Tag Archives: iphoneography
Unexpected Yellow
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After a warm summer that lasted almost all the way to the solstice, temperatures have cooled, we’ve had several rainy days in the last couple of weeks, and the sun is having a hard time making its way through the thick clouds along the coast. So while yellow is expected at the beach in the summertime, it is much harder to find on a gray, almost winter day.
With a nice low tide this afternoon, we couldn’t wait to get to the beach to explore and walk. Since we were north of our usual beach running some holiday errands, we decided to walk at a beach different from our usual place. Near a jetty, this beach is rockier than the one where we usually walk. So we practiced our usual beachwalk pasttimes–taking photos, picking up trash, and searching for sea glass…and what a bonanza we found!
Sadly, there was abundant trash on the beach, especially small pieces of plastic. And there was a bit of yellow…this packet of mustard tucked in the rocks. And as good Litterati, we took the photo, picked up the trash, and disposed of it properly.
With my eyes tuned for yellow, I started to notice yellow all around me. Not bright, summer sunshine yellow, but earthy sandstone yellow. (And if you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of the piece of green sea glass that I picked up too!)
Looking into the distance, you can see the ripply texture of the low-tide reef and its yellow hue.
As I watched the seabirds and listened to the music of the waves crash along the shore, I could feel the stresses of the weeks leading up to my winter break wash away and the muscles in my back and shoulders begin to unknot.
The rhythms of the rocks rolling with the tide added a spring to my step and energized me. I began to notice the colors of the rocks, the browns and greens and yellows…
And as we left, heading off for a few more of those holiday errands, a strip of yellow opened on the horizon just beyond the empty lifeguard tower.
Unexpected and welcome yellow at the beach.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Celebrate
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!
As teachers know, the week leading up to winter break is a busy one. There’s so much more to teaching than reading and writing and math! Kids heads are filled with the wonder and all the iconic imagery of the holidays, and we have to work hard to make learning relevant and engaging during this week. And while there was plenty conspiring against us, there was a lot of great learning to celebrate. Early in the week, kids put finishing touches on gifts they had made for their family and wrapped them up to take home. I can’t give away what’s inside…there’s still a few days until Christmas! There’s a lot of learning contained in these festive packages…from the creation to the presentation, each step is a learning opportunity that we, as adults, often take for granted!
We were also surprised this week with a package from author/illustrator Lizi Boyd. After reading Flashlight earlier this school year, our students had created Flashlight-inspired art and wrote stories based on Lizi Boyd’s wordless picture book. When my teaching partner emailed her to share how much we loved her work…and sent some of our student products to her, she responded enthusiastically and sent our students beautiful blank notebooks, inspiring bookmarks, and encouragement to write, draw, and imagine. She also sent a copy of her new book, Inside Outside, that we cannot wait to read and work with. And the wrapping was a celebration in itself!
And today, the last day before the break, we did our best to keep students focused on learning. We had a spectacular science lesson on buoyancy with our science teacher…and after working on claim, evidence, and reasoning for a little over a week with relation to buoyancy, students did some outstanding science writing today! (More on that in another post) We also continued our study of geometry by asking students to create a holiday or winter scene made up of geometric shapes. There were some pretty clever geometric scenes to celebrate!
And in my life outside of school there were also indications of celebration. At my meeting at the local science museum on Saturday, even the dinosaur fossil was getting in the holiday spirit and adding to the celebration by sporting a santa hat!
And we’ve had rain! Yes, it’s annoying when trying to drive on freeways with people who don’t know a thing about driving in the rain. Roads flood, traffic crawls, students are cooped up inside all day, everything is soggy…and we are celebrating. We desperately need each and every drop right now. And honestly, the cloudy skies are such a novelty that I can’t resist taking shot after shot. I fell in love with this seagull enjoying the unusually moist air shortly before sunset.
And although my husband brought a tree home on Sunday, it is still sitting bare in the living room waiting for celebratory decorations. It’s a beautiful tree and I had some fun taking photos and playing with the focus of the foreground and background as I snapped a few photos of my cat, Phil through the branches.
What are you celebrating right now? It might be Hanukkah or Christmas or rain…or even a two week break from your usual routine. Snap a few shots and share celebrate through your images.
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 #celebrate for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.
It’s time to celebrate! What says celebration to you? Can’t wait to see your version of celebrate as you share your world through your lens.
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?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Wet
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!
Here in Southern California we’re in the third year of drought conditions…and our normal rainfall is only ten inches annually, so you know it’s dry. So when we get a forecast of rain, it’s an event! Yesterday we were hearing the news of the storm that hit Northern California and watched the clouds begin to gather on our own horizon. I love the drama of the clouds yesterday afternoon along the coast with the lifeguard tower in the foreground.
As promised, rain arrived this morning. The morning commute was quite an adventure with dark clouds and rain making it look almost like nighttime at 7:00am! My windshield wipers raced and my tires created plumes of water as I drove through the rain pooling in large puddles in the street.
And in spite of the leaky roof in my classroom and a rainy day schedule with kids spending their recesses and lunch in the classroom, we had a great day. And we so need the rain! Lucky for all of us, we were able to head outdoors for Friday afternoon Cardio Club…into the sunshine with blue skies in evidence!
After school I couldn’t resist heading toward the beach to take a few pictures of the clouds and sun along the coast. This view is looking south near the mouth of the lagoon.
And even though it hadn’t rained in a few hours, when I arrived at home and opened my car door my eye was drawn to the raindrops on the clover-like grass growing in my lawn. These truly precious wet jewels glistened in the afternoon sun against the green of the grass.
Where do you find the wet in your world? (And I’d love to learn some techniques to take better photos of rain!) It could be on your dishes as you wash them, trickling down that festive holiday cocktail, in your pet’s water bowl, or outside…in your yard, community or the natural spaces around you.
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 #wet for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.
So follow the water and find where it pools…what does wet look like through your lens?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Skyward
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!
This week I have found my eye drawn skyward. Maybe it’s because we have had some weather in the first time in ages! I’ve been noticing the gathering clouds, and the way the light plays with them.
Over the weekend, before the storm headed in this week, I noticed the sliver of the moon hanging above the Christmas tree decorating the local mall.
And a few minutes later I noticed the way the jet contrail and the moon were playing hide and seek. I took several shots waiting for the moon to peek out.
By Sunday, more clouds began to gather creating a soft, white, and puffy backdrop for the palms dancing in the increasing breezes.
And here you can see the sun shining through the clouds, highlighting this brilliant orange bird of paradise growing in a meditation garden on the cliffs above the ocean.
On my way home from work on Monday, it was clear that the promised storm was on its way. I stopped by the beach, unable to resist the textures in the sky meeting up with the textures of the water. Blue on blue on blue…
And I’m not even sure which day this week I looked up in my front yard and spied the moon lighting up the tree.
After two days of much-needed rain, watching the sun break through this morning while I was on playground duty brought a smile to my lips…and the sound of children playing outdoors filled the air.
What do you see when you look skyward? Is the moon peeking through the trees? Can you spy hints of weather to come? Do buildings interact with the clouds and sun? How does light enter the mix?
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 #skyward for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.
So crane your neck and look skyward this week. I can’t wait to see skyward through your lens!
Silent Sunday: November 30, 2014
A Gift a Day: December’s Photo-a-Day Challenge
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!
Thinking Through My Lens 