I live on the bank of a winding little creek. I'm a DIYer working on living a more simple, self-sustaining life inside the town-limits.

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” ― Henry David Thoreau

I Spy…

December 16th, 2011
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Old. Red. Wood. Another old barn! This one I spied in Mason County on Custer Road. Look at that perfect lean! It still has usefulness left to its old bones and it will continue the fight until the very end. I had forgotten I’d taken this photo. I was going through my many gigs of [...]

West Michigan Fall Color Tour 2011

October 8th, 2011
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While the rest of the family was fishing, I was capturing the beautiful colors of West Michigan. There’s a little of everything–from still green leaves to leaves that have already fallen from the trees. Join me on my fall color tour…

Waiting For Sunset

September 19th, 2011
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Along a deserted beach, a lonely red chair just waits for the sun to set. Sunset Beach, Pentwater, Michigan Taking an afternoon drive, I found this lonely chair. It beckoned for me to stop the car and capture the moment. It was the redness of the chair and the blueness of Lake Michigan that called [...]

A New Camera!

September 18th, 2011
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I’ve been an amateur photographer hobbyist for quite a few years…using a point and shoot. They are a great little camera and if you use the functions available to you, they can produce a great photo. Closeup, the macro function on my Sony DSC works like a charm. But I haven’t gotten stealth enough to [...]

Hollyhocks in Watercolor

July 13th, 2011
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The hollyhocks along the back deck make the perfect prop for doing a “watercolor” painting–in PhotoShop. PhotoShop has many built-in filters that make it easy manipulate photos. But if you’ve worked with these filters before, you know they aren’t realistic for the most part. I’ve been trying to find a good watercolor tutorial. It takes [...]

The Easter Lily

May 2nd, 2011
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My niece gave me this beautiful Easter Lily for Easter. It was so beautiful and so fragrant. I lived with it for 10 days. Then realized it was the source of my horrendous allergy “sinus/cold/crud” feeling I had been suffering with for 10 days. Duh! It went to live with Mom for the remainder of [...]

A Simple Tripod

January 31st, 2011
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What is it? Popcorn Rice All shot with a simple point & shoot camera on macro setting into a MASON JAR, using the mason jar as a tri-pod! Gardening Gone Wild has a monthly photo contest and January’s was a Mason Jar Macro theme. Check them out here. There are some amazing things that can [...]

A Black & White (and pink) Beauty

August 12th, 2010
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Does looking at something put you in a happy place? Flowers, it’s flowers that put me in that happy place. While I’m no professional photographer by any means, I like to get right down there and get me some of that happy time to preserve. You never know when I might need something with some [...]

State Capital’s Architecture

April 4th, 2010
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Last week, my girlfriend and I made a trip to Lansing.  She had some business to do and I went along for the ride out of town!  Downtown Lansing in the Capital Area really has some great architecture.  It was very chilly that day, so these were taken from the car. Enjoy!   A beautiful [...]

Good Morning Sunshine!

December 12th, 2009

Winter finally landed in this area of West Michigan this past week. And with Winter’s normal attitude, he did away with Precious Sunshine. But look at Miss Sunshine today – she’s overruled Old Man Winter for today… And I must say — snow, sunshine, and shadows — nothing but beautiful! Head over to for some [...]