Month: August 2019

A Photo a Week Challenge–8/22/19 What’s for Dinner?

Nancy Merrill’s challenge this week immediately made me think of the many times James and I have had the wonderful experience of house-sitting for my sister and brother-in-law, in the San Juan Islands. It’s like a second home for us, but without the incredible amount of work it takes to maintain paradise.

I’ve written about this wonderful place many times before, but today’s topic, “What’s for Dinner?” made me realize just how special our experience has been.

First, the location is truly exceptional…it’s house and setting are unlike any other!

But it’s the food that we get the biggest benefit from! They work year round work to keep their garden and green house producing beautiful fruits and vegetables….and we just get to come in and EAT there for 2 or 3 weeks each year.

Here are some samples of dinners we’ve had there, where almost every ingredient is picked, plucked, harvested and gathered…from these famous gardens!!!

Thank you so much for this experience!!

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/22/a-photo-a-week-challenge-whats-for-dinner/

Street Jewelry 8-18-19

I have done a photo post on Street Art,

https://chosenperspectives.com/2019/05/14/lens-artists-photo-challenge-45-street-art/

and on Street Anemones,

https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/01/09/cees-oddball-challenge-1-9-18-sea-street-anemones/

So why not Street Jewelry?

The idea started when I heard a story on NPR about walking around Seattle and how much there really is to see if you pay close attention.

I pride myself in noticing beauty in the most ordinary and familiar of scenes, a treasured lesson from my father. But after the NPR interview, on my regular walking route, I discovered visual treats even I had never noticed!

At a certain time of the morning, once the sun has risen enough to spotlight certain things, one can find a delightful array of sparkling access points to an underground world not thought about. How had I never looked down and noticed all this before??

It looked like jewels, mostly stately old broaches, shining up from the old asphalt.

I went home and looked up “jewelry” and found this.

“ornamental pieces (such as rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets) that are made of materials which may or may not be precious (such as gold, silver, glass, and plastic), are often set with genuine or imitation gems, and are worn for personal adornment” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jewellery

So I started photographing Street Jewelry.

This is all just on my street (a dead end about the equivalent of 3 city blocks).

 

PS OH, and check THIS out!!! I decided to turn the corner at the top of my quiet lane and walk a little ways on the more main thoroughfare. Look at the lovelies I found, right under my feet!!

20190818_08294920190818_08291720190818_08243620190818_08293120190818_08245320190818_082446

 

I absolutely LOVE how many countries are represented!

Now if I can just find the right “Challenge” so I can share this with even more readers.

Any suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Photo a Week Challenge-Yellow 8-16-19

First, the most prevalent in my library of Yellow photos…Flowers!

 

Next most popular…Yellow produce!

20180905_074720

 

Then we have Yellow out in Nature.

 

 

And of course, all the Yellow we see in animals!

 

 

And last there is this undefined (undefinable?) category….

20180802_114255

 

There ! YELLOW!

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/a-photo-a-week-challenge-yellow-2/

A Photo a Week Challenge: Still life

Another fun challenge from Nancy Merrill. Here’s my interpretation:

Starting with a more traditional example…my trip to the local Farmer’s Market yesterday…yum!

20190813_155654

 

But moving to another shot of “produce” that’s anything but STILL!!

My son left on vacation, meaning to bring me this leftover watermelon…

Combine his oversight with 90 degree weather for several days and you get THIS…sort of a Still Life, but more like a weird science project!!!

20190808_15382720190808_17042820190808_17044020190808_170435

(I told my son he owes me BIG time, as this disintegration all happened on top of the stove! Who knew an old stove top had so many nooks and crannies. There were watermelon, uh, remains, all the way down inside the oven!!!)

But how beautiful, in a creepy, sickening way….

😣

Now, to cleanse your visual palete…

This qualifies as a “still life” because of its extreme contrast to what’s normal for this currently “inanimate object”!

IMG_2649

There you have it!

 

Still Life, sort of.

 

 

 

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/08/a-photo-a-week-challenge-still-life-sort-of/

A Photo a Week Challenge: Timing (again) 8/3/19

Maybe you had to be there to understand the whole Timing part…

A few days ago, in the late afternoon, I walked through my darkening Group Therapy room. I was headed for the door into the main part of  my house, and was stopped in my tracks by a stunning image.

