Guest Post by Sarah Carletti

I am excited to introduce Sarah Carletti, a talented photographer, whose beautiful portrait, nature and macro photography is of great inspiration to me. I have learned to know Sarah through a community of blogging photographers, and I am so happy she was willing to write a guest post on my blog. Moreover, I am smitten by Sarah's gentleness and her sweet spirit - learn more of her by visiting Sarah Carletti Photography.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. 
Psalm 66:4

Hello, my name is Sarah and I am an amateur photographer. If you visit my blog you will quickly notice that I photograph lots of flowers and nature. While I love the landscape photography that portrays grand vistas, I tend to look close at the Earth and focus on the small things I see. There is such beauty in even the smallest of nature. 
When I photograph a beautiful flower or plant, the details remind me of how sovereign and majestic the Lord is! He is many things, but He is creator.

A lone flower in Spring.

Beautiful flowers along the alley.

When I go out to photograph, here are some things I look for: 

1) Light: Morning light is my favorite light to photograph flowers and plants. In the picture above, I was able to shoot almost into the sun and not get any lens flare. 

2) Color: Nature provides such an abundance of colors. Need I say more?

3) Texture: Also, things such as grass, moss, bark, sheen and seeds all make for great focal points when considering how to photograph your subject.

4) Depth of Field: I love to focus on a subject by using a shallow depth of field. In general I may use an f-stop of 1.8 to 2.8 depending on the size of the flower and what I am focusing on. In the photograph below, there is an ugly flower-bed and a mixture of early Spring, brown and green grass in the background. By using a shallow depth of the field, the colors are blurred and the flower is the focus.

5) Background: In the photo below I chose to shoot from above for two reasons - I didn't like what was behind the flower but I loved what was below it. The pink adds interest to the pristine tulip. I'm constantly moving around to find the best shot. For each person that may look different.

This is just a quick round up of my photography and style. I am so honored that Nina would ask me to guest post and I am very glad to be here! Feel free to stop by sometime and say hello! Many blessings to you.

BLOG  -  FACEBOOK  -  G+

Sincerely,

Sarah Carletti

Rest

Then Jesus said, 

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, 

and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28 (New Living Translation)

Come to me by Bethel Church and Jenn Johnson

Here's a printable

of Matthew 11:28 for you 

Sharing with: 

Still Saturday, The Weekend Brew, 
Sunday Stillness , Give Me Grace

Photo: iPhone 5, Picture+ & VSCOcam Apps 

Fridays Finds & A Novel Recommendation

I've been reading outside under a sunshade this week - a gripping novel by Linda Olsson, Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs.  

To prolong my time with this unique novel, I am reading only a few chapters a day. Linda Olsson gives you a peek into the lives of to women, Astrid and Veronika, who through their friendship dare process some of the difficulties, they have faced. 

I am intrigued by the descriptions of places, moments, thoughts, personalities ... tasting the words, and enjoying the way things are written. I look so much forward of returning to the worlds of Astrid and Veronika later this afternoon!

The season of blueberries has started in Finland - my mom had picked a great bunch of them yesterday. Here in Denmark we don't have wild blueberries, but my husband bought some of them the other day ... I cherish the blue shade and the look of them almost as much as eating them!

We had a traditional Danish lunch in a lovely restaurant in the middle of the pretty Hareskov forest.
"Smørrebrød" goes back to the 19th century, where the lunch was the heaviest meal of the day. One used to use any remaining food - potatoes, meat, fish, vegetables - as a topping on the bread. 

We had lunch plates (the photo above) with 

• White herring with onions and capers
• Eggs and shrimps with herbmayonnaise, lemon and dill
• Chicken salad with curry, mushrooms and bacon
• A special beef-sausage fried with malt and spices and red onion

Afterwards we took a walk in the forest - we saw a tiny frog in the swampy area pictured above, and a deer running just across the path before us.

I have been baking rolls for breakfast this week. I tried a new recipe yesterday - by my favourite food blogging friend Dawn from Words of Deliciousness. She surely knows how to inspire with her recipes - I always find new ideas from her, here's some of my favourite dishes I've learned from her:

• Bavarian Apple Torte ... The best apple pie ever!
• Buttermilk-Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze - fresh and sweet taste of summer.
• Chicken Parmesan Bundles - Yummy, both for the kids and adults!
• Pillow-Soft Dinner Rolls - Tastes good for breakfast as well (picture above).

Dawn has a 3 year blog anniversary this month - pay a visit to her tasty and inspiring blog Words of Deliciousness.

