Love, Unfailing

Darkness falls but I am not alone.
Love, unfailing, draws me close.
So close, I no longer see the darkness.

Subject Matter

The delicate petals are better seen in black and white photography. Though not the same image as the one in my previous post shown in colour, it was take during the same shoot. The light shone through the window and then through the petals, creating a translucency best seen stripped of all colour.

When shooting your subject, determine what in fact your subject is. In this post and the previous one, we might immediately say the subject is the flower. But is it?

Narcissus

What Was

The light is just right. Shining in and through this olive oil bottle, it highlights the dust that sticks to the inside of the glass. Some may have done their best to clean the bottle before the camera came out but that can wipe away the reminder of what was.

The oil in this bottle was used up. We can imagine all the different ways, including the sounds of chopping and dicing, sizzling and boiling. We can hear the laughter or maybe loneliness that may have surrounded this bottle. The dust shows time has passed and invites us to remember or imagine what was.

Familiar and New

To keep our work fresh as photographers, it is good to challenge ourselves in new ways.

Today I wanted to capture something in my surroundings in a new way. This is indeed a challenge for me. I take many, many pictures. To think of a new way to take these pictures is often a reach for me.

I've taken many, many pictures of my daughter's piano. I've taken pictures of my daughter playing the piano and the piano at rest. Never have I taken an image quite like this one.

I'd like to put this challenge out to all you photogs out there. Look around you. Shoot an all too familiar subject in a whole new way. The results may surprise you.

Summer Day

Ok, not today, but one day.

The Buddy System

Everyone needs somebody. Side by each, we are stronger.

Life

Life is marked with suffering and sunshine, both. There is chaos and also calm, dreams and sometimes dread. Life is not one or the other. I wonder if how we walk through the days that have more suffering and chaos determines our ability to see the sunshine and feel the calm.

Romance Remembered

Remaining Walls

I've had the incredible opportunity to see many old abandoned homesteads this winter as we've travelled to and from a camp where our daughter is staying. I'm trying to figure out what draws me to these places. Maybe it is that they mark a time in history. Maybe it is the stories that are held inside the remaining walls. Maybe it is the textures found in the decaying wood or shingles.

Whatever it is, I am happy to share some of the images I've captured with you and invite you to imagine along with me, what these walls might hold for you.

Bunches of Birch

This forest of birch trees seems to me it could go on forever. I love that there are many of the same, but not identical. No two are alike, though for some you might have to look pretty close to tell.

Roses

Seeing

Sometimes we need to see things from a different perspective to see things at all. Here is a good example. The gaps between the bricks on a wall are home to sprouts of moss. Looking straight on, it looks like green grout and the assumption is made that mossy mounds fill the valleys. On closer inspection, they are not mounds at all. The sprouts reach further than we think. We see each one growing and reaching, instead of just as a mound or mass of, well, green.

Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from this. When we see groups of people do we make certain assumptions that stop us from looking closer to see the individuals? Or do we notice that each one is growing and reaching and living? They are not just one thing. They are not just green.

Morning Reflection

After my morning coffee and reading, I noticed the light and reflection on my dining table. I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of pictures. Initially, what caught my eye was the golden hue of the sun on the paper's edges. I shot accordingly but when I loaded the files onto my computer, I thought twice and instead chose to process this as a black and white image. The textures and lines are accentuated when the colour is pulled.

Blur is Not Always Bad

Blur is not always bad. Here it invites the viewer to feel the wind and freedom of flight. The delicate etchings of the feathers are not lost to the wind; they are remarkably present. We feel the movement and see what moves, both. Contrasting the solid and still perch with the blur that fills the frame is an effective way to draw attention to the subject.

List of Three

I have been making lists of three lately, three things I am thankful for. Oh there are many more things that I can be thankful for each day but focusing in on three each morning has helped me in the area of gratitude.

Today, on this Valentine's Day, my list of three does have to do with faithfulness and love. Here it is:

1. God's faithfulness

Your love, oh LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Psalm 36:5

2. My Father's Love

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

3. My husband, Rod, and his love, patience and kindness.

Love is patient, love is kind...

1 Corinthians 13:4

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

James 1:17

Stacks of Colour

If I can't have these in my own cupboards I'll do the next best thing and have photos of them, maybe on my kitchen walls. I love the eclectic mix of colours in these dishes. The "odd one out" third from the bottom is just the right spot of white in the stack of colour. These are interesting and exciting. The contrasting and complimentary colours remind me of the different spices and flavours found in cooking.