There was one narrow beam of sunlight, still left in the day, and it was streaming through the row trees that border the west side of my property. This spotlight shot through my window, perfectly aimed at a crystal elephant that sits on the window sill (a precious gift from my grandson).

20190801_172023

The combination sent a laser-like rainbow clear across the room! It was huge and landed on the only section of West-facing, uncovered, white wall.

I knew I wanted to snap a photo of the results but, honestly, by the time I got back from the sprint to get my phone, it was already fading…and fast!

I got these shots…and then it was gone!!!

20190801_17211920190801_17205520190801_172050

Good enough photos I suppose. But it triggered in me the idea for a photo card, which I have made for years, and give as gifts.

I set my alarm for graduated sundown times, for the next three days, and waited for that perfectly timed beam to recreated the rainbow wall-art, so I could create my imagined photo.

But it never happened…not even close and no amount of staging, shifting, twisting and turning of my crystal elephant brought that big color spectrum result from a few days earlier. One of the days, I even ran across to my neighbor’s house, whose kitchen I know gets a ton of late afternoon sun. Me and my elephant, racing the sunset, frantically searching for the right timing and position.

No luck!

But I’ll tell you what I was after so you can picture it yourself. And who knows, maybe you’ll come upon a perfectly timed rainbow someday and can capture my illusive photo.

It’s an image that would be good for everyone!  (In my opinion.)

Here it is: Imagine the hand shadow in the photo below, imposed across that rainbow. I can think of so many uses for a greeting card like that, especially for some of the struggling, newly “out” young people I work with these days…

20190517_142137

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/a-photo-a-week-challenge-timing-is-everything/

Photo a Week Challenge: Timing 8/1/19

I thought I’d better start with a definition so you have a context for my post on Timing this week.
Merriam-Webster, the Oxford dictionary and other sources define “fan” as a shortened version of the word fanatic. Fanatic itself, introduced into English around 1550, means “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion“.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_(person)
It appears that I am that person to whom they are referring…especially when it comes to  the Blue Angels.
I write about them a lot!
They perform in my area every year at the same time and I have been known to plan my whole life around their annual SeaFair visit. I know exactly when to expect them.
See, their initial arrival path is directly over my house….or at least it used to be.
This year, they have moved the “flight safety performance box”, supposedly so the new Light Rail did not have to close down during the Angel’s performances. I assumed that meant I could no longer sit out on my deck, which I have done for most of the last 30 years, to see the bits and pieces of their show that involve the airspace right over my head!
IMG_2717
Anyway, yesterday I had an appointment downtown and figured I wouldn’t miss anything. But guess what! On my way home, a 21 minute, 10 mile drive, my Angels flew directly over the freeway SEVEN TIMES!!! Talk about TIMING!! (On the Thursday of their 4 day visit to the Northwest, they scout and practice for the show they will do over the weekend.)
That timing would have made for spectacular photos, but of course, I was driving so couldn’t (wouldn’t) be snapping away with my phone camera.
My connection to the Blue Angels started when I was a very young child, small enough to still sit up on my Daddy’s shoulders. He would take me to see them practice. The Blue Angels are inseparable in my heart and mind from my father. For years, as an adult, I would call my Dad so we could be on the phone together for that initial roar of the Angel’s arrival each year!
So the fact that I was barreling down the road, with Blue Angels roaring overhead, on what would have been my Dad’s 102 birthday, had me in tears all the way home.
I arrived home, and even though I knew I had missed all their fly-by’s, I went up on the deck anyway, to finish this new round of grief about my Dad.
Here’s what happened the minute I sat down!!

Needless to say, the timing of this started a whole new round of joyous grieving.

Hi Dad, and thanks for the visit!

More posts on the Blue Angels:

https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/08/04/blue-angels-time-again/

https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/01/19/silence-for-wpc-1-17-18/

https://chosenperspectives.com/2017/10/11/wordlesswednesday-10-11-17/

The stuff these challenges bring up for me is amazing!! Thanks again Nancy!! 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/a-photo-a-week-challenge-timing-is-everything/

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/a-photo-a-week-challenge-timing-is-everything/