Category Archives: nature

An Unusual Point of View

Yesterday I wrote a post about playing with frames where I was looking for different ways to photograph the ordinary in my life. This evening I headed off to the beach (again) to cool off and enjoy the sunset. And with my iPhone camera in hand I was again looking for new ways to explore the beach photographically.

When I sat down to write this post, I wondered about my topic. Would I write about my school day? Would I participate in Five Minute Friday and write about red? I took a quick look at my blog reader and saw today’s Friday Weekly Photo Challenge on The Daily Post…and discovered that this week’s challenge is just what I have been working at! The challenge is titled, “An Unusual Point of View” and talks about trying new ways to take photos of ordinary (or popular) views.

Back to the beach. The tide was ultra low when we arrived and the seabirds were feasting in the wet sand. I love sandpipers and their gently curved beaks that poke deep in the wet sand pulling up tiny shellfish and crabs. I was stalking this pair as they searched the shore and shot this photo, capturing the reflection of the cliffs in the wet sand. Can you spot my pair of sandpipers?

As the sun moved lower on the horizon, I took a few shots and then felt that they were too much like the sunset photos I took last week. How could I frame them differently? I noticed that through my sunglasses the view looks different than it does when I look without them. I decided to use my sunglasses as both a frame and filter for a picture of the setting sun.

And then as the sun sat down into the water, I tried using the people in the water as features of my photos. I tried some fishermen, some surfers…and then captured this pair which I am titling, Into the Sunset.

I love stretching and trying out new strategies. The experimentation adds a new dimension to my view of the world and has me alert to novel opportunities for photos. I look forward to seeing what others produce with their unusual points of view. What does an unusual point of view do to your craft?

Playing with Perspective in the Garden

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We’re lucky enough to have a school garden thanks to support from our school district, our local community, and a non-profit developed by a couple of teachers at my site called Scrumptious Schoolyards. My students had time with the gardening teacher today observing how the garden has changed over the summer…before it is harvested and cleaned up for fall planting. While watching them and listening to their comments and looking at what they noticed, I also had time to snap a few iphone photos.

I’ve been playing around with perspective and point of view, trying a variety of angles–looking up, looking down, getting down low. Here’s one looking up into the “face” of a sunflower.

I purposely got close, wanting to capture the texture of the sunflower’s surface. I love the bright yellow-orange of the petals around the top…and you can see just a hint of the chain link fence around the bottom. This photo is unedited and not cropped…it’s just as I took it.

Another unedited and uncropped photo I took today is this one of squash blossoms. I love the slight shadow on the blossom and the peek at the squash growing in the background.

I also played around a bit with cropping and filters on this photo of the pile of watering cans. Only in a school garden would so many watering cans be sitting together just waiting to be used!

We also have a small corn crop growing tall! With this photo I cropped to focus the photo on the corn and not on the background…and wanted to move the viewer’s eye upward to emphasize the height (while including beautiful blue sky!).

There is so much more that I noticed in the garden today–and saw through my students’ eyes that I wasn’t able to capture in photos. I love their wonder and fascination with bugs and plants. They uncovered caterpillars, carefully held ladybugs (both with and without spots–how I wish I had my macro lens handy!), avoided those big green beetle bugs, and noticed the dragonflies darting overhead. They were astounded by the size of the tomatoes (heirlooms as one student pointed out) and the pumpkins. And they can’t wait to literally dig in and get to the real work on gardening!

What did you see today through someone else’s eyes? How does that change your perspective?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

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Today was one of those rare hot, sultry days in our coastal community…and it’s the first week of school. I love our old fashioned school with high ceilings, big windows…and no air conditioning! By the time I left work today I felt hot and soggy–and home was also hot and un-airconditioned.

The perfect answer to almost anything in my world is a walk on the beach. Mostly I walk at the beach on weekend mornings or afternoons. But today, a Friday evening sunset walk was the perfect way to cool off and the perfect end to the week. I’d forgotten how the sun setting changes the light and creates softness and shimmers, reflections and incredible colors.

A feeling of peacefulness comes over me as I listen to the waves crash and smell the salty air. I managed to catch this seagull in flight as it headed over the breakers. There is nothing like the sea to sooth away the stresses of the week and help me feel centered and calm.

Where is your peaceful place? What soothes and calms you at the end of your work week?

Learning from Patterns

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This week the #sdawpphotovoices photo-a-day focus has been patterns. And while I have taken photos of the patterns I have found, I have also been thinking about my own patterns…patterns of thinking and patterns of behavior.

