Suzanne Havens

I love to see fireworks, but I don’t like loud noises and traffic jams. Last night we had a treat of seeing them from about a mile away at our friends’ home. I experimented with a technique called live composite. The camera makes a base shot then only adds incremental light. This way I could capture multiple bursts without overexposing the surrounding scene. In some cases the subsequent bursts were in the same place, so the light built up in that concentrated area. Other times the bursts were in different places that made magical compositions, in my humble opinion.

Early thunderstorms left a rainbow and cooler temperatures

Boat docks and the waterway made an interesting foreground

Anoles abound in our garden. Most of those I see are brown. The brown ones came from Cuba. Occasionally I see a bright green one. This one appeared inside the screened lanai. I caught him/her, got my camera ready, then had him taken out off the jar and placed on a red-orange bromeliad, thinking it would make a nice contrast. I expected the green anole to run away, but it obliged me by posing for photos over a few minutes. What started out as bright green skin became yellow and orange, blending better with the background colors. I made a sequence so you can see the full length of its tail as well as close up on it beautiful skin.

You might wonder if we have embarked on a new sailing adventure since that is usually what prompts me to send “postcards” from ports en route.

Today my motive is to share a new painting from my latest series, “Joy of Sailing.” How odd that I only painted one painting during our 67 day 2011 journey and yet when we left the boat in Maine to be decommissioned and stored and returned home, I turned to the memories of the feelings of sailing and to the forms of sails, sky and water to paint.

So here is a greeting from my “playshop.” I wish you joy in each day of your personal journey!