Have No Fear

On October 1st and 2nd in more than 1,100 cities around the world nearly 30,000 photographers collectively took literally millions of photos as part of their local Photo Walk.  My photowalk was the Sunset Junction Photowalk in Silverlake California.  I mets some wonderful people and had a lot of fun.  Anyone can participate and there is no fee.  This is an annual event and it was my first.  I plan on participating in many more in the years ahead.  This walk is for people who love photography and you can make pictures with any kind of camera and be any level of photographer from beginner to professional.  I will be posting several of my photos in the days and weeks to come.  This first one is a collage of my day.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." --- Frank Herbert, Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear © copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved Click on photo to view large

Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground

This butterfly was released at a wedding I went to recently.  It was an interesting idea that I'd never seen before.  They were in little tiny flat boxes.  They gave one to each couple there.  We were told to make a wish and then open the box.  We opened ours and this beautiful butterfly flew out upward toward the heavens.  This photo was of a butterfly that went to the grass.  It was really beautiful with all these butterflies flying all around us. They were everywhere!  I know anyone who is reading this is probably wondering (as I was) how they didn't die in the little flat boxes.  I was told that they were kept cold until about 2 hours before the wedding at which time the boxes were taken out into the sun to warm them up.  The second is a Photoshop art piece.

Love is like a butterfly, it goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes

Love is like a butterfly, hold it too tight, it'll crush. Hold it too loose, it'll fly.

Anonomous

                          © copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view large

  © copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view large

Imaginary Ordinary

This will be the last of my pelican photographs for a while.  I'll put up more of these at a later time.  I used Photoshop to give this a painterly look.

As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure.
Susan Sontag 

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view large

Brand New Shoes

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view larger

For some reason I was inspired to do several Photoshop pieces of my Sofia shoot.  I just loved Sofia's little feet.

Start wherever you are and start small. 

Rita Baily

Unusual You

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view larger

Today I'm posting a Photoshop piece.  My new goal is to post at least one new piece a week.  This week I happen to be one ahead!

A garden is a complex of aesthetic and plastic intentions; and the plant is, to a landscape artist, not only a plant - rare, unusual, ordinary or doomed to disappearance - but it is also a color, a shape, a volume or an arabesque in itself. 

Roberto Burle Marx

Pink Ocean

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

Click on photo to view larger

I did this Photoshop piece for a video project in school.

But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean. 

H. P. Lovecraft