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Weekly Photo Challenge: Celebrate

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wet

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.

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

Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful

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It seems a bit cliche, but as I compose this week’s challenge on Thanksgiving evening I do find myself thinking about the richness and bounty in my life and feeling like this might just be the right week to take the time to express some of the things I am thankful for.

I’m so thankful for my family and friends, the people who surround me in my personal and professional life. While you might find hints of them here on my blog, mostly they aren’t mentioned by name and seldom seen in photos out of respect for their privacy. But they make everything else in my life possible.

I’m thankful for sunsets and the opportunity to travel and gather with smart professionals from all over the county. I’ve seen this iconic landmark many times now, but it always captivates me with its stature and simple elegance. (If you look closely you can see the Lincoln Memorial in the background!)

I’m thankful for long walks on the beach that allow me to decompress and appreciate the place I call home. It’s different each time I go there… I’m constantly intrigued and amazed as I take in the sights, sounds, and smells of this watery wonderland.

I’m thankful for work that puts me into relationships with interesting people and helps me understand my own work and my own city in new and different ways. It’s too easy to take my city for granted and miss the rich history and intricacies like these beautiful buildings…

or dismiss these mallard ducks as ordinary.

I’m thankful for the freedoms that allow me to walk where I want, without fear of injury or reprisal. And I wish for the same freedoms for those–even in our country–who don’t enjoy that same privilege. The sunlight on these poinsettias remind me of the freedoms that are easy to take for granted…leisure to enjoy a day at a theme park, to spend time with my family, to have a few days off work…

And I’m thankful for my pets…my cats…who are loving, entertaining, irritating and such available photo subjects. As I was cleaning this morning, Jack couldn’t resist jumping up on this stool to check out the new view. And I couldn’t resist a couple of shots of him.

So what are you thankful for? What makes your life more full, energizes you, or just simply brings a smile to your lips?

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

Whether you celebrated Thanksgiving or not, I hope you find some time this week to snap a shot or two of something that represents thankful to you. I can’t wait to see thankful through your lens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Out and About

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It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-dayness of life and not head out with my camera in search of interesting photos, so I like to try to allow myself at least a few minutes every day to consider what I see when I am out and about…even if out and about is about getting to and from work…in an interesting way.

And then, it seems, I am also more ready for those shots when I come across something a little more out of the ordinary. After spending the early part of the week in deep conversation with parents and students during parent-student-teacher conferences, I headed off to Washington D.C. for the National Writing Project Annual Meeting. The conference is at the same time every year, but always in a different location.

When we arrived at our hotel in National Harbor, Maryland (just across the Potomac from DC), we discovered that our hotel room had a spectacular view of the river…as the sun was setting after a long day of travel. And it’s cold here! Seeing the gorgeous sky, a ferris wheel, and water…my friend and colleague Janis and I looked at each other, pulled on our coats and rushed outside to see if we could get closer, without any rooftop obstructions to take a few pictures before the colors in the sky dissipated.

And in spite of freezing fingertips and eyes tearing in the wind…we discovered a little sandy beach sculpture garden…with body parts protruding!

And I did snap shot after shot of the sun setting behind the ferris wheel. Here’s one of my favorites!

But more typically, I grab my out and about moments in my familiar setting. I took this one the other day after school. As I drove away from the parking lot and headed home I simply pulled off to the side of the road and tried my best to capture the colors in the sky…I think I have newly discovered that the advantage of standard time and shorter daylight hours is that I see more sunsets!

And out and about on the weekend, I spent time walking at the lagoon. It’s dry and winter is approaching, so the plants are mostly shades of brown. If you look closely you might see the freeway that runs across the lagoon to the west in this shot framed by the eucalyptus tree.

And sometimes shots that seem ordinary can become something more by a bit of app magic. I played around with some filters with this one and my view of the lagoon took on a much more dramatic tone.

What do you see when you are out and about? What do you pass every day on your way to and from work, while you watch your child’s soccer (or football or dance…) practice, as you walk the dog or head out for a jog?

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

Squeeze in some time for a few photos while you are out and about this week. I can’t wait to see what out and about looks like through your lens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: On a Whim

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I am loving that photography has given me permission to follow my whims…to make spur of the moment decisions that lead me to interesting pictures. As I left the university this afternoon I noticed hang gliders over the cliffs. Even though I had an appointment, I decided to take a few minutes for a detour to the nearby glider port. The sun was descending and the gliders were soaring above the cliffs…posing in the setting sun. This particular shot is unedited and unfiltered.

I also noticed this other kind of glider…almost like wings. This guy soared bird-like into the light.

Sometimes letting the lawn get a bit overgrown in a good thing…at least for the weed-loving photographer in me. My eye was drawn to this particular dandelion puff…and on a whim I started snapping shots of it, trying to capture its perfect spherical shape.

