I found my inspiration!

An Apple - 27" iMac® with Retina 5K display - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive!
No more sore eyes for me staring at an old monitor that was slowly fading in from the corners.  Even though I consider myself a PC gal - I had no problem buying my first Mac.  Now for some awesomely edited images.

Elena

Recently I re-organized my photography equipment.  I have lost touch with much of it...and this makes me sad, although inspired to pick up my camera soon.  Thinking of this I felt the need to find some inspiration to get my motor running.  Elena Shumilova is a Russian Photographer who has such a unique niche...  Fine Art photography for sure. I have followed her on Flickr for several years and LOVE everything she posts.  

Example of style

Soft washed out color with spectacular backlighting and ring lighting.  Her subjects are perfectly posed in such an unposed way.  She usually has an animal in the picture with her subject.

She named this one Lapland

Wind on Surrey Hill

So I decided to see how close I could get to her style...using photoshop.

Now I don't have any animals to throw into this image but for a first try not to bad.

Ruby in Snow

Damn it where is a cute bunny when you need one!

Gorgeous One Room School

Tim and I found this one-room school in Pepin County, Wisconsin.  It was a random drive by.  With all of my internet searching I have never ran across this one.  It gives me great hope that there are still 100's out there for us to discover.  

This school highlighted sch under Porcupine.  This is a Plat map from 1913.

Lost Dog

December 12
It was 7°
2pm I get a phone call at work from a frantic Maddie.  She's just arrived home from New York and Millie is not in the house.  She did not know til later that Joe had been home at 11am.  He was in and out of the house a few times to carry things into the garage, tidying up from a weekend of surprise construction...a beautiful baking cupboard as a Christmas gift for Maddie. Millie slipped out on one of his trips to the garage.
An hour later the three of us, Maddie, Joe and I  are combing the streets by foot and car.  The Richfield City has been called.  I ask a co-worker to scan the social media. The storefronts- and apartments on Lyndale have been visited.  It's really cold.  Millie is no where in site.  Maddie posts on to Richfield Community Facebook page.  Dog Lost please call.

About 10 minutes later she got the call. Millie was at our next door neighbors house. I'm sure they had tried calling but her phone was on airplane mode.
We figure Millie had been out on the streets for at least 2+ hours.  She left Aldrich and 75th crossed over Lyndale, Nicollet and Portland!  She has never been walked to our house, but brought in the car many times.
This is simply amazing to me.  Thank you to whoever found her, and thank you to our neighbors for keeping Millie warm and safe.  We all feel very lucky and blessed. Merry Christmas.

Joe and Maddie and Millie - Home again safe and sound. 

Last night it snowed over 5 inches.  The snow fell overnight and into morning hours lingering as the day went on. I thought it might be a good time to get a picture of Henry and his new hat.  I tried in the morning and got this shot...

At Christian Park later.