Tag: photo challenge

Lens-Artists Challenge: Treasure Hunt

~ oneletterup ~ 27 Comments

Inspired by Lens-Artists Challenge #85: Treasure Hunt

This week we’re going on a Treasure Hunt! The challenge is to search for specific items – either from your archives or newly captured – from the list below. Extra credit items are a bit more challenging. Focus on quality over quantity and hit us with your best shot(s)!  

    • Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall.
    • Extra Credit Items:  An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image.

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A photo scavenger hunt!

This reminds me of party activities when I was a kid – going house to house asking for odd items. Like a feather or a paper clip. We also searched for items in the yard. The object of the game was to complete your collection before anyone else did.

For this challenge, I scavenged through my archives and found these photos.

A bird…painted on the side of a building in Burlington, Vermont.

bird on wall

 

A dog…missing his humans on Christmas Day in Washington, DC. (also substituting for a person in the “expressive portrait” category).

dog

 

A waterfall…flowing in a park in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Guitars in the making at the Martin Guitar Factory…in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Guitar Bodies in Rows

 

A fish at the entrance to a seascape…in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

seascape fish

 

A sunset behind a mountain landscape. Boats settled in for the night…in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont.

vermontbay

 

The End

 

 

 

 

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Bicycles…

~ oneletterup ~ 5 Comments

Inspired by Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Bicycles, Tricycles, Motorcycles & Unicycles.

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I do not have access to tricycles anymore – and my older photos are more about the cute kids proudly riding them. My one and only experience on a motorcycle was briefly in high school on the back of a friend’s bike. It was great fun as a passenger riding madly around the neighborhood. I never did figure out how to lean the right way going around corners. Apparently making it difficult for the poor guy to navigate. It was still a thrilling ride…for me at least.

Unicycle? I’ve never seen one except maybe in a parade on TV.

However, last summer I noticed a long line of bicycles alongside a Farmers’ Market in Washington DC.

Waiting to be rented. For 30 minute trips at a time.

What a good idea…

line of bikes

Get local fresh fruits and vegetables…and your exercise too!

 

Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Baby’s Breath

~ oneletterup ~ 29 Comments

Inspired by Sunshine’s Macro Monday: #29

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As we all know, Valentine’s Day was last Friday. Not everyone celebrates…what some call…this Hallmark holiday. The company which generates a lot of business from Valentine customers.

I am not so cynical. I think hand held meaningful greeting cards hold great value and when sent with genuine love and caring are far more personal than e-cards. Handmade ones (remember paste and doilies and red construction paper hearts?) especially so. But that’s just me. No judgment if you send the digital version. It is really the thought that counts.

Full disclosure however – my husband and I still have all the cards we’ve exchanged over the past ahem…40+ years. About 10 years ago we started recycling…”re-sending”… each other the cards from years past. This was my idea – not so much about saving money (although we do), but I found it interesting to read the changing messages inside cards from the different years of our relationship. Also surprising to notice how many times we had bought the same cards – especially the humorous ones. Some jokes just live forever.

So what does this have to do with Macro Monday?

Along with my card (originally from 2011), I received beautiful yellow roses.

Mixed in with the roses? Baby’s breath.

I love baby’s breath. It is such a lovely delicate accent to cut flowers.

However it gets very little attention…or grand notoriety. It isn’t often front and center on greeting cards either. Kind of like the backup band which never gets recognized.

Baby’s Breath is my subject for today’s Macro Monday challenge.

A well deserved Moment for the under appreciated sidekick to Valentine’s Day roses and cut flowers everywhere.

baby's breath
Valentine’s Day Baby’s Breath

Ice Map

~ oneletterup ~ 34 Comments

Inspired by One Word Sunday: Ice

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The ground during a winter walk through the woods always surprises me. The layers of crunchy fall leaves at first covered with mud. Then snow. More mud. Ice.

More than a little depressing…and challenging to navigate. And why I don’t often walk in the woods during the winter months.

However, one day in January I noticed the sun was actually shining for more than 5 minutes. It wasn’t too terribly cold. Cabin fever was setting in. I dug my rubber boot shoes out of the closet. Grabbed my camera. And off I went.

As expected the path was sloppy. Although patches of ice greeted me, much of it had started to melt on the surface – thanks to the sun.

Fortunately I was looking down – mostly to prevent a slip and fall scenario…how embarrassing would that be – and discovered what looked like a topographical map of ice. In the middle of a clearing under the high tension lines. Still in place despite the late day sun.

Whoa.

Bending. Crouching down. Balancing.  So many fascinating views through the camera’s lens.

Here is one example…

ice patch

 

also…photo a day challenge: End with the letter E

Which way do I go now?

~ oneletterup ~ 17 Comments

Inspired by:
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vanishing or Leading Lines
Debbie at Six Word Saturday

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I’m the type of person one might call “directionally challenged.” The one who exits her hotel room and turns the wrong way to the elevator or stairs…over and over. Or uses a map for the first 3 months to get to a new job 20 minutes away.

I suppose I should be proud to admit this is NOT a result of aging. Just ask my friend V from high school. Once it took us over an hour driving up and down Route 17 (or was it Route 4) in NJ trying to get from the Bergen Mall to the Garden State Plaza. At night. Ending up in hysterics at a gas station somewhere in between. I think we eventually gave up.

GPS was a dream come true, even if it came much too late for my formative driving years.

However…vanishing lines in a public place when I have a destination in mind continues to be a challenge. And can still trigger some anxiety. Potentially leading me in the wrong direction. Especially when I’m walking.

