Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Part of my 'mission' as an amateur photographer sharing photos with the world is to show off the beauty of the natural world around me. To urge people to "Look at what's around you, look at how amazing this planet is and appreciate how beautiful your home is."  While I edit photos to get rid of scratches and spots on the lens of my camera, I don't usually like editing them to the degree that they become fake-looking. Yet lately, that is exactly what I've been enjoying - changing photos so much that they clearly look edited. In last week's Photo Challenge post , I added four edited photos at the end. Our world is beautiful just the way it is and showing off that beauty through my photos is something I love doing. Yet lately, editing photos to make them look a little different and strange has been great fun, too. So this week, my Photo Challenge post will feature edited images. Not because the world looks better when edited or Photoshopped, but because...

In America, nine people were brutally murdered yesterday in a church in Charleston, North Carolina. Horrible, unbelievable. My Twitter feed hasn't stopped telling me about it, newspapers are writing about it, people are blogging about it. Nine people who were not fighting or making war or killing or maiming or hurting others. Nine people, present in a house of worship. Non-combatants. Just people. Like you and me. Now dead because one man wanted to kill them. Perhaps he believed he should, perhaps he thought it was his right, perhaps he was mentally unstable, perhaps he was a very disturbed SOB. I don't know. I do know that nine innocent people are dead because someone chose to kill them. Nine black people are dead, because one white man chose to kill them. It makes me so sad yet so angry to live in a world where people do this to each other. We are all human, all one huge and extremely diverse family, all one people. And yesterday one human being chose to kill nine of his fami...

This Week's Photo Challenge theme is: YELLOW !!!!!!!!! With a lot of exclamation marks. Because yellow and exclamation marks go together like sunshine and smiles. Or like yours truly and books. Or peanut-butter and jelly or... Well, you get my point! As I like the colour yellow and have had the idea of doing a yellow-themed Photo Challenge in my head for some time, the photos span several weeks. Some song lyrics and a few words by yours truly tie this blog post together. Enjoy the craziness, fun and excitement of yellow! Yellow Duck out Exploring It's raining as I write this. Yes, really. The little yellow duck above isn't hanging out in a bathtub, however s/he's having a ball playing on my wet balcony today. Or just posing... The lyrics to Fools Garden's Yellow Lemon Tree sound and feel quite appropriate today! I'm sitting here in the boring room It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon I'm wasting my time I got nothing to do I'm h...

For this week's Photo Challenge, I decided to let the week's sights and happenings inspire and guide me. Last week I considered "Animals" as my topic (while eventually going for " Bridges "), this week I contemplated Animals (or rather, "Life") as well. Seeing lots of yellow leaves and flowers while out and about made me unsure about "Animals / Life" - perhaps "Yellow" would be a more interesting topic. Although "Flowers" would work too... Whether I end up choosing to go for Flowers, Life or Yellow this week, this photo certainly ticks all the boxes. I'll post more photos on Sunday once I've decided what this week's topic actually is (or rather, will be )! For now - Enjoy the first photo! Photo Challenge 03 - Photo 01

Downloaded a trial version of the program Picture Collage Maker and played around with it today while waiting for dinner to be ready. (Yes, I cooked. Gasp! It happens every once in a while. Don't let it alarm you...) The program is easy to use, probably has the simplest Terms and Conditions I've ever read and playing around creating this collage was lots of fun. The (light grey) watermark in the centre of the image disappears once you buy the product. Seeing I quite enjoyed taking these photos and turning them into a collage, this was definitely not a waste of my time! When graffiti / street art / urban art is done in a nice way, I can appreciate it. The big, colourful letters for instance, those I think are 'nice'. When (what I see as) ugly looking tags are added or sprayed over the nice 'pretty' and 'artsy' stuff, that ruins the effect for me and turns art into ugly. In this case, I think it's a pity that the pretty art is covered by me...

