Photo of the Month – November

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Hi Folks:

We’ve been working on our 2015 photo calendar templates here at Chez M&M and they’re almost ready, but we wanted to take a short break to include our favourite image(s) for November. It came down to two and we couldn’t decide, so we uploaded them both. As with October’s Photo of the Month post, we’re using the NextGen gallery plugin to display them. Both images were captured with our (Samsung Galaxy S4) cell phones. The one is an image Marcia captured in Beacon Hill Park on her morning ‘commute’. It was a perfect morning, and very little Lightroom work has been done with this image. The second image is of ‘someone’ we pass often. It’s an example of pareidolia (with thanks to Wikipedia – do remember to support them!) but the wisdom in that ancient eye is unmistakable.

[Show thumbnails]

Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Creative Commons Licenses

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Hi Folks:

I shared this on the message board for our local photography group and thought I’d post it here as well. I received this link (Yahoo Starts Selling Flickr Users’ Photos) from a family member the other day, and since it’s likely to kick up a lot of controversy I thought I’d add a few notes here. Sometimes companies try really hard to shoot themselves in the foot, and sometimes they seem to prefer to go for the head shot… Be that as they may.

First of all, Yahoo is not doing anything (technically) illegal, nor have they changed their Terms of Service or anything to get people to give up their copyright. Rather they’re using permissions some people have already given them (and everyone else), perhaps without realizing it. We come back to Copyright vs. Usage Rights. Continue Reading →

Free Hugs for Devonte Hart

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Hi Folks:

You’ve probably seen this image floating around the net, but if you haven’t it’s worth sharing again. We highly recommend you click on the photo to read the story behind it. We’ll wait.

Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum hugging 12-year-old Devonte Hart

Portland, OR Police Sgt. Bret Barnum hugging 12-year-old Devonte Hart – click on the image to read the story behind it from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Continue Reading →

Happy Birthday to Us!

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Hi Folks:

Well, today marks our blog’s 5th Birthday! We’ll be toddling off to Kindergarten soon, although we’ll have to maneuver the process of registration with the local school boards… maybe something online instead… Hmmm… 🙂

Anyway, we wanted to take a moment to say thank you to you, our readers for continuing to drop by our little corner of the ‘net, for your shares and your wonderful comments. You’re the reason we write this stuff, after all! In the past 5 years we’ve had nearly 78,000 sessions, with over 110,000 page views from people in 177 countries. That may be small by some standards, but it’s absolutely incredible to Us!

Above all, thanks for you! Creare diem!!

Hugs,
M&M

Happy Birthday to Us!

Happy Birthday to Us!

(we didn’t actually buy a cake for our blog’s birthday – young’uns and too much sugar, you know – so I had to borrow an image from one of Marcia’s)

Photo of the Month – October in Florida

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Hi Folks:

We have more than one image for our photo of the month for October, for two reasons. First and foremost, Marcia was able to join her dad and her siblings in Florida, an event that has been a long time in coming. Second, we’re experimenting with using the NextGEN gallery plugin as a way of showcasing images on our blog. This is our first attempt, so be gentle!

Continue Reading →

The Digital Divide

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Hi Folks:

It’s been a while since I wrote a long, rambling blog post, so it’s probably time for another one. If you don’t have time to read it all you may wish to skip directly to the P.S. at the bottom… 🙂

This post was inspired by two posts that I came across on the same day, and as thoughts are wont to do (at least for me), once planted they began to send out roots in various directions and attracted others, and so on, and so on… The first post I read is titled, “Restaurant Watches Old Footage Of Customers And Uncovers A Shocking Truth“. Essentially the restaurant was looking for ways to circumvent or overcome customer complaints of ‘slow service’. What they discovered (as hinted by the title) was a surprise to everyone. The second post (at least in the order I encountered them) is titled, “The Digital Divide“. I took the liberty of borrowing their title for this post; it fits well. This second post is about Waldorf schools, and a question that plagues not just them but educators all over – should we keep our children from technology? That question is the essence of this post. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – September

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Hi Folks:

It took a while to pick a photo of the month for September as both Marcia and I did some interesting work last month. I finally decided on the following image, which I call ‘Ascension’. It’s actually a bunch of sea oats I came across, but I used the mirror function on one of my cell phone apps to create the base image, then pushed it around a little bit in Lightroom. I trust you enjoy it too!

Now go out and make some pictures!

Hugs,
M&M

Ascension

Ascension

Hugging James Bay

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Hi Folks:

Okay, we’ll admit it. We’d heard the rumours, of course… spotted people converging in the area… we’d even overheard the conspiratorial whispers of those who claimed to have glimpsed a sighting. We’ve done the research, read the news reports and arranged our own observations with great anticipation, all for naught. Until yesterday. We can now confirm the truth, and we have incontrovertible proof! Victoria has (yet) another ‘Free Hugs’ person!

Hugging James Bay

Hugging James Bay

Who is this (unmasked) woman you ask? Well, you’ll have to wait and ask her yourself. We can tell you, by her own admission, that she comes out to James Bay Square at least once a month, so you’ll have to be patient if you don’t see her on your first foray. She shares great hugs, so your efforts will be well rewarded!

Hugs,
M&M

Photo of the Month – August

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Hi Folks:

Summer in this City of Gardens means flowers – with their myriad of colours, shapes, sizes and scents – so it’s fitting that our photo of the month for August should be a flower. This one was captured by Marcia with her cell phone, then pushed around a bit in Lightroom. The backlighting through the petals provides the perfect highlight to the blooms. The flowers will mostly be gone in another couple of months and we won’t see cherry blossoms, hellebores and winter rhododendrons until January or February, so it’s best to appreciate them while we can!

Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Dahlia

Dahlia