Tag Archives: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites

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There’s a jazzy Jim Henson Sesame Street song about this…

That’s the first thing that popped into my head. ‘Near’ and ‘far’ are opposite concepts.  Concrete things are rarely exact opposites.  More often, their differences are about contrast and juxtaposition.  Here are some examples:

sculpture and poet 

MKE flower industry

growth piercing

Amazement

green stream

This complex world is full of interesting differences. My hope is that these contrasts become areas for exploration and awe, not areas for fear and hatred.  You know what I mean? 

Peace, friends. 🙂

Opposites

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Partners, Buddies and Pals

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When did you learn cooperation? When did you learn give-and-take? Who taught you? Your mother or father? How did it make you feel?

 

Did you have siblings?  Besides sharing parents, did you share a room? A closet? A bathroom? Did you share your emotions?

Have you ever had a partnership with just one very special person? How long did it last? How did you manage that?

Partnering isn’t easy…but it isn’t hard, either.  It takes concerted effort, for which humans are actually well-equipped because we have quite an advanced way of communicating. It gets more complicated with more partners involved, of course.  I think the rewards are increased in the process. Wouldn’t it be great if we could enjoy the partnership of all living things?  After all, we share one planet. 

contemplating colors
Partners

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Dangerous Curves

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The environmentalist in me immediately thought of the graph of carbon emissions from “An Inconvenient Truth” with Al Gore up on a scaffolding trying to get across the frightening point of our increasing threat to our planet. But I don’t have a photo of that.  I do have symbols of how man-made things are eclipsing the natural. I have playground curves with a very small moon…

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and outdoor art thrown up against the sky…

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and wheels, which have dominated the environment for about a thousand years now.

Finally, I have a symbol of Natural grace, curvy and sharp and wild. A yucca plant.

cactus curl

I think the most dangerous curves are the ones we humans impose. 

Curve

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Pure, Pristine Wilderness

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Untouched, virgin wilderness is perhaps an impossibility on Earth these days. Are there any places that haven’t been touched with acid rain, air pollution or light pollution? Not likely, even if they have never been trammelled by human footsteps. Still, wilderness is an idea worth supporting and fighting for. Pure may only exist in our imagination, but it can have an impact there. What would the silence of machines, herothe darkness of the night sky,

sunset 2 the solitude of a forest mean to you?

wildernessPure delight or pure dread?

wildernessforever
Pure
Pure

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Weekly Photo Challenge: In Respect To Numbers

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Do numbers even exist in Nature?  I don’t think so.  They are human concepts, to which humans have attached meaning.  In Nature, things simply are as they are.  For example, there’s a tall flowering plant growing in the woodlands and by the freeways, blooming with pink to purple flowers in profusion right now.  Is it Wild Phlox or is it Dame’s Rocket?  The two look very much alike.  Wild Phlox, however, has 5 petals on each flower.  It is a native wildflower.  Dame’s Rocket has 4 petals to a flower, and it is an invasive species.  One is celebrated, the other ripped out at the roots in great handfuls and left to wither in the sun.  

We make a lot of judgments based on numbers.  What’s your SAT score?  Your credit score?  Your cholesterol level?  

Does it matter?  We live; we make choices; we die.  I think numbers are immaterial. I think character is everything.  A growing thing, no matter the number of its parts, is alive.  It deserves respect. 

 

Numbers

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Spare Me!

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“…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, the least of my Brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Here’s an opportunity for some deep questions: Who are “the least”? Who are “Brethren”? How do you treat them? And who is “Me”? There can be many answers to these questions, and they all help us to understand what is meant by kindness and mercy. At this stage in my life, I am trying to expand my concepts of Brethren and Me, to be more inclusive, more at One with all kinds of beings. Here are some of my new friends: 


Spare

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant Wedding

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Going through my memory card files, I came across this photo from my daughter’s wedding. Perfect for this theme! There’s only one problem – I don’t think I took this shot. My camera was handed off to my son, who handed it off to his girlfriend, and I think SHE took this picture of him. Hats off to you, Daena Wallace, for this great capture!  Here’s one I did take that day…

time warp
Jubilant

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Weekly Photo Challenge: That Marvelous Face

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First Face:

mom laughing

My Mother’s Face had to be the first face I learned to love. I am sure that I gazed at her for long stretches while nursing. I learned to get over my teen-aged embarrassment at her lazy walleye, her “long Celtic chin” (as she called it) and the fact that she never wore make-up. Her face is particular and characteristic. Her prominent eyes and small nose and mouth have been gradually swaddled by more wrinkles and folds as she ages. She is now 81; this photo was taken 3 years ago. What I love most about this picture is that she is in her natural state – enjoying life! 

Second Face:

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This is the face I see continually in my dreams, the face of my true love. He was 19 when I took this picture with the camera he bought me – a Canon AE-1.  We were married for 24 years and had 4 children. He died in 2008. This face has echoes in the living expressions of my kids, and I love that they inherited his warm eyes, his strong jaw, his brilliant smile.  

I have what might be called a photographic memory.  I close my eyes and see faces. Sometimes they are faces that I don’t recognize. I used to play with that ability to imagine crowds of strangers with particular faces and wonder if I had actually seen those faces in passing or if my brain was just making them up. I do know that I pay close attention to faces and always have. Perhaps I do carry those faces within me and always will. No matter how many I collect, I think these will always be #1 and #2. 

Face

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Happy Earth Mother May Day!

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What a perfect topic for a photo challenge!  Mother Earth is my favorite subject, and I’ve got LOTS of nature photos featured on this blog.  Check out my Wisconsin Outdoors and Wilderness pages in the header above for some of my favorites! 

Since this is the beautiful, lusty, bright month of May, I think I will highlight one of the woodland ephemeral wildflowers that emerge in my neck of the woods at this time: the Mayapple.  Yes, the tiny bud eventually becomes a little green fruit rather like a crab apple, but I hear it’s unwise to eat them in any quantity…because…well, you know…  Anyway, here’s one small citizen of Earth, from bud to maturity. 

Mayapple
Mayapple

Earth

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Admiration

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“Guess what, Mama! I got another scholarship!”  

My middle daughter was battling major depression at the beginning of the year, experiencing crippling panic attacks and an ED that was out of control. What did she do? She quit her disastrous job, went back to school, and found a new job. She enrolled in Communications and Psychology and did a PowerPoint presentation on Depression. Her school essays have all earned A+ grades and have been used as examples for her classmates. I am incredibly proud of her and in awe of the personal reserves of strength she has had since she was a baby! There was never something too difficult for her to tackle, once she put her mind to it. 

Admiration