Category Archives: photography

Beyond Paint by Number: October’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

Oranges, browns, yellows, reds, greens…the colors of fall are legendary. Leaves turn, pumpkins grow, candles flicker, and we can see the sunset as we head for home after the work day. In the midst of all this spectacular and extraordinary display, we live our mostly ordinary lives. So what do we take photos of? How do we challenge ourselves to pay attention to the colors and wonders that only October can bring?

Let’s spend October painting what we see through our lens by paying attention to the extraordinariness of the ordinary. I used the term paint by number to play with that idea of the hum drum ordinary of taking that same uninspiring photo over and over again. To avoid that burnout of boredom, you’ll need to pay close attention to what your photo might be if you move in a bit closer, frame it a little differently, or look under the rock instead of just at it! I’ve come up with a prompt for each of the numbered days of this month to suggest an idea for you to paint through your lens…by taking a photo. With the extraordinary of the ordinary in mind, here are a few of my paintings for inspiration…

These red converse hightops highlight the shift to fall…and notice the hat with a splash of orange sitting on the floor under the chair. (And you might even notice the other kid with the florescent yellow shoes in the distance!)

A walk on some hiking trails last weekend brought the dry and scratchy brush into full view…along with a tiny splash of color provided by the monkey flowers.

I love the warmth and glow of the sun on the cliffs bringing out the oranges and reds that often go unnoticed.

And what do you think of these whimsical pink stripes on the outstretched arms of the reader holding her book just so as her wispy bangs obscure her eyes and brush the side of her face?

Saturday’s amber brew was a perfect match for the locally grown veggies on the pizza…and a great way to view the community outside the window.

Don’t you love all the hues of green this painter made using only the primary colors and a dab or two of white?

And I love the layers of oranges and yellows of this early fall sunset framed by the lifeguard tower. If you look closely, you can see the people along the edge of the surf enjoying the last days of summer.

So let’s go beyond “paint by number” and explore the extraordinariness of the ordinary. Here’s a list of prompts to help you look in some new ways…or create your own prompt and share it with the rest of us!

1. brown

2. dry

3. scratchy

4. wispy

5. orange

6. hollow

7. alive

8. dark

9. growing

10. yellow

11. thumps

12. falling

13. spooky

14. lit

15. red

16. fresh

17. spicy

18. morning

19. crisp

20. setting

21. harvest

22. scary

23. hue

24. flicker

25. outside

26. under

27. golden

28. light

29. stacked

30. delicate

31. glow

Once you go beyond painting by numbers and take that shot, 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 are game for some more playfulness, compose a blog post about a photo, a week’s worth of photos, write a photo essay, make a video or slideshow or try a learning walk! 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!

So push past the ordinary, beyond paint by numbers and discover the extraordinary in your everyday routines. You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. You can play this game by posting 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! Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them! So go out and use you lens to start painting! I can’t wait for you to share what you are seeing through your lens!

Silent Sunday: 9/28/14

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Fall’s Nighttime Beach

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As the season shifts from summer to fall

nighttime begins to stretch, lengthening shadows

and shortening the day

Light plays hide and seek with the sun and clouds

painting with colors only nature knows

The photographer frames the bride in the glow

of the setting sun

and she turns, and smiles washed in the soft warmth of the sinking sun

and the dog frolics, running the gauntlet of kelp

through the rivulets of salty water as the low tide starts to rise again

At the edge of nighttime, light creates silhouettes

shadowy outlines framed by light

a bicyclist

a seagull

As I head for home, the lights come on

darkness is near

Those who play at the beach into the night

build their bonfires

and settle in

to enjoy

fall’s nighttime beach

Developing Endurance

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There’s nothing easy about the beginning of school. As exciting as new beginnings are, they are also filled with uncertainty and maybe even a bit of fear of the unknown…on the part of the teacher, but also on the part of students and their parents. Even in a class like mine where two-thirds of our students return each year, it takes some time to get back into the rhythms of learning together as a community.

