When people think of southern California, images often include sunshine, palm trees and sandy beaches. And while some of that is certainly true, it is also a place that is within easy reach of snowy mountaintops and deserts known for extreme heat and unusual beauty.

Even our usual palms were looking out of the ordinary earlier this week as they stood shrouded in dense fog, turning the sky from its predictable blue to shades of gray.  I stopped on my way to work to snap this foggy image with my phone.

Just days earlier we had trekked to the top of our local mountains for a hike in the snow.  We weren’t entirely sure we would find snow–it had stormed the previous week, but had been warm and sunny during the week. But our luck held out and we found plenty of snow…and a few other out of the ordinary photo opportunities like this metal watering hole with ice floating in it.

And this large metal ball-shaped thing.  I have no idea what it is or what purpose it serves beyond piquing my curiosity!

A low tide walk on the beach revealed some out of the ordinary artifacts too. It’s not common to find an entire clam or oyster shell positioned on its hinge in the sand.  You can even spy a bit of algae growing on it!

The classroom is often ripe for out of the ordinary possibilities.  Today our friend Janis came to share her passion for taking photos of trash she finds on the beach with our students.  She brought bins of color-sorted plastic debris for students to use to create still life arrangements to photograph as part of our study of photography and photographers.  The kids loved playing with the trash and created some beautiful and thought-provoking art.

Yesterday we headed out with our devices to try something new photographically.  I loved watching students lay down under the play structure to photograph the polka dots they noticed when looking up and the delight on the face of a third grade boy when he managed to shoot down the baseball bat holder and capture the image of the spider in his shot.  I noticed this rake hanging on the fence by the dog park…getting close created an out of the ordinary view.

I took a quick beach walk after school today to clear my head and welcome the weekend.  The sky was filled with clouds that created interesting textures and colors.  But my eye was drawn to the flock of tiny seabirds who moved in unison with the waves.  When I got low and focused on them, all the color seemed to drain out of the scene, taking me back to a time of black and white.  This out of the ordinary scene is unfiltered and unedited.

So, head out with your lens and see what you can find that strikes you as out of the ordinary.  Perhaps it will be a new vantage on something you see every day or maybe you will turn your head and see something you’ve not noticed before.

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

Take a look around…what will you find when you look for the out of the ordinary?