Special - LIMITED TIME - Veteran's Day Promotion



The Last Patrol © 2011 Carolyn Marshall

In honor of Veteran's Day, I am offering a special promotion of a 20x16 stretched canvas print of one of my most popular images for $80.

This image is of a group of Vietnam Veterans called The Last Patrol as they pay tribute to all veterans at a traveling Vietnam Veterans Wall. It will make a great gift to any veteran as all wars and conflicts since our country's beginning are written along the border. The scripture John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." is written at the bottom.

My heartfelt gratitude goes out to all veterans and their families for the sacrifices they have paid on my behalf. God bless you all!

Click Here For The 5-Day Special Promotion - Only 25 Available At This Price!

(Offer Ends October 29, 2011, at 5 p.m.)

Butterfly Art

As many of you know, I have a few stores on Zazzle where I sell artistic products from my photography including greeting cards, posters, stamps, mugs, and all kinds of other gift products. From time to time, I like to share other artists' work there that has really impressed me.

Jude Maceren is one of those artists and is my showcase for today. He is a published artist residing at New Jersey and has two studio locations; in New Jersey and Costa Rica both of which he expresses his creativity. Creating fine art work is his passion, and it's evident in his work.

Colorful Butterfly Painting - Multi by JUDERM
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He says that at this point of his career he has an opportunity to express himself freely through painting inspired by the beauty of nature. He likes to paint the joy and the love that creation radiates to men. Because of this, he believes that there is a never-ending exchange of love between these two which he wants to show in the form of a painting.

Red Cala Lily Flower Painting Art - Multi by JUDERM
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He has created a series of exotic flowers done traditionally in acrylic, oil and watercolor which he was inspired to paint capturing the beauty, freshness, joy and love that radiate from each flower at its peak of blooming. His series of paintings evolve from flowers, animals and people showing that "There is a relationship of love in all created things".

Black Cat Butterfly Painting - Poster by JUDERM
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Most of his items sold are prints and original art that he has created in watercolor, oil and acrylic mediums. Jude says, "I want to reach the people who love flowers and enjoy the beauty of nature through art." His work his been published in magazines, books, posters, and brochures of editorial, corporate and advertising publications. His client list includes: American Management Association, At-A-Glance, AT&T, Avon Books, Beckman, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Chicago Tribune, Fannie Mae, John Hancock, HR Magazine, Management Review Magazine, MCI, Modern Maturity Magazine, Moneygram, Mr. Coffee, Network Computing Magazine, NTC / Contemporary Publishing, Oracle, Prentice Hall, Purdue Agicultures Magazine, Quantum Learning Inc., The House of Seagram, The Purdue Alumnus Magazine, Web Server Magazine, and Your Money Magazine.

Mother And Child With Calla Lilies by JUDERM
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Awards he has received include (1984-2003): First Place United Nations Stamp Design Award, Boli Award (Best of Long Island Award), Optima Design Award, Northwest Craftmen's Club Award, The Visual Club Award and New Jersey Press Association Award, University Of Santo Tomas College Of Fine Arts Venavides Award, St. Lorenzo Ruiz Painting Competition Award.

The first time I visited the "JUDERM" store, I was spellbound. Jude Maceren is amazingly creative, and it is an honor to showcase his work here. Visit the JUDERM store, and you'll be amazed, too.

Invitation To The Thirsty (by Margaret Duran)

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and receive the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:6-11)

© 2010 Carolyn Marshall, Living Life Photography

This scripture reminds us that God can bring forth beauty and grace where evil once flourished and turn sarcasm to gentle words. Where lust grew rampant and unrestrained, pure love can spring up. There is a thirst built within us that nothing in this world can satisfy. God did that purposely so that we would want to love and worship Him. He wants a relationship with us and, until that thirst for God has been satisfied, we can never be content or at peace with anything. It doesn’t matter what choices we make to satisfy that thirst, it cannot be until we turn our heart and mind over to God in worship and praise for who He is.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

Our Calendar Girl

If you have never gone through the process of helping get a 14-year-old young lady ready for her first calendar girl contest, I highly recommend it. This was my granddaughter's first contest like this, and I was thrilled to be able to go with my daughter and my first grandchild on this wonderful adventure.

This was literally an all-day event, so I'll keep it brief and hit the highlights of the day. First, we were off to get the pedicure/manicure. My daughter and I sat in the WONDERFUL massage chairs while the "beauty" got beautified. Oh, my, I didn't want to get up. What an incredible invention those chairs are! Then, it was on to getting the hair done. Cala decided to wear her hair simple and just let it hang long. That was a good choice.

Okay, so then it was on to get the "perfect" necklace and earrings for the gorgeous dress she was going to wear. Aren't malls just marvelous? That day, we didn't get to do too much dilly-dallying around. My daughter is a speed walker, and she was on a mission! Found just the set she was looking for in the second store.

