Many new photos to share!

(Franklin, the Great Horned Owl)

Within the past few months, I have spent a lot of time on photo shoots throughout the local Bay area. (This would be the Tampa Bay area of Florida). Living here means great opportunities for photo events with everything from quaint cities such as Gulfport and Tarpon Springs to more natural settings such as Ft. DeSoto Park and Honeymoon Island. It also helps to hang out with some of the the most talented photographers I know. Spending time with them has made me become a much better photographer myself. I'm leaning what makes a great shot and what doesn't but mostly, I am having a blast doing this!

So having said all that, I'm now going to share some of my photos with all of you. 

The above was taken yesterday at a park whose name escapes me for the moment. I love old dried out trees as they make for interesting subjects. 

Most of my photographer friends take nature photos of birds, sea life and the like. My bird photos tend to not be as detailed as theirs but that all changed yesterday when I was able to get pretty close to this female mallard. Normally, the mallards tend to be skittish and will either fly away or head into the water. This one was just chilling out and didn't even twitch when I got next to her. Mallards are one of my favorite birds to begin with so getting this shot was a real treat. 

I was also able to snap this sweet old boy later in the day. We had stopped at Suncoast Sea Bird Sanctuary and the pelicans were all over the place. 

The majority of my photos tend to run towards this sort. I love the peaceful easy feeling I get when I see photos like this. 

I love living in Florida, where things stay green for most of the year. 

The above photo was taken at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, FL. The park has chairs like these set up in places normally where there is a pond or pool. They invite people to just sit down, take a load off and just relax. 

Some of the man-made reflecting pools at Florida Botanical Gardens. 

I have many more photos but these were some of the best of yesterday. 

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

New card designs

When I'm not writing books, I'm doing stuff like this ^^^.

I've been busy working on new designs lately and wanted you to see what I've been doing.

Just a few of the things I've been working on lately. I've been pedal to the metal recently due to an Open House coming up next weekend at my art society where I'll be selling these. 

I gotta tell you though how relaxing it can be to just sit and draw, even if I don't have a particular theme or design in mind. Yes, none of this is Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint, inDesign or any of the other products one can find online. Not that those are bad, they do and can enhance peoples' art, giving them design choices beyond imagination. But for now and my budget, all of the cards you see are done using my hand, my brain and mostly a black Flair pen. I'm still old school when it comes to some things. 

I also have a ton of photos to upload as well but will write a separate blog for those. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!