Nature in Yellow | Nimavenl Nature is beautiful. Each and every day. Each and every way. Just as we all are. Each and every day. Each and every way. Period. Our world is such a beautiful and amazing place, yet too often we disregard the beauty of nature and of humanity in favour of fighting, squabbling and making war. We oppress people and try to rule their lives, some we even try to kill because we don't agree with their ways, their thinking, their religion or simply because we don't like the colour of their skin. Will we ever learn to love, respect and cherish our fellow human beings, simply as they are? “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” ~ Nelson Mandela

Chemtrail Chemistry | Nimavenl "Shooting the Sky" "The Sky's the Limit" "Sunset Sky Surprise" "Chemtrail Chemistry" "All the Colours of the Sky" "The Sky is Alive with the Sound of Colour" Finding the right title for a post or a photo can be a bit of a challenge, especially when trying for a witty, funny, interesting or catchy title. Above are some of the options I considered for this photo.I'm not quite sure why, however 'chemtrail chemistry' sounded like the best title for this photo. It might be the chemtrails in the photo, it might be that some of the other possibilities sound more like I'm talking about an amazing flavour of ice cream than describing a photo of chemtrails in a sunset sky!

I took this photo of white flowers / white buds on a tree branch a few days ago. It was a warm and sunny day, the sky was a gorgeous blue and there was just enough wind to provide a pleasant breeze. A perfect day to stare up at the trees and the sky, to enjoy the beauty right there and all around me. I walk past this tree almost daily however rarely stop to actually look up at the beauty above. How much beauty and how many happy moments have I missed, walking past without looking up? White flowers can have different meanings depending on country, culture and context - purity and innocence, perfection, or death and mourning. A quick online search for the symbolism of white flowers tells me they are "Often associated with innocence, humility, and reverence" ( Teleflora ) as well as purity, honesty and perfection ( Flower Shopping ). Today all those meanings feel appropriate. As The Netherlands remembers those who died in World War Two , I am drawn to the diary of a young girl...

One of my favourite artists is Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890). Not only did he paint an amazing " Starry Night over the Rhone " and a ridiculously beautiful ("Almond Blossom" also known as) " Blossoming Almond Tree ", he also painted many other stunning works that I love. I'm a big fan of colour in life, in nature and in art, which is why I prefer Vincent van Gogh's more colourful and colour-filled works to the darker ones. The darker paintings are often detailed, intricate and very beautiful indeed (just look at " The Potato Eaters "), yet they don't speak to me the same way the more colourful scenes do. However... “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” I certainly believe that to be true, in real life and in Vincent's paintings too! “ Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is some...

Treebranch photo 01 | Nimavenl I love nature and I love colour. I also love taking photos of nature and playing with colours. We live in a beautiful world full of gorgeous pathways, roads, rocks, rivers, bridges, buildings, skylines, sunsets, clouds, cliffs, flowers, fabrics, textures and trees. I've written about taking photos of bridges before and how the world of 'in between' fascinates me. I also love taking photos of cities / urban landscapes and buildings with character, however I try to avoid taking photos of strangers without permission, which means a good photo (without people in it!) can be a drama to plan. I went out for a Photo Walk last weekend and found myself focusing not on bridges or buildings but on trees and branches. It was late in the afternoon and starting to get dark, which means the contrast between the darker trees and the lighter sky behind it was easier to capture (and a lot less grainy!) than landscapes or nature scenes. Treebranch ...

I'm looking to buy a new phone. Have been looking around - online, in shops, at phones my friends have. I've pretty much narrowed it down to a list of four. So now what? Ask the nice people at the shop if I can pretty please try each one out for a week?! Fat chance. Still, if only! Guess it's back to asking friends if I can pretty please play with their phones for a minute. Ok wow - that sounds rather dodgy... I'm currently looking at the Nokia N8, the iPhone, the HTC Desire HD and the Samsung Galaxy S. Being female (or just me!), I love pretty colours and pictures. The HTC has the prettiest colours. And NO - I refuse to base an important choice on pretty colours. So, it comes down to statistics. Every cellphone I've ever had was simple, easy and straightforward. It calls, it sends txts and it might even take simple photos. No internet, no eBooks on it (which is what makes some of these phones sound so awesome !!!!!), no music, no Twitter or Facebook or che...