Wednesday Focus on You

by Judy

Oh the agony of choosing just one photo for our Focus on You!  Thank you to all of you for sharing your stunning captures on our flickr page!   

This week, I chose this beautifully composed photo by kngrainer.  When I saw this photo it instantly brought back so many childhood memories of making these press cookies every Christmas season.  I can almost taste them!  Pop on over to her flickr stream to see more of her work.  She captures every day moments so beautifully.  

Wednesday Focus on You

I fell in love with this picture by Lisa McCann the minute I saw it in the gallery! Just look at that light! And the sweet braid and texture and color in the scarf! Don't get me started on the bokeh!

Swoon!

Stop by Lisa's gallery and leave her some love on her beautiful pictures!

Thank you Lisa for sharing your pictures with us!

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Wednesday Focus on You

1. 300/365 - 15, 2. October 17 - Fall = Snickerdoodles, 3. shrimp and grits, 4. October 25 - Despite the 80+ degree temps today I'm making soup for dinner. If I wait for a chilly day I may wait forever...



So yummy, no one could choose just one!

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Thank you for sharing your pictures with us!

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Wednesday Focus On You

by Judy

Since Leigh's post yesterday told us that "pink encourages friendliness, while discouraging aggression and ill-will" I decided to fill today's Focus On You with all sorts of pink!

First up, this soft and delicate close up by Susan Bolton.

 Next, I couldn't resist these two beautiful hot pink captures by Sherry Galey.

What a cutie!


The light on these hot pink flowers that Barbara (Drolwa) shared with us is beautiful.

And...I had to share the hint of hot pink that Lisa (the cohose sense) captured on this beautiful peony!

I have never seen a hot pink hydrangea, so when I saw this beauty by gina g10, I had to show it here! Gorgeous!

And last, but not least, just look at the color in this hot pink photo that SUA13photography shared with us!  Wow!

Thank you to everyone who shared their hot pink captures in our flickr stream so far this week. There's still time to add more, so please do!  And stay tuned - at the end of this week the color for next week will be announced.

Happy Summer everyone. :)

Wednesday Focus On You

This photo immediately caught my eye.  What a perfect example of our monthly focus, silhouette.  Beautiful photo Lisa!  Thank you for contributing.

You can see more of Lisa's work in her Flickr stream 

Wednesday Focus on You

This weeks Focus on You was taken by Evangelina Murray.

This sweet picture of a darling boy tenderly offering his hand to a bird just stole my heart when I saw it. I imagine he is holding a baseball bat and glove under his other arm, just out of sight, hastily put there because he saw a chance to connect with the bird. Once the bird flies away, he will be off to continue play, and look for the next adventure.

It is such a moving reminder of the wonder of childhood.

Thank you for sharing this with us Evangelina.

Visit Evangelina's Flickr photo stream here.

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Wednesday Focus On You

by Judy

I know we've all said it before - but what a difficult job it is to choose a photo to be featured here! There is so much beauty, and so much talent, in our Focusing On Life flickr page. 

Today I chose this wonderful black and white image from Larraine Zungolo.  I am naturally drawn to photos of windows and doors, but this one is fantastic!  There is texture everywhere, giving this photo real interest- on the peeling paint, the stone wall, and the ironwork on the window.  The black and white processing really brings out the play of light and shadow too.  Such a beauty Larraine.  Thank you for sharing this with us. 

Wednesday Focus on You

by Terri

So many beautiful photos to choose from in our Focusing on Life Gallery!  Most Wednesdays, we are looking at the entire gallery rather than focusing on those photos that follow our monthly theme. However, this photo by M. E. Rawl would have jumped out at me even if our theme wasn't "Golden Hour".  The composition, the light and the focus all make this a spectacular shot! Mary's Photostream is full of beautiful shots so I hope you have a chance to take a look. Thank you, Mary, for sharing  your beautiful photos with us!

Wednesday Focus on You

by Dotti

It gets more challenging each week to select just one photo from the gallery but as I began this Wednesday morning, this beautiful Gerbera daisy and word art spoke to me. It seemed the perfect message to take into our Wednesday this week. Let's all be someone's sunshine, courtesy of this stunning reminder by P J Scott, aka, Pam.

Thank you, Pam, for sharing this gorgeous photo with focus so perfect it captures the essence of this beautiful flower and gives us a truly inspirational message to carry in our hearts on this day.