Now, the only thing remaining was makeup. We went to one of those Mac beauty counters and had a great makeup artist accentuate Cala's beautiful face. We didn't want to overdo it, though, because she has such natural beauty. He did a great job.

So, now we were finished with the main work, we headed back to the house to get her dressed. I have only included a few of the pictures here to give you an idea of the final results. By the way, she didn't wear the fuzzy shoes in the contest, but those ARE her favs!

It was a great night with some beautiful girls. There were 26 contestants in this very first calendar contest for a brand new school. They were all so excited and nervous. The first part of the contest was the modeling and in the second section they all had to answer the same question. One girl was picked for the cover, and 12 others were chosen for the months of the year.

Unfortunately, Cala didn't win ... at least not that contest. But we were SOOOOO proud of her. What impressed me the most was her attitude. At the end of the night, there was some of the usual back-and-forth conversations about all the other contestants - you know how people can talk. Someone asked Cala what she thought about one of the girls. Her reply was that she wasn't going to talk about the others. She thought they were all great. And the ones that won were really pretty. She went on to talk about all the positive things of the other girls, and not once did she cut any of them down. I was sitting behind her at the time and had to reach up, put my hand on her shoulder and tell her how proud I was of her attitude.

My daughter and son-in-law are doing an incredible job raising three children in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours today. It is awesome watching my grandchildren grow into loving, intelligent, responsible young adults.

So, here are a few of my shots from that day. Hope you enjoy!

New Images Available On My Website

New images have been uploaded to my website and are available for purchase as prints and many other products. Hope you enjoy.

Tomorrow I'll be posting some images from my granddaughter's first Calendar Girl Contest. Oh, MY! Do, I feel old!

New Images Uploaded To Website

I uploaded some new images to my website today. Hope you enjoy!

Picture Of The Day - "Serenity"

Back on August 6 of this year, I posted a sunset picture of the lake at Riverhills Park in Tampa, Florida. I was going back through some of my image folders and found this image I had taken at the same park. What a beautiful place this is to visit! This particular day I think I shot over a hundred images during a short period of time watching as the lake changed. This image spoke "serenity" to me - peaceful - tranquility. It makes me want to just sit on a bench and stare out at God's beautiful canvas as He paints in the colors. I know the process of condensing the image for web viewing will not do it justice.

Picture(s) Of The Day - "The Passion"

This past week, I went back to Eureka Springs Park. This is one of my very favorite spots to shoot nature. My photo friend, Nancy, and I spend a lot of time there. The park had been closed for several months for renovations so a lot of things died out. These last few visits have started to show promise again as we are seeing a lot of new growth. More to come on some of the green house images.

Today I'm going to feature some of my Passion Flower shots. These are absolutely gorgeous flower vines. Unfortunately, the time of day was a little too bright, but they didn't turn out too bad, all things considered.

When we first approached the fencing, I was watching Nancy carefully making her way through the bushes. I was standing about six feet behind her when it looked like a long black thing started falling from the fence right in front of her. Oh, my gosh! I yelled. It was a SNAKE! Eeeeek! Nancy didn't budge. "Oh," she said, "it's just a black snake. I like snakes." Needless to say, I kept my eyes open from then on out. I DO NOT like snakes!

Hope you enjoy these passions.

Picture Of The Day - "Dragonflies by the Dozens"

The last many weeks have been very challenging ones. I finally got my hard drive straightened out. With all the back and forth and transferring folder by folder and/or file by file, I got all of my images back. I am truly grateful that out of 215gb, I did not lose one single file! Thank God!

Then, this past weekend began another test for me. Apparently some sort of virus found its way into my computer. Did all that I was comfortable doing to fix the problem, but after two days battling with it gave it over to Norton. After about three hours (and a decent little monetary exchange), they were able to remotely clean out all traces of the infection. I'll have to say that I have been blessed. This has been my primary computer for about three years, and this was the first time I have been "invaded" by a virus like this. I've heard nightmare stories from others who didn't fare so well.

So, hopefully, now that all the computer issues are resolved, I'll be able to get back to paying attention to my blog and get back to the Picture of the Day. I haven't been out shooting very much for the last several weeks, so my new material was running a little dry. But I was able to go to the Hillsborough State Park and another local County park one day. Also made another trip last week to one of my very favorite local parks called Eureka Springs Park here in Tampa. They were closed for renovations for several months, so I was excited to be able to go back and see all the new growth since my last visit. I'll be putting some of those up through the next few weeks.

But to get back into the swing of things, I will start with an image I took while on a walk around the property where I live. This property abuts a natural mangrove swamp preserve next to the Bay. Although not very smart (because it was a gazillion degrees outside!), I took my walk around 3 p.m. Once I got out on the boardwalk, I started noticing dragonflies everywhere. They were zipping in and out on all the bushes and landing on the water. Some of the growth was covered with them like butterflies cover freshly blooming trees. I got really excited shooting them. Although I couldn't get as close as I would have liked to, my Nikon 70-300 lens did a pretty decent job. The other problem was that they were so active, it was hard to get focused on them before they were moving again. It was a lot of fun, though. Here's just a sample of what was out there. This is a Carolina Saddlebags - Tramea carolina.

