Category Archives: blogging

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: The Power of Juxtaposition

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Patti’s technical challenge this week focuses on juxtaposition. Sometimes that is illustrated by contrasting elements that are found in proximity. The photo below was taken in the Portland Japanese Garden. I was drawn to the monochromatic geometrical stone steps beside a mossy hill of naturally irregular surfaces.

In nature, you can often find a contrast of color, texture, shape, size, and other physical elements. Often, you can add the concept of living and non-living matter.

The human world is full of interesting juxtapositions, some accidental, some contrived. I captured the shot below more than a decade ago, but I remember the moment of realizing that the person walking away from me would be visible behind a pedestrian street sign. There was an emotional moment of absurdity that I thought would make a good story picture. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a very good camera on me at the time.

This final shot is a moment of posed juxtaposition that was simply fun, featuring my fun-loving kids and a statue of renowned children’s author Hans Christian Anderson. It makes me smile!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Virtual Scavenger Hunt

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I’ve rummaged through my archives and found some treasures. A small shoe my son wore long ago. A green-eyed friend I once spent Christmas with…

…a glass of champagne from my daughter-in-law…

…some bumpy rope from a three mast Great Lakes schooner…

…my sister’s camera…

…a soft waterfall…

…a round nail-head in an old fencepost…

…and some beautiful jewelry that resembles my daughter’s work.

This Scavenger Hunt reminds me of a favorite song by Dan Fogelberg:

Here is a poem that my lady sent down
Some morning while I was away
Wrote on the back of a leaf that she found
Somewhere around Monterey

And here is the key to a house far away
Where I used to live as a child
They tore down the building when I moved away
And left the key unreconciled

And down in the canyon the smoke starts to rise
It rides on the wind ’til it reaches your eyes
When faced with the past the strongest man cries
Cries

And here is a sunrise to set on your sill
The ghosts of the dawn moving near
They pass through your sorrow and leave you quite still
Sitting among souvenirs

And now, I’m feeling quite nostalgic and content, grateful for my life and the beauty that surrounds me. Thanks, Anne, for this Challenge! Do visit HER POST to see all the possible items to search for in Lens-Artists posts this week.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Doors (revisited)

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Sofia invites us to revisit Lens-Artists Challenge #20 – from 2018. Sofia has done extensive and exquisite Door photography – do visit her blog! I found another Lens-Artists Challenge on Doors from 2022. Here’s a link to my response to that one.

How has my perspective on Doors changed since then? Have I found new doors to photograph?

Yes. I have discovered even more portals. And I’ve even learned a new term – “multiverse”. I try to imagine the infinite possibilities of doors.

“The un-wanting soul sees what’s hidden.
The ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin, but different in name, whose identity is mystery. Mystery of all mysteries, the door to the hidden.”
~ Tao Te Ching

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Favorites from 2024

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My favorite things about 2024 are probably my favorite things about every year I get to be alive. I love Beauty and that my eyes can detect it – sparkling, natural, unusual, colorful, delightful to touch, balanced, calm or surprising. I see Beauty everywhere, and that is my favorite way to view Life. I love connection, and that is my favorite, too: connecting with family, with Nature, with living beings of any description, with ideas and culture and history. My trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, and the chance to hang out with 10 family members there was a definite highlight of the year. I am so grateful to be able to look back at this past year and remember the specific moments of beauty and connection that I got to enjoy. It’s wonderful that photography helps to do that. And it’s wonderful to share that joy with others. Thank you, Lens-Artists, for sharing your joy with me! Thanks to Tina for this week’s inviting challenge.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Last Chance

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“Look, I want to love this world
as though it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive and know it.” ~ Mary Oliver

I haven’t posted on this blog since the November election. Today is my last chance this year to share my thoughts in words and pictures here. I have been reviewing the reasons I started this blog in my 50th year and continued it for a dozen years so far. It has served me well as a platform for family photo projects. Today, particularly, I am grateful for the opportunity to revisit the projects I did for my mother, who would have been celebrating her 90th birthday today. Ten years ago, I did an eight-day series from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve that I called “80 Years in 8 Days” (you can see it HERE). I also created The Grandparent Project on this blog primarily for her.

However, as my mom passed away in 2020 and I live within an hour’s driving distance of three out of four of my kids, I no longer rely on this blog as a way of sharing stories and photos across the miles.

