Tag Archives: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change is Constant

by

“What does change look like to you?”  It is the reality of life’s dynamic dance.

maple leaves

It is the touchstone of humility that reminds us that “perception is deception”.

off season 2

It is the freedom to choose, to grow, to adapt.

growth piercing

It’s a challenge to strive in the Present…

twinkle josh

…and to be at peace with the Present at the same time.

treasure 5

Change is the constant posture of the cosmos.  It is grace in motion.

waning warmth

Change

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: On or Off the Grid?

by

To grid or not to grid?  That is the question.  Grids are man-made structures, frameworks onto which we hang our systems – and sometimes hang ourselves, I think.  They are made of straight lines and intersections, rigid and often unforgiving.   They can be useful…or they can take over and dominate our landscape, our thinking, our creativity.  A wise person knows when to go “off grid”.  Where are you today – on or off the grid?

 

Grid

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monochromatic

by

This is a fun challenge!  I had thought at first that “monochrome” in photography meant black and white.  It’s good to be aware of opportunities to be blue on sky or golden on yellow.  (I feel blue on grey skies often, myself.)  


Monochromatic

Unknown's avatar

Photo Connection of a Lifetime: Swallow a Camera

by

I’ve gone much deeper into photography today than I ever wanted to.  Today, I swallowed a camera.  No joke.  I am undergoing what is known as “capsule endoscopy”; in other words, I ate the Pill Cam.  The thing was flashing when I put it into my mouth.  It’s about the size of the tip section on my little finger, beginning at the last knuckle.  Bigger than any vitamin I’d ever seen, but not by too much.  Presumably, it is flashing away as it winds its way down through my small intestines, recording images of a tunnel that wasn’t reachable using the upper GI scope or the colonoscopy that I had done in June.  These images are being picked up by a bundle of wires strapped onto my navel and recorded in a little metal box that I’m wearing slung around my shoulder.

I suppose what I’m trying to achieve with this exercise is to find out more about my body.  I am seeking understanding about systems that are intimately interconnected – my digestive system and my circulatory system – specifically, why a routine CBC indicated anemia while I have no symptoms.  These connections also effect my sense of self and how I connect with the wider world in larger systems like health care and the environment.  

I have to admit that I am not very comfortable with this technological connection.  I much prefer something more organic.

My vision

 

Connected

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Both Sides Now

by

Whenever you’re trying to solve a puzzle, it’s important to look at it from different angles. 

To read “A Little Story About Loving Yourself”, a story I created for this puzzle series, click HERE.

From Every Angle

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today Is a Special Day – Birthday & Wedding

by

Today is a GRAND day!!  It’s my birthday, actually.  My birthday present to myself 3 years ago was to buy my first digital camera.  It is not a phone; it is a Canon.  I do not upload ‘apps’ on my flip phone; I talk or text.  Therefore, I do not have a Mesh gallery.  I have been using the WordPress gallery display for almost all of my photo challenge posts, and I like how it looks. 

A grand day is a day of living in the moment; a day of real, physical interaction with living things.  I have lots of those days, and sometimes, I have my camera with me.  It groups all the photos I took in a single day together, so I do have chronological records.  I admit, though, it takes a long time to download, edit, and upload them into WordPress to post them in a blog.  I do not hate technology, but I do want to be very careful and aware of how I use it and how much I use it.

So, what does it mean to ‘share’ a day?  My definition will always include being present and only tangentially include technological media.  That said, here is a gallery of photos from a very grand day that I shared with my family 3 months ago.  My brother’s wedding day:


Today Was a Good Day

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy!

by

I don’t have to look very far to find “creepy” subjects to photograph.  I simply walk downstairs to the living room, dining room and kitchen.  That’s where we house our Museum.  My partner, Steve, has long been in the estate sale and used book business.  We sell a lot of stuff on e-Bay, Amazon, ABE Books and A Libris through our home business, Scholar and Poet Books.  But we also keep a lot of stuff.  Creepy stuff.  Stuff that Steve thinks is somehow “special”.  And he props this stuff in any available nook and corner that he can find.  Which is why I can easily photograph these:

 cha chacreepy 3creepy 2creepy

 
Creepy

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beneath Our Feet

by

Walking Meditation by Thich Nhat Hahn

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.

Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.

Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.

 

 

Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness, Michigan

Print on Earth your love and happiness.  On the land, on the water, for yourselves, for your children.  Peace is the walk. 

Beneath Your Feet

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wilderness Inspiration

by

This photo challenge is familiar.  In 2012, there was a similar challenge which I responded to in this fashion.  I still blog about all those things, but lately, I’ve come to realize that I have been going through an evolution inspired by a specific concept: WILDERNESS.  In fact, I have an entire page set up to link to my wilderness posts.  (Feel free to browse around there!)  This last weekend, Steve and I went to find some wilderness in the U.P. (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan).  Sure enough, there were 3 federally designated wilderness areas in the western portion of that state.  We went to the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness in the Ottawa National Forest.  In 1987, logging operations there ceased and the logging roads were left to return to wilderness.  We were told by a forest ranger that the old road is a 7.5 mile “trail” that traverses the wilderness and given a map.  She warned us, though, that it’s not maintained.  We attempted to hike from both trail heads, but only got about 50 feet along before we realized that we would be foolish to go any further.  As I headed back toward the car, I realized that I was crying.  Not because I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to hike there, but for a very different, special reason.  It was as if I had been invited into the sanctuary of a foreign religion or to spend half an hour on a different planet.  I was humbled.  I was in awe.  I felt a reverence for the place that put my presence in profound perspective.  It wasn’t quite like I didn’t belong; it was that I belonged no more especially than anything else there, even the tiniest fungus spore.  It was a supreme experience of equality.  I did not dominate in any way.  I jokingly told Steve that this was a place “where men are food and flies are king”, but I was feeling anything but glib in my soul. 

To find yourself in the sanctuary of wilderness is to feel the breath of the Divine all around.  Breathe it in.  Be inspired. 

Inspiration