Look. Look Again.

Look. Look again.

So often we pass by the worn without a sideways glance. When we look and look again we see what it is and also what it might have been at one time. We make room for stories and people who have gone before us...or are beside us. In our pause, we remember and in our regard we acknowledge importance and value.

Maybe it is an old building that we've driven by countless times. Or maybe it is a person, worn and weathered, but with a present and a past. If we stop and look and look again, I wonder how the future might be shaped.

Cold Captures

Oh my goodness - it is cold outside! I wandered downtown this morning and early afternoon, taking a few pictures of vintage billboards and older buildings. It didn't take long for me to realize a hat would have been smart! I pressed on...then saw another billboard and went further...then saw another billboard and went further still until my fingers and ears could no longer take the cold.

I'll share a couple of pictures with you now.

Retro Ride

Come with me to a gentler time.
Bicycles and baskets, soda pops and swing bands.

As you may have noticed I am going through my images and also taking photos that bring me to another time, another place. Seeing places or things can immediately retrieve experiences from our archives and parade them through our mind's eye. They can also conjure up delightful imaginative stories of what it might have been to experience another time.

Crackle and Tin

Look for the Surprise

One of the reasons I took this shot was because I loved how the new and the old were side by each. Old bike frames and one new seat...old building and the one new seat. The seat was a bit of a surprise yet it worked.

Look for the unusual. Look for the surprise. It makes for some interesting photography. This image shows me that both can be together, new and old, side by each, in a picture and in life.

Photographing Wildlife

My head is in summer right now as you can tell from these couple of posts. How I would love to be outside watching these young ones as they watch me and the world around them.

The key to photographing wildlife is using a good zoom or telephoto lens. You want to be able to get as close as you can, to see their eyes...and maybe their eyelashes too. Move in as close as you are able to without scaring the wildlife away and then move in closer with your lens. Patience is a must. Wait. Watch. Follow their lead for they too are waiting and watching. If you are patient and gentle, they may allow you into their world for a moment.

Pathway to Summer

On this cold winter day, I look at this picture and it invites me to summer. The pathway present by way of lines and form welcomes me with open arms and moves me forward into these sunny skies and warmer temperatures.

This is one of the many things I love about photography. It invites me to another place for a time, a place in my memory or on my bucket list for that matter.

Translucent

Good Read

Memories

A picture can be worth a thousand words and maybe a memory or two as well.

A pencil sharpener is not very beautiful nor is it ugly. So what is it about this that made you look or keeps you here? It is exactly the type of object that many of us have used. We can remember standing in front of this sharpening our pencils for a spelling test in grade school or to finish a sketch in art class. We can hear the sharpener grind the orange painted wood away. We can smell the shavings and lead. We can see ourselves emptying the canister into the metal waste can. It is just one simple object that quickly places us back in specific places and times.

If you were to choose one object that would reach into many people's memory banks, what would it be?

Tired Tulip

This tired tulip is still capable of warming the hearts of those who behold her beauty. Though her days are nearing their end, she still gives. The warm glow that passes through her engages and invites me to sit and bask for a little while. And so I do. Maybe when I get up to leave I will be kinder and gentler after having my spirit soothed and nourished for a time. Light has a way of doing that.

Unlikely Pieces

This seems like such a gentle story-book picture. What is a surprise to me is how well the debris is camouflaged amongst the snow and grasses. Behind this tree lies a junk yard of sorts. Strewn about are metal scraps and tires.

Had I taken the time to move these things out of my composition (and I wouldn't) something would surely be missing from the picture. It would not be as beautiful minus the darker hues and shapes. Some of the rocks would remain but it still wouldn't be the same picture. Sometimes the most unlikely pieces are necessary to the whole.

Colour Burst

As beautiful as this season is, I feel I could use a burst of colour this morning and here it is.

Winter's Beach

Looking for the unusual often brings me the image. Here we have two pictures of a frozen lake with a frosted line of trees in the background. Winter. Winter with a sailboat. Beached, of course, but even so, a sailboat. In the second picture, the sailboat is missing but the tree in the foreground can easily be replaced in my mind's eye by a palm tree, like those snapshots often taken on hot getaway vacations.

How quickly I drift between quiet winter afternoons and calm summer days. My vessel through these seasons is the sailboat.

Frosting