Some trees invite you to come sit in their branches. Others become home for the nests of birds and squirrels. Some provide shade when the summer sun is beating down. Others color the landscape with their beautiful autumn leaves.
But some…
Some seem almost scary with their branches long and gnarled like a witch’s fingers, stretching down to scratch against your bedroom window and sending you shivering in fright beneath the covers…
Wow…I’m posting back-to-back black & white prints. Now that’s a first.
But this one, although beautiful in its original color version, came into its own once I cropped away almost all of it and really dug into the pattern of those beautiful mallard feathers. It was then that I heard it screaming out, “Convert me!”
I was only too happy to oblige…
There’s something about the reflection of items off a body of water that just mesmerizes me. I managed to add several new images to my collection this past weekend - some with deep blue tints, some with a steel liquid grey cast, some with the sun setting across them, some with trees reflected downward…all of them lovely to sit and gaze upon.
One of my favorites was this one. There’s just something about the pattern of the brown tree limbs swirled onto the surface of the blue lake water that draws my eyes in and leaves my mind skimming across the silkiness of the water’s surface.
This weekend got up into the 40’s so much of the snow and ice from earlier in the week began to melt. I spent a few hours on Friday and Saturday at a local park, just happy to be out in the sun again.
This was one of my favorite abstract images both because of the lines and the colors. I hope you like it, too.
It’s freezing again (literally) so I had to find something to photograph INSIDE again tonight. I pulled out the new 100mm macro lens and headed down the hall to shoot the colorful squares my mom pieced together to make my quilted wall-hanging.
I ended up setting the lens to “bulb” and then dragging the camera across several of the squares, going from color to color and pattern to pattern. Several of the shots turned out pretty interesting but this one was far and away my favorite. If you look closely, you can see the lines where the squares meet up in rows…
It’s been nasty cold here in the Midwest for the past couple of days. I try to look at the good side of that (not that there really IS a good side) and remember that the cold temps bring with it a better variety of birds to photograph at the feeders and wonderful ice patterns that form on the outside windows. (Frankly, if it wasn’t for things like this, I’d go insane because it is bitter cold here and I hate being cramped up indoors!)
I’ve been going through a rather long discernment process over the past couple of years. I’m nearing the end of my 40’s and have been busy wondering what I might want to be when I grow up. I never did find what I was looking for during my short stint at college or in the work force. I’ve kept moving though, trying to put the pieces into place, trying to make sense of this life that I’ve been leading.
Last January I got my hands on a Canon S3 IS and my life took a dramatic turn. With that camera in my hands I got a little glimpse of what my life could be. I started to see so much beauty where others walk right by. That $300 point-n-shoot camera has altered my life in so many ways over the course of the past year that I can’t even begin to count them. The only reason I tell you all of this is because today was a very big day.
A very big day.
And, because it was a big day, I really wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who come here, who glimpse for a moment what I do with that little camera. I watch as God points out the beauty of His world to me and I hold that camera in my hands and I do my best to pass on what He shows me.
But things, they are a changin’. Life is about to take me on a new spin around the block.
Tonight, I wanted to acknowledge the One who makes all things possible in my life…whose dreams for me are far bigger than my own dreams for myself…whose power and glory sustains me in both the good times and the bad.
Three years ago, I was in a mental gutter, wanting nothing but an easy way out of all my pain. Now, here I am, a sponge that soaks life in with every breath I take. It’s a miracle, really. My life has become a testament to His existence. I am a living, breathing, walking miracle.
And so are you.
Last year I bought some new curtains for my master bedroom. They are a spicy crimson color and have a silky feel to them. When I go in on the weekends to take an afternoon nap I am greeted by the different patterns that shine through from the mini-blinds beneath.
Last weekend I finally took a moment and shot some of the different patterns before hopping between the covers and taking that much coveted Saturday afternoon catnap.
