Five Tips For Garden Sanctuaries Written by Robin Mastro
The design of your garden has an amazing affect on your family’s health and well-being. Here is how you can create harmony in your garden—which is considered a living entity—and bring peace and happiness within your home. Vastu Shastra is an environmental science written about some 7,000 – 10,000 years ago in India by rishis, or men of great wisdom. They observed workings of Nature and recorded how different rays of sun, magnetic poles, makeup of land, soil, slope, structures, etc. affected all living things. It is oldest recorded architectural treatise known to man and it is from this science that some of world’s most enduring structures have been created. According to science of Vastu Shastra, all five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space) need to be in harmony. When a seed is planted, it requires that all five elements be balanced for a seed to germinate, sprout and become a strong, healthy plant. The disproportion of any one element— whether it is quality of earth (soil ph), amount and quality of water, wind (air), sun (fire), or amount of space it is planted in—will inhibit its growth. In this way a wise gardener sets up a balanced environment for his plants to grow free from disease and stress. Briefly, each area of your garden is associated with one of five elements. The earth element is associated with southwest area of your garden and creates a sustaining and grounding force. In northeast, water element is at home. This element allows plants to flourish. The fire element in southeast supports disease-free plants. The northwest is related to air element encouraging cross-pollination. The space element is associated with central area of your garden, enhancing flow of beneficial influences that nourishes other elements. Positive magnetic energies coming from north and positive solar energies coming from east promote harmony and balance. Here are five great steps you can use to bring five elements into balance within your garden and make it a sanctuary that is not only beautiful to look and wonderful to spend time in, but will actually have an empowering affect on health and well-being of you and your family.
| | Using Black and White FilmWritten by Kelly Paal
It’s hard to find sometimes but it’s making a resurgence, black and white film. If you’ve never used this film now is time to try it out. Here are some tips to using b&w film and what you can expect from results.1. Forget color. This is hardest thing to do and number one reason that you will not get good results with b&w film. 2. Look for contrast. Once you can ignore color look for contrast. You will want your image to have a bit more contrast than you would normally want in a color image. 3. Consider shooting situations that are more formal. Black and white film gives such a wonderful timelessness to an image and it’s perfect for formal situations. 4. Keep your photos simple. Black and white film simplifies so don’t fight it. Keep images simple by keeping close to your subject or place your subject against a simple back drop. 5. Babies and pets look great on b&w film. Place pet or baby on a white background and you’ll be stunned at beautiful results.
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