Cranes (Tsuru) for Japan... the bird of happiness

Every day, we have reminders of just how fleeting and sacred life is. And every day, many of us go about our ways, being anywhere but in the moment. Life changed in the blink of an eye for thousands in Japan with the earthquake, then tsunami and then nuclear reactor and radiation scares. Life is sacred. Life is ephemeral - fleeting, like a spring woodland flower.

My lesson of how ones' world can be rocked happened almost 16 years ago (April 8, 1995) when my mother and best friend lost a brief battle with cancer. She had just turned 58. My mom was a very selfless and giving soul, and she instilled that in me from a young age. And so, when this disaster struck Japan, I felt I needed to do something - doing something is better than doing nothing. So I found beautiful origami paper, and I made cranes. (For a video tutorial on making origami cranes look HERE.)The act of folding the paper to makes the cranes became a meditation of sorts. Cranes symbolize healing and I felt that healing as I folded the paper. Cranes remind me of my mother. At her viewing, children came from her school (she was a teacher) and laid origami cranes on top of her. Before they closed the casket, I took one... to remember. So it seemed a good thing to do - make cranes for the healing of Japan. I took photographs of the cranes I made, and also made card sets. My favorite photograph, a red crane with a red flower, and the card set is offered in  MY SHOP where all proceeds from the sale of these items will go to the RED CROSS relief effort in Japan.

How can you help? Here are some wonderful ways to lend YOUR hand.
Make a crane and send it HERE.
Donate to Save the Children.
Support UNICEF's relief efforts in Japan.
Make cranes (great school project) and send them HERE for a donation to SAVE THE CHILDREN.
For those who LOVE TO TEXT: People can also donate $10 by texting REDCROSS to 90999 to support disaster relief efforts in Japan and tsunami relief throughout the Pacific.

                                                   THE LEGEND OF THE CRANE:
Throughout history, birds have been viewed as animals of special value and have been ladened with meanings often derived from legends and stories that have survived over many generations. The Crane may conceivably be the oldest bird on earth; there is fossil proof that they existed over 60 million years ago. Greek and Roman myth tended to portray the dance of cranes as a love of joy and a celebration of life. The crane was usually considered to be a bird of Apollo, the sun god, who heralded in Spring and light. Throughout all of Asia, the crane has been a symbol of happiness and eternal youth. In Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tradition, cranes stand for good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years. Existing in fifteen species which inhabit five continents, the most majestic is the Japanese Crane which stands almost five feet tall with its wing span of more than six feet and its white body capped with its red crown. The Japanese refer to the crane as “the bird of happiness;” the Chinese as “heavenly crane” believing they were symbols of wisdom. The powerful wings of the crane were believed to be able to convey souls up to paradise and to carry people to higher levels of spiritual enlightenment. Over time, the crane has also evolved as a favorite subject of the tradition of paper folding – origami. It is said that a thousand folded cranes, one for each year of its life, makes a wish come true.

Shortly after the end of World War II, the folded origami cranes also came to symbolize a hope for peace through Sadako Sasaki and her unforgettable story of perseverance. Diagnosed with leukemia after being exposed to radiation after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sadako became determined to fold 1,000 cranes in hopes of recovering good health, happiness, and a world of eternal peace. Although she completed 644 before she died, her classmates folded the remaining 356 to honor her. A statue was raised in the Hiroshima Peace Park to commemorate her strong spirit.


Today this practice of folding 1,000 cranes represents a form of healing and hope during challenging times. After the events of September 11, as a gesture of support and healing, thousands of cranes were folded and linked together in chains and sent to fire and police stations, museums, and churches throughout New York City.

“O flock of heavenly cranes
cover us with your wings.”

How do I Process? / Central Ohio Photographer

Photographers are often asked about how they get their images to look the way they do. Each professional photographer has their own special "look", and process to achieve that signature look. My look starts with my lens - I love my 50mm lens. The framing it gives is beautiful and I love the light that pours into it. As I child, I hated the "formal" stiff poses I was put in. Now, as a professional, I strive for natural poses that lend themselves a fun & relaxed session. In addition to signature processing, photographers have their own style in posing and settings for portrait sessions. When selecting a photographer to take your family portraits, it's important to be familiar with a photographer's signature look and feel and make sure it fits with what you want!

The images below are an example of my "post processing". The image on the left is SOOC (straight out of the camera). It is unretouched. On the day these portraits were taken, it was rainy and quite overcast. The images were taken between 9:30AM and 11:30AM. I wanted to give a bit of a sunlit or warmer tone to the images. I always use Adobe Lightroom to process my images. (Try the FREE download for 30 days!) I find Lightroom easier and more intuitive than Photoshop. Often, I will start with a preset and then tweak it for my needs. I have created a few presets of my own, especially for landscapes, to create my own signature look and tones. In some instances, I pull a texture over the image to give it a little more depth or edge. Some of my favorite presets came from Jenn. Her presets are geared toward those who shoot in jpeg. And I will often use my own textures (check out the menu on the right side of my blog), those from Flickr groups or Beth Armsheimer. I hope this has given you some helpful insights and resources!

Texture Tutorial

I've had inquiries on textures & a tutorial, so I decided to re post my previous tutorial & give it an exclusive spot!! I've included some examples of images with textures applied to show what wonderful effects can be achieved using textures as overlays!!



In the above image, I used a texture from my Whimsy set. I kept the blending mode at normal & reduced the opacity to about 30%.




In the above photo, I used one of my favorite textures... it's from the Patterns & Swirls set. Again, I pulled the texture on top of my main image, kept the blending mode at normal & reduced opacity to about 45%. Different blending modes will give different results - some very subtle, some very pronounced. It's best to play around to discover the look you enjoy. I primarily use a texture in normal blending mode & reduce the opacity. So... Here is the basic texture tutorial!

BASIC TEXTURE TUTORIAL:
1) Open your main image (I use PS Elements5).

2) Open your texture.

3) Click on your main image to set as the background layer.

4) Pull the texture image up & onto the main image.

5) If the image needs resizing, click on image, resize, scale. Then drag the edges of the texture so it fits over the background image. Click on the check mark to set.

6) To the right, there is a blending modes drop down menu. Experiment with these to get a look you like. I often use Normal, Overlay, Soft Light & Screen.

7) Next adjust the opacity slider to better refine the look.

8) If the texture is applied over a face, you can erase the texture over the face area by using the eliptical marquee tool (pixels set to 60) to erase the texture. You can then use the eraser tool (strength set around 30%) to finish up.

9) Experiment, play around & have fun!