Being back at work definitely re-directed my attention from photography to my classroom. On Monday I remember getting home, feeling tired and realizing I hadn’t taken a single photo all day! Taking a look around the house for interesting patterns led me to my macro lens…I took pictures of the center of the succulents in the kitchen window. Using picstitch I put four pictures together and posted with the caption, “What patterns do you see?”

Is it cheating to create your own pattern by stitching photos together? Tuesday and Wednesday were also days where the photos I posted didn’t really reflect patterns as they are defined in the design world. I didn’t want to post photos of tiles or carpet or brick or other typical patterns.

On Thursday I was more inspired and had already taken several photos of patterns when I squeezed in a five minute pattern walk between errands in the afternoon. (You can see more of Thursday’s patterns here.) This was the day when I realized how important it is to take some time every day to do something just for yourself. Those five minutes I spent looking for and photographing patterns were energizing and relaxing. This is a practice I want to make sure to develop.

Most of the patterns I photographed this week were organic–nature’s beauty unveiled in heirloom tomatoes, cactus blossoms, clouds, and kelp. Even the man-made patterns I captured often had an element of nature to them, I found myself looking at shadows and seeing patterns repeated by the sun’s angles.

So I’ve noticed that my photo-a-day theme does make me look at the world differently than I might without it, but that regardless of the theme, I take pictures that catch my eye…and then play with language and ideas to make them work as I post.

So my two take aways for the week are:

1. Take time to do something I enjoy each day (photography is an example of this), even if the photos don’t match the theme.

2. It’s okay to play with the theme if it works for the photography–isn’t that the point after all?

What patterns do you notice in your life? Which will you change and which will you embrace?

Next week is repetition…I wonder what that will teach me?

Nature’s Friday Gift

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It’s been a busy week as we’ve been back at school preparing for the arrival of students on Tuesday. My attention has been focused on planning, organizing, and thinking about ways to engage students in meaningful learning experiences. And after a long day putting finishing touches on the classroom, getting the iPads synched and charged, and participating in a “fiesta” lunch with my co-workers, I was ready to go home and do a little nothing for a while.

I parked in my driveway and walked up the walkway to the front door of my house and the little bowl of succulents and cacti on my front porch caught my eye. One of those pretty ordinary looking succulents…you know the ones that are mostly green, a bit furry, and you would never expect to look any different that it usually does…bloomed!

Here’s a view I took in early June.

When I saw the bloom today, I forgot I was tired, hurried into the house to put the macro lens on my iphone and rushed back out to capture the unusual beauty of the blossom in a photo. (Or several–I’m like that!) I love the pictures! And then I decided to play with them a bit using the Vintique app and pic-stiched 4 together to display. (The one on the lower left does not use any filters–all were shot with my macro lens).

Arriving home today was like opening a gift! I love nature’s little surprises. How has nature surprised you lately?

A Week of #Angles

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My daily blog post is most often the result of a percolation of ideas throughout the day…written toward the end of the day. Today I knew I would be writing about my week of focusing on angles –this week’s #sdawpphotovoices topic. My morning began. as it often does on Sunday, with some time reading articles on Twitter. Today’s @brainpicker post was about a book called On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz.

As I read the review of the book I found myself thinking about how photo-a-day has impacted the way I look and what I see as I go about my daily life. And then I saw Janis’s post today on SDAWP Voices as she reflected on her week–and she was saying similar things about her experience (and she had also read the same post by @brainpicker this morning!). This book focuses on the ways a different lens opens up an entirely different experience of the place. When you walk with a toddler and pay attention to how that toddler pays attention, you see a different place than the familiar routine you are used to. What does your dog see? How about an entomologist?

Back to angles…this week’s photo-a-day focus. I took a lot of pictures this week, from a variety of angles, of a variety of angles…angles were everywhere! Some of my favorite pictures of the week I never did post on Instagram. But because I am writing every day to post to this blog, my pictures also become a stimulus for my writing and my thinking.

I love this picture of the lone fisherman with his pole angled in the surf. I don’t often take pictures of people–it feels awkward to photograph people I don’t know…and I didn’t want him to pose. Instead I took the picture from a distance, knowing I would lose the details of his face. The bonus is the reflection! I can see writing a story with this photo as the prompt…I think the story is already beginning to take shape for me.

This angry bird kite was roosting in the tree above the beach. Its angles had it caught pretty securely in the intertwining branches…in fact I saw it again several days later on a walk later in the week. I love the play on words and images of the bird kite in the tree.

