Tag Archives: photography

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Bold

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“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

puddle

There’s something incredibly bold about a toddler. If you’ve ever seen the pure joy on a youngster’s face when they’re beginning to walk, it might surprise you. They’ve fallen down a million times, but still the prospect of being upright and moving forward is so compelling that they are happy to try again. Maybe it’s the exhilaration of satisfying a primal urge; maybe it’s the encouraging smiles and excitement from a care-giver. Being able to do what the grown-ups (or slightly more grown up) are doing is a huge accomplishment, and it is so thrilling to know you belong. With the proper footwear, you feel invincible. Mud puddles aren’t hazards, they’re opportunities.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Perhaps there’s an element of play in boldness as well, a courageous experimenting. Toddlers who are given permission to play boldly learn quickly. As we get older, we’re expected to mitigate risks, be more efficient, fail less. I feel the constraint in my body. Perhaps I will strap on my bright green boots of invincibility today and stride out on muddy paths to stomp in some puddles. There are mountains to climb, hard rocky roads to traverse, wrongs to be set right.

Thanks to Sofia for this challenge: a worthy theme to ponder. Do visit her site for more inspiring, bold images.

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Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: Only One Picture

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“This week it is my turn to present a challenge – and I mean to give us all a real ‘test’. I tend to use several pictures in my posts, and some of us often do – so the challenge is to use only ONE picture. One that you find important, meaningful to you, maybe sending a message – and then explain why you picked just that picture. It is not meant to be a ‘favorite’ picture of yours…” ~ Ann-Christine of the blog “Leya”

What an inspired challenge! I love that this plays right into the wheelhouse of making meaning, not just making images, and that is a place where my mental gears can turn all day long. Especially in a time of confusion, worry, chaos, and sorrow. What a great question to ask repeatedly: “What is important and meaningful now?”

As one who is instinctively visually inspired, I knew that if I scrolled through my media library, one photo would jump out at me. In this case, quite literally.

This is a favorite photo, in fact, because it means so much to me, personally. For the moment, though, I’m imagining I don’t know the specific story, and I’m taking a first look. I think this is an emotion-packed scene. The brooding clouds; the flat, gray shore; the piercing light; the reflection in the puddled foreground; and the exuberant kicking up of the silhouetted figure’s heels. It suggests defiance, courage, enthusiasm (being filled with the Source of Life, which some call God – theos in Greek), hope. The fact that the action is reflected provides even more momentum. These powerful feelings continue and have unimagined after effects. I want to shout “Yes!” when I see it, feel a bracing ocean breeze in my face and a surge of energy. I want to be part of the revolution or revelation that inspired this scene.

The backstory: I traveled to the Oregon coast to visit my adult children in October of 2019. I was considering moving from Wisconsin to the west coast to be closer to them and my family of origin in California. The cross-country move would mean a lot of change, a lot of loss, an unknown step into a new adventure – everything that being alive requires. Playing on the beach with my 30-year old daughter was a timeless and time-filled joy. She has always been physically expressive and unpredictable, laughing and cavorting at any moment. And she has been through the hardest struggles imaginable; the list would astonish you. I hold her entire history in my memory and see her, here, triumphant.

Yes, I moved thousands of miles to be with her and her siblings. I moved during the COVID pandemic when isolation, confusion, and fear effected every decision and every moment. Being on the west coast meant that I was with my mother for her two months in hospice and her death. It means that I have a chance to build a closer relationship with my siblings and my kids. It means that I can be engaged in supporting those I love through hard times and celebrations. It means that I have a lived experience of making another big life change and following it through. Each time I do that, I feel more confident, more hopeful in my ability to continue to do hard things. When I face those challenges and celebrate the outcome, the ripples travel to distant shores I can only imagine.

I share this photo with you with the hope that you will recognize inspiration, courage, and joy in your lived moments.


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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Cats and Dogs

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“The cat is such a perfect symbol of beauty and superiority that it seems scarcely possible for any true aesthete and civilized cynic to do other than worship it.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Cats and Dogs

When I was a tiny child, I harbored the belief that all cats were girls and all dogs were boys. I’m not sure how I formed that notion, but when I mention it in conversation, sometimes there’s another person who also remembers thinking that. The first family pet we had joined the household when I was about seven years old – a male cat – and I had to abandon my theory.

