Blue Fig (Freeform shot taken in our garden)

I think that if we don’t adopt the concept of transformation into our daily lives, we will not got out the front door.

It is not very different for photography.

I went from being scared of our SLR camera( my husband took all the pictures several years back),then using it for a now defunct personal blog and finally, becoming a full-fledged hobby photographer.  With all my errors and ongoing apprenticeship, I will admit.

I know that I am no longer content with my old style of “point and shoot” that I had before the SLR.

Last week while googling “Photography”, I stumbled upon photography contests.
Humm…

I know very well that this is not the road from rags to riches, but it could be an excellent experience. You could win modest monetary prizes or photographic equipment. It is a chance to not only test the level of your best pictures but also to expose them.

Here is a non-exhaustive list to consider. Keep in mind that you need to pay to enter some contests, while others are free of charge.

http://www.photographycompetitions.net/

http://www.viewbug.com/

http://www.pictures2win.com/competitions/

No, I am not paid to plug these websites but do yourself a favor and look at some of the gorgeous work featured. I have no immediate plans of doing a contest now but, I am not excluding it in the future!

For all  readers of this blog:

If anyone has not yet heard about my photo giveaway, please click on this link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/the-2020-photrize-giveaway/ You can have a chance to win one of the eight featured photos! Just leave a comment on any post until 20 February,2012.

Good luck!

In Photography, you have a 20/20 vision of what you photograph when everything around you is combined to make that magical shot.

This is the vision that I will be celebrating with a contest! This is my first ever photo contest and I named it the 20/20 photo giveaway !

This contest is not only a chance to celebrate photography, but also to reward you, my friends and readers. I will be rewarding your participation and also allowing for new friends to participate.

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Two (2) lucky winners will win a paper reproduction of one of the eight following photographs. I combed through my blog archives to find some of the highlights of this blog since 2009 .

You will find the pictures displayed after the rules .

Rules:

1-Participation

All you need to do is to comment( one(1) comment per blog address/ e-mail address) on this or any post running from 20 January,2012 to 20 February, 2012. One entry per blog/ or  e-mail address, if you do not own a blog).

Let me know that you are human by expressing your thoughts and feelings! No dumb spammer e- mails accepted as entries.

I will give each commenter a number which will be used for the drawing. I will just give numbers in chronological order of the comments.

2- Drawing

The prize winners will be drawn using a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR, and the proof of each drawing will be shown. I will draw the lucky winners on 21 February, 2012!

The winners will be rapidly posted on the blog the 22 February,2012.

3- Prizes

Each winner will receive at their postal address, a quality( from a major name in photo publishing) 8x 10 inch paper reproduction of their favorite picture. No full names or postal addresses of the winners will be published on this blog.

And please, do pass on the news to your friends and relations, too. The more participants play, the merrier it to do a drawing.

Thanks for your continuing interest in my blog and good luck to all!!

These are the eight photos that are up for grabs. They are in no particular order and include their links to the post where each was first presented. The winners will receive their photographs without a watermark.

1  -Post dated  January 11, 2012- San Diego,CA, USA. Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/goodbye-dearest-san-diego/

Sun star:

2 – Post dated December 16, 2011- San Diego,CA, USA. Link:  http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/a-close-encounter/

Bee happy:

3 – Post dated April 12, 2011- Ecouen, France (the Renaissance museum of Ecouen). Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/window-dressing/

Gold and diamonds:

4 -Post dated  November 27, 2009- Amiens, France.  Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/who-has-the-key/

Green with envy:

5 – Post dated  January 19, 2010- Honolulu, HI, USA. Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/hele-on-to-ala-moana-park/

Blue Hawaii:

6 -  Post dated November 4, 2009- Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/my-inaugural-flightd/

Flying over the Pacific ocean from Hawaii to San Diego.

Pacifica:

7 – Post dated – 2 October, 2010- Amiens, France. Link: Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/higher-c/
A higher calling:

8- Post dated -  July 27 ,2010- Philadelphia,PA,USA.  Link: http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2010/07/

All roads lead to Philly:

Good luck!!

The museum had a brisk visit day the afternoon of our visit and I had a hard time isolating the works. Many people were around the statues and that always makes it hard to photograph. Well, we try…

Here are a couple that impressed me:

The young girl in a straw hat.

The Cathedral:

The Kiss. Very famous and very adulated!

(Whew; you can catch your breath now ).

A very life-like sculpture called: Jean d’Aire nu or nude of Jean d’Aire. I have no idea who he is.

Close up of the head of the previous statue.

