Tag Archives: photography
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Magic of Light
Light is magic. I’m enjoying watching the light, from sun up to sun down, at my new home in the country. Foggy dawn changes…
…to afternoon gold…
…to evening moonrise.
Then there are the more nuanced fluctuations of light dancing off cold and warm surfaces and reflective crystals.
Isn’t that what photography is all about? The Magic of Light!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Tiny
Having recently discovered my camera’s close-up setting, I am having a great time photographing tiny details.
I still find that my camera doesn’t quite depict the way that I see the world — the awareness of the juxtaposition of what’s outside the frame with what’s inside, for example.
And the colors and scope of a sunset and simultaneous moonrise.
Where is the camera that can take in all that my eyes and brain and heart envelope? Non-existent. And that’s good because I’d hate to think humanity could be replaced by technology.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Shine!
My daughters sparkle and shine far more brightly than their surroundings…but maybe that’s only from my perspective. Here are some shiny photos of them. I can’t decide which I like better: the color or the monochrome. What do you think?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Local
What a coincidence! Here I am packing up my home and home business and getting ready to move to the place where I have a part-time job with a Conservation Foundation. Why? So that I can live locally with the land that I’m working to conserve. And this week’s word is LOCAL.
Living where you work, working where you live, eating what grows on the land where you live, using your energy to shape your life — not extravagantly, not wastefully, but sustainably — is important to me. I think it makes good, common sense. So, here’s a gallery of my office, my new home, and the surrounding area that’s in the land trust.
The Office
Office Parking lot
Prairie and kame
Ski Fox Hill Kame
My driveway
My new garage
Local
Weekly Photo Challenge: Water, Water, Everywhere
“Death Valley is all about water.” So we were told by Jay Snow, the National Park Service ranger, an Okie character with an over-the-top presentation. It’s the lowest point in the country, parts of it falling below sea-level. It would make sense that gravity would bring a lot of water to that place. And it does. It’s just below the surface of the salt flat. Fascinating! Water does not behave in ways we often assume it will. It remains mysterious, a shape-shifter. It goes from warm color droplets…
…to sharp-angled crystals…
…it will eventually dissolve and transform even rock, paper, or scissors.
Water is life, practically the very definition of it. What would we “dew” without it?
It may threaten to destroy us; at the same time, we can’t live without it.
For all of these reasons, H2O commands awe, wonder, reverence. We ought to treat it with a great deal of respect and not tamper with it in its natural state unadvisedly or lightly.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgia
Back in 1997, I self-published a book of poetry called The King’s Gift: Poems and Parables. It contained this one that I titled “Change”:
In autumn, the trees start to sing once again
of the bittersweet mystery of change.
Is it beauty or pain
now attached to my soul?
Is it grief…
…or relief…
…or nostalgia?
In the scarlet and gold,
the blood-red of life’s hold on my heart
and the warmth of its love
mingles memories and years
into afternoon tears
falling softly
…as leaves…
…to the ground.
I feel this way every fall. The change in light makes everything seem altered and thrown back into the past — until my eyes adjust and my brain catches up. Then the brilliance of the season kicks in. I really love Fall for its ability to draw out a range of emotion and hold it, fully aware and unashamed, in its transient environment.
Text and photographs © 2016, Priscilla Galasso. Poetry © 1997, Priscilla Galasso. All rights reserved.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest
At this point in my life, I am Over the Hill for sure. The sun is setting – how rapidly is anyone’s guess. Anticipating the unknown sounds like an exercise in futility. Any build-up is likely to increase anxiety. I think what is more important is simply practicing being the character I want to be. I am not on a quest to challenge my mortality, but to be at peace. I am looking forward to moving to a more rural part of the state in a month, on 56 acres of restored prairie that’s owned by the Conservation Foundation where I work. My quest will allow me to spend more time in Nature and more quiet time writing. We’ll see how rapidly that sunset arrives. I’m not looking to jump on any fast trains to get there.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Edgy
Ben Huberman talks about using a frame to “anchor” our compositions with something. Here’s my son holding down the Chicago skyline:
But he seems to be bobbing in the water. What if I anchor him as well?
Maybe that’s a bit unfair to put that on my kid’s shoulders. He’s not even as tall as I am. How about I anchor the skyline with some serious construction? Like Lake Shore Drive…
I like that. And the monochrome treatment makes it even stronger. Thanks, Ben, for the tip!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Mirror Question
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, I have a question:
Reflecting on life and love…
Reflecting on family…
Reflecting on Nature…
scillagrace 