The Power of A Photograph

DSC03797

I scrolled a photo album for a picture with the power to calm my troubled mind.

Family pictures bring me the most joy, but I choose the above holiday shot because I’m sure seeing a place is more interesting for strangers.

Shores and Coastlines are always a happy place for me to visit. This is the sun setting on the walkway at Seaside, Oregon.

Are you ever amazed how a simple picture can trigger emotions?

Do photos do this for you?

There are two other common memory triggers. I’m often shocked how quick, and out of the blue, the past will flash when you hear a certain tune or smell a certain scent.

Without going into detail, we’ve had a somewhat crappy week, and I’ve been sporting puffy eyes.

Why, the puffy eyes you ask?

I Could literally be the “Town-Cryer”.

As in, that’s my coping mechanism. I cry when I’m sad or receive unsettling news, when I’m stressed, when I’m overtired, when I’m happy or I laugh too much, and if someone else gets teary eyed, no problem, I’ll join them.

When my gene pool was filled, I must have gotten extra emotions, and a sensitive waterworks trigger. If not that, I’ll blame aging and adulthood. I’m sure others will agree that at times, those both suck.

Who here can tear-up reading something, or watching a TV commercial? (Surprise! My hand is up.)

Have faith in me, my family and friends, I’m stronger than I may appear. (Smiley Face)

I hope your days are running smoothly.

Have You Ever Wondered?

98 one of Grand Hotel carriages

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Have you ever looked through your vacation pictures and taken note of the small things instead of what enticed you to take the photo in the first place?

An example of what I’m referring to is, have you ever noticed the number of strangers captured in your shots.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many people have, you, in their vacation pictures?

Maybe I’m weird but I think of this often, does anyone else?

We know nobody in the holiday photo above.

Interesting points about Mackinac Island.

  • Mackinac Island is 3.8 sq. miles of land area on Lake Huron, with 8 miles of coastline.
  • It is only accessible by watercraft or small aircraft.
  • It has a Fort, built in 1780 and closed as a active post in 1895.
  • Yellowstone National Park was the first National Park established, and just three years later in 1875, Mackinac Island National Park was named the 2nd National Park. 
  • Since 1898, motorized vehicles have been and still are restricted to emergency and some construction vehicles only.
  • Peddle bikes, horses and horse drawn carts are the island’s mode of transportation.
  • Fudge is the number 1 souvenir since the 1920’s. 
  • The 2010 Census showed 492 year round residents with approximately 15,000 summer visitors per day.

It is a beautiful place to visit with amazing architecture.

Art and a Glass House

IMG_2003

I love wall art with meaning, family or travel photos, or pictures or things you or someone you know make. Like this grouping of portraits I sketched of horses that Mister and I have owned and showed since together.

A hanging tribute that with a glance or simple passing, we can recall these treasured animals.

The poster size piece hangs on a wall at the country home where our daughter and husband live. Those fingers gripping the edge belong to her as we literally took an art walk through the house trying to find a spot to photograph it with the least glare.

A small, yet unfortunate issue for a picture lover like me, regarding the cottage where Mister and I live, is very limited wall space.

DSC02873

County regulations when we built stipulated, not more than 12 inches of wall between windows in the main living area. For us that affected one whole side and the back, and is why I sometimes refer to it as, our glass house. (Now, you may also understand why I grumble when it comes to cleaning windows and blinds.) Blinds, I could rant for a whole post about my dislike for cleaning them and the dilemma of what other, if any, window covering option we might have. But we’ll leave that triad for another time.

The few big enough drywall areas are precious space, and they showcase art with meaning.

There are two current exceptions. One picture hangs in the bathroom, a boat and shoreline scene. The other, large one is of, chairs on a dock facing a sunset. It hung on the living room wall at first but is now in the master bedroom. Both pieces fit the decor but were store-bought as inexpensive space fillers when we first used the cottage as a weekend retreat.

It’s crazy, we’ve lived here full-time for eight years now and with how important wall space is to me those insignificant two still remain, simply because I can’t decide which pictures to replace them with. I tend to over-think and over-stress about this, but…I shrug my shoulders and smile.

After writing about this though, I will move changing them up in priority on my to-do-list.

We have many special photos, so I enjoy multi frames or frames with multiple spots, probably because of my indecisiveness when choosing favorite pictures. Smiley face.

pic cluster

This is another, “to-do-project,” update this cluster which hangs on the only sizable main living space wall.

I Just had a Light Bulb Moment.

I blog because I love to write, share stories, and enjoy the interaction of comments. Learning how to entertain, enlighten, inspire or inform a reader with my posts is a learning process, and I may not always succeed,

but

writing this post inspired one person, me.

I didn’t have a big, life changing ah-hah moment, but I’m pleased none the less.

Don’t laugh at my victory, but I finally realized why choosing a picture for our bedroom wall has taken years. It’s not the spot for one photo to be enlarged and framed.

The room needs a colorful piece, something beachy and crafty, or a collection of sorts there instead. I’ll update on this when the change takes place.

So my brain storming and searching will begin. Sounds like a great reason to spend time scrolling Pinterest. Not that I normally need an excuse.

Does what hangs on your walls have meaning?

Do you like artwork if so what type?

Wow, Who Knew

instagram

This screenshot of Instagram’s sign page on my iPad caused me issues and almost outsmarted me.

I spent hours which turned into days combing settings; I googled the problem and asked Facebook friends for advice, all with no luck.

When I’m on the iPad I usually hold it in the landscape position, but I have auto rotate turned on for when I use it upright. If I click on the Instagram app while in this position then turn it this is what happens. Instagram never switches to a full page, and only getting half a page meant I couldn’t access my picture library on the bottom, and therefore couldn’t post pictures. It frustrated me to no end.

By accident, I stumbled across the solution and its simplicity amazed me.

Who knew, if I turn the iPad first then press the Instagram app it opens to a full screen. LOL

Now, I can and will update my Instagram account.

Check it out if you like photos of, oceans, lighthouses, marinas, mountains, farm scenes, lake scenes, animals, sunrises, sunsets, and much more.

Don’t let technology outsmart you, stay persistent.

Thought I’d share this encase someone else is having the same problem.

Have a good day.