Taking a Break – It is time for a little break from the world wide web. Here are some of my favorite photos that I have taken this year so far.

I like to take time off from the internet now and then. It is so refreshing to not be connected for awhile. We are bombarded with advertising and news that never seems to be uplifting at all. Except for sites like all of ours here in the blogging world.

But, I remember the days before there was any internet. Days were filled with activities and being in nature. Connecting with humans face to face. Spring time is a beautiful time to turn the electronics off for me. There is a lot to explore out there, and I am ready to dive right in.

I will be back next month, have a great weekend and see you all soon. 🙂

Taking a Break

Seeing Double – Well, this is my Chloee below. She is a mixed breed dog that we got over 10 years ago from a shelter. I just love her markings on her face. She is the best dog, she makes me smile and laugh and she leaves puppy glitter all over the place.

Puppy glitter is what we call her dog hair, it is everywhere at times like glitter can be.

Well, we were at a campground out for a walk and here comes another dog that is almost identical to our Chloee.

The dog on the left is named Georgia, and I just had to take some photos for the owner and for me to see the comparisons.

Georgia is only 3 years old, and Chloee was all white like that when she was that age. The left side of the face is a little different.

But here is their right side comparisons. How unique is this, maybe her long lost sister.

Seeing Double

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Oceans Green, depending on what part of the ocean you are at, the colors can range from blue, green and turquoise.

Have a great weekend.

Video of ocean waves crashing below or click here; Ocean Waves

Oceans Green

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sparkle Like Sunshine and leave glitter in your wake.

Sparkle Like Sunshine

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

If mushrooms grow above the soil, that hints at the abundance of fungal life you do not see under your soil. 

A great time to find them is after a rain and some warmer, humid type weather.

Oceans Blue – I could do a series and title it Oceans 12 from the movie.

I like this first shot, the cloud patterns and the shimmering water. Nothing but the horizon. Peaceful.

Oceans Blue

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Little Birds Taking Cover where ever they can find it on the beach before a storm. As these little guys try and hide behind this rock as the winds blow sand and debris across the beach. They hover together and hide their faces in their feathers to protect their eyes.

They learn to adapt. Amazing birds. Have a great weekend.

Video below of birds braving the stormy winds. Or click here; Little Birds in High Winds

Little Birds Taking Cover

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Brother and Sister Pups – These two pups are so pretty with their long flowing hair. It was really fun taking their photos and making prints for their people.

I have talked before about one thing that I like to have in my pet portraits, and that is Specular Highlights in the eyes.

The specular highlight appears on shiny objects. It normally appears on a mirror-like surface. Its appearance is often found on the top of a rounded surface. The incident light hits the object and creates the specular highlight and the light is reflected off the object toward the viewers eye.

Some people think the light reflection in the eye can be distracting in a photo. But, I find it necessary to have to give the eye more life. A bright spot that draws the viewer to the eyes. Eyes are always my focal point with pet and people photography.

Example. The photo on the left, I have removed the specular highlight. I find the eye looks less cheery, darker, lifeless to be more accurate. But the photo on the right, when the light spot is visible gives a much better overall photo for me.

It is much harder to achieve specular highlights in bird photography, because the birds movements can put them in the shadows at times. But it makes a big difference with birds as well.

Brother and Sister Pups

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Water and Light – I found this Blue Heron doing some fishing the other morning. I found the light reflecting off of the water onto the bird was quite cool looking. Almost like strobe lights dancing across its feathers.

Water and Light

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Southern Trees – I love looking at trees and plants. Just so many different kinds from state to state. Southern trees are just so unique compared to where I live in the north country.

From beautiful palm trees reaching high into the air.

To twisted and bumpy, branches going every which way.

Oh, the lemon trees. The fragrance alone is quite a nice addition to any garden.

Bamboo, I have never seen a grove of bamboo until we found these at a botanical garden.

Last but not least, the trees found on beaches. Parts and pieces, worn and weathered. But still standing for years to come.

Have a Great Weekend.

Southern Trees

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sandra J

St. Simons Island Light – Now this little island was just across the bridge from Jykell island. A wonderful festive little town surrounding this light house. Plenty of shops, board walks along the coast and plenty to see.

