Famous Quotes ~

"Life is but a walking Shadow ....and is heard no more; It is a tall Tale, Told by an Idiot, full of Sound and Fury"

Shakespeare ~Macbeth

Dining With The Dead, Halloween 2010, Laurel Hill Cemetary

Somehow forgot to post these two portraits, could not resist this post. Next time you think about having chicken for dinner just remember you never know who is cooking your bird ........!

Martha's Vineyard

Abstraction

Winds of War

Winds of War, originally uploaded by prudencebrown121.

Oh how this month is flying. It seems now that I have a job I have no time to post or even take photos.

This is a collage I put together ~ an experiment of five photos; two that were taken and intentionally blurred and three focused photos. The photos range in extremes of light from very dark to pure white light and as you can see the subject matter lends itself toward the dark side.

I like to view the basic and whether it be a tree, a flower or a street, I like to present it so the viewer can see a story in the photo.

Hello November

I open November's posts with a sampling of Fall's crown jeweled colors. No matter how many year pass I am always amazed at the metamorphasis nature succumbs to with the changing of the season. It seems colors change daily and the changes come almost in rapid succession. The two posts or photos below are a sampling of the changes. Both photos were taken and are original from the camera with no digital enhancements. It is just amazing the color differences from one photo to the next. The photo entitled the Legend of Zorro was taken with a Lensbaby lens; the photo entitled The Crown Jewels was taken with a Lensbaby macro lesn.

...and the queen, believing that she had eaten Snow White's heart could hear the trees whispering to each other...

...and the queen, believing that she had eaten Snow White's heart could hear the trees whispering to each other..., originally uploaded by prudencebrown121.

stepping before her mirror she asked mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all.

Often times when I photograph trees and flowers I find myself trying to capture the true essence of their beauty as I see it. Many times I am disappointed at my outcome if I only have a still image with no sense of an inner-life. I often photograph with macro lenses, double and triple exposure and sometimes collage the images. I think in my mind's eye it brings more life to my subject matter. Somehow I feel if I can give a sense of movement to a still image I will have blended and molded myelf to that image thereby giving a truer representation of the image. It is almost as if I am trying to have a relationship with my subject matter. Would love to know what you think?!

Full of Soup's Split Pea with Pistachio Soup

Fall has long been my favorite season and never more so than when everyone would venture home from the lazy hazy days of summer to Full of Soup's soup kitchen at The Bellevue Hotel.

The chef Jeff Davis, never without creativity and invention had everyone talking with his creation of Split Pea with Pistachio soup. Forever we had folks requesting a recipe for the soup ~ well here goes!

Split Pea with Pistachio soup

what you need ~

8 quart stock pot
1 bag Split Peas
3 14oz cans vegetable stock
3 14oz cans water
1 medium size onion chopped
3 medium size fresh garlic cloves
juice of one half fresh lemon
one half jar chunky peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger
2 generous tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
roughly 1/4 lb finely ground pistachios (possibly less depending on preference)
dash of hot sauce to taste

what you will do ~

saute garlic and onion in olive oil until golden brown.
add washed split peas and three cans of vegetable stock and three cans of water; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and let cook.
add juice of 1/2 lemon, thyme, ginger, salt, pepper, brown sugar. add peanut butter and stir until peanut butter is dissolved. continue to cook and when peas are almost soft add dash of hot sauce and finely chopped pistachios. continue cooking until peas are completely soft.

puree to a smooth consistency or leave as is.
garnish with finely chopped tomato

Bonn Appetite! :O)

Mums, Split Pea Soup, Fall has arrived!

 

Floral Fantasy

Just wanted to post a few words about Floral Fantasy. It often seems when I set my schedule for a photo shoot the most unusual events occur and I never arrive home with what I expected on my memory card. On one of the few remaining hot days of the summer last week and with not much time, I set off to photograph the neighbors blood red foxgloves. Every morning I admire these foxgloves as my eager beagle runs me through the neighborhood on my early morning daily walk. So last week I grabbed the Nikon and set off to do a few macro shots. What I did not expect to find upon my arrival of the neighbors foxgloves however, was a half dozen or so yellow jackets engaged in what seemed to be a United Nations gathering of bee colonies. I stood there in amazement never expecting to have my afternoon plans altered by several of mother nature's most annoying creatures.

