every day no. 45

left - shannonblue

right - Cassia Beck

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hello, summer

To celebrate the start of summer, I'm having a sale.

Buy any print in my shop and receive any print of equal/lesser value absolutely free.  Now through Sunday, June 27.

I hope you are enjoying your summer so far!

every day no. 44

left - Cassia Beck

right - shannonblue

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balloons

I have so many images from the hot air balloon festival that I attended recently that I want to share.  It was such a glorious day.  We got there just after sunrise when many of the teams were already laying out their balloons and starting to fill them.

The first time I went, I imagined a roped off area where they would prepare while we watched from a distance.  Nope!  Everyone is right in the middle of everything.  It offered some great views as the balloons took off to the west toward the Rockies.

I'm offering several images as a series in my Etsy shop.  I think they look great grouped together.

   

I plan on adding more to Etsy this week.  Hot air balloon overload.  You can also see more on my flickr stream.

every day no. 43

left - Cassia Beck

right - shannonblue

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take only pictures...

Take only pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto

With the exception of 2 1/2 years in Rhode Island, I spent my childhood living all along the Gulf coast.  You see, my dad worked on the oil rigs.  I was born in southwest Louisiana (practically Texas).  We moved to Rhode Island, Florida, back to Rhode Island, back to southwest Louisiana, then Texas.  When I was 13 we moved to a tiny town in southeast Louisiana named Cut Off.  Bayou Lafourche runs through the small string of towns that make up Lafourche parish.

I remember my first night when we moved there.  I couldn't sleep.  I could hear the tug boats blowing their fog horns signalling to the pontoon bridge operator to open the bridge over the bayou so the boat could pass.  It was bizarre.  This was not like any place I had lived before.  Everyone had crazy Cajun accents and names I couldn't pronounce.  They ate weird food and everyone was related to everyone else.  I was a complete outsider.  

After living there for 5 years (longest ever in one place for me at the time!) I decided it was the most backwards place I'd ever lived, but it I was proud to call it home.  These were the most kind and welcoming people I'd ever met.  To this day when people ask me where I'm from, I tell them I'm from a little bayou town south of New Orleans...

So you probably see where I'm going with this.  My heart aches for the people down there.  Their livelihoods depend on the Gulf.  This oil spill is devastating.  It's horrible to see what's happening with the wildlife, but the ramifications reach much farther.  

I wasn't sure what I could do to help, little old me with my camera out here in Colorado.  But some wonderful people have put together a shop on Etsy where all proceeds will be donated to charities to help in the recovery.  Independent Etsy sellers from all over, including myself, have donated a variety of  items for the collective shop.  If you would like to donate to a great cause and get a little something for yourself in the process, please be sure to check out HelpTheGulfCoast on Etsy.  My print can be found here, but there are a lot of great items to choose from with several more being posted as fast as they can post them.

every day no. 42

left - Cassia Beck

right - shannonblue

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have a great weekend!

We've got some family fun planned for this weekend.  Plus I want to get caught up on some photo processing - good things to come!  What do you have planned?

what's new

I'm now offering photo greeting cards, available with your choice of photo.

The card will also fit a 5x7 frame, for a pre-matted mini-print.  See my shop listing for more details.

recent and random

I've been really backed up on processing photos.  I have this OCD need to do them in the order they were taken.  I made a bit of progress over the last week.  Here are some of my most recent random images:

every day no. 41

left - shannonblue

right - Cassia Beck

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