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!

I continue to learn about and be challenged by light as I take pictures.  Sometimes the photos I take seem flat, without the detail and texture that I see with my eyes.  Just last week when I was walking at the beach in the evening, the sun was just right and I had to snap a photo trying to capture the softness and the glow of the moment (and those sandpipers I am always chasing with my camera).  This unedited result was even more amazing than I imagined, capturing the texture of the foamy edge of the wave against the smooth sand.

The light that pours into my dining room in the afternoon lit up the roses in the vase on table. I like that you can see the layers of petals and almost feel the softness through the image–even though the light creates a variegated effect on this solid-colored red rose.

Sometimes it is the breeze that creates the texture in a photo.  The Star of India is an old clipper sailing ship that now operates as a museum on the San Diego waterfront.  I like the way the sails…and the American flag billow with a roundness you can almost touch.

My macro lens is always good for capturing texture.  Getting close makes the textured details more apparent like in this photo of dandelion fluff.

Or this one of the intricacies of cactus spines on the plant in my back yard.

And then there is the visual texture of the pattern worn by this giraffe.  His distinctive coloring creates a texture all its own.

And I love the physical texture I can almost feel with my fingers as my students explored this mystery substance last week in a science lab.  They were mesmerized by the way it was runny and liquid-like sometimes and hard and powdery other times.  I used an app to filter the image that seems to bring attention to the texture of the substance on my student’s hands.

So now it is your turn to find and snap a photo of texture.  Will it be something oozy and wet, something soft and furry?  Will the light help to define foamy edges or expose the details of layers?

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 #texture for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

What textures will your lens expose?  I can’t wait to see what you find!