Wednesday Focus on You

by Dotti

I gotta tell you - choosing the Wednesday Focus on You feature is no easy task. I easily could have chosen a dozen or two photos to feature. But in the end, I had to go with this sweet bike basket filled with flowers, such a perfect setting to get us in the mood for summer. This little gem was taken by longtime FOL follower, Margie O'Hara and you, lucky readers, can see more of Margie's outstanding photography on her Flickr stream. Thank you, Margie, for sharing your art with us!

To recap, each Wednesday we will share a non-themed photo from our gallery until the very last Wednesday of the month when we will feature themed photos from our gallery. We have such a treasure trove of beauty in the gallery, we want to showcase as much of your wonderful art as we can. Thank you all for uploading the beauty you capture and create so that we can keep enjoying and sharing it. 

Wednesday Focus on You

by Judy

Our month of searching for the alphabet has almost come to an end!  I do hope you continue to keep your eyes open for letters. You will find them in the most unexpected places!  

This week's 'Wednesday Focus on You' is a little different.  From now on, instead of doing our Saturday 'Focus on You' posts, where we choose a theme related photo to feature, starting today, the last Wednesday of each month, our Wednesday Focus on You will feature your photographs that are theme related. We thought it would be a fun way to wrap up our monthly theme by bringing together some of your theme related photos into one beautiful post.  

Like these two photos from Barbara Vautier, (Drolwa.)  

P is for Pepper.  Love the colors in this one.

And, Tibetan Letters.  These letters are gorgeous!  I'd love to know the story behind this.  

This adorable little bee was perfectly captured by Teragam.

Wearing Sunglasses, the Letter B.

What a good eye Pam Scott,( PJ Scott) had when she saw the Letter W in her sandals! 

Letter W.

These two photos from Life, Unscripted Photography really caught my eye.  I am drawn to doors, and she found a beauty!  Both the close up of the rusty letters, and the full photo showing the door are stunning.  

Fancy Rusty Letters.

Alphabet in Nature.

N is for North.  I loved the lines in this pretty black and white by Leanne Strilchuk, (Leanne S.)

Thank you all for playing along!  Stay tuned for next month's theme. 

Love, Judy

Wednesday Focus on You

by Leigh

What a joy it is to browse the FOL Flickr group and see all the amazing photographs! The talent is truly top notch. This photo by Evangelina Murray caught my eye as I was scrolling through.  Please take a minute and visit her Flickr stream to see more beautiful images like this one. 

Wednesday Focus on You

When I'm scrolling through the gorgeous pictures you are all adding to the flickr pool, every now and then I come across a picture that stops me, moves me, captures my heart.

That's what happened when I came across this beautiful picture by Melissa. I instantly loved it.

The sweet smile and perfect focus on this beautiful child just melts my heart.  I imagine she is looking up at her mother, with love in her eyes. A sweet moment of childhood captured forever.

So well done, Melissa. Thank you for sharing you pictures with us.

Go here to see more of her flickr stream.

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Wednesday Focus On You

by Kim

It's truly such a pleasure to scroll through our Flickr photo stream. But oh so hard to choose a photo to showcase here.

But as I was scrolling, this jumped off the page, as I'm always drawn in by an insect image. . . and so much goodness here. The beautiful shades of green, and the fluidity of movement that draw you through the image by way of the veining. From the depth of field keeping everything sharp, to the contrast between the snail and the leaf. And then there is that gorgeous glow of light!!

This stunning image was submitted by José Manuel Lamas Táboas, and if you haven't checked out his Flickr photo stream, go now. He has a fabulous collection of diverse images. Thank you José for sharing your view with us here at Focusing on Life.

And as always keep sharing your vision of the world with us in our Flickr group.

Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday Focus on You

by Kelly

Welcome to our newest feature - Wednesday Focus on You - where we have a chance to spotlight some of the amazing photography in our Flickr pool.  This way we can share some of your beautiful art that might not fall into the month's current theme.

I absolutely adore this shot by Melisa.  I love the light flooding the frame. But what I love most is the story this shot tells.  How you can see the two littles standing in the doorway...don't you just know they're off on a grand adventure?

Be sure to check out Melisa's Flickr stream for more of her inspiring captures of childrens' faces. And thank you all so very much for sharing your beautiful art with all of us.  We are so grateful for this wonderful community.

Wednesday Focus On You

by Judy

What a pleasure it is to scroll through all of the member photos in our Focusing on Life flickr stream! There are so many wonderful photos to choose from, and one of the reasons why we started our new feature, Wednesday Focus on You.  