Shell fragments are common on the beach, but coming across an entire shell–especially one still connected and angled like this is a rare occurrence. If you look closely you can see the strand of sea grass lying in the background. I wonder if a seagull got this tasty morsel!

Coming down the ramp from the parking lot, I got to see these wonderful flat and yet angled rooftops of the new concession stand and bathrooms. I love the way that architecture can take straight lines and create unexpected angles by the way they are placed in relation to each other.

Tomorrow I will shift my focus from angles to patterns. Added to my photography focus and blogging focus, I will also be thinking about all the other ways I might see the world through the lens of a child, or an architect, a scientist, or an artist. I’ll also try “seeing” the world through my other senses–how does what I hear impact what I see? What about smell, taste, and touch?

What have you failed to notice? How can you shift your attention to see more of your world?

Collecting Sandcastles

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I started a sandcastle collection. On my beach walks this summer, I have stopped to take photos of sandcastles abandoned by their builders, left for passers-by to admire and the surf to eventually reclaim. Here’s a few of my treasures.

Yesterday I also caught a few sand mounds that seem to be a variation on the castle theme. They weren’t fancy or decorated, but each included a canal from the top down to the bottom extending some distance away from the mound toward the water’s edge.

I’ve seen people of all ages building sandcastles. Kids build them in groups, teenagers build them with their friends, and adults build them–with or without their kids helping out. Some people use elaborate equipment: shovels and pails and molds. Some decorate their castles with shells and rocks and driftwood pieces. Some use the dribble effect, others are smooth leaving the imprint of the buckets packed with sand.

The picture I didn’t capture was the one of the three or four year old, outfitted in his tiny life vest and swim trunks, picking up handfuls of squishy sand and dribbling it onto a castle already substantially built. He was the image of #carefree…totally immersed in his world of sandcastle building.

This has been a summer of digital making for me–photographs and blogging and all the art and craft that goes into building, editing, and posting them. But I haven’t taken the time to build a sandcastle of my own. Maybe I will on my next trip to the beach…and I’ll take a few pictures to collect that one too!

Poster Poems, Found Poetry: Remixed

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One of my fellow #clmooc-ers, Vanessa Vaile, posted this invitation in the G+ community to remix, hack, create found poetry…and it’s been sitting in the back of my mind, waiting for the opportunity to find its place on my blog.

This morning the twittersphere handed my this poem and it has stayed with me all day, begging me to think about ways to remix and recreate and combine it with my photography.

The World Is in Pencil

BY TODD BOSS

—not pen. It’s got

that same silken

dust about it, doesn’t it,

that same sense of

having been roughed

onto paper even

as it was planned.

It had to be a labor

of love. It must’ve

taken its author some

time, some shove.

I’ll bet it felt good

in the hand—the o

of the ocean, and

the and and the and

of the land.

Source: Poetry (November 2011).

And so, here is my remixed version:

The World Is in Pencil: Remixed

Pencil in the ocean

and the land

Authored with labor

roughed by silken dust.

Love it

shove it

take time

to feel, to handle

Until you can see

as if it was planned

the world

inked on paper.

A map of your life.

This photo was also remixed. Taking a photo I took earlier this week,

I wanted to create a sense of pencil and sketch, roughed and labored.

I used the app Sketch on my iPhone to create this effect.

Here is the original:

Try your hand at found poetry…I invite you to remix mine or find

something that speaks to you. How might you remix a photo or

other image to go with it? Be sure to share!

A #Macro View of San Diego Natives

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I’m lucky to live in a beautiful city–a place where I don’t even have to say the name of my state for people to know where I’m from. Many people I meet have either visited or know someone (often a relative) who lives here. But despite that familiarity, there are many misconceptions about San Diego. So many people expect it to be tropical–like Hawaii or Tahiti–and are surprised when they come in contact with our pervasive marine layer, moderate temperatures (low 60’s in the winter to mid 70’s in the summer with occasional higher and lower temps), and low humidity (we average about 10 inches of rain annually).

San Diego skyline from the Coronado Bay Bridge

Our beautiful skyline and beaches are often framed with tall swaying palms (not native) and colorful hibiscus flowers (also not native). Many species of plants grow well here–especially when supported by providing extra water. Today I vacationed in my own city, taking a trip to Chula Vista to visit the Living Coast Discovery Center (formerly the Chula Vista Nature Center). Located in the wetlands along the San Diego Bay, the center boasts a rich history. Once the domain of the local Kumeyaay people, around the turn of the century this location became a kelp processing plant run by the Hercules Powder Company extracting potash and acetone from the kelp to make cordite–an explosive used for fuses during World War I. After the war, abandoned buildings were taken over by the San Diego Oil Products Corporation and became the largest cottonseed warehouse in the United States. Later it became farmland and after that a site of illegal dumping. In 1980’s the city of Chula Vista helped develop the site into the Chula Vista Nature Center.