I have really enjoyed exploring creative photography over the years through the weekly photo challenges I’ve done with WordPress and later Lens-Artists. Recently, I’ve been taking more photos with my cell phone rather than my Canon Rebel T3i. I also got a new laptop and lost the photo editing software that had been installed on my old one. The technology involved in creating a photo blog post has changed for me, therefore, and I haven’t really spent the time yet to figure out how to do it at a level that I find satisfactory.

“We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos and community.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

All that being said, I have the opportunity today to consider what I want this blog to be going forward into a brand new year. “Scillagrace” is still me striving to navigate life gracefully, showing in words and images the beauty of the process. Right now, I’m finding the progressive edge of my purpose in serving the local community. I’m volunteering with several different organizations: the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Greenbelt Land Trust, Ankeny Hill and Finley National Wildlife Refuges, the Benton County Historical museums, and the Majestic Theater. (I’m currently in rehearsal for a production of the play Amadeus with two family members!) My goal is to build community by growing in compassion and resilience and helping others. I am not sure how I will incorporate creative photography and story-telling into this, but I will be exploring the possibilities.

I want to thank Tina and the other Lens-Artists hosts for supporting this part of the blogging community. Thank you for the thought-provoking Challenges and for sharing your beautifully crafted images!

I journey into the New Year with appreciation and gratitude for the past and with the resolve to try again each day to let Love move in me and through me. May it be so.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Favorite Images of 2023

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My favorite photographic reminders of 2023:

I will remember the mutual benefits and joys of supportive friendships whenever I see this photo of Hunter, my friend’s cat that I stayed with for more than two weeks during the winter holidays. Hunter is a very affectionate cat, a perfect emotional support professional.

I took the photo above while I was watching a different friend’s cats, who were too afraid to come out of the closet for days. There is beauty in warmth, and beauty in chill. What Life brings is a gift. Appreciating all that Life brings is a practice.

This photo of the Yaquinta lighthouse will always remind me of an acute shift in perspective, from the minutiae of my own thoughts to the realization of vast forces unfettered by attempts at “meaning”.

In the hallway of a museum in New Mexico, I found balance and peace and space, even though I was far from home in unfamiliar surroundings.

A spider camouflaged by flowering bear grass reminds me that slowing down to notice Life on a smaller scale reveals beauty and complexity and mystery.

I snapped this photo of my brother and his dog walking in their new neighborhood two months ago, and it reminds me that change is the nature of life, and that adapting to it requires support and cooperation.

This photo of the Georgia O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe reminds me that venturing out is worth the anxiety. There are bright, sunny, beautiful things to see in the wider world.

I love the playfulness and sweetness of new friends and having fun. This photo brings those memories to mind.

When I am tempted to grow bored with the familiar, I like being reminded to look again, look deeply, and notice with joy the abundance of beauty in the world.

And finally, reflection is good for my soul. There is always a different way to frame things, to appreciate what IS. I appreciate the Lens-Artists community and celebrate its growth in sharing images and stories across the globe. Thank you for supporting creativity and humanity! Thank you, Tina, for hosting this week’s challenge and sharing your beautiful favorite images of 2023. Click HERE to see her post.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Last Chance

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Winter Solstice 2023 – my last post of this year. Where I live in the Northern Hemisphere, there will be more than 15 hours of darkness tonight. It is a time to gather inwardly, to reflect on the shadows of what has been, to practice being comfortable with uncertainty, and to hope bravely for the coming light.

I came upon a phrase today from a campaign to protect wild buffalo herds. “Place-based coexistence”. It makes me think of the place where I live, the forest that I see from my window every day and the life that is sustained here – the flora and fauna, the lichen and moss. We are all to be plunged into darkness tonight. We all breathe the same air, soak up the rain, turn our faces to the light. I want to be mindful of all that is turning together in the Earth’s orbit. I want to celebrate our interdependence.

I think about the relatedness of all Beings in this web of existence and reflect on my actions. Have I been kind, gracious, patient? I think of the quiet days of coexistence that passed while I gained the trust of two cats I was tending for a friend. After days of being stared at from the safety of the bedroom closet, I earned the company of a purring furry friend beside me in front of the woodstove while I read a novel. This has been a long year of waiting and hoping for relationships to heal and grow. I have spent more time in deep observation and reflection and learning than I ever have before, I think. I am grateful for that.

I think of the positive actions I have taken, the aspirational direction of my thoughts, the building, creating, and rising to which I have challenged myself – physically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. During this dark time, I want to gather the energy to do more of that.

