Category Archives: photography

Holiday Twinkle

My neighborhood is filled with light this time of the year. Icicle lights hang from eves, nets of lights hang on shrubs, and I even noticed some new light sources projecting light on the walls of houses and words onto a garage.

Tonight, with peppermint hot chocolate in hand, we set off for a nighttime walk around the neighborhood to appreciate the twinkle of lights decorating the neighbors’ houses. With only my iPhone as camera, I tried my hand at some night photography. It’s pretty clear that I still have some work to do at improving in this area of photography.

I loved these lanterns hanging from a tree. They seem to be a string of colored lights arranged in chicken wire.

I had fun playing around with this snowman. Using the app Big Lens, I was able to focus on the snowman and blur the background and then use a filter called snow to create a chilling effect! (And trust me, it’s not snowing here!)

Here’s a version without the snow effect.

There are lots of colorful lights hanging from bushes, wrapped around palm trees, and outlining doorways. Some flash, some blink, and some stay lit steadily.

There are elaborate displays…some reminiscent of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation…and others more serene like this one with two deer in lights.

And as much as I enjoy these twinkling holiday lights, I find myself drawn to nature’s twinkle of sun on water. I am a sucker for a beautiful sunset…and take too many photos of them. This one from earlier this week was particularly beautiful with the clouds hunched along the horizon.

And I love the twinkle of the clouds reflected in the still water of the lagoon after yesterday’s storm. If you look closely you can see a ripple of the breeze along the water.

As we head towards our shortest day, light becomes the focus of holiday celebrations. I notice myself seeking out the light…looking for sunrises and sunsets, holiday light displays and candlelight. There is something both calming and energizing about the light of late fall as we celebrate winter holidays.

What light draws your attention? Where do you find the twinkle of light in your life?

Silent Sunday: November 30, 2014

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A Gift a Day: December’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

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While it often seems that December is all about shopping and buying, the spirit of the winter holidays is about giving. I often think about photography as a gift to myself…it allows me to explore, to see the world anew, to get outside and interact with nature, time for reflection and relaxation, and more. And I can also see that each image could also be a gift to others, an opportunity to enjoy a view through my lens.

There are so many gifts that are intangible, you simply can’t go to the store to buy them. And yet, through a photograph you can get a glimpse of the possibilities. I can think of many who would appreciate the gift of abundance. I couldn’t resist this shot of the shelves at the Filippi’s Pizza Restaurant in Little Italy today.

And I know that I appreciated this gift of creativity from an artist who created this lighted sculpture that I found in front of the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Sometimes the gift is spending time with others who love doing what you love. These surfers caught an occasional wave and seemed to spend lots of time hanging out together in the water on their boards.

The gift of exploration is one that I treasure. Something as simple as finding pieces of sea glass as I walk on the beach is a wonderful pleasure…and quite a gift. Each tiny shard feels like a jewel mined from the sea.

I often find the gift of design in historic architecture, in those buildings that somehow withstand years of weather and use and still maintain their grace and beauty. I found this building in Alexandria, VA.

And these in silhouette on the mall in our nation’s capitol.

Sometimes it is the symmetry, somewhere in the image, that catches my eye and draws my interest. These train tracks seem to point the way to the heart of downtown San Diego.

Time to play is another gift I wish for myself and others. Children spinning on a carousel as the sun sets

or adults sailing off cliffs high above the Pacific, play creates an attitude of possibility and offers relief from life’s stresses.

And nature’s gifts are innumerable…whether it be watching geese in the tidal basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background

or lifeguard towers gathered together to winter on the beach, there is so much beauty, peace and joy in these sights.

