Sunshine’s Macro Monday #42
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Sunlight streaming through a living room window offered a unique peak through the beautiful blooms on my Mother’s Day hydrangea plant. A gift from my daughter and her family.
Category: Photographs
Bits and Pieces of the Past
Inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #95: bits and pieces
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I saved these ticket stubs…scraps of paper…bits and pieces from my past. I found them tucked in a drawer, old jewelry boxes and a business card case. Ancient rubber bands barely held some together. I smiled as I arranged them for this photo.
Allow me to share a few ramblings…
I remember…seeing Whoopi – my comedy idol – and waiting in the theater’s back parking lot afterwards hoping to see her.
There was the night we saw Bruce Hornsby and his heartfelt tribute to Jerry Garcia who had died a few weeks earlier.
A concert I never thought I’d attend had been #1 on my bucket list for years: Barbra Streisand. Tied for #1: Carole King. And there was Bonnie – could never get enough of her. And Bruuuuce…you know who I mean. Amazing.
When we took the kids to see the one-of-a-kind Harlem Globetrotters – back in the days of the basketball and Chicago Bulls craziness that consumed our family.
When You’re A Jet….a local professional theater did this fabled Broadway musical justice beyond our expectations. Again, a favorite.
And…Writers! Anna. Elizabeth. Joyce. Sonia. Atul. Inspiring and captivating…they welcomed us all into their world for an hour that went by much too fast.
I shared most of these events with family and friends. In theaters and concert halls both large and small. In New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Washington, DC. Singing, laughing and can’t-help-but-get-out-of-my-seat dancing…ain’t too proud sweet darlin….
I attended a few of the writer’s talks alone and will admit there was no singing and dancing, but laughing…yes.
Unique memories of a time gone by.
As far as I know, all of these once packed venues are closed for the foreseeable future. I hope that someday we all have another chance to collect more bits and pieces like these.
This song has been going through my head ever since seeing V.J.’s prompt. So in the spirit of live concerts please enjoy…
Lens-Artists Challenge: Cropping the Shot
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #96: Cropping the Shot
This week’s challenge is a chance to explore a photo editing technique and the benefits of cropping the shot. Show us how cropping helped to improve an image and create a desired effect. Include the shot “before” and “after” so we can see the difference.
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I often call this time of year “fun with flowers” since I am always gifted with beautiful bouquets on Mother’s Day and my birthday. Yellow blossoms…my favorite flower color…are usually in the mix.
This year was no exception. A bouquet of tulips arrived from my son…and I had a great adventure yesterday chasing the sun as it crept around the room streaming through the windows in our corner condo unit. I moved the vase from window to window as the afternoon wore on. Crouching…bending…balancing…catching the light from as many angles as I could.
Fifty four shots later, I happened to glance at the clock…oh wait I should make dinner....
Here are a few samples from “Fun with Flowers 2020″…
For this shot I stood above the bouquet, but wanted to highlight the yellow tulip.
Which I did…after the crop.
I captured another shot crouched on the floor looking up. Unfortunately it also included the corner of the window…
I still wanted to salvage the image, but obviously without the distraction of the window frame in the corner.
Cropping proved to be more of a challenge than usual.
These are two different cropped versions. Each emphasizing different aspects of how the light plays with the petals. As much as I enjoy cropping as a way to create, I really didn’t want to eliminate too much in this case.
Which do you like better?
Any ideas and suggestions welcome!
Wordless Wednesday
Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Tree Bud
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #41
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The buds are coming!
Or…more accurately…the buds keep coming. Every walk in the woods reveals a new set of leaves or flowers in the making. Hanging somewhat precariously from tree branches both high and low.
I no longer wonder too much about what kind of tree they originate from.
Right now…this stage of its life…is where the beauty lies.
No matter what happens next.
Stay-at-Home Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day in the age of coronavirus has taken on a different shade…
Even before this new 2020 reality hit us between the eyes, Mother’s Day was sometimes lonely. Empty nesters like me missed our adult children more than usual. Memories of sweet smiles and shouts of Happy Mother’s Day Mommy, followed by hugs, a homemade card and when older…perhaps breakfast in bed.
Who knew back then how fleeting those times really were? I just relished the moments as they happened.
My adult children weren’t always able to make the trip back to our family home for Mother’s Day – although they often tried and succeeded (probably because my birthday often overlapped!). This year – with all the unknowns and fears hanging over us – it seemed even harder to be apart. Perhaps also because there was no choice in the matter. FaceTime of course helped, but there’s nothing like an in-person hug.
During a long ago trip to San Diego, California, I bought a print made by Sally Huss, a local artist. It grabbed my heart at the time. My children were still teenagers. And I thought…yessss….
Today it has taken on a whole added perspective and an even bigger YESSSS…
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
One day…just in the way
Sprinkled
Double inspiration this week…
Lens-Artists Challenge #95: All Wet
I hope you’ve enjoyed my departure from the everyday challenges of our COVID-19 world, and that you too have some archived wet images to share.
V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #95: What a Child Knows
This week, let’s tune into the wisdom of children, or look inside to reconnect with our inner child and innate wisdom.
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If you own a home…with a yard…you often end up with a lawn that gets a bit finicky every now and then, especially in the summer.
In other words it gets crunchy in places.
Back in the days of such situations…when rain became elusive, we dragged out the green 25 foot garden hose and attached our sturdy “oscillating” lawn sprinkler. It needed to be positioned just right – in order to direct the much needed drink of water to the thirsty spots on our lawn. This took patience.
You also had to calculate exactly when to dash out of the way to re-position the sprinkler when necessary.
No sense in soaking yourself, the driveway or creating a river into the street.
Just the grass needed to get…All Wet…
With special attention paid to the Brown Spots.
Children meet up with a lawn sprinkler…and it’s a whole different story.
Never mind the grass. Or crunchiness. Who cares about brown spots? They sure don’t.
Water shooting high into the air out of a rotating metal bar with holes in it…is not about soaking the grass. Not at all.
It is really just a mechanism designed to get them all wet and cooled off in the hot summer sun.
Including a variety of delightful shenanigans…
Enjoying every sunlit moment.
They know.
Wordless Wednesday
Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Dandelion!
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #40
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As my late father-in-law used to say…
There is no such thing as a weed!
Keep in mind that his life’s work was a business that involved searching deep in the woods – spade or hook in hand – digging up and collecting a wide variety of wildflowers and plants. Which he shipped across the country and overseas. I worked for him one summer while I was dating his son, my future husband. It was back breaking hard work. Under a cloud of bug spray, I was determined to keep up. I had no idea what plant was what. But my father-in-law did and I was continually impressed at his expertise and memory.
So if there’s no such thing as a weed, then why all the weed killers for sale in hernia busting bags at the garden supply store…that happen to include “dandelion” on the list of what gets eliminated?
Is it because dandelions sprout up on their own…uncontrolled…independent…not easily contained in a neat boxed off garden bed? A splash of yellow appearing uninvited in the middle of an otherwise well tended green lawn?
They look like flowers to me.
I used to enjoy the grubby handfuls of dandelions my smiling young children would bring to the kitchen door. Carefully collected from various surprise appearances throughout our half acre…Mommy these are for you!
Yesterday, I spotted a dandelion that survived the condo association’s weed killing efforts.
It was all alone in the sunshine.
Three cheers!
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 