Earth Day

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. This was 7 years before I was born. I was just a twinkle in my mothers eye but I'm sure I was there in spirit. I'm just glad someone had the sense to say "Hey you guys are making a mess of things."

About the photo: I am always looking for heart shapes. I suppose you could say I'm looking for love in all the wrong places, ha-ha. On this morning I got up with the sun. When I saw the dew on the grass outside I grabbed my camera and headed to the back yard to try and shoot my roses. On my way to the flower beds I saw this single leaf laying on the ground.
It was just one of those moments where nature surprises you by giving you something better than you could have asked for. I felt this image was appropriate for Earth Day, hope you enjoy.

Processing: Lowered the luminance levels on the green, shifted the hue (orange to red) on the leaf & added a round vignette. 

The flowers on Main street

Today while having lunch downtown Ann Arbor I met an artist by the name of John A. Copley who was painting flowers on windows at the Melting Pot. I complimented his work, he complimented me on my sparkle nail polish, then proceeded to show me the sparkles he carries in his rolling work cart he brings for supplies on location.
 If I could, I would cover the whole world in sparkles. A sparkle suggests a hint of magic, a microscopic piece of a rainbow. Weather of not we know it, we are all in love with sparkles. The stars sparkle at night. Freshly fallen snow sparkles in the morning sun. We gather every 4th of july to watch enormous sparkles fill the sky. There is an entire industry built on cutting and polishing gem stones so that we may enjoy a small (expensive) sparkle. So, here's to John and all the other sparkle lovers out there in the world, keep shining we could all use a little more magic and sparkles.

The photograph: I chose a close-up of John's hand painting details on the petals of the flowers. I have always felt there is a correlation between the dedication level of an artist and the condition of their hands. Below is a link for John's site if you are interested in visiting more of his work.
http://www.johnacopley.com/home.htm