This month’s #sdawpphotovoices challenge is to gift the world with a photo a day. To help you cast your photo net wide, here is a list of prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Abundance

2. Light

3. Peace

4. Laughter

5. Symmetry

6. Courage

7. Generosity

8. Compassion

9. Silence

10. Time

11. Hope

12. Trust

13. Vision

14. Curiosity

15. Health

16. Patience

17. Gratitude

18. Creativity

19. Relaxation

20. Music

21. Design

22. Reflection

23. Empathy

24. Nature

25. Family

26. Food

27. Life

28. Community

29. Solitude

30. Place

31. Energy

So be on the lookout this month for images that represents gifts you would like to give to the world or to people you know and love. Post a photo each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts. If you would like to expand your gifts, write the story that the photo tells, compose a blog post about a photo, a week’s worth of photos, write a photo essay, or make a video or slideshow. You are invited to create a pingback by linking to this url or post your blog address in the comment section. It’s fun for me to see what others are doing with the same prompts I am using!

Instead of fighting the crowds at the mall this month (or maybe just in addition to those trips to the mall), keep your eye tuned for possible gifts through images. You can capture a gift in a single photo or in a series. (You might even try a 5-image story as a gift.) You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. You can post your pictures in the order of the prompts or post the one you find on the day you find it. You get to make your own rules…after all, they are your gifts to give! Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them! So go out and explore, what gifts would you give through your photography? I can’t wait see the gifts you find and present through your lens!

When Conditions Converge

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We aren’t hiking this week. A sprained ankle (not mine) means no long beach walks and no hikes up hillsides. But I was still itching for some photo opportunities…so we set off on an adventure this afternoon.

And without thinking the details through, we headed off toward a rest stop with an ocean view off the 5 past Camp Pendleton. As we passed the last Oceanside exit, we noticed heavy traffic coming back toward the south and realized that turning back around toward home might be more complicated than we had considered. As we pulled off onto the northbound rest area to take a look at the view, we thought we might have to go all the way to San Clemente to turn around and come back.

It’s interesting the way the dryness of the west and the blue of the ocean and the brilliant blue sky converge to create near summer-like conditions at the end of November. I looked up and noticed this seagull sitting on a streetlight with the moon in the background.

As we returned to the freeway, we were prepared for quite a drive ahead. Lucky for us, there was one more offramp just a mile up the road that allowed us to access the southbound freeway.

After creeping back in very slow freeway traffic for the three miles or so back into Oceanside, we took the offramp off toward the harbor in search of the nearby pier. With the short days of fall, the sun way already low in the sky. And in spite of that (or perhaps because of it), the beach was teeming with people. Surfers were thick in the water, families frolicked on the shore, tourists explored, and photographers were posing their subjects with the pier and beach as the perfect backdrop. I headed under the pier, searching for the convergence of sunlight, shadow, pier pilings, and water.

Walking onto the pier we noticed this egret posed on the railing, outlined against the setting sun.

The pelican seemed to be tame, unperturbed by all the amateur photographers and onlookers. At one point, the pelican noticed the small fish the fisherman had pulled up and extended its large wings and took flight…just as I pressed the camera shutter!

I couldn’t believe the numbers of fishermen on the pier. I didn’t notice many fish, but there were fishing poles lined up all along the railing, some spread out and some gathered in small bunches.

As we headed out, the sun was low, washing a warm glow over the pier and palms…a perfect ending to an impromptu photographic adventure. Conditions converged for a wonderful day!

Angular: Teaching and Learning on the Slant

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For the last few days I’ve been in Washington DC attending the National Writing Project Annual Meeting, a conference for those connected with writing projects all over the country. In this space we come together to reconnect, learn together, and envision and re-vision possibilities for both our national network and our local sites. And while I was in this rich, intellectually stimulating space, I found myself thinking about angles, the slant that is essential in the work of learning and teaching.

Tell the truth but tell it slant. Emily Dickinson

The hallmark of writing projects has been their longevity (we’re in our 40th year as an organization), which attests to their ability to adapt to new mandates and contexts in education, their ability to remain responsive to changing needs in the educational community while holding on to their core beliefs, and their ability to innovate as they strive to anticipate upcoming needs and trends and develop more effective and relevant approaches to supporting teachers with the goal of improving the teaching of writing. And even in our own community, what that means and how that looks does not assume that we all agree or even that we all understand our charge in the same ways.