Now many photographers actually would see this as an excellent opportunity for a few amazing macro photos; you know those photos where the insect legs are so large and hairy they look like they could use a good shave, or the sort of macro photo where the eyes protrude as if they are giant marbles, the kind that are so large and scary they resemble a UFO. Well, let me just say I am not one of those photographers. Given that one must get within two to three inches of their subject to take a good macro shot, I just can not bring myself to cozy up with my Nikon reversal macro ring two to three inches from an afternoon gathering of yellow jackets.

This brings me to today's photo post Floral Fantasy. After doing the doge and weave dance with the yellow jackets who were not happy enough to only annoy me with their afternoon infestation of my photoing foxgloves, I moved to photo a few autumn colored inpatients; the problem was my new friends the bees moved to the liriope, which of course were next to the inpatients. This left me, dare I say rather impatient! So what was left ~ nothing but the marigolds, several generic leaves and an unidentifiable pink flower, at least it was an unidentifiable pink flower to me.

Not wanting to end my day in frustration and despair, I decided to snap a triple exposure of the three non bee visited perennials, the marigold, one of the many green leaves and the unidentifiable pink flower. The triple exposure of the three is the base of this photo. I then did an overlay with the help of Picasa and the computer and the top photo is a single exposure of the pink flower.

Maybe if someone is reading they might want to identify the unidentifiable pink flower and the bees ~ well they are resting peacefully this evening discussing where to follow me next.

Floral Fantasy

 

And It's Live from Saturday Night ......

This is coming to you live and it is Saturday Night; the main difference is most likely the viewing audience; hard to imagine, but I don't have millions tuning into the blog for their Saturday evening viewing pleasure, at least not yet. Now why might that be; I mean after all look at my line up: first and foremost I am coming to you live from Lansdowne the cosmopolitan capital of the world, or should I say Philadelphia, or maybe Upper Darby, the point is who outside of Philadelphia knows any thing about Lansdowne or even where it is, and lets face it, who really cares. Let's see, Lansdowne is famous for .... what you had to go to the bathroom, sorry you missed it. This evening our guests consist of one adopted, rescued beagle wildly licking her adult blanket, resting in bed, working out a few obsessive compulsive disorders as part of a special psychological package. Our second set of special guests consist of two 75 year old sweet Republican Fox News addicts sleeping soundly in the next room. Is it any wonder I am not on the official Google list of "Blogs of Note"

In my earnest dedication to focus and marriage to the blog, regardless of what night it is, it is time to produce the written word! So here I sit again with the challenge of how to present my life in an exciting, entertaining, thrilling, breathtaking, addictive way to my readers so they will want to read more and more and more and my guess is if I express the beauty of a fall day in Landowne, yawn, it probably isn't going to cut it.

Which brings me to the point of this evenings post which is how to see and appreciate the excitement and beauty of even the most basic and mundane of days. Unfortunately this post will not contain a pattented apocalyptic formula for appreciation and excitement; but when life seems a little dull and a little lifeless and the daily grind seems more than monotonous and it seems you keep trying to make a change and instead you keep chasing that tail of yours in the same direction, well you might want to look to that crazy beagle in your bed with the compulsive blanket licking disorder. Try to understand why the hound is behaving that way and see the humor in it. You may earnestly ask yourself and honestly try to understand why the older Republican folks in the other room posess such an unswerving loyalty to their beliefs. Think about it, isn't there really a lot of humor in the difference between people's political beliefs and can you not obtain so many laughs among the differences. I know it is such a cliche to talk about the beauty of the day, but sometimes just the warmth of the sun, or the smell of a crisp Fall breeze, or a bunch of kids tackling each other in a good football game, well sometimes that is as good as it gets, and you know what, sometimes that is pretty darn good; and if all else fails - take yourself to Miel Patisserie on 17th Street in Philadelphia, PA and grab the sliced asiago cheese, with fresh strawberries, apricots and Dijon mustard on a french baquette. I promise, after you eat one of those your life will seem anything but ordinary.

So in closing tonight I just want to say Bon Appetite and ......it's live from Saturday Night!! :o)