Case in point: One January day in Boston, Massachusetts. My husband, two friends and I exited the Park Street subway station on the way to P.F. Chang’s before a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts.

We headed across Boston Common. Strangely enough, on a Monday, it was practically deserted. So many paths. So many exits.

If I had been alone, who knows which way I would have gone…

Too many vanishing lines leading somewhere.
How would I choose which one?

boston lines

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Future

~ oneletterup ~ 18 Comments

Inspired by Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #83: Future

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Today was all about the future.

It was voting day in New Hampshire.

I live in the state which holds the first Primary in the race for President of the United States. Hordes of candidates have been campaigning here during the last year. Speeches. Rallies. Town Halls. Visits to local diners. Television and radio ads. Much shaking of hands and thousands of selfies.

I won’t go into all the drama and teeth gnashing that defines today’s politics. Much of it polarizing and potentially toxic within families and friendships – where differences of opinion exist.

This is not about a particular candidate.

What I want to focus on here is the wonder of living in a country where we actually have the right to vote. A chance to shape our future.

Express our opinions, as diverse as they are. Hopefully with respect.

Sometimes that goes well and sometimes it doesn’t.

Today it went well. I was more than happy to wait for a parking place at the packed voting site. It signaled a large voter turnout. People taking this responsibility seriously. Perhaps it meant less voter apathy. I hope I’m right.

To vote is to put your voice to work for everyone’s future. All the candidates promise – in one way or another – a better future. Whether that be health care, tackling climate change, jobs…and my favorite since my teenage years: promoting peace. World peace. How we all need to get along…better.

I was greeted by campaign reps standing outside with their signs. Media personnel conducting random interviews.

No shouting. Just friendly hellos and smiles.

primary walk

 

voting sign
Once inside…

 

booths
…show ID and find a booth

As a two party system, you must choose a Democratic or Republican ballot for a primary election.

ballot
My ballot

So many choices.
[As far as I know, a $1,000.00 filing fee is all that’s needed to get your name on the ballot]

Last but not least…leave the pen!

pen

 

Let’s hope we vote for a bright and prosperous future for us all.

Time will tell.

Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Drops

~ oneletterup ~ 31 Comments

Inspired by Sunshine’s Macro Monday #28

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A soft rain was falling one day last week during a trip to the grocery store. Almost a mist. No wind. Cold, but not freezing.

I didn’t pay much attention…until I was ready to start the car and drive home. After buckling my seat belt, I realized not much was visible from any of the car windows…except a light pole across the street.

Tiny circles (and light poles) everywhere.

window drops

Once I started driving, they slid away and disappeared.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Geometric Shapes

~ oneletterup ~ 13 Comments

Inspired by:
Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Any Kind of Geometric Shape
citysonnet February photo a day challenge: Abandoned

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Last Fall I discovered that a longtime business in my former home town was closing. A Hallmark affiliate, it had been a mainstay in the community for decades. I made a stop the week before it shut down for good. It is always sad to see a store in the throws of going out of business. The card racks mostly empty. Display cases for sale. Jewelry, wrapping paper, stationary…gone. I remember buying holiday cards here. Birthday cards. Photo albums.

The brick building housing this Hallmark store and a number of others lining the main street dates back to the mid 1900s (or earlier).

I noticed the back of the store was roped off – for the most part – but my curiosity won out and I carefully stepped over scraps of carpet, sheetrock and shelving to investigate.

Part of a side wall had been cut away…revealing an abandoned door to what once was.

abandoned door

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Find Something Red

~ oneletterup ~ 26 Comments

Inspired by Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #81: Find Something Red

…If you wish, you have the option of “visiting” your photo archives….Capture shots which feature the color red… 

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Find Something Red

When I was a young mother with a 5 year old daughter, I had my second child – a son – who was altogether different from my firstborn. No big surprise really, but even so… shockingly (to me anyway – I considered myself experienced by then) it required multitasking on an entirely new level.

One example: when we all went on outings of any kind, my son was likely to let go of my hand and run off. Or wander off. Precisely when my daughter and I were otherwise occupied. Perhaps being the big sister, she was less likely to do the same.  I’m not sure why, but I was most grateful at the time.

Two children to take care of and keep safe…a whole different ball game.

This brings to mind what Dr. A, our sweet pediatrician at the time, once said to me while trying to examine my son as he slipped from my lap and tried to crawl up her leg. As I described how my parenting techniques were not always successfully transcending to child #2.

She smiled that smile reminiscent of people who don’t have children…The first kid is for practice! I think parents should just throw the first one out. Ha Ha Ha.

She was just kidding of course. Although I kind of got the point.

But back to finding something red…

In order to keep track of this very lovable – and speedy – bundle of energy (once compared to a Great Dane by his first grade teacher) outside the confines of our home, I often dressed him in something red. It helped enormously if I needed to locate him in a crowd. At a park. A store. A playground. Since he was tall for his age, a red baseball hat usually worked quite nicely as I quickly spotted his head above the rest. Red shirts and jackets? He was a Chicago Bulls…and then later…a Red Sox fan. Done!

Never one to let winter’s chill keep him from basketball practice, a red snowsuit helped me keep track of him one January day when he was 5.

red ball031 copy
Age 5

A red baseball mitt lit him up on the ball field playing catch at 4 ½.

red ball030 copy
age 4 ½

Little did I know how quickly the time would come…when those flashes of red I’d see in the crowd at a neighborhood park would be someone else’s bundle of energy streaking by.

red ball033 copy

With a parent in hot pursuit.