Thank You Veterans

I know they've been around for a little while, but I just found Animoto. What a GREAT program! They have several options you can choose from to create your videos with music including unlimited free 30-second, All-Access Pass, and Business. Since I just found them, I am using the 30-second to create some quick videos. However, I do plan to upgrade to the business. With the All-Access Pass you can create an unlimited amount of videos for $30 per year. Plus you are not restricted to the 30-second time frame. You can't sell them, but you can use them on your computer, your TV or project them on a screen or wall for weddings, parties, meetings, etc. With the business account, you can do just about anything with them. You also have the option to remove all Animoto branding, and you can sell your videos, too. I'm excited about this new find. If you click on the Animoto link on the side of my page, you can get a $5 savings on an All-Access Pass or one extra month of commercial use for free with the business account. You can also just use my referral code of fwruvtdn where it asks for Promo Code and receive the same discount.

Veterans have been on my mind quite a bit lately, so I decided to create my first 30-second video with some images that are dear to my heart. Hope you enjoy this.

Almost There!

Well, I'm almost there now. The computer guys have been able to retrieve 167gb of my 215, and they should have the rest by today sometime. What an ordeal for them. Apparently, the hard drive can't be run very long before it reverts to the messages that "the drive has to be reformatted before you can continue" or something else that won't let you retrieve any other files. Let it cool down, and you're good to go for a few more gigs of transfer. I am so very, VERY thankful that they have been able to get this far with it. The files are being transferred to my new Western Digital 1TB external USB hard drive, and I am looking forward to bringing that baby home!

Things Are Looking A Little Brighter

Well, it has been quite an experience for me since last Friday. I ended up having to leave my 1TB hard drive with the computer guys. Apparently, it was a serious problem. What was frustrating was that it would go in and out. You'd think you had it working because it was recognizing all the folders. However, you couldn't get to them because it claimed they were read only. I had to leave my computer with them for awhile, too, because we still weren't sure whether part of the problem could have been the USB ports, but it turned out not to be the issue.

What they ended up doing was transferring as much information as they could, while the HD would let them, to a good HD. Then, when it quit again, they would have to wait several hours or overnight and pick up where it left off later. I had a little over 215GB of images on it so, needless to say, I was seriously considering what my game plan would be if they couldn't get it all back. I did a REALLY stupid thing and had all of my images on that HD with NO backup. SERIOUS lesson learned here! I knew I could get my images back from my website host. And, if I asked nicely, I may have been able to get most of my stock images back from the stock sites. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. I really did not want to have to go that route if at all possible.

However, I had a peace about the whole thing, too. It was what it was, and there was nothing I could do to change that now. I will admit I prayed an awful lot about it!

I ended up buying another HD today, and the computer guys were going to transfer all that they had retrieved over to it. We talked about putting it all on DVDs. But after they told me it would take their guys a minimum of half a day of billable hours to transfer my images to 50-60 disks at $90 an hour, I changed my mind about that idea real quick.

So, hopefully by tomorrow sometime I will have my HD back, and I'll be able to start catching up with things again. You don't realize how addicted you are to that stuff until you have to do without it.

Thanks, Patricia for your comment and concern today. A by-product of not having access to my images on my HD is that I had to dig around for old images on CDs that I had. I was able to get a few more products up on my Zazzle and Greeting Card Universe stores, so that was good.

Oops ... "Houston, we have problems!"

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't had a "Picture Of The Day" for the last couple of days. My computer and external hard drive have decided that my time is better spent struggling with them than posting. So far, I haven't thrown, broken, smashed, anything ... yet! None of my USB ports want to work for me, and I keep getting "Failure using the VxD loader, Code 19" error message. Been doing lots of searching Internet for solution, but so far nothing is working. My external has decided it wants to be "read only", but won't even let me access it. Worse yet, it says in order to use it now I have to format it. I think NOT! Occasionally, it lets me see the folders so as to tease me and let me know the files are still there. But I can't get to them.

So, tomorrow and through the weekend, if necessary, I will be trying to get "professional" help for this dilemma I'm in. If anyone reading this has come across this problem before, I sure would appreciate a comment or email as to how you solved it.

In the meantime, until this situation is resolved ... HAPPY SHOOTING!

Picture Of The Day - "Rained Out Carnival"

I went to the Sarasota County Fair in Sarasota, Florida. It was late in the day when I got there, and the clouds were looking threatening. Later that evening, the rains came. I took cover under a tent next to the carousel and waited for it to pass. I was noticing all the patterns and colors that were being made in the pavement by the rain and colorful lights of the ride. I love how the patterns reflected on the ground.

Picture Of The Day - "Floating"

I was practicing shooting water drops falling into this bird bath and the ripples they produced. A red leaf fell into the water and just rested there. I loved the way the colors in the background and the floating leaf complimented each other.