Finally, I remember that these moments of my life that add up to a year are as ephemeral as soap bubbles. Although they glisten with a rainbow of colors and take my breath away in their flight, they do not endure. They may instruct me, but they must not enchant me and lure me from attending to the present. This is a very difficult lesson for me. I have a photographic memory (as I’m sure many Lens-Artists do), and I find it easy to slip into my mind and out of reality. When I find myself doing this, I can choose to focus on the breath that comes to me, new, every minute. With this breath, and this awareness, I can create new glimmering bubbles of love and light, a gift in real time.

I wish you the warmth of Love and the light of Hope in this dark night. Thank you, friends and followers, for journeying around the Sun with me this year. I look forward to another trip! Special thanks to Tina for the inspiration and leadership her post provides for this year end challenge. Please visit her blog HERE.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Treasure Hunt

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Charlie is a treasure. He is very much a beloved pet in our family.
This treasured pet was named “Moon”, so I get double credit for his photo!
Sunset makes the clouds into a golden treasure. Another double credit!
These parents are making treasured moments with their child in the reflection of the sun sparkling on the Pacific Ocean.
A small “truck” full of autumn pumpkins, a treasure for the kids ready to carve them, and foliage in the background.
I treasure autumn days when I find foliage on my walk: a golden carpet underfoot!

Thank you, Tina, for inviting us to join you on a Treasure Hunt! Here’s the list for all you additional treasure-hunters out there:

  • A pet or pets (yours or someone else’s)
  • The moon or the sun (extra credit for both in one image)
  • Clouds (extra credit if you also include rain or snow)
  • A reflection
  • A child (extra credit if with other family members)
  • An umbrella (extra credit if you include a person using it)
  • A truck (extra credit if you include the driver or what the truck is hauling)
  • Autumn foliage (extra credit if it’s something that only blooms in the fall)
  • Something fun you found on a walk
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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Favorite Images of 2021

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Happy New Year! I am so glad to be looking at 2021 in my rear-view mirror, and I know I’m not the only one. For so many reasons, it was a tough slog. But, as my first complete year living in the majestic state of Oregon, it was also a year to discover beauty outdoors that I’d never seen before. I have compiled 12 of my favorite photos into a calendar of the past. I hope you enjoy it!

  • JANUARY
    Hazelnut orchard, Llewelyn Road, Corvallis
  • FEBRUARY
    South Beach State Park, Newport
  • MARCH
    Newport
  • APRIL
    Marys Peak
  • MAY
    Alsea Falls
  • JUNE
    Iron Mountain
  • JULY
    Strawberry Mountain Wilderness
  • AUGUST
    South Beach State Park, Newport
  • SEPTEMBER
    Agate Beach State Recreation Area
  • OCTOBER
    William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge
  • NOVEMBER
    William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge
  • DECEMBER
    My driveway, Corvallis

My heartfelt thanks goes out to Tina for being our challenge leader this week. Do visit HER POST to see her favorite shots of the year and to read instructions on joining the challenge. I am in awe of the core team of Lens Artists – Tina, Amy, Ann-Christine, and Patti – and delighted to hear that the team will be expanded this year to include three new host bloggers: Sofia, Anne, and John.
I wish all of you the joy of finding beauty in your lives every day as you look upon this marvelous world and the hope of being a blessing every day for someone in return. Make it a great year!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Going Wide

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“Look wide, and even when you think you are looking wide
– look wider still.”
Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Scouting Movement)

  • Canyonlands National Park, Utah

“Cleverness is like a lens with a very sharp focus.
Wisdom is more like a wide-angle lens.”
Edward de Bono

  • Badlands National Park (Southern Unit), South Dakota

“Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.”
Jordan Peterson

  • North woods, Minnesota

I absolutely adore landscapes! I love to hike and have worked for a land trust protecting land. Just this morning, I was interviewed by a land trust in my new home state of Oregon for their annual appeal video. I was eager and honored to share my passion for an evolving land ethic to guide humanity into better harmony with the Earth and my gratitude for organizations that uphold those ethics.
This week’s challenge is about wide-angle photography. The truth is, however, I don’t own a wide-angle lens. I do have a Landscape setting on my Canon Rebel T3i, though. It provides a large depth of field and color saturation to enhance greens and blues. I use it extensively when I’m out in the wide open spaces of the USA.

  • Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

Maybe some day I will invest in additional lenses for my camera. I encourage you to visit Patti’s blog to see some stunning examples of wide-angle photography and learn more!

  • Lake Woodbury, Wisconsin