The beach community of St. Simon’s Island is home to the St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse, which was first built in 1810. It is one of five in the state with its restored Fresnel lens and still operates in guiding ships.

The island is an easy day trip from Savannah and other islands like Jekyll. Visitors can climb the 129 cast iron steps to the top. It’s also rumored to be haunted. 

I just love porches on homes. They are so inviting I think. We have a porch on our cabin, nothing like these, but it is my favorite place to sit at home and enjoy the views.

We did not go into this museum, but I love the architecture and the gardens around the building.

St. Simons Island Light

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sandra J

Sydney Lanier Bridge – the longest bridge in Georgia. We crossed this bridge heading to Jykell Island.

Its outstretched arms linking Brunswick to the rest of the Golden Isles, the Sidney Lanier Bridge soars over the Brunswick River. This, the longest-spanning bridge in Georgia, stretches 7,779 feet across and reaches 480 feet at its highest point. The sleek design creates a sense of lightness that belies the 95,283 cubic yards of concrete and 14,810,095 pounds of reinforcing steel used to construct the massive structure.

Sydney Lanier Bridge

Pet Portraits

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Sandra J

Leaving Jykell Island – a unique place we visited and yet never to return. But my photographs are a way for us to remember this place, a place in passing, as we stood on this beach looking at the eerie shadows of the trees with no life. There lies our shadows as well, a moment in time, an eerie feeling that we left something behind.

Video below of drift wood beach. Or click here; Drift Wood Beach

Leaving Jykell Island

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Gus the Pup – another campground pup. A never ending array of colors and sizes of dogs to photograph. The little ones are fun to do, as long as I drop to one knee to get down to their level to take their photo.

Have a great weekend.

Gus the Pup

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Beach Bird Art – all my art work starts with a photograph. I use my own photos that I have taken when I decide to make a piece of art work for a composite or a digital painting.

This first photo is a composite of 3 different photos that I have taken. Blending them all in so that the colors are similar is the trick. Not always easy to find, but fun to make none the less.

Beach Bird Art

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Hidden Gems in the Background – guess what. One cannot be on the pacific ocean without finding one Light House.

Look past the tree to the other shore line, there stands a light house on One of four barrier islands comprising the Golden Isles of Georgia,

St. Simons Island, the largest of the Golden Isles, captivates visitors with its fascinating blend of history and natural beauty. Steeped in a rich heritage, the island is home to historical sites like the St. Simons Lighthouse,

Have a wonderful weekend.

Hidden Gems in the Background

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

So Many Photo Opts – the driftwood itself is very interesting and artistic all on its own. But here at drift wood beach, you have so many different compositions you can pick for your photo.

The waves are never very big and the clouds can add some dramatic movement to your photo.

But the best thing to capture are the shadows of the trees on the beach. I will show that next week from the drone photos. Kind of eerie with the long limbs of the branches reaching out like they are arms moving in the shadows.

So Many Photo Opts

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Silhouette of Life and Death

A photograph of now and then. They tell me life is a journey, that which we must all take. Moments like this is where I am in awe of creation.

As I stand before this vastness of water, where it seems like I can see forever into the unknown, it reminds me of the light of the future ahead of me, yet behind me is my past of many roads resembled by this tree. All of which brought me to this place in time, a teaching moment that only creation can explain.

Our paths take so many different twist and turns, but the light that shines before us is calling us to continue, even though the past is always right behind us, it slowly disappears and gets lost in time and buried by the sands of creation.

Amazing this thing called life.

Silhouette of Life and Death

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Jykell Island – the one thing the gentleman told us to see when visiting this island, is drift wood beach. I looked on the satellite image from google maps and it looks like a few branches and such scattered along the beach. So I thought, maybe it will look better when walking on the beach. So off we went.

Jykell island has a lot of history of who founded the island and how it has changed over the years. It is known for the secret meeting of 6 men who decided they needed to change the federal reserve system.

The Meeting at Jekyll Island

November 20, 1910–November 30, 1910

The state of Georgia purchased Jekyll Island from the Jekyll Island Club through condemnation proceedings for $675,000. Then it was opened to the public as a State Park

Now one must pay a daily fee to enter the island. It is $10.00 a day now.

