Lens Artist Photo Challenge-BLUE

Lens–Artists Photo Challenge #103–Surprise (Day 116 of being “grounded”

What a delightful challenge for this starting-to-seem-endless, cooped-up time. It comes from:

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/lens-artists-photo-challenge-103-surprise/

I am especially blessed these days by my father’s powerful teaching and modeling. His most strongly held spiritual belief was that boredom was a sin, and an insult to Mother Nature. He taught us to always look for that big surprise. He believed we were constantly surrounded by miracles and could find one anywhere, anytime.

Nothing cancels out boredom better than a miracle.

Being trapped in my rooms for so long has been mostly OK because of this exact philosophy. But I have to admit, I almost get to the point of boredom sometimes. When I find myself feeling that, I know it’s time to get outside. Even if just in my country-like, suburban neighborhood. Rain or shine, day or night, peopled or not, the miracles abound.

Here are some recent Surprises!!!

First, water, early morning sunlight, and shadows…a great combination for surprising beauty.

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Next, the bunnies are still around, which means the Coyotes, Owls and Hawks are probably well-fed elsewhere…for now.

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Surprise! The baby Apple Tree has its first baby apples!

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Next, very early sunlight sometimes messes with my mind. At first I thought these lovely plants had been attacked by some strange blight, only to discover on closer examination, was surprised to see it was the sun slipping through the cracks in the fence!

I love experimenting with things that close-up, are mysteries….but a step back reveals the origin of the surprise.

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And this one surprised me because I didn’t notice until writing this post, the shadow, light and colors from the Hummingbird feeder look remarkably like a Hummingbird!!

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And lastly, though I’m not sure it will actually work to post this, I had a long-awaited surprise just this morning.

I love my local crows and have been feeding them everyday for many years now. I wait each year for early summer, hoping to capture the Teenage crow “Feed Me!!” phenomenon.

They put on quite the show for me today!! The video is long-ish, and kind of bumpy, but if you listen closely, you’ll hear the reason for the camera jerks.

You can hear Miss Lucy, purring her competitive little heart out, and see the results of her head-butting my camera.

What a wonderful, surprising challenge today!!

Go here to see others’ creative interpretations of “Surprise”!

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/lens-artists-photo-challenge-103-surprise/

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #53 “your choice”

Well, because I am having a brand new experience this month–house/animal sitting for some fish, 2 dogs and a bunch of, uh, fowl, I’ve chosen Chickens as my topic.

I love all birds but never really noticed how beautifully feathered chickens are so I’ve been photographing these guys a lot.

Here are some samples!

20190704_083519 — Hey, how’d you guys get in here??

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #53: Your Choice

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #34: Close-Up

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/lens-artists-photo-challenge-34-close-up/

I love close-ups. I’m really hooked on macro and still learning the difference between the two.

I know in photography-speak, it’s about the lens but the only specifically macro lens I have is for a glorious, old Nikon film camera.

So these days, everything is just an experiment for me.

This is what my phone camera can do macro-wise. (I do love a photograph where the content is interesting, but impossible to identify.)

Sometimes, I miss what could have been a great close-up until I mess with the crop feature in my editing program, turning it into a close-up. Is this cheating?

Of course, there are those photos you never, EVER want to see any closer or bigger!

But there are the really fun shots too, like when the subject just cries out to be photographed up CLOSE!!

20190222_204433 — **I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille (as in Cecil B.)**

And last, but definitely not least, my favorite all-time close-up, courtesy of my dear friend Tracie!!!

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #25-Reflecting on Perspectives, Perspective on Reflections

I love reflections. I like to mess with photographing them because there can be surprises you don’t see when looking at something directly.

20181213_163632 — Here I am photographing the lights hanging from the deck railing and not until later, do I see the boat coming in…

20181213_183454 — And here, I liked the blurry Santa reflection in the window but was later surprised by the clarity of the neighbor’s windows.

That makes me think of how different things can look, depending on where you stand, where you focus and what you are feeling.

20151001_172131 — Here I was capturing the coastline from our train window and caught James playing a game on his phone! Busted!!!

I took these photos for the theme Blue, but discovered the trees and clouds afterward.

This is two shots of the same glass, just me deciding which perspective to focus on. (I’m sure there is a “glass half empty or full” reference here…)

I have this great photo hanging in my group therapy room that reminds me to always look at tough situations from different angles before I conclude anything.

Flipping this upside-down sure changes the feel of the photo, doesn’t it?

I’m so grateful to my Dad for teaching me that there is always, ALWAYS more than one way to look at something.

Here are some other posts I did about Reflections… Let me know what you see.

https://chosenperspectives.com/2017/05/12/reflections-for-wpc-5-12-17-series-3/

https://chosenperspectives.com/2017/05/12/reflecting-for-wpc-51017/

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #25 Reflections

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #22 Happiness is…

…napping with my cat…for 18 years…

PS I am in the process of writing out my sweet Zorro’s life story. I’d love to hear from you if you are interested in reading it….

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2018/12/01/lens-artists-photo-challenge-22-happiness-is/

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge-10/28/18 theme- Just for FUN!

OK so I have a lot of photo shoots with a strange group of “models”.