And probably the most famous one, the Thinker:

An aerial shot to cut out the groups below his pedestal. Yes, you have to get your picture next to the Thinker…

Early evening falls on the golden dome of les Invalides

Hoping that you enjoyed! If you are curious you can try the museum’s website in English: http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en

See you on Friday for something special that is under wraps until then….

Sometimes I like to go and tour a museum. Even if I am not an artsy blogger, I do like to appreciate art. The Rodin museum was the winning ticket on a chilly and drizzly December day. I took in the ambiance as I went through the gardens:

A cute couple hugging each other while they admire a sculpture in the garden.

What stirred up that couple so much? The huge sculpture below:

Presenting “la Porte de l’Enfer/ The gates of Hell”. It is depicting a scene from the Inferno, from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

A person under an umbrella admiring “Les Bourgeois de Calais/ The Burghers of Calais”.

Just a footnote of this statue; there are 12 other cast iron versions of the Burghers in various countries around the world ( such as South Korea, USA or Denmark).

Other figures strike their pose with the gilded dome of Les Invalides in the background.

I will present you a few masterpieces from inside the museum this week.  See you soon!

This trip to San Diego was wonderful and I was at a loss to know how to end the theme. Under the innocent airs of Margueritas, outings and our continuous merriment, it was all about good vibes. I do belong to my  clan, no doubt about it. Life gave me wonderful cousins and I love them.

I wanted to add a little bit of grace and old world romance for the last post. Something that speaks of adventure and discovery in a way that modern air travel knows little of. How boring to have sent you away from SD with rows of planes when I can sail away with this:

Introducing the Star of India. This beautiful vessel is moored right off of downtown San Diego.

Just gorgeous…

A brief history.

My favorite; the sun peeking from behind the prow. You can see that we were not at sunset yet. But, I loved the effect!

Ropes and sails and of course, and one last salute to my nation through the flag. I do love Old Glory. Fly it proudly.

Thanks to all who enjoyed this theme. You can imagine that going through these pictures was important for me also. I enjoyed every bit.

I will be back very soon with something  from another latitude

The news of late in France has seen the famous Joan of Arc in the titles. The 600th birthday anniversary of Joan’s birth was this week (or an aprroximation of it; she is said as being born towards 1412). I had done posts in 2010 about Joan of Arc and our visit to Chinon. Amazingly, “Joan of Arc in Chinon” was one of the most viewed posts on this blog(at the moment that I type,there have been 947 views of this post).
If you have never read my posts about Joan of Arc, click on:
http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/joan-of-arc-in-chinon/
http://photodreamin.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/in-the-footsteps-of-joan-of-arc/

Happy weekend!!

The foundation of these quaint white churches were attempts to not only colonize what was then known as “alta California” or upper California, but also to Christianize the  native Indian population. A Franciscan friar named Junipero Serra founded San Diego de Alcala on the 16 July, 1769.The church as it is seen today would be the 5th to have been built on the same spot.

Then high era of the California missions ran from 1769 to 1833. After this time, the Mexican government shut down the missions.

The mission  San Diego de Alcala is used as a church and was in 1976 made a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI. It includes a visitor center museum.

Cousin Bill & I just took a scenic view of the grounds. Enjoy the quiet beauty of this special place:

Commemorating the first California martyr, Father Jayme, who died in 1775 after being attacked by the indigenous tribe members.

A brief history on a California registered historical landmark marker.

My favorite picture of this shooting. The orange aloe flowers just pops next to the intense blue of the sky.

Sincere Thanks again to Bill for showing me this special place.

The upper part of a hummingbird mobile. My hubby & I so fondly remember seeing the hummingbirds come and feed in the garden. How sweet they were   :) .

Introducing the girls, my cousin’s pet chickens (and official suppliers of fresh egg products).

The neighbor’s oranges peeking through the fence. Oranges in early December!

Yes, home is where your heart is.

This is a picture that is in Kathy’s home.

Just for the info, this is an old type of photograph called a tintype photo. The image is actually set on a piece of metal.

“The song is ended, but the melody lingers on…” Irving Berlin 

xoxo to you, Nan Nan.

Here is three different views from on top of the peak:

Looking across to another mountain peak and valley(I still have to research the other mountain’s name).

Looking down on urban sprawl and towards the Pacific ocean.

More fancy homes.

Mount Helix is special to my cousins because their childhood home was in this neighborhood.

Just for the anecdote, the name Helix refers not to a person but to a… snail! In 1872, a Helix aspersa was found living in the area. This gave the idea to  Rufus King Porter (the founder of nearby Spring valley), to name this mountain, Mount Helix.