Mary Bedy Photography

Curving Birch Just Googling “the color green”, you get information like “there are 297 shades of the color green”. I don’t know how someone determines that - it sounds kind of subjective to me, but maybe there are scientific studies that supported that conclusion. But does that veer off into “kind of green” or “blue-green”? It’s probably more complicated than I care to know. Fall Forest Glow My mother and I used to have arguments about whether something was more blue than green or green than blue. I think she had trouble seeing some aqua hues, but maybe it’s me that can’t see some shades of green. How would you know? I have no color blindness, according to regular eye exams. Some languages only have color words that encompass blue and green together, and they don’t distinguish between these shades on the color wheel. I think mom and I would have benefitted from such a word when discussing wall colors, although maybe one of us would have been disappointed with the ultimate choice. The

Saguaro National Park Visitor's Center 2 In Jungian psychology, it is said that the ‘shadow’ parts of someone’s personality are those items that the subconscious mind refuses to recognize in oneself. More often than not, these are unpleasant parts of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge. Sometimes positive aspects of ourselves, when having low self-esteem, can also not be recognized. Like the art or music prodigy who is massively talented, but also so insecure they can’t believe in their own capabilities. General Store Shadows Are you afraid of what’s in the shadows? Is there something lurking in there that can jump out and surprise you? Maybe there is unseen danger. Maybe there are hidden treasures. But these interpretations and “deep thoughts” are really not the main subject of this blog post. I would like a show of hands as to how many of you have been sitting mostly in an outdoor setting, just relaxing and you slowly become aware of the shadow patterns of the things arou

I don’t know about you, but this year and especially at this time of this year, I’m exhausted. Tired of the rhetoric and the hate speech. I will now stop talking about all that and give you (and myself) a small gift. I present to you several images mostly from nature. Images that do not offend. Images that bring forth memories of quiet vacations, or wanderings in nature. Of staring at water patterns at a shoreline. Of light and shadow, subtle color and the joy and peace of silence. These are all images of quiet places. They are places which hold good memories for me of balance, the bleeding away of stress from my body, the quieting of my mind. These are places I wish I could visit again, as several of them are far away, but even the memory of standing in these places calms my spirit, and dampers the incoming noise of the outside world. I know everyone reading this simple blog post has one or two of these places that they hold dear. With this writing, I would like you to close your eyes

Who doesn’t like mushrooms? Mostly the edible ones, I assume, but looking at them in the wild, I also really enjoy the colors and varieties of fungi in nature, including colorful lichen found on trees and rocks. There are some whimsical myths and legends surrounding mushrooms. According to the Audubon Field Guide to mushrooms, the circular patterns on some mushrooms were thought to have been caused by fairies dancing around them at night. And of course, there are “magic mushrooms” used by some native peoples, especially in South America to assist them on vision quests, the practice of which is limited but still exists. Often, mushrooms seem to have appeared overnight, but they have actually been growing underground or under tree bark for some time before we see them pop up. Several plant varieties would not exist without mushrooms as they have formed a symbiotic relationship and exchange nutrients with each other. The mushroom is the fruiting part of the fungus that appears above groun

    What do you do with those old photos that you took on vacation if you lived most of your life before the digital age and took film photos that you had processed at the local mini-labs? Sometimes the developing was excellent, but more often than not, it was so-so and the color was slightly off, etc. There was a period of time where my husband and I used a commercial lab in California that would also develop for the general public, but the vast majority of our older photos were done at the local K-Mart or CVS pharmacy. For those of us who have enjoyed photography for the last 50 or more years (in my case more), but we never got into our own developing, most of us have some marginal photos that were actually well composed and the lighting was good, but they still needed some help, that wasn’t available until the advent of editing software. I use Photoshop, but for those out there that are not into shooting for sale, or for printing large images, but would like to fix some of their old

One of the places I’ve had the pleasure of visiting twice is San Antonio, and specifically the Missions National Historical Park, which consists of five buildings, including the Alamo, the formal name of which is San Antonio de Valero, built in 1715. The other four missions are Concepción, San José, San Juan, and Espada. Mission Concepción was built in the mid 1700s and looks essentially like it did back then, except that the colorful exterior tiles have faded. I do remember that there are several frescos inside the building which are still quite visible and vibrant, along with a beautiful domed roof and a small clerestory windows at the bottom of the dome.       Mission San José was founded in 1720 by Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús, and it became a major social center. It is the largest of the missions and has a beautiful arched walkway with buttresses leading to the main building. This is an impressive structure with beautiful carved details around the doorway and lovely wrought iron g

Not only the National Parks are interesting. There are a lot of beautiful and interesting state and county parks scattered throughout the country. Fayette State Park in Michigan's upper peninsula along the shores of Lake Michigan was one of the largest iron smelting locations during the 1870s and 1880s. The population at its highest point was about 500 people. The salary for the Iron workers was about one dollar a day. They would attempt to save some of that for the harsh winter months, or in case there was a shutdown in production. The old, stately hotel has been under renovation for some time, and the giant brick smelting furnaces, the building of which you can walk through, are impressive. When the smelting operation shut down in 1891, some people stayed in the town, including commercial fishermen. The town catered to the tourist industry in the summer. The hotel operated well into the 20th century and in 1959, the state acquired the land and turned it into a state park. The bla