_  _  _

The next two weeks, when I am away from the blog, you will find inspiring guest posts in my blog, written by special and unique blogging friends. I have also pre-posted For Your Sunday-posts and something else ... 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Nina

Sharing with 

Friday Finds Friendship Friday Weekly Top Shot
 Saturday Share Fest Friday Photo Journal

Summerfeet - Retromatic 2.0 App

Summer feet are happy feet - they're out and about in the grass, on the sand and in the water! It has been warm and sunny - yet the mild breeze makes the temperature feel nice and not too hot.

I found this creative and handy Retromatic 2.0 App the other day, it is available free at the moment in App Store. You can make cool posters and cards with it, all in one app:

• You start by selecting a photo, you would like to use.Then you mask the object you wish to include to your poster, and choose a background for it. 
• You can add nice patterns, insignias and marks in different colours, and also write a text of your choice as well.  There is plenty of fonts to choose from - they look very similar to the fonts in Phonto App
• Afterwards you can save the image on your camera roll, or post it directly to Instagram, facebook and Path On.

I have had some creative moments with Retromatic 2.0 App, making holiday greetings and birthday cards  
- And I will surely keep using it in the future.

Now I'm going to see what others have created this week at Barb's App Happy Wednesday,

Nina

Joy of Your Presence

You will show me the way of life,

granting me the joy of your presence 

and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 16:11 New Living Translation

I Love Your Presence by Vineyard Worship

:  :  :

Blessings to your week, 

Nina

Here's a printable
of Psalm 16:11 for you 

Sharing with: 

Still Saturday, The Weekend Brew, 
Sunday Stillness , Give Me Grace

Getaway to Sejerø

We had a lovely getaway to Sejerø with some good friends of ours. Sejerø is a charming, tiny island (12,4 km2) in the Kattegat sea. It takes about 40 minutes to sail to Sejerø from the town of Havnsø in Zealand. 

There is only 400 inhabitants in Sejerø - in the summertime though more, since the summer guests, staying in the summerhouses and in the sailing boats in the harbour, are visiting and staying in this beautiful island.

The island is long and narrow ... We visited the eastern tip of the island - finding interesting stones and also a small skeleton - of a fish, a rabbit or a 

bird? We saw a deer running across the narrow road - also many swallows that had build their nests on little holes on the top of the sandy hills.

Our friend picked up this stone: What does it remind you of?

Birds started their evening concert, as we sat outside and had a barbecue ... Witnessing the sun go down behind the fields was beautiful, while hearing the waves from the sea, and feeling the warmth of summer & fellowship.

 ...Weekend greetings,

Nina

Sharing with 

Five Things by The World Around Her
1440 by Finding Serenpidity

Editing photo background with mobile textures

I received the pretty bouquet above last Friday. It is made by my talented colleague - she had both picked the flowers from the nature and bind them to a bouquet herself! 

I wanted to make a Still Life photo of this colourful bouquet - being at work, iPhone was the only camera I had. I placed the flowers on my working desk in front of a white board, close to a window on the left - so the light fell naturally from the left side on the flowers.

This is how I proceeded with the editing:

• I adjusted the brightness, contrast, ambiance and warmth in the "tune image"-function in the Snapseed application (app).
•  Then I blurred the background: I made the overall image blurred in Tadaa SLR-app. I then applied the blurred image on top of the non-blurred image in Image Blender-app, masking the bouquet so it stayed sharp.
• The frames of the white board disturbed the otherwise balanced photo, so I wanted to remove them using the "retouch"-function in Handy Photo-app. I removed also the corner of a wooden chair from the lower left corner.
• The Tadaa SLR-app removed the upper board line, but it also left a yellow area on the top right corner. So I used Image Blender, layering the left upper corner of the photo on top of the right one. Now I was satisfied with the overall image. The vague white board line in the lower right side didn't bother me - Actually I wanted to keep it, as a memory that the photo was taken on my the last day at the office.
• Now I started adding mobile textures, to give the background a delicate, painterly effect. I received a set of beautiful textures that match size wise mobile phone cameras by 2 Lil' Owls, as a part of a phone photography-course iPhoneography with Bob Veil, which I have enrolled and look forward of immersing myself in this summer. 
• I used both ImageBlender, PhotoFusion & Filterstorm-apps to add the texture layers with - Image Blender and Photo Fusion has 18 blending modes you can select from, Filterstorm has 16 blending modes.

You can see my editing process in the video below: 

The bouquet is in our kitchen, bringing the scent of summer inside. The flowers create a delightful colour spot, bringing the scent of summer inside! 