And then there is the need to shift from the habits of summer…staying up late, sleeping in late, playing and vacationing, visiting with family and friends…back to the routines of the school year. Further complicating the transition, it still feels like summer when school starts here. It has been unseasonably warm (downright miserably hot in our non-air conditioned school), the kind of weather where the beach and the pool sound so much better than the classroom, for both teachers and students!

(This portable air conditioning unit was delivered Tuesday afternoon…the day of the peak highs! It helps, but its range and capacity do not match the size of the classroom! Luckily, we should be near the end of unbearably hot weather.)

There’s also endurance that has to be developed; the ability to sustain focus for the work of school and learning that emerges alongside fluency, confidence, and stamina. As a teacher I see this endurance grow as the school year progresses, especially in the area of writing.

Our writers are already surprising us this year, only weeks into the school year, with their endurance, creativity, and willingness to take risks.

With our returning writers, we see evidence of the layers of mentor texts and writing lessons they experienced last year, and for the third graders, the year before, along with the richness of stories they have read and listened to in their lives. The first graders seem inspired by their older classmates, and are willing to put their emerging writing skills to use as they work through the challenges of transforming their thoughts and ideas into words on a page.

We’ve been writing in all areas of the curriculum…to learn, to think, to remember, to express. We write indoors and outdoors…

and we are working on revising to improve our writing too. (You can take a peek at a collaborative piece of writing we did in honor of International Dot Day on our class blog. (Our students always welcome comments!)

We often think about endurance when it comes to physical tasks…and there are those that definitely require endurance. I’m still working on improving my hiking endurance–increasing my mileage and speed and capacity to hike up steep inclines and setting a pace that allows me to continue to improve over time.

I’ve definitely learned over the years that endurance comes with repeated opportunities to do something that you actually want to do. It takes time and we don’t all progress at the same rate. It helps to notice your strengths and focus attention on areas where you want to grow and improve…and it always seem to help to learn in a community of supportive others who are also learning too. The writers and learners in my class are developing endurance…there’s nothing easy about the beginning of school, but then again, things worth doing are seldom easy!

Silent Sunday: 9/21/14

Beach Humanity

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There is something magical about the beach. Ears filled with the roar of waves, the backbeat of rocks rattling as they tumble against each other in the surf, the distinctive whistles of the sandpipers, and the urgent calls of the seagulls as they oversee the beach. Blues, greens, turquoise, and greys fill my eyes as they mix with the bright white of the foamy waves crashing. And there is the pervasive energy of play…beachside games of catch, pickup jumprope with kelp as the rope, surfers and boogie boarders, swimmers and waders, sand castle builders, mud throwers, walkers, runners, bike riders–I could go on forever!

Summer on the southern California coast teems with humanity. Every square inch of sand seems to be claimed by an umbrella, beach chair, towel or shovel. But I’m reminded that as September arrived, the mornings and nights belong to the locals.

Last night we made an impromptu trip to the beach, arriving in the afterglow of the sunset. The tide was low, bonfires already glowing, exercisers still working up a sweat in the cooler (but not yet chilly) evening temperatures. A light mist had rolled in along the shore, a relief to the record-setting highs we have been experiencing.

I was playing with angles with my camera last night. And noticed this child dragging kelp…I love the way that the beach provides its own toy chest.

You can see the emptiness…and the beauty of the evening beach in this shot of my hubby walking on the slant and reflected in the wet sand.

As we walked back up toward the parking lot, this little girl was attracting a crowd as she lifted bubbles from her bucket. In spite of the darkness, you can still see the colors in the bubble…and the littler children mesmerized as they watched the giant bubble float.

This morning, with forecasted hot weather–even on the coast–and a busy schedule for the day, we headed back to the beach early…arriving shortly after 7am. While the crowds hadn’t arrived yet, there were plenty of people enjoying the beach.

I noticed this man playing with his dog in the surf. The dog joyfully chased the disk and returned it to the man each time he threw it, asking for one more time.

I was even able to catch the dog in action as he ran in my direction, seeming to show me the great catch he had just made!

I noticed this mom playing with her baby in the surf. The baby would kick his feet each time the mom lifted him up and then tipped his toes into the water.

As I walked on I noticed this little boy with two surfboards. As I looked out into the waves I noticed a man (his dad) heading in to collect his board so they could head back out into the waves. The beach is definitely a place for families.

