A Weekend in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Last weekend my wife and I spent a four day weekend in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Yes, I said 50th….blows our mind. We got married in college and waited to start a family until our late 20’s. We both talked about remembering when my grandparents had their 50th and how old we thought they were. Doesn’t seem that long ago…….

Anyway, our girls and us have talked about what to do for our 50th. A lot of ideas surfaced and international travel destinations were discussed. We have traveled quite a bit through our life together both internationally and domestically. One of the things that kept popping up was how much fun the two of us have on road trips where we get in the car and drive to areas we haven’t been to before. Since moving up to the Pacific Northwest, we keep talking about checking out the beauty of Coeur d’Alene Lake (and the town) in Idaho. Idaho is one of only 4 states we haven’t traveled to. The girls thought it would be a great romantic getaway for us. It was and as you would expect I took a number of pictures of the natural beauty of the area. I’m sharing six of them to give you a feel of the beauty of the lake and surrounding forest.

Coeur d’Alene 1

We stayed in a time share right on the shores

Rocky Shoreline

I took this shot on a trail that led out from a park into the forested shoreline by the town. (telephoto lens)

The Beauty Of The Lake

This capture was along the same trail, but a bit further along it. You can tell that the shoreline goes in and out of the lake creating a variety of perspectives.

Coeur d’Alene 4

This is the Coeur d’Alene Resort which is in the downtown area of the town. They have an awesome upscale restaurant “Beverlys”, which is located on the 7th floor (which is the dark band of floor to ceiling tinted windows about half way up). The view was incredible looking out over the lake with the large covered boat docks sitting at our feet.

Coeur d’Alene 5

On another hike I did, I came across this capture. At first I thought the shape on top of the rock was just more rock, but then it turned and I saw the head of a deer. Kind of a fun thing to see and it was looking out at the trail around the bend from where I was standing.

Coeur d’Alene 6

Right after the original deer shot, I was turning around to get back to the trail, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the underbrush. It took me a few minutes and the telephoto lens to realize the movement was another deer.

Just wanted to share some of my captures from a beautiful location and a great weekend.

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Rogue River Pavilion

This week I’m going to start with one of the finished art prints and the capture that inspired it. Next, using the same subject matter, but slightly different framing of it and the resulting three different prints and the original capture that inspired them.

The first one is titled The Pavilion By The River Sketched. The setting in all of the following examples is a natural reserve along the Rogue River in Rockford, Michigan.

The Pavilion By The River Sketched

Next is the photographic capture that inspired the sketched print in color.

Rogue River Pavilion 1

For the sketched version, I liked the idea of including the lamppost in the final sketch.

The next three art prints were inspired by another photo of the same subject. I like the way it centered the entrance bridge. In the first one, I used a gothic painting technique which focused on the earth tones of the setting and the general appearance of the structure. This creates an overall look without all of the details of the setting.

The Pavilion By The River In Gothic Oil

When I see a lot of detail in one of my captures, I always explore what it looks like as a black and white photograph. I liked the way this approach highlights all of the detail of the pavilion and the natural surroundings (the photographs were taken during the winter months – thus the detail of the leafless tree branches).

The Pavilion By The River

This approach then inspired me to create the same view in a sketched black and white art print.

Riverside Pavilion

And then finally the original capture that inspired this series.

Rogue River Pavilion 2

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Still Life Fruit

For todays post, I wanted to share the process I went through in creating some “fruit” still life art prints. The art prints started with photographic captures I took of decorative fruit. The fruit pieces in question were decorative elements we had on our dining room table.

I took a picture of a decorative pear and apple side by side –

Pear and Apple Blog

From there I created an art print using a basic watercolor technique –

Pear and Apple

Then I decided to really get creative and did this abstract watercolor print based on the same subjects.

Pear and Apple Watercolor

The next series of photographs I took were individual captures of two pears of different colors and two apples of different colors. I then cropped the four different fruits into a square with the brown and red fruits diagonally across from each other.

Pear Apple Squared Blog

I then created an art print using the same abstract watercolor technique.

Four Corners of Apples and Pears

And then created an art print of the same subject using a fauvism style.

Four Square Fruit

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Old West Carriages – Art Print of the Week

Old West Carriages is a sepia tone photographic art print of old carriages in Tombstone, Arizona. I used a sepia tone finish and texture on the photograph for that old rustic look.