Different from our weekly Focus on You posts, where we choose a photo from our flickr stream that 

we think best depicts our monthly theme, our Wednesday Focus on You posts feature a photo from our flickr group that has nothing to do with our monthly theme.  We choose it just because we love it!

I chose this photo of Margie O'Hara's because I loved the soft, almost vintage feel to the photo.  I also love the way Margie composed this photo - with the roses not in a vase, but dropped ever so gently on the table.  And I have to admit, another reason I chose this photo was Margie's description of her photo.  She commented that it was the first day of spring and they had early dismissal from school because of snow, and she bought these flowers to celebrate spring!  (We too had early dismissal because of snow on the first day of spring, and I bought flowers to brighten my home and celebrate spring that day too!)

Thank you Margie for sharing your work with us.  We always love seeing your photos! You can see more of Margie's beautiful photos on flickr. 

Focus on You

It's not easy being green but Cheryl McCain has aced it with this fabulous low key photo. Called 'Organic Matters', it is full of wonderful organic textures and that green philodendron peeping out of the corner. Beautifully done, Cheryl!

You can see more of Cheryl's work on her Flickr photostream.

Thank you so much, Cheryl, for sharing your art with us this week.

Remember, the color green is our inspiration for the whole month. We look forward to seeing your green beauty on our Flickr page.

Wednesday Focus on You

Our Wednesday Focus on You feature allows us to spotlight images from our Flickr gallery that are not related to our Monthly Theme. It is such a treat to browse through the gallery! There are so many talented photographers who contribute their beautiful art. One such artist is Janice Johnson who is a frequent contributor and I find myself scrolling through the gallery and stopping at her images even before I know who has posted them. This particular image caught my eye for so many reasons. First  of all, I'm a sucker for purple and green together. But the beautiful focus and depth of field just drew me in.  If you want a feast for the eyes, take a stroll through her Flickr gallery.

And then, for something completely different, I just couldn't take my eyes off of this image by Sherry Galey.

Golden retriever puppies have to be the cutest puppies ever and this one is so perfectly captured. The texture of the fur and the sweetness of the pose -- it makes me want to go out and buy a puppy.  You can see more of Sherry's wonderful images in her Flickr gallery.  Lots  of beauty there . . . and more puppies!

Wednesday Focus On You

by Deanna

This is a new feature that we here at FOL felt was a brilliant added piece to our blog to choose a photo from our flickr site each week that is not necessarily related to our monthly theme but stands out on its own.

I choose this image today....I love the symmetry created by the lamp posts and the train and that vintage look just adds to the drama.  And since so many of our northeastern neighbors have been blanketed bombarded with snow I thought this was quite appropriate for the week.   Photo courtesy of Sunny-2.  Follow Sunny-2's adventures via her Flickr photostream that's loaded with wonderful images.

Wednesday Focus on You

Today we’re introducing a new feature here at Focusing on Life: Wednesday Focus on You. This will be different than the theme-based Focus on You that we post every Saturday. Aside from the fact that it will appear every other Wednesday rather than on Saturdays, our choices for this mid-week focus will be photos that are not related to the monthly theme.

As we take turns selecting and posting our chosen photos each Saturday, each one of us here at FOL is struck by what beautiful photos there are in our Flickr gallery that are not theme related. This is a good thing! We want you to continue to use that space to post whatever photos you wish to share with us. But we find so many other beautiful photos, we want to share some of these with you.

Now, if you think we have a hard enough time choosing theme photos to share each Saturday, you would be right. There is always so much to choose from. So this task of choosing from the general photos is going to be even harder! This is a good problem to have.

For our first Wednesday Focus on You, I’ve chosen two photos. The first photo is by Margie O’Hara {Flickr name moo o’hara}. I was drawn in by the lovely splash of red berries against the grey background, so typical of winter in many parts of our world. And I always love a pop of red! You can find more of Margie’s beautiful photos on her Flickr photostream right here.

Since I had the whole month of January to choose from, I decided to showcase two photos today. The second photo is from the Flickr photostream of sunny-2, otherwise known as Jane Fang. I was immediately drawn in by the quaint post office building and the wonderful nostalgic feeling that this photo creates, not to mention the beautiful falling snow.

Thank you, Margie and Jane for sharing with us. Please keep posting any and all photos that you wish to share with us both theme and non-themed. The talent in this group is nothing short of amazing and if you haven’t been looking through our gallery, you should go there as soon as you can and look around. There are some beautiful and inspirational photos waiting for your viewing pleasure!