Keeping With The Times

living, learning, and keeping with the times

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Winter Whites Along the Fence

December 6, 2016 by Barb 1 Comment

the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper
wb yeats

Winter Whites II, Keeping With the TimesThis winter I plan to see the magic in our county and bring it to my blog. I’ve already learned (no confirmed) how much I love white space … it’s a good thing, since I have until the end of April to capture it :)

Filed Under: PHOTOGRAPHY, Winter Tagged With: landscape, winter

Winter Whites

November 22, 2016 by Barb 6 Comments

“Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.”
Coco Chanel, Chanel

Yesterday as I was heading out to do some shopping I decided to stop at one of my favourite “lookouts” to take a few photos. After I took about a dozen shots I decided they were all a bit “meh” and I carried on into town.

However, on my way home I noticed hoar frost was forming on a few trees so I went back to my little “lookout” and oh.my.oh.my…

winter-landscape-barb-brookbank-3275-1

I guess I should stop whining about the lack of sunlight around here.

So grateful for my neighbourhood, it never ceases to amaze me and inspire me.

My apologies for the copyright … I’m planning on turning this one into a print :)

#NaBloPoMo

Filed Under: Artful Photography, PHOTOGRAPHY, Winter Tagged With: lake, landscape, winter

Catalina Highway, Mount Lemmon Trip Review

November 13, 2015 by Barb 3 Comments

Today I have a review of our trip to the top of Mount Lemmon via the Catalina Highway. Armed with plenty of water, a homemade lunch, and snacks, we set out on our adventure.

The Catalina Highway, officially the General Hitchcock Highway, is the popular name for a Forest Highway and scenic route located in Pima County in southern Arizona (Wikipedia).

When we first arrived in Arizona it was early November and I wasn’t ready to let go of autumn. After a little research and much debate, we decided to make a trip to Mount Lemmon (near Tucson) rather than Oak Creek (near Sedona) to search for colour.

We weren’t sure we’d find autumn, but we’d never been to Mount Lemmon, so we decided to take the chance. It was quite a hike from our place in Fountain Hills at 172.1 miles (3 hours 28 minutes), and after a while I was feeling a little sheepish, thinking I had sent us on a wild goose chase. But not to worry. It was spectacular! The whole drive was spectacular … we love the Arizona landscape, so really, we would have enjoyed the trip whether we found autumn or not.

As we neared our destination and arrived at the park we found the Cactus Forest  which “is a census-designated place in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. The population was 594 at the 2010 census (Wikipedia).”
Catalina Highway, Arizona, Autumn in Arizona

Catalina Highway, Arizona, Mount Lemmon, Autumn in Arizona

Like I say, spectacular!
Catalina Highway, Arizona, Mount Lemmon, Autumn in Arizona, Cactus ForestWhen we stopped for lunch at wonderful picnic area, I was already seeing colour … not really, but … maybe? The air was fresh, scented lightly by pines, and if you weren’t in the sun, it did get quite cool. I love that …

catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-1998 Catalina Highway, Arizona, Mount Lemmon, Autumn in Arizona, Cactus Forest

I have finally, after years and years of travel, started taking photos of the signs on the highway … oh my … am I the last person in the world to do this?Windy Point Map

Mount Lemmon Hoodoo at Windy Point:

catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-2013 catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-2012 catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-2006 catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-2007 Catalina Highway, Arizona, Mount Lemmon, Autumn in Arizona, Cactus Forest and then this … I think we’re on the right track …

catalina-highway-az-barbbrookbank-2114
I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when I share the spectacular colours we found … you won’t be disappointed!

Day 13 #nablopomo

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL Tagged With: arizona, catalina highway, mount lemmon, nablopomo

Autumn in Alberta II

October 6, 2015 by Barb 4 Comments

Autumn in Alberta II … because it’s just so amazingly gorgeous out there and I want to remember it … one of the reasons I continue to blog.

The wood pile photos were taken a few weeks ago as we started the preparations. We ordered a full cord of birch which will probably last us three years! Hubby stacked it all … I begged off because of a bad back, and sore knees, etc. etc. etc.

Keeping With the Times, Autumn in AlbertaKeeping With the Times, firewoodKeeping With the Times, firewoodMost of my Upcycled Toolbox Planter is going to have to hit the compost heap … I simply cannot save everything (that succulent in the middle being an exception).
Keeping With the TimesI dropped everything and took a walk …
Keeping With the Times, Autumn in Alberta DSC_0974 Keeping With the Times, Autumn in Alberta DSC_0939 DSC_0932 DSC_0928 DSC_0925 Keeping With the TimesIf you click on the following photo you will be taken to my new IG account @barbbrookbank where you can watch the leaves fall, and listen to the sound as a light breeze blows through them …
treesHave a wonderful Tuesday!

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: alberta, autumn, landscape

Autumn in Alberta

October 2, 2015 by Barb 6 Comments

Autumn in Alberta is beyond stunning this year, and I can’t remember such colour! Everywhere I look I imagine flames …

Autumn in Alberta, Keeping With the Times

I used a polarizing filter on this … pretty dramatic …

I was out and about on Wednesday and stopped to take a photo of the landscape, but look who was hiding in the trees waiting for me (kinda wish I’d used my filter here). Do you ever use a polarizing filter? Truthfully, I’d forgotten about it …
Autumn in Alberta, Keeping With the Times DSC_0834 DSC_0835 DSC_0836 DSC_0838Almost home …
trees_road_barbbrookbankMy back yard …
barbbrookbank_autumn2I am not looking forward to the first winds … and I’m sure you can guess why … .

