Tag Archives: postaday

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour

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The first and last hour of sunlight in the day is what photographers often refer to as “The Golden Hour”.  I am not the dedicated kind of hobbyist that will actually go out looking for that kind of light specifically, but I do sometimes find myself with my camera out on a hike or an outing that lasts until near sunset.  A serendipitous meeting might then occur, and I’ll get a great shot.  Here’s one of which I am especially fond: Enjoy!

Holy Hill

Holy Hill

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic

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Oh, boy.  It’s a dangerous thing to invite a widow and empty-nester to post a blog on the theme Nostalgic!  Contemplating the past can lead to maudlin stretches and lots of used Kleenex, even if I don’t have a glass or two of wine first.  I don’t think that would be at all edifying to the blogging community, so I’m going to try hard to steer away from that.  I hope to write and show something that is true about a time that has come and gone. 

Life is characterized by impermanence.  Our kids don’t stay little; our loved ones don’t stay alive forever.  What we live is present moments.  If we try to hang on to them and make them more permanent or attach our happiness to them, we are in for a world of frustration.  As we get farther away from present moments, it’s hard to remember what they were really like.  We lose perspective.  That wonderful family outing…did I yell at the kids that day?  I don’t remember.  I probably lost patience at least once.  Did my kids remember that?  How did they feel?  How did they heal?  Or is it all, as my mother often puts it, ‘a merciful blur’? 

Brookfield Zoo dolphin show, August 1991. Jim (RIP), Emily, Josh, Becca and Susan (bride to be in 3 weeks!).

Brookfield Zoo dolphin show, August 1991. Jim (RIP), Emily, Josh, Becca and Susan (bride to be in 3 weeks!).

In my current life, I see a lot of families on outings with their children, since I work at two different family museums.  Families interact in all sorts of ways.  I try to look at them with compassion and tolerance remembering what I can about how challenging it is to raise 4 kids at one time.  The important thing is to BE KIND in the present moment.  With your kids or someone else’s.  If the world is to be a good place to live, it’s important that all 7 billion of us humans remember to BE KIND.  And this is not a glib solution.  If you think deeply about being kind, you’ll see that it is a profound power in the universe.   BE KIND to your fellow humans.  BE KIND to every living thing.  BE KIND to yourself first, and feel what that is like.  It is peace.  It is well-being and health.  It is life.  Don’t settle for feeling nostalgic about a time when you felt the world was a kinder place to live.  Make it a kinder place to live this very moment by acting kindly!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Companion

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I spent the last 8 hours in the delightful company of my firstborn child.  We spent the day making paper roses out of pages of an old copy of The Lord of the Rings for her wedding bouquet, trying out hair-dos for the wedding, and talking heart to heart. I am so grateful that the years we’ve spent together have produced two women who have grown to be great friends.  You can read all kinds of opinions about whether your children are supposed to be your friends, but in the final analysis, if you both live to be adults at the same time, you can have a friendship that is richer, deeper, closer than any you can imagine.  My daughter was born when I was 22, and in many ways, we grew up together.  We read together, learned together, laughed together, cried together, explored different roles and ages and stages in each others’ company and discovered that we really like each other.  We’ve always been very honest and good communicators.  So, I sincerely want to say,

“Susan, thank you for being my companion for 28 years (so far)!  I love you very much.”Companion

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through Your Eyes

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This week’s photo challenge was a tough one for me.  The “assignment” was to show “a visual interpretation of one’s vision. A story, captured in a frame.”  This seems to me to be something close to photojournalism.  I think black and white.  I think action, or a reference to action.  I look through my portfolio, and most of what I have is nature portraiture and still life.  The world through my eyes would seem posed, maybe even inert.  Hmmm.  This IS a challenge.  In order to capture a story, I would have to show more of a scene, not just a subject.  The backdrop, the context.  That would probably mean I have to be more ready with my camera, “quicker on the draw”, so to speak.  I will keep that in mind.  Tomorrow, I go to my daughter’s Bridal Shower, and I intend to bring my camera.  Maybe I can practice this assignment in that setting.  For now, I will give you my best approximation at photojournalism, taken last October on our adventure to “Metaphorical Maine” (which actually turned out to be Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio).  Here ’tis:

My vision

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves

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Curves…

How many internet “news” headlines associate that word with female celebrities on the red carpet?  SOOOooo not my style of subject.

The curve ball?  The cosmic 2 by 4 upside the head?  Ah, yes.  That experience is one with which I am familiar.  I appreciate a good twist of fate/destiny/plot/philosophy.  I’ve been reading a 1917 copy of Best Russian Short Stories compiled by Thomas Seltzer.  Intense!  Revolutionary!  Profound!  I recommend The Shades, A Phantasy by Korolenko:  Socrates investigating the justice of religion, and for lighter fare, How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials by Saltykov: like Mark Twain satire, only Russian.

Visually, curves are naturally graceful.  Is there anything in nature that is completely straight?  I’ve thought about that several times, and the closest thing I can come up with is a pine needle.  Any other ideas out there?

