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Tag Archives: wordpress photo challenge
Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic
Oh, boy. What a theme for a museum geek! In case you’re new to this blog, let me tell you that I work at 2 museums, one being a living history museum featuring 60 historic buildings depicting 19th century immigration to Wisconsin. In addition to that, my partner Steve & I sell books and other items gleaned from estate sales. We have quite an eclectic collection of various ‘relics’ of the 20th & 21st century in our home. Currently, the very home that we are renting – a duplex built in 1905 – is undergoing extensive upgrading: electrical system, roof, and paint so far. I am surrounded by relics, and I’m always looking for more! So….what to feature?
Perhaps a crumbling lime kiln I found at High Cliff State Park. It was in operation from 1870 -1956 on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago….
Maybe Steve’s hiking boots – they’re not really that old, but they got a lot of wear last year when he worked as a mail carrier for the US Postal Service…
Or how about this corner of our living room, where we display some of our favorite oddities…
Actually, my very favorite photo for this theme isn’t one I took. It’s one someone else took of me. Old World Wisconsin runs a photo contest every year, and the first year I worked there, a photo of me won Best In Show. The featured relic in the photo is the 1839 Cathedral of the Diocese of the Territory of Wisconsin – St. Peter’s Church. The pump organ/harmonium/reed organ is from 1890. The stations of the cross are lithographs made in Germany between 1875 and 1900. The photographer is Jay Filter, and he gave me permission to feature his photo on my blog in 2012. Here it is again:
St. Peter’s Church at Old World Wisconsin. Photo by Jay Filter
Yup, that photo is a real winner. Can’t claim it as mine, but it sure fits this theme! Thanks, Jay!
Wordless Wednesday: Americana
Mineral Point
Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrasts
What a cornucopia of contrasts we large-brained creatures enjoy! All of our five senses combined with time, space, balance, aesthetic, and a host of other concepts gives us a spectrum of comparison and juxtaposition that is unparallelled (maybe – contrasts in perceived electricity, magnetism, light and sound might be more pronounced in other species than I imagine! How do animals know when and how to migrate or mate or find a spawning place?). Sensate – sentient – sensational. The world is a vast canvas of contrasts.
Prickly, feathery, cold. Down on snow, covered with a pine bough.
I can lose myself in texture and scent and taste even more than with sight and sound. My guts are more involved, my brain less so. I am enjoying a book by one of my favorite writers, Walter Wangerin Jr. What I like about his voice is that it is so thoroughly visceral and ancient. It makes me feel grounded. There’s a holiness in that. Contrast helps me know that I am alive.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Extra, Extra
The Weekly Photo Challenge prompt posted today says: “This week, share a photo that has a little something extra: an unexpected visitor, or a tranquil landscape with a splash of color. A lone carrot in a sea of peas. Draw us in with a humorous detail, or find a photo with an added element that makes it an image only you could capture.”
(If you click on the photo, it should open in a larger window for a more panoramic view.)
The significance of this photo has many levels. Someone just visiting this blog for the first time might see a nice composition of natural scenery and a person enjoying it. Very pleasant. Someone who knows this blog a little better might recognize the person as Steve, my partner, who shows up in many of my photos. Someone who knows my history might recognize the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan, opposite my grandmother’s beach cottage where I spent many childhood summers, and understand the sentimental attachment I have to this particular body of water. Only Steve & I know the thought that prompted him to sit in this place, the person he is memorializing as he pauses on our walk. The invisible figure in this photo is Steve’s father, Stanley.
I never met Stanley. He died one month before I first encountered Steve. I have been introduced to him many times in concept and story, however. Stanley was a gentle person, a father who did not assert his authority or enforce many rules. Steve sometimes describes him as “passive resistant”, but his assessment is one of understanding and acceptance rather than judgment. Stanley enjoyed going slowly through life, enjoying simple pleasures and quiet places. He worked many years in the US Postal Service and traveled with his family in his own whimsical way. Taking a cigarette break was a frequent excuse to absent himself from the social gathering at hand to enjoy a peaceful moment. When Steve saw this bench along the nature trail at Kohler-Andrae State Park, he said, “This is just the kind of place my father would like.” He sat down. I walked down the path to allow him some private time with his dad, and snapped this photo.
Happy Father’s Day, Stanley. Thanks for being the person you were and for all you did to make Steve the person he is. Well done, sir.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Room
Room….and room enough. How do you make space in your life, for yourself, for your dreams, for another person?
How do you create warmth and comfort and interest?
Is that just about outer atmosphere, or is the inner condition of your soul the place from which an invitation to abide emanates?
Isn’t that what “room” is all about? A place to abide, be it contained or uncontained.
And what is abiding? To me, it’s more than living…it’s living in peace.
I want to abide — in my house, in my work, in my life, in the world — in peace.
© 2014, essay and photographs, Priscilla Galasso, All rights reserved
Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist
“Twist” is filthy with meaning: it’s the unexpected, it’s surprise, it’s even an amazing ice cream choice. What does “twist” mean to you?
Being a bibliophile, I immediately think of a plot twist, the kind that makes you tingle with pleasure in the last chapters of the mystery novel you’re reading. “Wow! I never saw THAT coming!” Such delight. I did find an appropriately twisty photo that I snapped while hiking around Lapham Peak State Park in early spring. We were looking for lichen, on a whim, and found ourselves outside the warming house near the skating pond. I suppose they use that building for winter events, family-oriented programs that might include a craft project or something, because I happened upon this item posing as a lingering patch of snow in the leaf litter….
A plastic snowflake. Natural….but not. It made me laugh.
© 2014, essay and photographs, Priscilla Galasso, All rights reserved
Weekly Photo Challenge: Art
“Art is the proper task of life.” — Neitzsche.
What is Art? Who gets to define it? Who gets to make it? Do we delegate this activity to those trained and proven in convention or do we allow that any human has the privilege to create, to explore, to juxtapose materials and images and sounds and actions and ‘stuff’ of any description into something unique? And do we recognize that the miraculous gift of this activity is not merely the product to be admired, but the process that transforms? Have you been changed by Art, as a creator and as a consumer? Do you disqualify yourself from the role of artist? Is it fear that keeps you from it?
I admire people who engage in “the proper task of life”.
Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Move
“On the move” in an accelerating society with handy pocket-sized digital cameras may manifest in a blur of city lights and speeding vehicles. That’s not my style. I don’t have a smart phone, and my favorite mode of transport is my own two feet. Slowing to a stop on a trail to snap a photograph of my companions and surroundings is my way of depicting my life, my movement. “I am the joy in change and movement” is Steve’s self-expression of identity. I delight in putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward at a pace that allows awareness, self-control and grace. “Walk with me” is an invitation to a deeper experience of moving with life, apace with the planet. For a truly masterful illustration of this theme, visit Steve McCurry’s blog titled “One Step at a Time” here.
scillagrace 
