Happiness

"Mans many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has, the more they weight him down. " Satya Sai Baba

People often think that more possessions, such as a new iPad, a bigger house or a fancier car would make them happier. The way to happiness, however, is not in the possessions we have, but in how we lead our lives and how we make a difference in the lives of those we meet.

Yellowstone

The scenery in Yellowstone is beautiful without any help from photo editting software, but a little help from a NIK filter really popped the clouds.

When you're shooting a wide angle shot, it helps to put a rock or something in the foreground to help show the perspective.

Honolulu Harbor with a Point & Shoot

My husband and I were walking back from the beach on our first evening in Oahu when I saw these reflections in the Honolulu Harbor. It was getting dark, all I had with me was our Canon G11 & I had to crank up the ISO a lot, but decided to take the picture anyway. Sometimes we hesitate to take pictures if we don't have our expensive DSLRs with us. Even if the image you get isn't as good, or as noise-free as you'd like, they can still make good memories. And if you don't have a DSLR, don't think you can't get good pictures, because you can. Professional photographer Rick Sammon even wrote a book about taking pictures with a point and shoot camera. So, get out there and shoot. You just may get some pictures that you'll treasure forever. :-)

Great Blue Heron - High Contrast Version

A friend and I went out this morning to see if we could find a Great Blue Heron that had been hanging around at a local park. At first I didn't see him, but when I looked again, there he was. We watched and photographed him for a few minutes and than there were two herons, and then 3 and then four. They flew in and out, so we couldn't photograph all four at the same time, but it was a pleasure to see four of these magnificent birds at one location. Due to my recent injury, I could only use my Canon sx200 point and shoot camera, but I kind of liked this picture. I cropped the original somewhat and used a couple of PhotoShop tricks to get this effect. I hope you enjoy it.

Arkansas Sunrise

My friends and I had to dress quickly to get pics like this of the sun rising over the Arkansas hills. It was worth the effort, though. Hope you enjoy it.

Lunch

When my friends and I were in Arkansas last month we stopped in a nice little local restaurant to eat lunch. Of course, being photographers, we had to document the occasion, so we took pictures of each others' food, much to the dismay of our waitress. There wasn't a lot of space and, at one point, we almost caused a collision. The lighting was not perfect, but sometimes, when you're taking pictures, you just have to take what you can get. Anyway, it was a fun lunch and I didn't think the picture came out too bad.

The Railing

As most of you probably know, my right wrist and left collar bone are both broken due to a bad fall while I was on a photo outing, so I haven't been able to use the computer much. I was able to edit a few pictures today, though, and thought I'd share this one. It's a different subect for me, but I enjoyed working with it.

What do you think of when you see this picture? It makes me wonder about the people who stayed in the room next to the railing, what they were like, what their dreams were and what they saw when they looked out the window. I can't do much else right now, so I'd enjoy reading your comments. Please share them with me and with the other readers.

Thanks.