And as I consider my own learning experiences, my observations of others, and continue to think about presenting ideas to my own students and to my writing project colleagues I realize that the straight path is not always the best path. I can’t assume what I have come to understand over a number of years will be clear to others as I explain what I now know. I have to find ways to communicate the truth…but find the slant that gives others access. Sometimes looking straight up or straight ahead actually works to obscure your view and understanding.

As I spent some time at the National Cathedral yesterday, I started to see the embodiment of some of these slants. What I noticed as I walked into the nave…the main body of the cathedral…were the incredible angles.

Columns reached high, curved, and then met in angular points. In that expansive and intricate structure, I could feel the careful study of architectural soundness. I felt reassured that this long-standing building would continue to stand, in spite of some damage from a recent earthquake. And so I’m thinking about the underlying structures that inform work some of us as educators do around the concept of connected learning. How do we make the structures and educational soundness visible? What experience will adult and student learners need to feel the expansiveness?

There is a beautiful infographic that I’ve seen shown over and over again and that I have used myself, but like the beautiful stained glass windows in the cathedral, it requires not only a close look but an understanding of the underlying design, accompanied by some personal experiences related to the concepts to truly begin to make sense of it.

And like the stained glass window, light shining from outside reveals details and intricacies that are not otherwise noticeable. Rubbing emerging ideas and persistent questions against those of my colleagues works like that shining light, revealing nuances and pushing me to rethink and reconsider my own understanding. When I can see my thoughts reflected through the ideas of others, they take new shapes and create new possibilities like these intricate shadows the wrought-iron work reflects on the cathedral walls..

And while that sounds pretty easy and productive, it isn’t always that straightforward. There are more slants and angles to consider. Sometimes the learners and teachers must wander down seemingly endless corridors, making false starts and running into dead ends before finding their way in. But repeated opportunities to try and stumble, reflect and reengage eventually reveal a pathway—maybe not THE pathway—to understanding.

Sometimes you have to crane your neck while your nose is right against the window to catch a glimpse of possibility like I had to as I searched for gargoyles. And sometimes that view might be terrifying, monsters seem to come into view, until you realize you are not alone and there are other meanings to be made of what you are seeing and experiencing.

As I have reflected on my experiences this week, I am reminded of the value in taking a step back, considering other perspectives and the role that resistance (my own and that of others) plays in learning. How do I play the doubting and believing game (Elbow) in productive ways that opens doors rather than closes them? And how do I facilitate processes like these for my students and my colleagues?

I know it’s about the slant, the angular nature of our personal biases and the complexity of learning itself. And just like the straight path isn’t for everyone, I know that there are many slants to consider as we continue to learn ourselves and to support learners in this fast-changing, information-driven, connected world we live in. My trip to the cathedral not only allowed me to explore this beautiful national treasure and take interesting photos, it also helped me think about learning and angles and envision the role I might play in creating entry points and interactions to extend opportunities to consider alternatives to our current educational system. I’m looking forward to exploring the slants…and I’m appreciating the angular.

Minimalist Pleasures

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I love the beach. I love to walk. I love to take pictures.

And a perfectly timed super low tide, summer-like weather (in November!), and the just-right prompt set me off for a meditative adventure (is that an oxymoron?) this afternoon that combined the three.

I’m always surprised by how much the beach changes from week to week…sometimes even day to day. When I arrived today, I noticed right away that the fairly flat beach had been replaced by a large berm, seemingly to protect the permanent lifeguard structure and upper sandy area from the late fall/winter tide patterns. And as I began to walk, the super low tide revealed rocks that have been covered by sand all summer. What was a smooth sandy beach a few weeks ago, is now rocky.

The simple, minimal beauty of rocks and water and sky is profoundly calming and relaxing. I found myself breathing deeply, soaking in the peace.

Walking further, I found I could walk on sandbars that put the open ocean on one side of me and pools and rivers of sea water on the other. I was mesmerized by the reflections of light and the soft ripples as the wind played with the water.

A recent Huffington Post article entitled Why Being Near the Ocean Can Make Your Calmer And More Creative seems to confirm my experiences with the beach.

The monochromatic shades of blue, a minimalist masterpiece of blue sky, blue water, blue shadows…caught my eye as I caught this bird in flight.