Old West Carriages

I wanted to share the process I took to arrive at this final art print. It started with the capture below. I was with my wife, our oldest daughter and her husband. We were in a hurry when we came across this scene. I had just a moment to frame and capture a shot. I knew I could clean up the capture later, so just spent enough time to frame the shot.

Old West Carriages d

Later, using Adobe Photoshop I cleaned it up from a color and lighting perspective to arrive at the look below.

Old West Carriages c

Considering the subject matter and the historical appearance of these carriages, I knew I was headed to a sepia tone to make it look like old historic photography.

Old West Carriages b

Again, using Adobe Photoshop, I gave the capture a refresh using an overall sepia tone. I then played with the lighting and highlights to give some depth to the capture.

Old West Carriages a

Then as a final step, I added texture to the print to give it more of an aged look resulting in the art print Old West Carriages.

Old West Carriages

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Italy – Rome & Florence: Street Scenes

I have a fascination with the narrow cobblestone streets that you find throughout these two cities. I understand the history of them and get why they are narrow as this was all built long before large forms of transportation became common to individual dwellings. The first five captures are from Rome with the final two Florence.

I’m starting with a capture I came across as we were walking one morning to the train depot to catch our train to Florence. It speaks to the look of the streets, clean and pedestrian friendly. Now this isn’t to say that cars don’t drive down these streets as they do. It clearly becomes a parting of the pedestrians to the sidewalks as the car drives very slowly and everyone makes it possible to have the traffic safely and slowly go by.

Rome 1

The next one I included is the street we stayed on. I took this capture just as I left the front door to the apartment building our unit was in. It had been raining that morning, thus the wet cobblestone. The umbrellas were small bistros and cafe’s lining the street. We ended up trying all of them through our stay and found each very good and very friendly. One of cafes we stopped at ended up with the owner talking to us and asking how our stay was and where in the United States did we come from (our accent was obvious even with Italian being spoken by my daughter). That was the type of experience we had with these small cafes versus the larger ones in the tourist areas.

Rome 2

This next one does show some car activity and how it just seems to work as part of the norm.

Rome 3

This is one of my favorite captures due to the beauty of all of the vines and greenery. This particular street takes a right turn at the end and continues on looking just as charming as this particular shot.

Rome 4

This capture highlights one of the larger outdoor cafes at the entry to another narrow street. Notice the detail trim painting on these buildings along with the common external color. I would assume ownership is consistent between these buildings. We did walk this street on our way to where we were going and the beauty and charm carried throughout.

Rome 5

In Florence this setting caught my eye with the fountain in a open plaza as the foreground looking down this street and seeing people and activity as far as the eye can see.

Florence 6

Last, but not least is this shot in Florence of looking across the river at this street that turns into steps leading up a hill.

Florence 7

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Rome and Florence Italy Arial Views

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I would not be posting for a few weeks as I was going to Italy on a trip with our youngest daughter. Earlier this year her and her husband announced to my wife and I that they wanted to take one on one trips with each of the parents over the next four years. This year was father/daughter trip to Italy (Rome and Florence as I love history and art). Next year it will be my wife and our daughter to London, Wales and Ireland. The third year will see our son-in-law taking his mom to a resort of her choice and the fourth year he will take his dad to Scotland on a golfing excursion. The two of them met in college and started dating after they graduated. They spent most of their 20’s traveling around the world before they started a family. They now have a one year old and wanted to share their traveling experience with each of us parents to places that they know interests each of us.

So, I will be sharing pictures from my trip over the next few weeks. I’m starting this week with captures from Florence and Rome that give a sense of the topography each city is located in. I’m starting with shots from Florence. The first picture is what I call a watch tower which is part of The Duomo (a large cathedral ) that has an exterior finish from the Renaissance. I’m starting with this shot as it was from the top of this structure the following captures were taken. The climb was a definite workout, but well worth it.

Image 1

From the top I took the following pictures , the first one includes the dome from the same cathedral (if you look close, you can see people at the top of the dome).

The next group comes from Rome starting with the Spanish Steps.

The last one is in Rome from the top of one of the famous hillsides where the Forum is located.

Rome

Next week more to come from Rome and Florence.