Drift wood beach is at the far end of the island and we drove there first. Parking all along the main stretch of road. We chose a spot with a short walk to the beach. At first glance as we got closer to the beach, it was beginning to look very interesting.

According to my research, photographers love showing up here at sunrise or sunset and you will see why on my next couple of post. We arrived mid morning as it was a long drive from our campground.

Scattered with the sun-bleached remains of gnarled and weathered trees, stepping onto Driftwood Beach in Jekyll Island, is like stepping into an alternate reality. It feels like what you’d imagine a post-apocalyptic world to feel like – signs of a life that once was intertwined with a life that now is, all under the watchful and commanding eye of Mother Nature.

Over the last 120+ years, erosion has claimed more than 1,000 feet (305 meters) of Jekyll Island’s coastline, the consequences of which are no more evident or more visually dramatic than they are on Driftwood Beach.

Due to the effects of decades of erosion, what was once a lush, maritime forest has become a boneyard for ancient oak trees and pine trees that have fallen victim to Mother Nature. Over time, as the ocean crept its way into the forest and strong winds and saltwater ate away at tree roots, the soil cover needed to keep it alive became stripped away.

This caused the trees to uproot or to die, some of which miraculously remain standing while others lay half-buried in the sand. And because the tides along this part of the coastline aren’t strong enough to sweep them out to sea, the trees remain. Together forming the hauntingly beautiful landscape that Driftwood Beach is known for today.

Jykell Island

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

A New Place – Happy New Year to everyone. May this year be bountiful and full of adventure and joy, I wish everyone a wonderful new year ahead of us. Full of opportunities, love, and a giving heart for all those we meet on our journey’s of this thing called life. A gift beyond all gifts.

So I start the year with crossing a new bridge. Literally and physically, as I get another year older and hopefully wiser as I make my way to that final chapter in life. My elder years makes me more aware of where I have been and where I am going. It is so much more clear than any other time in my life. Now is a time of adventure and wonderment as I seek to find all the beauty in this world that has been given to us, as I continue my path taking photos and sharing what I find for as long as I can, it starts with this trip across a new bridge. A wonderful way to start the new year.

We went to visit a new place, because of another camper that told us about this island not far from where we were staying. I really need to explore the maps more when we are visiting an area. I would never have thought to go here if they had not mentioned it.

First you have to cross the Sidney Lanier Bridge to get to this location.

The Sidney Lanier Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Brunswick River in Brunswick, Georgia, carrying four lanes of U.S. Route 17. The current bridge was built as a replacement to the original vertical-lift bridge, which was twice struck by ships. It is currently the longest-spanning bridge in Georgia and is 480 feet (150 m) tall. It was named for poet Sidney Lanier.

I will have some better photos of the bridge as we leave the island

We are visiting Jekyll Island in Georgia. A place I have never heard of, except for the name Jekyll from that scary movie. This week I will be sharing what we found on this island and the beauty and history that it holds.

A New Place

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

How Many Doodles in a Poodle – So cute, I was out for a walk and here comes this long legged beautiful black and white dog with his owner. So one has to ask what kind of dog it is and how old and may I take his picture.

Well, come to find out the owner was telling me that this Poodle Doodle has 4 or 5 different doodles in it. They did a DNA test to find out what exactly kind of dog it is.

It has Labradoodle of course, and some Doodleman, Golden Doodle and just a poodle doodle and one other doodle they were not sure of. Whew, that is a lot of doodles, but wait.

Come to find out there are as of now over 52 different kinds of doodle dogs.

Poodles are one of the most popular breeds in the world, coming in as the seventh most popular dog in the United States. These fantastically fluffy friends are known for often being best in show across all categories. And it’s no wonder why– Poodles are super dang cute with their curly low-shedding coats, sparkling eyes, and animated expressions. This is one of the reasons breeders started crossbreeding them for some of these awesome hybrid pups!

Here are just a few of the names they have; Foodle, Sheepadoodles, Bernedoodle, Ausiedoodles, Irish doodle, Yorkie Poo Doodle. That last one is a good one.