And it is definitely when I have the most FUN!!!

Once upon a time, there was a tiny village and they fell in love with a monster who came to visit.

The Village Dogs just loved this visitor and knew that even though she LOOKED terrifying, she wasn’t! Maybe it was the way she took care of her monster sister?

And the sister had a friend, nick-named Badfish, but not because he was bad. He was just “BAD”.

The Monster stayed for the holidays and helped decorate the tall parts of the tree the tiny villagers couldn’t reach.

Then the village teenagers, a non-violent gang, invited the monster’s whole family to join in the annual Cow Tipping Contest! What an Honor!

The Monsters didn’t quite get the “tipping” part but definitely enjoyed climbing the cow!

Next, there was the annual competition to see who could climb the tallest Blue Building, and the Monsters were a huge hit!! Their audience raved about it!

The Monsters loved their new Village but some of the town’s people were upset by one of their bad habits!

The End

(although maybe not. One of those giant turds appears to be an EGG!!!)

For more on the story of my becoming a Bug Mother, read this:

Walking With Intention Day 20 by Kathie Arcide

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge: #17 Just For Fun

LensArtistChallenge#16-BIG Can Be Beautiful Too 10/21/18

I love photography that shows how much ones perspective (assumptions) can change simply by comparing one photo of something to another photo of the same thing. The following four photos are each one half of one of those comparisons. These are the half that show how beautiful BIG can be.

These next are from our Epic Roots Road Trip last summer. We visited the HUGE remains of an antibellum home North of Natchez, Mississippi, called the Windsor Ruins. While walking around and through these ruins, it required some seriously imagination-stretching to be able to see just how big and beautiful this mansion must have been.

http://www.mdah.ms.gov/new/visit/windsor-ruins/

On the same trip, I was really moved by the beauty of these big boulders at a rest stop, of all places. I couldn’t help but consider how in the world they all ended up in the precarious positions they were in. And the color of that big southwestern sky…very different from the more rare and much deeper blue of our northwestern skies.

And you might have to stretch to see any beauty in my beloved big bugs! It took me a while but now, to me they are amazing and gorgeous!

You can read their story here:

Walking With Intention Day 20 by Kathie Arcide

(The Featured Image at the top is a big beautiful bridge over the big beautiful Mississippi river, from Natchez to Vidalia, Louisiana.)

https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/lens-artists-challenge-16-big-can-be-beautiful-too/comment-page-1/#comment-33896

Lens Artists Photo Challenge 10/14/18 Changing/Changeable

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2018/10/13/lens-artists-photo-challenge-15-changing-and-or-changeable/

Wow, this is one of my favorite photography challenges but this week, I am in awe, and pretty much left in the dust of some true artists! Not only are these entries beautiful pictures, but the knowledge and talent to change a photo to a work of art is really apparent here.

I like the following photos, mostly taken on walks in my neighborhood, but I do not know how to “change” them.

I hope you enjoy them anyway.

What an amazing time of year in the Great Northwest!

I’ll start with what I call the Wonder Wall. I wait for it to change like this every year.

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And then some plants, bushes and trees on my street, none of which I can name, but love to see as they change each year.

These first 3 are what I call Autumn Berries. No idea what they actually are…

This one looks like CANDY to me. Yum!

And I love this yellow and green one. The leaves don’t ever fall off, just change color, and then change back in the Spring.

Some more……..

Always so sad to see the last apples of the year.

Can one of the Pros please tell me why the photo I see on my computer, before transferring to my WordPress post, is sometimes so much more crisp, clear and bright???

Oh, and it changes the size also, like only posts a portion of my shot?

Lens Artist Photo Challenge 10/8/18 Windows

I think this might be cheating (or maybe just a shortcut) but I cannot get WordPress to cooperate this morning. It is refusing to give me access to my own photos.

But I remembered this post I did about my house, quite a while back and thought maybe it would qualify.

Here’s a quote from it. I hope you’ll want to read the rest and see my favorite windows.

She has 32 windows. From 20 of those, you can see right into other windows in the house.

Just think about that for a minute.

https://chosenperspectives.com/2016/06/14/my-house-as-a-life-chapter-one/

Thanks.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/393045/posts/2022284190

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/lens-artists-photo-challenge-14-windows/

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge 13–Look Up

In responding to this week’s Lens Artist Photo Challenge-theme “Look Up”, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of two posts I saw.

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/lens-artists-photo-challenge-13-look-up/

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: #13 Look Up

And then I was overwhelmed by how many choices I had in my own files that would be good for this challenge. Apparently, I spend a lot of time “looking up”…and snapping away!

I love all the references in both the above posts to perspective and how changing yours can change everything else also. That really speaks to me. So I am changing mine on this challenge. Nothing I have compares to the stunning beauty of these Cathedrals. Thank you so much for sharing those. But it all reminded me, once again, of my own favorite accidental photo. I have posted it before but will again for this challenge.

I’ll just add the words “look carefully” whenever you Look Up!

In case you have not seen this before, (I post this photo a lot), I did not discover the whole content of the photo until I was posting it for the word Blossoms…

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: #13 Look Up

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/lens-artists-photo-challenge-13-look-up/

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