“The dog appeals to cheap and facile emotions; the cat to the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, Cats and Dogs

I was afraid of dogs for many years. When I was five or six years old, I was running on the shore of Lake Michigan in front of our family cottage when an Irish setter spotted me and presumably thought I was a potential playmate. He started running toward me, and I started running away, probably screaming. I could hear an adult voice in the distance yelling, “King! King! Come back!” When the dog caught up to me, he jumped up and knocked me over. I was sure I was about to be eaten. The dog’s owner finally appeared and told me that King was a friendly dog and calmed us both down a bit. But I wanted nothing more to do with dogs for a long, long time. In fact, it wasn’t until my adult children had their own dogs that I really began to learn to trust and bond with canines.

At this point in my life, I find myself stepping in to care for friends’ pets when they are traveling. I have learned a lot from my kids about pet care and pet psychology. There’s a sweet reality TV show produced in the U.K. call “The Dog House” which films the matching of rescue dogs with people searching for canine companions. The backstories on each episode illustrate that we are all searching for safety and love, even as we are all uniquely quirky.

Dogs and cats provide a very important service to us humans by teaching us compassion and responsibility. Learning to love and care for a living being that doesn’t look like you, speak your language, eat the same foods or behave in the ways you would is a very important developmental process. I think it helps us be better parents and citizens of the world.

May I update my theories when evidence proves them inaccurate. May I be at least as kind to other humans as I would be to pets.

Our Challenge host this week, Tina, has put together a stunning display of photos of cats and dogs both tame and wild. Do visit to see for yourself! Click HERE.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Complementary Colors

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“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.”

― Marc Chagall

My thoughts this week have been stirred by images and headlines in the news that illustrate and announce an intolerance for opposites and others. How appropriate to contemplate the word ‘complementary’ with this Challenge. Here’s one definition: “combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another”. I think of my four adult children who gathered online with me for a virtual celebration of my eldest’s 40th birthday on Friday. Their similarities and differences have always amused and fascinated me. Any delusions that they might be “mini-Me” are long gone. They are themselves, each unique and distinct, offering something invaluable and inimitable into the ripples of Life. Our small family circle is a microcosm of the interconnected web of existence. We need each other, we help each other, we protect each other, we nourish each other, we support each other, we encourage each other to be our best selves. It is not unimaginable that this dynamic could extend to the entire human family.

Our highly evolved brains are wired to notice difference, to compare and contrast. That skill can be used to be aware and appreciative of variety – in texture, color, personality, culture – and to understand nuance. And that skill can be applied to dividing, sorting, separating. It’s important to take care how we use our tools, where we use our tools, and on what we use our tools.

Thank you, Egidio, for reminding me of the beauty of this spectrum and the dynamic of the contrasts in it.

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Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: Shoot From Above

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From space, the Earth is just a precious little blue marble. From five and a half feet above Earth, here in the temperate rainforest, the Earth is a carpet of soil and leaves and moss and mushrooms. Decomposers are hard at work, seeds are swelling in the damp. Soon the wheel of the year will turn to Imbolc, halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Looking down at the ground beneath your feet where you are, what is happening?

In these confusing and difficult times, I head for higher ground when the outlook is obscured. When I shoot from above the fog, I can often see more light on the horizon. I see that the fog has edges, that rising ridges and upright firs can penetrate it. I need that perspective now.

Last night I saw the movie “A Complete Unknown”, the Bob Dylan biopic. I recommend it. Edward Norton’s portrayal of Pete Seeger is spot on. I am inspired by the poet activists who help us shoot from above when the times, they are a-changin’. May we each try again to be our best selves and remember our highest purpose.

Thanks, Ritva, for leading the Challenge.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Resilience

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As changes in our modern world grow more extreme and dramatic, resilience has become a hot topic. This past Fall, I was on a planning team for a women’s retreat that made resilience their theme. We dove into creating a tool kit for personal, relational, and community resilience and discussed everything from sleep hygiene and earthquake preparedness to communicating gratitude and love. It was a rich arena for growth and intention.

When I searched my blog archives, I came across this essay about weathering a summer storm at the 19th Century living history museum where I worked, Old World Wisconsin. You can read that entry – “We Amid the Flood” – HERE.

Resilience in nature seems to be all about the interdependent web of life. Ecosystems like forests and coral reefs are complex and dynamic places of shared resources and symbiotic relationships. Humans have barely begun to understand the processes that sustain life through time and change in these arenas. Perhaps we have greater understanding of personal and societal resilience, which is why our species is dominating the planet. However, that domination could create the collapse of the very planetary systems that sustain us.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~ African proverb

In the Dunn Forest along Soap Creek, old growth trees benefit from mycorrhizal networks underground and sustain ferns, mosses and lichens above ground. They provide habitat and food for a host of creatures. They bend and stretch towards the sun in order to produce food from its energy. When limbs break and fall to the ground, they are turned into rich soil for the continued growth of new trees. They are a wonderous and appropriate illustration of RESILIENCE.