I took a picture of them and my "Butter Sun" on Sunday, as I was baking cinnamon rolls. To create a dreamy blur and some depth of field to the images, I took it to the Focal Lab-app, where I added a soft focus effect. I created the pretty polaroid frame to this photo with Polamatic app, that also enables you to add text with 36 different fonts.

Sun is shining again ... I hope to find some wildflowers, 

so I might learn to bind a summer bouquet myself!

Flowery Greetings from

Nina

sharing with 

"app" happy wednesday

Still Life - Monthly Meme

His Light

The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.

Psalm 118:27

Julie True: I Need You Lord, Meet Me Here

:  :  :

Blessings to your week, 

Nina

Here's a printable
of Psalm 118:27 for you 

Sharing with: 

Still Saturday, The Weekend Brew, 
Sunday Stillness , Give Me Grace

Photo: iPhone 5, Picture+ & Snapseed Apps 

African Rhythms and Summer Landscapes

The weather has been sunny and warm this week - Thursday was the warmest day this summer, the temperature reached up to +30 C / +86 F. 
I have enjoyed the summer feeling on the evening walks - either in the forest, where my husband and the boys are running, or by the nearby lake.

It's been rather warm in the office - Open windows help a lot, thought. 
On Thursday morning I invited my colleagues to a "Farewell-Breakfast" - It was so nice that many had the possibility to join ... 
I cherish the nice words and speech I received - hiding them in my heart - Being thankful of the people I have gotten to know,  and everything I have learned and been able to experience during the last 5 years.

I received a beautiful bouquet from a sweet colleague of mine on Friday - She had bind it together herself! (I'll post a picture in colours next week :) Packing the office down in Friday took longer than I expected, sorting out what would be important to save, what should be thrown out takes time.
New adventures at the new work are awaiting after the summer holidays ...

We celebrated the 16th birthday of our oldest son in Friday, eating out at his favourite restaurant Wagamama, which has a Japanese kitchen. He invited some friends along ... Cake and family celebration continued on Saturday. 
I'm thankful for our boys - the time goes so fast! ... Watching them and their cousin yesterday - A bunch of lovely & wonderful teenagers :)


We listened to lively rhythms and special instruments yesterday at Skt. Hans Square, where King Ayisoba from Ghana played with his band at Copenhagen Jazz Festival:

"King Ayisoba is one of Ghana's most powerful music profiles. He is touring this year for the first time in the West with a full band of singers, musicians and energetic dancers home. 
The traditional music is based on a stringed lute called kologo. Accompanied by his brother, who plays on a special North Ghanesian hunting horns, King Ayisoba has created its own bony kind of blues filled with occupied rhythms, call and response vocals and raucous beauty."(Jazz.dk)

The weather took a drastic change to rain and cooler temperatures - well, I have a few good books that I've been looking forward to read - books and rainy days are a very good combination!

Wishing you a lovely weekend and happy holidays!

Nina

sharing with

Five Things by The World Around Her

Joyful in Hope

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

You are my joy - Mike Winger

:  :  :

Blessings to your week, 

Nina

Here's a printable
of Romans 12:12 for you 

Sharing with: 

Still Saturday, The Weekend Brew, 
Sunday Stillness, Give Me Grace

Photo: iPhone 5, Picture+ & Snapseed Apps, 

Photo Veil Privet from the Botanical Collection  by Love That Shot, Texture 2811Magic by Kim Klassen

Forest Find

It is Friday and the weekend has started! I have been biking to work a few times this week (that is, biking to the train, and from the train to work :) ... It is a pleasure to bike, even these small distances.

I found this little bug in the forest, on this white flower the other day - It would be nice to get a "bug book" to get to know the names of the colourful insects. 

The weather forecast says that this will be a warm weekend - maybe even some rain and thunder ... Let's see!

Wishing you a great weekend 

& 

Happy 4th of July to all the friends 

on the other side of the Atlantic!

Nina

Sharing with 

Happiness is ... {Texture Tuesday}

Happiness is ...

Cornflowers on the roadside.

I was driving through a rural area today, admiring the fields and the open landscape. I noticed these pretty cornflowers on the roadside and stopped the car to take a closer look - the bright blue color stood out in a very pretty way against the green corn - a wonderful sight!

I took this picture with my iPhone - from a low perspective, to have the blue sky as a background. I have added the following texture layers by Kim Klassen: Simple (color burn 21%), Simple 2 (screen 34%), Oceanside (color burn 19%) and the Veil (screen 8%)

Happy Tuesday to you,

Nina

sharing with 

Kim's Texture Tuesday