You can see a full color version of this mosaic wall at Raritan Valley Community College in this post. To put this in sepia, I copied the original photo to a new layer in Photoshop, desaturated the photo, added yellow and red to get sepia, and then set the opacity of the sepia layer to 90% so just a wee bit of color would show through. I wanted to use the sepia effect to emphasize the textures of the mosaic.
For more sepia photos, visit Sepia Scenes:
This was my favorite dance at my daughter’s ballet recital (not counting the ballet, tap and jazz dances she performed, of course). It seemed like a fitting ballet for this time of year; on Sunday Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Purim, and dressing up in costume is part of the tradition.
For more photos in sepia, visit Sepia Scenes:
My daughter and her dancer friends want you to know that her mom should have told you last week to submit links for the JPIX Blog Carnival that will appear tomorrow on Pesky Settler’s blog. JPIX is the blog carnival for Jewish Photo Bloggers (about Jewish topics, but one can stretch this to nature, everyday living and food photos); everyone is welcome to enjoy the show.
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My daughter’s dance rehearsal and show was last week. Lots of girls from ages 3 to teenagers performed ballet, tap and jazz. I love the costumes – they make the performances all the more fun. These girls, a group younger than my daughter, had polka dot outfits.
For more shots Straight Out Of the Camera, visit:
Last week for the first time in almost ten years I had the opportunity to go cross-country skiing while my daughter and her friends were sledding. The red hydrant behind the skis is what qualifies this photo for Ruby Tuesday, a photo meme where you post any photo with some red. And this was before our bigger storm that dumped over a foot of snow. Strangely, the Boston area, which I visited this past weekend and is over five hours drive north of our area of New Jersey, had very little snow.
I learned a good gardening tip on Saturday night while driving from Newton, MA to Marlboro, MA (we were invited to a laser tag party). If one of your small trees gets a lot of snow on it, brush it off with a long broom as soon as you can. Otherwise, the snow may permanently bend the tree into an unhealthy shape. If that does happen, you may have to trim the tree and wait years until it gets back a normal shape.
For more photos with a little or a lot of red:
The bell part of this pottery that I made long ago never worked; it is supposed to chime with the wind. But it makes a pretty ornament on my porch.
Thank you to everyone who left comments on my interview with Raritan Air Water Power Service. If you haven’t left a comment yet, feel free to do so.
I am leaving with my daughter in the morning on a trip, but I’ll be back by Monday morning. So if I don’t get a chance to visit your blog or respond on this one, that’s why. Have a great weekend everyone.
Or is this an orange-colored fish?
Just for fun, from the same museum, a World War II poster:
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Books I’m reading: I read most of the stories in The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories by Max Apple. I would like to write a post on the story called “Stabbing an Elephant.” Can anyone guess what the story about stabbing an elephant is about? Hint: which Jewish holiday?
I started reading My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar, a birthday present from a dear friend (thank you). It is a captivating book; Ariel Sabar tells his story and the story of his father with great flourish and engaging description.
I finished Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell – I highly recommend it, though the topic is a disturbing one.
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies, bird-filled skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
Last week my son said he heard a bird making a strange noise. I went outside with my camera and found many birds (thanks to Michelle for identifying the birds as starlings) making noise.
The birds congregated in a pattern.
Then one bird flies off.
Now the sky is filled with birds.
Watch them taking off.
The late afternoon sun makes the wings look golden.
This statue of a red skier and the old photos behind it are in the showcase at the Jiminy Peak Country Inn entrance. Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Massachusetts was founded in 1948 and was named after – Jiminy Cricket. There are no longer t-bars at the mountain like the one the little boy is clinging to in the old photo.
“In August 2007, Jiminy became the first private US business (and only ski resort) to invest in its own megawatt class wind turbine.” (from Wikipedia) The three wind turbines shown on a neighboring peak are newer than the original turbine; one skis right past the first turbine which is on the top of the ski mountain.
My two sons getting a lesson in parallel skiing: the ski instructor is in the green jacket, my sons are wearing bright blue and black with red striped jackets.
For more photos with a little or a lot of red: