Vivian Maier's Found Photography

Vivian Maier

A photographer whos work was only found after her death. Amazing video on the website.

Snow Day in Fairmount

Bushkill and Dingman's Falls

Bushkill Falls in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania is about a 2 hour drive north of Philadelphia and has some beautiful hiking trails and waterways to explore, including more waterfalls than you can count. Bushkill trails include many, many stairs and the red and blue routes are fairly challenging, like a hour on the stairmaster. You'll feel the burn. These pictures are from both Bushkill Falls (a series of falls along a 4 mile trail) and Dingman's Falls (two falls) only about a 20 minute ride apart from each other on route 209. If you keep traveling north on 209 you'll pass many other falls and lakes as you drive along the Delaware river. Bushkill is a tourist magnet, so get there early to avoid the crowds. They also have animal talks where you can see and learn about rescued animals from the region including owls, skunks, frogs, turtles, possums and more.

New Banners for My Shops! Let Me Know What You Think!

I just created two new banners since my trial of Adobe Elements is getting ready to time out. What do you think? I changed the photo shop banner because it still had paintings in it from when my shops were united. I also found a seller on etsy who makes coffee cup sleeves out of your shop banner! How awesome is that! I ordered one of each of the shops. Here's the old one:

I'm not sure I love the overall color tone, I may keep working on it.

I really like the painting shop.

I'm also working on a ceramics shop banner for a shop COMING SOON!
Bookmark it now! I'll be getting pieces up there soon!

Sale This Saturday at East Falls Inn Yard Park, 10-5

I'm getting ready for a sale next weekend and I ordered prints and I'm really excited by the variety of images from all my recent trips to wildlife refuges, woods, parks, etc. I forgot completely about the sunset images I took in New Hope and I haven't thought about the Adirondacks pictures in a month, then I added Ocean City pictures from this year and the tree walk (see below) and waterfalls from Ithaca, NY and then some pictures from my trip to Awbury Arboretum on Friday!

Persimmon tree in Secret Garden

Fungus Layers

Magnolia Leaves

First tree to turn

Come join me! I'll be selling cards, magnets, matted and framed photos! Oh, and I'm selling recycled notebooks with tree photos on the covers!

R8 Train Today

New Neighborhood Photo Series

I've been walking around photographing with new eyes with my new camera and shooting in amazing light in my neighborhood. Click on the photos to see all of the new ones.

John Heinz Wildlife Refuge

You probably haven't heard of it or you haven't been there, but John Heinz is an awesome nature space in Philadelphia. A large round trail surrounds a lake and surrounding wetlands are home to great blue herons, egrets, barn swallows, owls, wild turkeys, shore birds, ducks, geese, plus the woodland trails and birds like black capped chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, goldfinches. They keep a list at the desk of birds sighted that day. They have a huge education center that won many awards for green and sustainable design and they have nature walks every weekend. You can bring your dog, use the new wheelchair accessible part of the trail across the boardwalk/bridge, or hike all the way around, which takes quite a while, especially if your stopping to look at things on the way, which I recommend.

Today I stopped by to drop off my photographs at the gift shop (stop by and support the refuge!) and take pictures. The sky was beautiful and the winter takes away the foliage and the big birds, but you can suddenly see the architecture of the trees, the fungus growing on decomposing trunks, the rocks on the beach, the seed heads of dormant plants and the icy water reflects the blue sky.

Why Being Broke Makes You More Creative: ART CARS!

I was scanning old pictures of art cars into my computer today and wondering why you don't ever see them, at least here in Philly now a days. When I was broke and living in New Orleans, I made alot of really creative stuff, and creating your own art car is all about making your own fun. I spied a volvo on the way home that would make a great base for an art car. I was trying to think what my art car could be and I thought I could do a skeeball ramp on the back of the car and have parts of arcade games and foosball guys attached to the top of the car. I'm not a huge arcade fan, but I love skeeball.

What would your art car be?

I'm putting these into a calendar for the Books, Paper Scissors sale next saturday at the free library, main branch.

Rittenhouse Square Park

If you haven't visited the park lately, now's the time to go. I stopped by on Sunday because I'd noticed the leaves were changing and it was gorgeous out and the colors were fantastic. It's hard to take a bad photograph in the park, because there are so many different sculptures and lanes and features to focus on and beautiful old trees. There are plenty of benches and lots of local coffee shops to pick up a cider, hot chocolate or coffee to keep you warm while you read a book or just people watch. Kids were climbing all over the sculptures and playing tag in the dry fountain and old ladies were being pushed in wheel chairs by their aides, admiring the mini doggies with studded collars. It's nice to take a break and sit down for a while instead of running around like a crazy person all the time!