Thought dreams nature
into beautiful images
of its reflection.
With mindful meditation
on nature through art
my spirit recalls
the mystical beginning
and ending of all. ~ms
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© Mary Strong (Always) and Before I Forget/Stories with No Books, 2012-2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary Strong (Always) and Before I Forget/ Stories with No Books with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. NO REBLOGGING WITHOUT PERMISSION.
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Before I Forget 
Beautiful photos! I especially like the last photo of the fungi. It’s wonderful.
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Thanks. Mushrooms have their own special appeal. 🙂
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Beautiful – both words and pictures. I love what you’ve done with the photos.
Alison
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Thanks Alison.
I just watched your HuffPost video. GREAT!
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Great nature shots and poem, Mary! Love the processing too.
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Thanks Tiny. Just playing around with filters. There is no way to improve upon nature, that’s for sure…and nature knows it! 🙂
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I love this response, Mary. Still you did a great job on this one, lovely images. 🙂
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Wonderful words and images.
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magical photos and words Mary.
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Who we are…..
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true.
have a great sunday.
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Such a lovely tribute to nature, Mary. Your photos and artwork are lovely here, I espec. like the first one with the reflection.
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Good eye! The first one is a true product of nature’s ability to create its own reflection.
The other 4 photos are also nature photographs, but I was fooling around with Photoshop…and I am nowhere near as talented as Mother Nature!!
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Very beautiful!
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☺
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Always nice to see a virtual happy face. 😉
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Nice
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Lovely pictures, what kind of special application do you use here?
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Since I said I was meditating on nature through art (and I had some extra free time), I decided to try to make the photos look more like paintings (using Adobe Photoshop).
I simply applied the “Oil Painting” Filter. Doesn’t make the photos look like real oil paintings, that’s for sure–but it is fun to alter reality from time to time. 🙂
I used Photoshop on 2 other posts, because they were about dreams and I wanted to give the photos a more unreal “spooky” look. Not sure if I was successful or not, but it was fun playing with it.
One was about hiding in a dream from “No Thing.” I inverted the colors (like a negative) of a perfectly normal photo, applied the oil paint filter, and then framed it: https://storieswithnobooks.com/2013/01/29/something-about-nothing/
The other post was about “Dreaming Eyes.” All I did with that photo was invert the colors to create an eerie unreal look. https://storieswithnobooks.com/2013/01/12/dreaming-eyes/
I just noticed that both of those posts were done in January, 2013. I must have been in a strange mood that month.
OH and I just remembered…I made the header for this blog by combining 5 of my photos. I wouldn’t have been able to make a header like that without Photoshop. I want to make a new header, one day when I have enough time.
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Great work, especially “Dreaming Eyes”
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Thanks….I’m a dreamer, to be sure!
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Beautiful renditions Mary.
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Thanks so much!
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I love the effects in the second and third images; so pretty.
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Thank you. It was fun trying to soften reality in an attempt to create a dream.
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I think that’s what many of us are doing in these strange times 🙂
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Yes….it does make it feel like there is a way to quickly make a change and alter the way things are going. Wish it was that easy!!
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