Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: A Window with a View

Inspired by Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #79: A Window with a View

…Share with us photos you’ve captured through windows.

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As I have mentioned before in several posts, I enjoyed a photographer’s paradise last summer when visiting the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Twice actually…as there was so much to see I had to return! Not just to photograph, but to experience.

Why couldn’t history lessons be this fascinating back in high school?

For this challenge, I will include two images.

The first was taken while walking across a double-lane wooden covered bridge. It was built in 1845…a weathered sign warns bridge crossers riding horses or automobiles not to exceed 10 miles per hour.

I discovered a window about halfway across the bridge…offering a glimpse across the pond beneath.

bridge window

 

The second window was in one of the 39 buildings situated throughout 45 acres of museum grounds.

sunny window

Showcasing a small sample of the vibrant, colorful flowers blooming in one of the 22 gardens on the property.

Fifteen Favorites

Inspired by Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #77: Favorite Photos of 2019

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Choose my favorite photographs of 2019?

That’s a tough one (which I made a bit easier by not including family photos).

I managed to pare it down to 15(!). It was an especially exciting year as I dove into the world of macro photography. An additional photographic challenge.

I am curious…which one is your favorite?

1: January…ice crackling on the river…

exeter river ice
January

 

2: February…a welcome color display…

flowers for sale copy
February

 

3: Early Spring…signs of nature coming to life…

fiddleheads
Early Spring

 

4: May showers…

raindrops
May showers

 

5: Summer sunsets…

lake frame
Summer sunsets

 

6: Butterfly on zinnias…

zinnia butterfly close
Butterfly on zinnias

 

7: The magical pond…

magical pond
The magical pond

 

8: Sunflower parade…

sunflowers group
Sunflower parade

 

9: Amber waves…

amber squares
Amber waves

 

10: Crunchy path…

acorns
Crunchy path

 

11: Fall arrives…

twisted tree
Fall arrives

 

12: Watch your step…

Watch your step

 

13: The cactus blooms!

blossom day 4
The cactus blooms

 

14: Late Fall fantasy edits…

IMG_1487 fantasy copy 2
Late Fall fantasy edits

 

15: Last, but not least, back to where the year began…with the crunch of ice.

crunch of ice

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White

Inspired by Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White

 

This summer I noticed a flowering bush so pale amidst glorious purples on either side, I decided it deserved a photo of its own. Overlooked, as it might often be, in such colorful surroundings.

I do not know what kind of flower/bush/plant this is, however I was intrigued by its seaweed appearance…even though it was flourishing on a Vermont hillside.

white plant copy

Can anyone solve the mystery?

 

Frame it

Lens-Artists Challenge #66: Filling the Frame

You can include images of buildings, people, objects, and/or elements from nature.  Feel free to include shots of the same subject before you filled the frame and after you filled the frame.

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This past summer I had a butterfly experience.

In fact…a massive butterfly experience. As a photographer, I had never been this up close and personal with so many butterflies. As I was to find out, butterfly bushes are instrumental in attracting these beautiful – and elusive – quick-to-fly-away insects.

At first I was drawn to the bushes themselves.

butterfly bush one
But, after filling the frame, I got the scene I wanted.

A butterfly resting at (almost) center stage, highlighted against its signature flowers.

butterfly bush zoom
Filling the Frame

 

More recently, I found a patch of ferns in varying degrees of Autumn decay tucked behind a wire fence.

ferns one

 

But on closer inspection…I uncovered an entirely different perspective.

A dance of textures and shades of green plus brown.

Decay?

Not so much.

ferns two
Filling the Frame

 

Flower of the Day: Red

Inspired by:  Cee’s Flower of the Day and Citysonnet’s photo a day challenge (Soft Red).

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I spotted this pot of red flowers earlier this month during our visit to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Unusually warm for early September; it felt like mid summer.

I don’t know what kind of flowers they were, but there they sat – all by themselves on a porch – basking in the sun.

Looking a bit lonely…but thriving all the same.

red flowers on porch

 

 

 

Fuzzy

Inspired by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo: Fuzzy

Even though I have quite the collection of unintentional fuzzy photos, I decided to take some fuzzy-on-purpose photos for this challenge. (for years, my family would hold up a finger for me to focus on with my old Canon film camera…even so, results often were fuzzy. Oh well, many of those years are fuzzy in recollection anyway)

I digress…

 
A recent late afternoon walk around the block revealed these fuzzy flowers. The light cooperated, as it often does that time of day.

I have no idea what these flowers looked like pre-fuzz, but I enjoyed this brief stage in their plant life cycle…

 

fuzzy one

 

fuzzy two

Flower of the Day: plus butterflies – Part Two

Inspired by Cee’s Flower of the Day

Our second day at the Shelburne Museum was blessed with sunshine, warm temperatures and…flowers…everywhere I looked.

Camera in hand, I staked out butterflies at the Owl Cottage Garden with its glorious path of zinnias.

I sat on the steps and waited.

zinnia path

Another visitor with a macro lens had just had success, so I kept the faith. Tiptoeing next to collections of oranges, reds, yellows, purples….I spotted it.

zinnia butterfly

The lone butterfly I hoped to capture (in a photo that is) appeared.
I assumed it was a real butterfly. It wasn’t as colorful as the ones I had seen the day before. But it cooperated…and gave me time to focus.

zinnia butterfly close

Ta Da!

Does anyone know the name of this butterfly?