So, here are some curves from my photo files:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

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I must be sharing some head space with Cheri at Word Press.  I’ve been thinking about ephemerals as I photographed the woodland wildflowers a few weeks ago.  An entire hillside was covered in trout lily, and I was excited at the prospect of seeing them all bloom at once.  I went back two weeks later to discover that I’d missed it. 

Fleeting.  Short life cycles.  Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of the first time I kissed my husband.  He died at the age of 47.  “It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts.”  That quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and my sister-in-law read it at Jim’s memorial.  Living, sentient beings change over time, rapidly or slowly doesn’t matter.  We are all impermanent.  Is that an aberration?  Or is that just the way it is?  Rage or accept as you will, the wheel turns, the cycle moves.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

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“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls”
And whispered in the sounds of silence” – Simon & Garfunkel

This is absolutely the first thing that came to mind when I read the prompt for this photo challenge, and the first image that I thought of is this shot that I took last Friday at the trail head to the section of the Ice Age Trail we hiked that day.

signsGraffiti….is it art or is it disrespect?  I suppose that depends on what it is and where.  How about on an ancient Egyptian wall?  Yeah, that made the news this week.  Is that a prophecy of destruction?  There are many examples of that abroad on our planet.  How about prophecies of hope and healing?  They seem harder to come by.  Here’s one I found this morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TqFaiVNuy1k

Signs point the way; they are not the Way, nor are they the goal.  It isn’t wise to get attached to the sign and miss the reality.  It might be a good challenge to toss out your favorite signposts periodically to see if you can still find the Way….

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Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background

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“Back of the bread is the flour, and back of the flour is the mill, and back of the mill is the sun and the rain and the Father’s will.”  So goes a table grace that I learned to sing at Girl Scout camp.  Back of the photos that I post here is little ol’ me, with camera in hand, and often my companion on adventures, Steve.  The challenge for this week is to Take a picture of yourself or someone else as a shadow, a reflection, or a lesser part of a scene, making the background, or — as in the example above — the foreground, the center of attention.  Let’s see what I have in my treasure chest…

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Oh, and here’s another one…

antique shopKind of a goofy shot…had no idea my stomach had crept into the photo, and hadn’t really thought much about the composition.  I was standing in the middle of an antique/rummage shop, trying to take in all the bizarreness around me, not sure where to look.  I am an observer, and often passive.  I am actually doing a lot of soul-searching these days, trying to be more intentional about what I do with my life.  I have a habit of looking around, appreciating everything and not engaging with much energy in any particular thing.  It’s kind of a surrender-based position.  Not that it’s bad; it can be useful at times.  It can also be very frustrating for Steve who wants to know more about what I really want.  I have a tendency to fade into the background: social conditioning? lack of self-confidence? fear of commitment/rejection/judgment? Not that I want to promote my ego, but I do want to attend to values with some assertion.  If I don’t stick up for what I think is important, then my days will be incredibly dull and my life energy not very well spent.  As I get into my senior years, I want to avoid slipping into the routine of enduring and not enjoying my time here.  How do I practice that daily?  That’s what I’m hoping to figure out.   

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

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The photo challenge for this week?  Escape.   So many associations….especially if you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.  With whom would you plan an escape?  I planned one with my oldest daughter yesterday.   It was the only day I wasn’t scheduled to work in a museum this week, and she had just finished her last paper for her Master’s degree in Linguistics, so we decided to spend the day together celebrating Mother’s Day and her Graduation all at once.  We planned to go to the Schlitz Audubon Center and play on the beach, but it was rainy and cold.  Change of plans…

Escape can be running away; it can be freedom from entrapment; or it can be an egress or way of going forth, like helium from a balloon.  A linguistics student might tell you the etymology of the word and how it relates to “escapade” and “vomitorium” (think “fire escape”)….which is why I recommend taking a linguist with you when you go for your weekly challenge photo shoot!  Think of the interpretations that might open up for you!  For example: in botany, a plant that becomes established in the wild outside of the area of cultivation is called an escape.  (I have lots of botanical examples!)  And all of us with computers know the little key in the upper left marked “Esc”.   And birthing my daughter might be another example of escape as well…but maybe that’s a bit too graphic!  (it was 28 years ago; no digital photos of that, lucky for you!)  Here, then, are some of my shots of that marvelous day spent with my brilliant companion, Susan:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

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This week’s photo challenge theme is Pattern.  Visually, this is a very strong subject in photography and has been illustrated in countless dramatic and stunning ways by much more talented artists than I.  But what an interesting philosophical theme as well!  Are patterns created by humans, or are they natural?  Humans have a special knack for identifying and arranging patterns as well as re-creating, extending, and imposing them on all kinds of things.  Is that a function of our orderly brains, our consciousness?  Of course, there are also examples of patterns in nature….but, again, the concept of ‘pattern’ is something we invented.  It wasn’t as if a DNA string said to itself, “I think I’ll create a pattern.”  It was a human who saw what was in front of him/her and said, “Eureka!  A pattern!”  So, pattern…is it a real phenomenon or a construct of our consciousness?  Discuss.  (or just look at the pictures!)

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