June 6, 2008 ~ Picture Perfect ~ Curves

JUNE 6, 2008  ~ PICTURE PERFECT THEME ~ CURVES     This is my first entry into the Picture Perfect Theme of the Week Site. My name is Lockerridge or Terri, whichever you prefer. I live in the state of Arkansas, and the photo I have presented to you today  was taken with a Kodak Easy Share Z712 IS with a 12x zoom, at sunset. This is a new camera to me with so many bells and whistles and settings, that I was amazed when I downloaded the shots to my computer .. I actually had pictures to see! I hope to improve with experience, and perhaps Kodak will send my Pdf tutorial soon.  Directions do have a tendancy to help one in using a product don't they?    So it was simpler to use the Smart Choice setting on the camera and let it choose its own best preference for the type of shutter speed and flash to use, for now.   ~ I was on a  fishing trip, last Saturday, to the section of the Arkansas River called Vine Prarie. What you are seeing are several curves, that the channel of the river takes to wind around the fields of crops, that are growing next to it. ~  We have been above Flood stage here for months it seems and the water has finally receeded so that the farmers  can get into their fields now. So everything is teaming with life and when I considered the theme and what picture I might have that was simply curving lines and cirlces.. loops.. I thought of the rivers gentle winding into the sunset.. even though you lose sight of it.. you know it continues on to the ocean.. The birds all were flying loops and fishing for the shad that were in big schools just beneath the surface of the water.. the egrets are white and are so graceful in flight.. the sun shines off their feathers and they are simply a study in God's creation at its purest and most beautiful.  ~ The clouds and the sun met at a graceful arch and sent out the most beautiful colors into the sky and in turn the water reflected them back as an echo that made me just stare and marvel.  ~  I used the Kodak capture and edit software to get the pictures onto my computer and then took them into my Microsoft Standard Digital Photo Editor version 2006. I played with it, using several different things like color saturation.. contrast, levels, focus, and then shapen value no. 1. This was my end product..  ~ To me this represents all things that meander gently and gracefully through our lives..coloring our days with memories and beauty. But that  which was beautiful and serene in our lives,  can also become out of control and swiftly take us into a situation we did not ever want to be in. And then it reminds us that it will pass away.. and the gentle flow will return.. and the colors will still be beautiful...     lockerridge