As you can see appreciation of our local habitats has not always been a given, even among the local population. We love our beaches and our mild climate, but haven’t always taken the time to understand how to best care for or learn about them. Today, with the help of my macro lens on my iPhone, I spent time looking closely at some of the native plants of San Diego.

The coastal sage scrub community, which grows around our wetlands near the coast, is filled with hearty, drought resistant plants. In the summer many of them look dry and brown. Some might even conclude that they are dead…but just wait until some rain falls…

I noticed today that some of the most beautiful blooms are tiny…often unnoticed unless you take the time to bend down and really look closely. Here’s some of the beauties I uncovered today, all taken with my iPhone and macro lens with no filters applied.

I wish I knew the names of all of these plants. I admire the resilience and adaptations of these hearty natives and know that I will continue to learn about them. It’s so easy to overlook these plants and be mesmerized by the exotic beauty of other more colorful species. I hope you’ll see what I saw when I took the time to look closely–that there is much to appreciate about these natives, you just have to come close and notice what is right in front of you! (Yet another lesson for my classroom…look for the talents and expertise that are not immediately obvious, but there nevertheless!)

Beach Curves: A Photo Essay

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Summers are always busy for me…but this summer has been busy in extreme! Between Geoff’s schedule and mine, we haven’t found time for a traditional, go someplace, kind of vacation. Instead, we have had to grab vacation time wherever we could find it. Today was one of those kinds of days…and we squeezed in a fun and relaxing one-hour vacation at the beach.

It was sunny and warm today…and the ocean water was on the warm side too…perfect conditions for a summer beach walk. The marine layer stayed off the coast and we got there early enough that parking was easy! We had just had a lovely breakfast at one of our favorite local haunts and were ready to walk and talk (or not)…and as always is true of me these days, take a few photos along the way. This week’s #sdawpphotovoices theme has been curves, so I was on the lookout for curves on the beach.

When we parked, the very first thing I noticed was this giant pipe on the street and immediately headed over to take a picture. I got Geoff to stand at the other end so its size would be noticeable–and I love the way the curve also becomes a frame for the portrait.

As we headed down to the shoreline, the tide was approaching high. This can be a limiting factor for how far we can go, so today we headed north. The waves were small, but the surfers and boogie boarders seemed to be having great success catching the curves and enjoying their rides.

Curves seemed to be everywhere. Erosion is a major issue along our local shoreline. The northern walk takes us below expensive homes that seem precariously perched above the beach. One section was still barricaded with yellow caution tape…and the crack we had seen a month ago seemed more pronounced today as it curves along the layers of sediment that make up the sea cliffs.

Giant kelp, which my students know by it’s scientific name Macrocystis Pyrifera, is a constant on our local beaches. Piles are evident as it washes up along the shore. Holdfasts, the rootlike structure that hold onto rocks in the water, are home to many fascinating sea creatures and we often see locals rummaging in these wet piles and finding brittle stars and tiny sea urchins hiding within and enjoying a close look before returning them to their wet and salty homes. The long stipes frequently form tangled webs although this one reached out in a gentle curve away from the rest of the pile on the sand.

Sand castle makers have been hard at work this summer. I passed this creation and just had to stop and get close for a photo.

I love this turtle version of a sand castle with its curved head, shell and limbs…and the extra touch of bucket-molded sand on the top. Ocean washed rocks became eyes and the proximity of the kelp seems like a perfect touch!

I was surprised to find this coconut laying in the surf. It had clearly spent some time being washed and worn by the sea, not quite round but definitely curved. Had me thinking of Tom Hanks in Cast Away.

There were quite a few holes dug with curved banks that began to hold pools of seawater as the tide continued to rise. I took a few pictures of the water in the holes and then stopped to wait to see if I could capture the waves coming over the bank to fill the hole. I love the sense of movement this still photo captured.

And then before finishing my walk, I came across another yet another sand castle. This one in more classic style with a moat, some bridges and curved turrets, and stones and shells for decoration.

I love the way #sdawpphotovoices themes focuses my attention and helps me see familiar places in new ways. My one-hour vacation was relaxing and exotic! The photos represent only a fraction of the curves I saw at the beach…and yet give a glimpse at the variety of curves along the shore. Tomorrow begins angles…I can only imagine what I will find as I look at the world through that lens.