Autumn in Alberta, Keeping With the Times

Thank you so much for dropping by and have a wonderful Friday!

You might want to check out Autumn in Alberta II

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Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: alberta

Autumn Colour Inspiration

September 22, 2014 by Barb 5 Comments

On Sunday morning, we took one more tour around the lake for some autumn colour inspiration; brilliant blues, yellows, greens, and golds.

It was a perfect morning with wispy white clouds painted across the blue skies, calm glassy water, and other than a couple of people fishing, we were the only ones out there.

Later in the day the lake exploded with boating activity complete with music blaring from speakers until about 10:00pm when it was completely dark. There are two types of lake-life here … early morning coffee cruisers, and late night partiers.  Kind of hard to picture the latter when you see this:autumn colours {keeping with the times} Autumn Reflections Morning02 Autumn Reflections Morning04 Autumn Reflections Morning05 Autumn Reflections Morning06 Autumn Reflections Morning07 Autumn Reflections Morning08 Autumn Reflections Morning09 Autumn Reflections Morning10 Autumn Reflections Morning11 Autumn Reflections Morning12 Autumn Reflections Morning13 Autumn Reflections Morning16 Autumn Reflections Morning17 Autumn Reflections Morning18 reflections of autumn Autumn Colours Autumn Reflections Morning21

So this is it for my autumn lake reflections (I know, it was a bit of a photo dump). We’ve brought the boat in, put it away, and covered it for what is surely coming … the autumn colours will inevitably be replaced with browns, and greys, and eventually white.

If you want to see our evening tour, check out my post, Autumn Reflections.

Have a Happy Monday! and thank you for dropping by!

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: alberta, lake

Autumn Reflections

September 21, 2014 by Barb 9 Comments

One of things I look forward to in September is our last tour around the lake, to take in the autumn reflections. Here’s the view from our dock, and you can see that some of the leaves have already fallen off the tallest trees. It happens so fast …

autumn, {keeping with the times}

Autumn Reflections_15 Autumn Reflections_14 Autumn Reflections_13 Autumn Reflections_12 Autumn Reflections_11 Autumn Reflections_10 Autumn Reflections_9

We were the only people on the lake … and it was absolutely incredible. The photos don’t do it justice.
Autumn Reflections_8 Autumn Reflections_7 Autumn Reflections_5 Autumn Reflections_4 Autumn Reflections_3 Autumn Reflections_2

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night

~Hal Borland~

 

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: alberta, lake

Purple Coneflowers – Fading Beauties

November 2, 2013 by Barb 13 Comments

What is it about coneflowers?

barb brookbank, photoshop, photography, purple coneflower

I love them at all stages, but it’s at the end of the season when the petals are crispy and curling that I find them the most beautiful.

Purple-Coneflower-1

 

 

Filed Under: Autumn Tagged With: autumn, flowers

Autumn 2013 Recap and a Free Template

October 31, 2013 by Barb 17 Comments

I’m offering a free template to use with your autumn photos! Please enjoy … for personal use only!

It’s a *fully layered psd template, compatible with Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop.

As October draws to a close, most of my autumn photo opportunities are over. Our “show” starts early, and ends early.

This year I was particularly inspired because our weather was warm, dry, and calm, which resulted in some spectacular colours. I also had a my new D7100 to play with, and oh, does it ever do bokeh well! I’m excited for (then next season) and another chance to rock the bokeh!
barb brookbank, free template, adobe photoshop,

 

I made up a template to showcase some of my favourite shots, and you can get it here for free!

It’s a *fully layered psd template, compatible with Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop.

 

 

barb brookbank, free template, adobe photoshop,

bb_9 photo template

*For personal use only

Happy Halloween!!

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: freebie, photoshop, scrapbook, template

Good Morning and Happy Week!

October 21, 2013 by Barb 7 Comments

autumn leaves

_DSC5301_0542-copy

_DSC5355_0594-copy

Soon I’ll be heading out to meet my friends at the mailbox, but these days I have a little extra time to have coffee, and maybe write a blog post before I go. We’ve had to push our walk back to 8:30 because it’s still so dark at 7:30… You might think that that is depressing, but I find it kind of cozy. This is when I bring out my bright orange pillows, set out a few candles, and start thinking about having fires in the fireplace.

I’m going to enjoy every single minute of this beautiful season.

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: leaves

Autumn Preparations

October 20, 2013 by Barb 10 Comments

Autumn-Maple-Leaf-VintagePinterest

…or is that winter preparations?

We’re having the most gloriously warm and sunny autumn this year. There’s hardly any rain to speak of, lots of colourful leaves, and amazing light.

Every time I go out into the yard with full intentions to clean up flower beds, I somehow never get to them… photos happen instead.

So yesterday hubby coaxed me outside, and after I spent a half hour playing, he managed to get me to clean up the two front beds. Progress.

He was busy blowing leaves off the roof, lawn and driveway, and then he roto-tilled the garden.

Today I have three more flower beds to clean up, four autumn bulbs to plant, and I’m done. It’s a cozy, familiar feeling when the yard is all tidied up for winter. Now we just wait…

Filed Under: Autumn, PHOTOGRAPHY Tagged With: leaves

Welcome! I'm Barb, and this is where I practice my mantra to "learn something new, try something different". It's my hope that something I do here may inspire you! Read More…

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