Towards the end of my walk I saw this guy fishing. The water was warm this morning (more than 70 degrees) so the fisherman was comfortable in trunks as he cast his line.

There were others I wasn’t able to document with my lens, but noticed as I walked. Couples walking with their coffee, the cute older couple with matching sun hats, exercise walkers with earbuds, runners staying above the waterline to keep their shoes dry, a father and daughter stretching before heading out with their boards, the older woman in her bikini, tennis shoes, and sun hat out for a walk, someone meditating with crossed legs and fingers touching…

One of my favorites things about the beach and the humanity that inhabits it, is that each person finds his or her own way of interacting with it. You can wear a bathing suit, a wetsuit, shorts, jeans…or even a wedding dress. Shoes are optional and are often seen in pockets, hanging over shoulders, or held in the hand. You can sit, stand, lay, run, walk, jump, dance, catch, throw, search, dig, build, chase…the options are endless.

I have quite a collection of images of #beachpeople this summer as I’ve noticed and studied the humanity I find on the beach. And what I know for sure is that most of them seem to come to the beach for fun, for pleasure, to escape the heat, the stresses of work…it is a place filled with play and playfulness. Adults playing with children, adults playing with other adults…enjoying the water and sand with the joy many often leave behind with childhood.

The beach is a magical place.

Self Portraits, Photo Style

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I experimented with taking self portrait photos today. The #sdawpphotovoices photo-a-day prompt for September 6th is self portrait, which got me thinking about how to be creative in my approach to creating a photo portrait of myself. I’ve done some playing around with self portraiture in the past (here and here) and have been practicing the art of the selfie as a way to document some of the outings my husband and I take. (Otherwise I have discovered that I am absent in my own photography.)

But what does it mean to take a self portrait? And what does it say about me and my photography? As I set out today, I knew that I was not going to be taking the typical hold your phone out at arm’s length and shoot a photo sort of self portrait. Instead, I wanted to focus on ways to capture portraits of myself in less typical ways.

Walking along the waterfront, I noticed a monument to those who have served in the military that had shiny marble sides. I could see my reflection as walked by, so decided to try taking a self portrait by framing myself in the shot.

I like the way the grain of the marble creates a texture on the photo, and you can see how the shade also impacted the image.

Continuing our walk, I noticed a mirror used to help cars see around corners as I went to cross a driveway. I stood and aimed my camera as I framed myself in the mirror.

It’s interesting to me the way the mirror captures the urban elements of the setting, while the background features the branches and leaves of a tree.

As we walked down the Broadway Pier, I noticed the reflective glass of the building there. Along the side of the building I could see the USS Midway, a retired military aircraft carrier, reflected in the window. I urged my husband to join me and capture this self portrait.

Geoff noticed this star on a window of a restaurant as we headed back toward where we had parked our car, so of course I had to stop to snap a photo. The long skinny window makes an interesting frame for the self portrait.

We had talked earlier in our outing about the possibility of me taking a self portrait by framing myself in my husband’s sunglasses. So as we passed the park at Seaport Village we stopped to try this technique. It took a few tries…and we left without knowing for sure if my image would be visible. With a bit of post production editing, this is the resulting image.

Today’s focus on self portrait photography had me paying attention to light, reflection, texture, and composition. I was working not only to capture an image of myself, but also to document my surroundings in interesting ways. Sometimes I noticed that I held my phone in a way that obscured my face so then I experimented with holding it lower and tried to look into the reflective surface rather than at my shutter button.

I did some post production editing to crop away extraneous material and place the focus on the portrait. Filters helped me brighten or tone down colors and create an effect that I found pleasing.

I took many other photos today as I walked the waterfront and explored downtown San Diego, but it was fun to experiment with the self portrait too. Taking photos of myself in reflective surfaces made me aware of the many ways I can use those surfaces to create other kinds of photos as well–things I don’t always think about as I am shooting. I know I’ll be doing some experimenting over the next week or so!

What do you learn when you take photographic self portraits? What techniques are your favorites? I’d love to hear from you!