome, almost black and white. I love the mood it gives to the image. I had several images similar to this to choose from. But, this one, with the spacing of each bird and the multiple water reflections from their wings just spoke to me.

Some of the comments on my Facebook post about this image were very encouraging! It is so nice to know that some of my images affect others in a positive way, just as they do for me.

I have had three weeks to work with this new Tamron 150-600 mm lens before arriving at Whitewater Draw. I have been impressed with the capabilities of this lens, its clarity and responsiveness. The features that appealed to me were many. I researched blogs and YouTube and heard many good reports of its capabilities and then made the decision to buy the lens for my birding adventures.

The Mosaic

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~ Stanley Horowitz

Happiness

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Shapes in the Snow

One of my favorite singers, Jodee James, is, also, a creative and imaginative writer.  She writes on her personal Facebook page about her experiences with nature around her home in the woods with the depth and soul of a Story Teller.  From time to time, I will share some of her posts with you along with one of my photos in this blog.

“Too windy to walk in the woods with the trees so brittle, but I got to walk along the stream where the ice hung like glass earrings and bells, or like mismatched puzzle pieces half floating on the water. The woods are so noisy when it's cold and the sky this blue - the branches creaking and slowly moving, wrapping around the fringe of evergreen - I think I can hear the whole forest sounding up over the hill. The air seems that thin. It's definitely a two hat day.”

Jodee James (January 22, 2014)

Jodee James Music website HERE

Snow in the Desert

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls,

 the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

West Fork Winter

"When snow falls, nature listens"   ~  Antoinette van Kleeff

First Fall of Snow

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"   - J. B. Priestley