Tag: beauty

Photo a Week Challenge–Beauty 4-18-19

Ah, such a subjective theme.

In this context, we’re talking visual beauty…that we can capture with a camera…or at least, try to capture.

Maybe it’s because of my father’s lessons about being able to find something amazing to look at anytime, anywhere. (I just wrote this story about that.)

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #40 “Things my Father said”

Or maybe it’s because I have spent so much of my life around people who are blind, including several up close and personal relationships, in which I was often called upon to describe something beautiful with words. (I often fell woefully short. I mean, YOU try describing an Abalone Shell with words!) Maybe my awareness of visual beauty just became heightened.

In any case, in my world, absolutely anything qualifies.

So picking photos for this topic is a challenge. I’m going to go photograph the first thing that came to mind (mostly because my son and grandsons just brought me souvenirs from their Spring Break trip to Hawaii).

Be right back. (7:22 AM, 4/20/19)

I’m Back. 9 AM. That was both a fun and frustrating experience. Delightfully fun to experiment. And frustrating to realize there is just no fully capturing the amazing beauty of an Abalone Shell…at least not with my camera equipment.

20190420_07525220190420_07542520190420_07360220190420_07410420190420_07363420190420_07535820190420_07540520190420_07501720190420_07533720190420_075302

 

Of course, this post made me research the history, meaning and healing properties of the Abalone shell. What an amazing gift from Nature! Here’s one site.

https://www.energymuse.com/abalone-shell.html    (this is basically an ad for jewelry, but full of info about the shell.)

And don’t even get me started on “creation”. I mean, the Abalone Shell!  How in the world??? WHY in the world? Who first discovered the beauty hidden behind that “ugly”, rough exterior?? ETC. ETC.

Thanks for this Challenge. What a delight!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Photo a Week Challenge: Beauty

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.

IMG_7810IMG_9623IMG_7614giant dandelion

 

 

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.

IMG_0264IMG_0268IMG_0267IMG_0263

 

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!

20181020_180545

IMG_6955IMG_7736

You can read their story here:

https://theseekersdungeon.com/2015/11/20/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.)

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #16 – BIG Can Be Beautiful Too!

One Word Sunday Challenge: Blue 10/14/18

Can’t really resist this one as I live among as much blue as I can….slightly obsessively, my friends and family might tell you.

It is more than a favorite color. Blue truly affects me, inspires me, moves me to action.

I blame this on childhood.

But for today…Here’s an accidental shot I love, taken with new phone while experimenting with the close up feature. And on the right, what I wrote for a post on Altered Books, my theme being Blue.

I’ve posted on Blue so many times, I will put a short list at the bottom of this post.

Sometimes I tell myself I’m photographing birds or clouds or trees, but it was undoubtedly the Blue that got my attention in the first place.

20180708_17591620180226_11122820180101_161147

By the way, we lie about the rain in the Northwest, to keep the crowds from moving here for the above Blue skies.

Can you guess my favorite flower?

20180723_075258

I will snap a shot of anything Blue that catches my eye! (Can you guess what this is?)

20170708_195153

Even my aging feet in their new Blue sandals will make me grab the camera.

20180728_064353

But the Blue that has the most control over me…seriously, I am helpless around this…are my grandson’s eyes!!

Here are the promised “other posts”. I really do hope you enjoy them. It is just a handful of ones containing BLUE!

https://chosenperspectives.com/category/altered-books/

Earth for WPC 4/18/17

WordlessWednesday 2 5/31/17

Chosen Perspectives on Rare for WPC

Lens-Artists-a photo a week-Blue

There! That should keep you busy for a while!!

I sure would love to hear what you think.

Blue

October Photo a Day Challenge-10/15/18 Autumn Colors

I published some of these for another challenge already but I am so completely in awe of a particular representation of this theme. It’s close to my house and I look forward to seeing it each year.

I have been calling this the “Wonder Wall”. I drive by other walls like this in my travels around Seattle and Bellevue (Washington), covered with color, but nothing like this one. Most are along the freeways. Here, I park and can walk by, slowly, taking close-up shots. I really love it.

 

(These are also my first attempts at short videos so I’d appreciate it if you let me know if they work! Turn down your volume and imagine tweeting birds because unfortunately the best light is during rush-hour traffic!)

Just to give you an idea of how many photo ops there are at this wall, these I’m posting today are all different from the ones I already posted on the Lens Artist’s Challenge-Changing/Changeable.

You can see that one here:

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

20181011_15344520181011_15353920181011_15354920181011_15361320181011_15362520181011_15363020181011_15364220181011_15383320181011_15384820181011_153913

 

 

 

October photo a day challenge

Nancy Merrill’s Photo a Week Challenge 10/11/18 Unusual Clouds

A Photo a Week Challenge: Unusual Clouds

 

I wish I had had my real camera for these shots. My phone barely captured the beauty of these colors…

 

 

While I watched the following sunset, I kept expecting a BOOMING voice from the heavens, telling me to straighten up, or else!

IMG_7481IMG_7478IMG_7480

 

 

This is a Sun Dog that WordPress always prints too big on my page… But it was beautiful. Many cars were stopped along the I-90 freeway, clicking away.

sundog curve

 

 

I thought this sky was proof there is an artist up there, painting cloud pictures every day!

20171204_162051

 

 

My adopted Dad, who was an Air Force fighter pilot in several wars, used to tell me about the “hole in the sky (clouds)” pilots would watch for, presumably for the quick getaway?

20180111_150741

 

 

This was NOT a meteor crashing or alien ship landing…at least, I don’t think it was….

IMG_8603