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Flower Fields – Daffodils

It’s that time of year again for the flower fields to be in full bloom. In this post I’m showcasing the fields of blooming daffodils. My next post will revisit the tulip fields in bloom similar to last years visit to Tulip Town. The flower fields are located in the Skagit Valley just west of Mt. Vernon, Washington (north of Seattle). Skagit Valley is a fertile farming valley that typically has field upon field in full bloom with daffodils and a few weeks later tulips this time of year. A few weeks back, we had a sunny day (after numerous days of rain), so my wife and I decided to take advantage of the sunshine by visiting the valley to see the daffodils in full bloom. These fields bloom before the tulip fields, so we also made a return trip a few weeks later to catch the tulips. We weren’t disappointed with the beauty of fields of daffodils in full bloom and many other fields just starting to bloom. In all candor with or without the blooms, the valley is beautiful all by itself. I have attached five captures from our time there. Enjoy!!

Daffodils 1

Daffodils 2

Daffodils 3

Daffodils 4

Daffodils 5

It is truly breathtaking to see these colorful fields as far as the eye can see.

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Climate Pledge Arena – Seattle

Hockey anyone?? I go from digital art styles to hockey in this post? Hello, Kirt…what’s up? Let me start back in 1962 (ok I was a young pup back then, but hang on…) when the worlds fair was here in Seattle…thus the infamous Space Needle and the surrounding area became the site of that event. As part of the fair, an indoor arena was built and after the worlds fair, the arena was taken over by the city to house entertainment venues. Ok, let’s fast forward to 2018 when the arena was being deconstructed down to the bones and being re-built primarily to house the new hockey team coming to Seattle. During that process my wife and I were lucky enough to get an on-site tour by our son-in-law of the facility as it was being re-constructed. He works for a large commercial construction company that was very involved in the re-building of the stadium. It was literally bare bones with the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system being installed. You rarely get to see that type of a structure in that status up close and personal. We found it very fascinating and surreal.

OK, the purpose of the re-construction was to create a home for the new hockey team. The new team is called the Kraken (The team’s name comes from the mythical kraken of Scandinavian folklore and its resemblance to the native giant Pacific octopus, which is found in the waters of the Puget Sound, near Seattle). Ok, now we are in the present time frame and after having moved up here, we were anxious to go to a Kraken game and see the finished arena. We had that opportunity a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share some captures of the new arena now called Climate Pledge Arena. When we entered the arena with our son-in-law and daughter for the game that night our minds were blown away. The name of the arena is a serious commitment as is apparent with the photos.

This part of the arena has a “live wall” to support the “Climate Pledge”.

This wasn’t anything I ever expected to see in an indoor arena.

And of course I must share the actual hockey arena when we went to our seats to watch the game.

Oh yes….we won!!

Thoughts?

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Barns in Sepia

The sepia tone in photography creates an old look to any capture and in todays world of digital art and processing it’s easy to do. I chose four captures to share this week. They are all barns, one in Oregon and the other three in Iowa. I’ll start with the Oregon Barn…

Oregon Barn

I was doing a photo shoot of covered bridges in Oregon off the beaten path when I came across this barn. I loved the setting and the architectural appeal of this barn. To add to that “old…historic” look, I created some subtle texture to the photo to recreate the type of paper that it could have been printed on back in the day.

The next series of barns takes us to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and barns south of the city with one exception….

Cedar Rapids Barn in Sepia

This particular barn was in the South East quadrant of the city just off a busy highway and up against new housing construction. I really liked the look of it and had to stop the car, pull over and hike back to it for this shot. I was anxious to make this in the sepia tone as it was truly old and probably isn’t standing anymore. I also added the textured photo paper look.

The next two were located south of Cedar Rapids in typical farm settings.

Two Barns

Both of these buildings were very aged, but still being used on a working farm.

The last one was on a working farm also, but was in great shape and as the name states bright red!!

Red Barn

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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The Peace and Tranquility of Snow Scenes

This week I am sharing two snow scenes that give me a sense of tranquility. Both are from the Seattle area taken a couple of years ago right after a Christmas snow. I have shared these scenes in the past, but since then have added some inspirational thought. As we head into a busy holiday season, to me it’s important to take a step back and appreciate all that we are and all that we have. Sometimes we get so tied up in the current events of the world and our individual lives that we lose sense of any calming peace.

Winter Peace

Just take a step back, seek the peace and beauty within your life. Take it in…take it all in to appreciate what you have. Perfection doesn’t exist and there will always be issues and challenges dragging us down, but only if we let them.

Seek His Peace: Snow Clearing In The Woods

This is a challenge I put upon myself on a daily basis as I start each day. Am I always successful? No, but more times than not, I am. And when I am…..the world and my life look completely different.

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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