Special thanks to Anne Sandler for hosting this week’s Challenge.

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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-Artist Photo Challenge: There is a crack in everything

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“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in” – Leonard Cohen, Anthem

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” – Italian proverb

“We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah, and the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see

I can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
They’re going to hear from me” – Anthem, cont’d

My country is suffering and divided. There is a crack, deep and wide, in our governing system. So many people have forgotten the good that was intended by the democracy we tried to create. It is terrifying to contemplate a future with an aspiring dictator. I’m hoping that our vote next week is a bell that can still ring for justice, for freedom, for government of the people, by the people, for the people.

There is a Japanese art called “kintsugi” where broken pottery is mended with gold, filling the cracks, drawing the pieces back together. Its spiritual significance is that if we choose to embrace our struggles and repair ourselves with the precious metal of love, we can become more beautiful for having been broken. My friend uses this idea in her garden, where she mends broken glass with small, colorful chips. Her garden is a riot of colors – dahlias, vegetables, and ornaments. Many of her decorations have become cracked and worn over time, left to the elements.

I spent this last week at my friend’s house, caring for her dog Bodhi, while she traveled.

Bodhi is an older rescue dog. She has only one eye, with a cataract. She doesn’t hear very well, and she is currently battling bladder stones. She becomes very anxious when she is left alone. Even with these imperfections, she is a sweet presence of love, always wanting to be beside me, stretched out in the sunlight on the warm carpet, and even more thrilled when she is allowed to jump onto the bed with me.

All week long, I have been thinking of the lyrics of Cohen’s Anthem. I have been thinking of “The Gifts of Imperfection” (a book by Brené Brown); I have been pondering the state of the Union. I have been willfully ringing the bells that still sound in my community: justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, and generosity. And I have been trying to pour Love into every crack, every heart, every word, every action I engage with. I do this with faith that the Light will pour in.

May it be so!
Thank you, Ritva, for this beautiful inspiration!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: My Neighborhood

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“Some people are uncomfortable with the idea that humans belong to the same class of animals as cats and cows and raccoons. They’re like the people who become successful and then don’t want to be reminded of the old neighborhood.”
– Phil Donahue

Welcome to my neighborhood! I live 14 miles southwest of a university town in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I rent a studio apartment above the garage of a big house among the trees. When I ventured out this morning, my housemates were already gone. It’s quiet in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are plants.

In addition to my three human housemates, two dogs and six chickens live on the property. So do countless others: rodents, reptiles, bats, insects, and birds, plus the occasional deer, bear, coyote, and cougar.

This morning the weather started out cool and foggy. We had a significant rain yesterday, a true sign that we are past the Autumnal Equinox and headed toward the rainy season of Oregon winter.

This part of Oregon was once a temperate rain forest. Moss and lichen hang from the trees all year round, but they dry out considerably during the summer. When the rains fall again, they expand like sponges and become green again. This is along my driveway – it’s .7 miles from the house to the mailbox.

Here’s where I stopped to drop my recycling in the bins by the mailbox. I’m looking across the gravel road past the tree farm lot toward where Duffy Creek runs along the base of the hills.

Timber is a big industry in Oregon. Logging operations are interspersed with small farms along our gravel road. Douglas Fir trees grow very rapidly in this climate. Six to ten years after planting, they can be harvested as Christmas trees. In 40 to 50 years, they can grow to be 70 feet tall and are used for lumber and telephone poles. The branches are often left in slash piles that are burned – which seems to be the most convenient way to get rid of the excess material. I find it worrisome that the carbon sequestered in that wood is released into the atmosphere instead of being used as mulch or paper pulp or something.

The rest of these shots were taken in the afternoon when I was returning home from town. The clouds had dispersed and the temperature climbed up to a delightful 72 degrees F.

The small family farms along my road are home to a variety of domesticated animals: horses, cows, goats, sheep. And there are wild turkeys everywhere! They are not native to this area; they were introduced from western Texas in 1961 by game hunters, and have proliferated tremendously. They have become rather a nuisance.

And here is the view of the valley where my mailbox and trash bins sit. You can see a few small white rectangles to the left of the telephone pole.

Thank you for travelling with me along Beaver Creek Road! Thank you, Tina, for inviting us to share our neighborhood sights. I have to admit that I didn’t walk this today. I moved here in August of 2020, during the pandemic, and I walked it often. Nowadays, though, I drive into town to volunteer and meet friends almost daily, so I don’t spend the time on foot as much. I am delighted to slow down and pay attention to the incredible beauty that is my little neighborhood!