No this one is a great name, Schnoodles 

Have yourselves a fun doodle day. 🙂 and a great weekend.

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts Pet Portraits

How Many Doodles in a Poodle

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

A Beautiful Setting – Southern Charm. I can just picture back in the day with this barn full of horses and lush pastures in the background with moss hanging on the trees as the horses stand in the shade on the hot summer days.

This is quite the horse barn for sure.

A horse persons dream to have stalls and a hay loft with a nice center walk way to bring your horses through the barn.

But, it is no longer a horse farm but a city park and the public restrooms are in this building. The city has grown up around this farm and the nice thing about it all is that the owners made it into a park instead of letting the city demolish it and put stores here instead. I like that and lots of people use this park.

This place is in Hinesville Georgia, a military town that we visited for awhile. It is about the only green space left in this town and we went here a lot as well to walk the dogs and enjoy the greenery.

A Beautiful Setting

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Her Name is Cindy and she has what they call the brindle color. Her person’s name is Hunter, yes that is right. Seems like the names should be switched around, I thought I heard her wrong when she introduced herself to me. But I asked again, just to make sure. Hunter is the person and Cindy is her dog.

Brindle is caused by the accumulation of melanin in the hair shafts, which give the fur a reddish hue. Brindle can occur anywhere on the body, but is most commonly found on the head and hindquarters. The gene responsible for this color change is recessive, so it needs two copies of the mutant gene to be expressed for a dog to develop brindle.

It is a very unique and beautiful color pattern I think.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas

Her Name is Cindy

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Merry Christmas from our home to yours. Have a wonderful weekend and may He bless us with love, family and friends on this beautiful weekend. 🙂

Merry Christmas

Love Live Oak Trees – every year I take new photos of these beautiful trees. Amazing how the branches grow horizontal to the ground. Some branches touch the ground and keep growing, these trees you will mostly find in the warmer climate areas.

The moss is like tinsel hangin on a Christmas tree. I don’t know if they make tinsel anymore, but my grandfather loved covering our Christmas tree with lots of tinsel after the other decorations were put on.

Our trees back in the day looked just like this.

Love Live Oak Trees

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Pup Portraits – I have been taking a lot of photos of folks pets, mostly dogs. This is truly one of my favorite things to do. I can make a portrait out of any photo, some folks just send me one of their pets but when I can I like to take the photo myself and then make a portrait for the people that ask me to do this for them.

I take a lot of photos at a session just to get that right look. Any shots where the dog is looking up, like the second one. That is where the pup is looking at their person as they try to get them to sit or to get those ears to go forward. That makes for a great shot.

This ones name is Buda

Pup Portraits

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Unique Semi Truck – You all may know that I mostly take photos of nature, animals, wildlife. But, on occasion I see something like this that catches my attention. Modern marvels in engineering and building. Plus I drove a semi for a couple of years and there are some pretty cool looking tractor trailers out there.

We were driving down the interstate and husbands says to me, ” Look what is about to pass us”. This beautiful truck rolled on by. But I did not get the best look because it was passing us. Well I watched it disappear up ahead and a rest stop was coming up, so I said lets pull over because the dogs needed to get out.

And what do I see but this truck parked at the rest stop, so I had to take a couple of photos.

Video below of truck passing or click this link – Cool Truck

Unique Semi Truck

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts

Wide Angle Lens – I love shooting with my wide angle lens. It can give a landscape photo wonderful depth and if you have some fluffy clouds, it can give the appearance of movement.

I used the rule of thirds for this shot. I have the barn almost center and took the photo facing the corner of the barn. This allows for more depth, the barn angle makes my eye follow the line of the barn to the left of the photo and makes the barn look bigger then it is.

But I also left plenty of blank space on the right of the photo so you can see the clouds all the way back and gives the appearance of movement.

Blank space is important in many ways, if you are selling your work for commercial use, they want blank space for advertising.

Depending on the scene, it also gives you a glimpse of the background to the subject. This being farmland that goes with this old barn.

This photo below, I did not leave blank space on the right because I am on a hill taking this photo and with the corn field in the background, there is not enough open space to draw the eye to look all the way to the horizon. So the tree fits perfectly for this composition.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wide Angle Lens

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts