Author Archives: scillagrace

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Stormy

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“The storm is out there and every one of us must eventually face the storm. When the storm comes, pray that it will shake you to your roots and break you wide-open. Being broken open by the storm is your only hope. When you are broken open you get to discover for the first time what is inside you. Some people never get to see what is inside them; what beauty, what strength, what truth and love. They were never broken open by the storm. So, don’t run from your pain — run into your pain. Let life’s storm shatter you.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

Have you ever been on a road trip and discovered that you were heading into a storm? Have you felt time hanging around you while your brain rifled through options? Do I change course…stop here…or go on? How bad could it be? How bad will it be? Do I trust myself to adapt to what I find and keep myself safe? Can I keep my car safe? What if I find others on the road who are not safe?

I have been parked under an overpass crowded with cars while a hailstorm ran over us. I have been parked at the side of the road while hail buried the windshield wipers and made them completely ineffective. I was not the one behind the wheel then. I once drove through a blizzard in Utah, talking the whole time to the passenger beside me. And on a perfectly calm summer day, I was in a car accident that killed my sister. I know myself when I’m worried, when I’m scared, when I’m braving through, and when I’m completely overwhelmed and having a panic attack. I’ve encountered myself on road trips. And I’ve encountered others. I am grateful to have learned some very important lessons about life, and safety, and kindness, and what is really important.

The storm is here. I am leaning into the lessons I’ve learned and keeping my hands steady on the wheel, my eyes locked on the horizon. I trust in a rainbow future.

Thank you, Beth of Wandering Dawgs, for joining the Lens-Artists host team. Your first challenge is inspiring! I look forward to more.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Mellow

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“There was a time when I was in a hurry as you are; I was like you
There was a day when I just had to tell my point of view;
I was like you
Now I don’t mean to make you frown
No, I just want you to slow down
Have you never been mellow?
Have you never tried to find a comfort from inside you?

Have you never been happy just to hear your song?
Have you never let someone else be strong?

Running around as you do with your head up in the clouds;
I was like you
Never had time to lay back, kick your shoes off, close your eyes;
I was like you

Now you’re not hard to understand
You need someone to take your hand

Have you never been mellow?
Have you never tried to find a comfort from inside you?
Have you never been happy just to hear your song?
Have you never let someone else be strong?”
~ John Clifford Farrar, songwriter

Wishing all you Lens-Artists and photo lovers a relaxing, mellow day!
With thanks to Sofia for inspiring us with beautiful, soft-toned images.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Books

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“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
― Oscar Wilde

I want to tell you the story of my eldest child, whom I’ve watched adore books longer than anyone else I know. Forty years ago, when Susan was an infant not more than 6 months old, we’d put her in the playpen to entertain herself with toys and cloth books. She would literally chew the pages. Then we gave her board books with stiff pages that she quickly learned to turn, one by one, as she’d seen us do when we read to her. For her second Christmas, my husband bought her a phonics cassette tape with a workbook. Before she turned three years old, she was sounding out words. By the time she was four, she was reading chapter books like James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. I’m not joking – we have it on video. When she was older and I found her getting behind in her chores, I tried to take away her reading privileges by turning her bookshelf toward the wall. That was not very effective, as there were things to read all over the house. And someone was always reading.

Susan was an excellent student and competed in Spelling Bees and Scholastic Bowls throughout her schooling. She eventually got a Master’s degree in Linguistics. When she was planning her wedding, she decided to make all of the flowers for the tables at the reception out of old paperback books.

Her best friend since grade school is an elementary school music teacher. Susan is a favorite Auntie to her friend’s children; I caught her one Christmas sharing one of her favorite picture books.

When she visited me in Oregon during the pandemic, we had to visit Powell’s bookstore in Portland. I love to watch her get enthusiastic over almost every title she sees.

“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am continually amazed at the person my baby has become. I am sure that my late husband and I played some part in that, but I have to acknowledge that what she’s read may have played an even bigger part. I admire her thoroughly for her wealth of knowledge and her empathy, and I’m sure that her reading has informed that tremendously. And she has always been able to keep herself entertained and engaged – the world is her playpen now, and she will always have a good book to keep her company.

Thanks, Ritva, for this inspiring challenge and your beautiful images!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: The First Thing I Thought of…

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“I’m sure the trail is just up this way, kids! Follow me!”

Tina is inviting us into some humor this week. “The first thing I thought of when I saw this…” is that this is a kind of caption challenge. If I am tempted to take my photo hobby too seriously, this is a great practice. So here are some goofy illustrations:

Barbie’s Cookie Dreamhouse – some assembly required. Some skill not required.
They call it chicken wire for a reason.
Even the stone-faced can lighten up a bit!

I hope this post made you smile!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Serenity

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“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”
― Lao Tzu

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
― Lao Tzu

“The beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.”
― J. Krishnamurti

In response to Egidio’s Lens-Artists challenge

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Break the Rules!

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Ritva states this week’s challenge like this: “We work so hard to learn the photography rules (at least I do), but now it is time to BREAK them!! The problem is just that in order to break a rule, you must know that there is a rule in the first place!”

Well, I never really studied photography, but Ann-Christine from the blog “Leya” was kind enough to post this graphic, which I found on Etsy:

So, it would seem that there are “rules” for composition, and probably rules for light exposure, focus, color treatment, and maybe a lot more factors as well. And what would be the point of breaking any of these rules? Possibly it would open an opportunity to “see” something quite differently. For instance, what if your group shot didn’t include faces, but feet?

This shot will always remind me of standing in the rain in New Orleans with my family as we waited for a table at a popular restaurant.

And what if you hadn’t prepared for a shot in any way at all but just pointed your camera at something happening around you at took your chances? You might record a moment of spontaneous action, Life in all its unpredictable beauty.

And what if the only thing you get is cluttered and out of focus and poorly lit – but happens to be exactly how the scene felt? When there just isn’t time to follow the rules, maybe it’s better to live in the moment and improvise. Get jazzed!

singer
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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Cinematic

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lilac

This week’s challenge is “Cinematic“, hosted by Sofia. She describes the theme this way:

“There are a few things that give a photo that cinematic feel: camera angles, bold and high-contrast colors, light, locations, just to name a few. The main objective is to take a shot that is part of a story, there’s mood and a sense of location; our image is but a snapshot of a much wider situation.”

My opening image was taken in a meadow that always reminds me of the opening scene in The Sound of Music. Imagine the helicopter shot through the clouds, and the camera swooping closer to Julie Andrews as she begins to spread her arms and sing. The cinematography is iconic and plays up the contrast between a sweeping landscape and a single character. Background and foreground allude to a wider situation. If I were to expand on my image, I’d imagine the camera panning down to a vase of lilacs on a picnic blanket, a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, a wheel of cheese, and two fascinating characters…perhaps a talking Douglas squirrel and Steller’s jay.

Two movies stand out in my mind for their cinematography. The Brutalist is a 2024 film that looks and feels just like the title. It’s full of abstract, angular shots. I felt as I was watching it that I was less aware of the story than I was of the photography.

The second movie that came to my mind is Lawrence of Arabia. I was advised to see it on the big screen so that the cinematography could have its full affect on me. I will never forget the desert sunrise scene. It has been hailed as the “greatest cut of all”, a close-up shot of the main character blowing out a match, and then the desert sun rising on the horizon in an extremely sparse long shot. Of course, the music enhances the scene: eerie and mesmerizing, then triumphant and glorious.

I feel like ending this with a 1970s “rom-com” shot…

Thanks, Sofia! This was super fun. 🙂

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: My Go-To Places

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“I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely;
I know I will hear
What I’ve heard before—
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music,
And I’ll sing once more.” – Oscar Hammerstein II

Call me corny, I don’t care. I have always been drawn to hills. I grew up a flatlander in the Chicago suburbs. Hills were exciting! I was ten years old before I saw my first mountain. Now I live with hills all around, and actual mountains not far away.

These are photos I took today on my weekly Monday hike.

Thanks for asking, Johnbo! HERE‘s the original Challenge post.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Abandoned

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“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”
― Ann Landers

“Abandoned“. Now there is a word that conjures such heartbreak. And yet…
In some cases, it is the healthiest thing you can do. To let go of that which no longer serves you or anyone else – bad habits, bad ways of thinking, falsehoods – those things are better abandoned. And those places where you don’t really belong, even though you enjoyed or learned something there, are better abandoned as well: stretches of beach, or campsites, or wilderness…or sometimes, relationships.

It can be frightfully hard to let go and move on. And it can be the most joyful, brave, and salvific thing you do.

Thanks to Anne for a truly rich theme. Visit her challenge post HERE.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Seen on my Last Outing

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“A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles. ” ― Tim Cahill

I moved to my new home in Oregon during the pandemic. Aside from my adult children, I knew not a soul, and opportunities to meet people were severely restricted. I was glad to find a Meetup.com group that did local hikes every Monday morning. I decided to build my new life around that cornerstone, and I have kept that in place for the last four and a half years.

This morning’s outing was to the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, just six miles from my apartment. The boardwalk and trails around the marsh open on April 1st every Spring, after over-wintering flocks have begun to move back North. The water is very high, and will dwindle down to as little as a large puddle by the end of the summer, before Fall rain begins. The skies this morning were especially dramatic, with showers of rain falling periodically. The wind was quite fierce at the top of Pigeon Butte, and turkey vultures were enjoying playing with the updrafts along the cliff. Red-winged blackbirds were defending their territory and their mates in the cattails south of the marsh. Camas flowers were in bloom, their sweet roots beginning to store sugar and starch made with the sun’s energy. Because I brought my big binoculars along, I did not bring my big camera. These shots were made with my cell phone. I’m not entirely happy with the results, but I am glad to have something lightweight when I’m walking.

Thank you to Ann-Christine for inviting me to share my day’s outing. Visit her site HERE to see her delightful post, including heart-warming cat photos!