Do you speak in images? Enjoy taking photos to document your experiences or just to express what you notice in the world? Love to share them with others? Welcome to the weekly photo challenge! I post a new challenge each week…check in regularly and join the fun!

Just yesterday I noticed some unusual mushrooms growing in the garden box outside my classroom door.  I snapped a quick picture (you can see it on my instagram feed) and went into the classroom to prepare for the day.  Later in the day when I looked into the box, the mushrooms were no longer there.  Did someone pluck them out?  This morning I looked in the box and noticed just a couple of these same mushrooms growing.  I decided to take the time to attach my macro lens and get close to these mushrooms.  And I’m glad I did…once again, they seemed to vanish as the day began to warm.

And sometimes I like to get close even without the aid of the macro lens. The pines I met while I was in Ohio were different from the varieties I am used to.  I got close to this one as I looked through at the green beyond…and green like this is very unusual where I live!

Sometimes there is an unexpected invitation to get close.  I couldn’t resist this sign asking museum visitors to lean in and pick up the items in the box…to really examine them closely.  It’s such a different message than the “look only with your eyes” message that is so common.

I’m not sure about this fence.  I got close to the fence…but is the message of the fence to stay back, don’t get too close?

And sometimes I use cropping as a way of getting even closer than I’m able to with my ordinary camera lens.  In this case I took a photo of my oatmeal and coffee in the carry tray…and then cropped to make it fill the frame.  The other photos above all are unedited…but this one has been cropped (but no filters applied).

So this week’s challenge is to get close. You might pull our your macro lens and try your hand at magnifying something small…or you might lean in and see how close you can get.  You might even think about getting close more metaphorically…how else might a photo “read’ close? You can also consider using an editing tool to create the feeling of getting close from a photo that wasn’t all that close.

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #close for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

So snuggle up and get close!  I can’t wait to see what you find when you get close with your lens.