Author Archives: scillagrace

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Narrow

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Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. – Matthew 7:13-14

The road that leads to destruction is paved with excess, with greed and growth. Its breadth permits the accumulation of possessions. The narrow road admits only the unburdened. 

Travelling the narrow road with steadfast feet and open eyes, you open yourself to the natural world around you, imposing few of your own devices on it. To learn from the path, from the trees, from the sky, is the beginning of wisdom. 

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence. – Henry David Thoreau

Life is a narrow path. At last, only you can get through it. – Poolu

Thank you, Amy, for this week’s challenge. 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Future

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Ann-Christine challenges us this week with a beautiful collection of double-exposure photos and quotes about the Future.

What a peculiar responsibility we have, as presumably the only species on Earth with the capacity to think about the Future. And as the dominant species, our actions create an impact that will be felt for a long, long time.

Knowing this, how do we choose to live? How do we spend our time? What do we use, and what do we throw away? What do we create? And how will we, individually, impact the Future?

Looking in my photo archives, I can easily see a few things I’ve done that will influence some part of the Future.

I have planted trees, both on the suburban property I used to own and on public properties as a member of a larger community. 

I’ve worked for the past 5 years for a conservation organization, a land trust that buys land to save it from development and plants trees and prairies for wildlife habitat.

But probably the biggest impact I will have on the Future is through my four children, who are now adults. Their choices are no doubt influenced in part by the values we talked about as they matured. Most likely, they will use, create, vote, dispose, and act long after I have ceased to do any of those things. The legacy I will have through them is not mine to predict but theirs to fashion.

I am very proud of them, and feel confident that their choices will be intended for good and not for harm.

Team photos

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Capital

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Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

–Thomas Jefferson

Viveka of My Guilty Pleasures is acting as this week’s challenge host. She is an avid traveler, and has posted some lovely and varied shots of world capitals she has visited. She invites us to interpret this challenge however we choose, though, and since I haven’t got any digital photos of the world capitals I have visited (Washington, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Rome, Mexico City, Nassau, Budapest, Vienna), I am going in a totally different direction, following Mr. Thomas Jefferson’s lead in the quote above.

Nine years ago, I moved into a bookstore. I have been sharing a roof with Scholar & Poet books ever since.

In economics, capital consists of assets that can enhance one’s power to perform economically useful work. For example, in a fundamental sense a stone or an arrow is capital for a hunter-gatherer who can use it as a hunting instrument, while roads are capital for inhabitants of a city. — Wikipedia

Books are assets that have enhanced my entire life. They have definitely enhanced my power to perform economically useful work, like cooking. How many cookbooks do you have? When did you first make a meal using a recipe in a book? Did you learn anything about parenting from a book? Or about the skills that you are paid to perform?

I sometimes wonder whether books will become obsolete as technology advances. Perhaps in my country, that is a possibility. But globally, I think books will endure as long as human civilization does. 

I look forward to the day that I can read a book to my grandchild and pass on the pleasure, the investment, and the treasure of reading a book.

Yes, indeed. That would be capital! 😉 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Something Red

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Patti starts out this week’s challenge with this observation:

Sometimes in the middle of winter, the world is reduced to stark shades of black and white.

No kidding? This is what I saw out my front door this morning.

It was as if I’d stepped into a infrared photograph. But no, this is just Wisconsin in January after 2 days of wet snow.

So, I am definitely ready to step into a RED photograph right about now! Now, that looks cozier! Let’s see if I can find some more…

Old World Wisconsin

Yes, Patti, that color definitely brightens up the scene…and my mood! Thanks for a great challenge!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Leading Lines

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This week’s challenge host, Tina, says, 

Leading lines carry our eye through a photograph. They help to tell a story, to place emphasis, and to draw a connection between objects. They create a visual journey from one part of an image to another and can be  helpful for creating depth as well.

I’ve never had any formal instruction in photography, but I think I have a pretty good natural eye for composition…sometimes. Let’s see if I’ve intuitively used Leading Lines in any of my pictures. 

Okay, wow. That one was obvious. You could argue that Lake Shore Drive and the street lights all lead to the Chicago skyline in that shot. 

The rustic fence and the gravel road take your eye to the Schottler farmhouse.

These two seem like they follow a reverse leading line…a receding line, or a vanishing point.

I think these last three are my favorites, though. They draw my eye to the horizon, which I long to explore.  

 

Anyone want to come with me? 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: A Window with a View

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Amy of The World is a Book is the host for this week’s photo challenge. She writes: “This week, we invite you to explore ‘A Window With A View’. Share with us photos you’ve captured through windows.” Some of the views she shares on her post take my breath away!

In my part of the world, this is a typical January view. It’s good to be on the inside looking out!

The moving window of a car is a difficult opening through which to photograph, but I’ve seen some of the most spectacular sights through those windows. 

Telluride, Colorado

Near Hovenweep National Monument, Utah

Windows high above a vista provide a good frame for a landscape shot.

Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin

From the spire of the Basilica on Holy Hill, Wisconsin

And sometimes, the view from the window is not as important as the contemplation within.

Whether you are inspired from within or without, may you have new windows of perspective in this New Year!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

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This week, Ann-Christine gives us a tour of Diocletian’s Palace in Croatia and invites us to share our own Special Spot Shots. 

My special spot is not an exotic location far away. What makes it special is that I wake up to it every day, in every season, in all kinds of weather. It is a parcel of land measuring about 56 acres, including woodland, wetland, and prairie habitats. I rent a house here from my employer, the Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation. Recently, it was opened to the public as the Joan M. Pick Nature Preserve. 

I have been extremely fortunate to have called this place my home for 3 years. I am planning to leave in another 6 months, and I know that I will miss its many facets and familiar charms. Here is a gallery of photos that I’ve taken of this property. 

November