A new grocery store opened near my house. It’s huge…and apparently creating vibrant vegetable displays is part of their grand opening business plan. I found myself snapping photos of the veggies, drawn by the colorful colors and shapes. Will they continue to create these colorful pepper arrangements?

And last weekend was perfect for low-tide walking. On Saturday it was so low that I was seeing parts of the reef that are not usually not visible. On a whim I was taking pictures of the exposed reefs. Later I noticed the ways the ripples in the water played with the contours of the reef, creating interesting textures.

And who can resist a sunset shot with a lifeguard tower in the foreground?

As much as I love the beach at low tide, sometimes I find myself there at high tide…and what a difference it makes! The wide beach of Saturday afternoon was replaced by a very narrow beach on Sunday morning. But that doesn’t keep people from enjoying the water, sun and sand…and it doesn’t keep me from taking a shot on a whim!

What do you take pictures of on a whim? Do you go out of your way to photograph something that seems interesting? Do you stop on your way to work, on your way home to take a photo or two or three? Maybe this is your week to follow some of those whims…and see what you find!

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

Where will your whims take you? What will you find when you give yourself permission to veer from your usual paths or timetables? I can’t wait to see what you find on a whim through your lens!

Playing with Constraints: Twitter Memoir

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There is something about constraints that create conditions for creativity…especially when I’m just getting started with something. Jeremy, a colleague over at the NWP iAnthology last week offered as a writing prompt an invitation to write a memoir in 140 characters…a tweet! Here’s his directions:

One of the activities that I have my students do is something called a Twitter Memoir. It is a way for me to scaffold with my students on writing memoirs. We slowly build from 140 characters to 25 word memoirs, then 50 word memoirs. Finally they write their full blown memoir about a personal experience in their life. Many of my students are not on Twitter, but as I am introducing this exercise, I get a few to sign-up. I don’t require my students to be on Twitter because I have a Tweet board in my classroom where they can post their Twitter Memoirs.

So, I challenge you this week to write a short 140 character memoir. It does not have to be on Twitter. For the sake of simplicity let’s just write them here at the iAnthology. Also, if you want to know more about this process you can check out the book Troy Hicks and I co-authored titled Create, Compose, Connect. Have a blast doing this, my students do!

I was intrigued by the idea of a memoir in 140 characters and spent some time composing. I was able to whittle down to 140 characters…but realized that I wouldn’t have room for hashtags if I used all the allowed characters. So I trimmed some more hoping to get down to a point where I could include a hashtag like #ce14 (for connected educator month) or #digiwrimo (for digital writing month). I finally posted this Twitter memoir in the iAnthology prompt space, I wasn’t able to get the characters quite small enough for the hashtags I wanted to include.

Here it is. It includes 138 characters (spaces, punctuation, and letters)…and it happens to be exactly 25 words, so it fits two of the criteria Jeremy set out.

With phone in hand I explore my world, snapping photos, collecting thoughts & ideas, searching for new vantages. Through images I connect.

And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a photo! (This one is from an urban hike on Sunday…just beyond my neighborhood.)

What will your Twitter memoir say about you? Can you craft it to include a mere 140 characters? I’d love to see yours…on your blog or on Twitter! (You can find me @kd0602) I’m going to tweet this post that includes my Twitter memoir…and include some of my hashtags along with the link. I hope you’ll share yours with me too!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curiosity

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When I am out with my camera, I notice things in the world that I somehow overlook as I go about my daily business…and I find myself asking questions and wondering about so many things. I think my neighbors must think I am crazy when they see me out in the middle of my lawn as I head out to work, crouched low with my phone in hand, trying to photograph the strange little gray mushroom that somehow cropped up overnight. Where did it come from? Why is it gone before I get home in the afternoon?

The macro lens constantly piques my curiosity. It’s amazing when you are able to bring what’s ordinarily too small to notice to full scale. I love the layers of stacked petals on this mum. I can see why Georgia O’Keeffe painted so many big pictures of flowers!

I didn’t have my macro handy for this shot…and I doubt the butterfly would have stood still enough for me to get close anyway. I was curious when I saw this monarch in Raleigh…just like I do at home in San Diego. What is the ideal habitat for monarchs? Is it about temperature? Available food sources? Are they native to both places?

I’m also curious about learning and how to best support it. We like to have our students sketch, especially when looking closely at something real. This is a sketch of an aspen leaf (not commonly found in our area). I like the way this student paid careful attention to detail, both in the contour shape and in the placement of the veins that run through it.

And what is it about bubbles that draw our attention and make us smile? We use bubbles in the classroom as a way to celebrate birthdays…the birthday child gets to pop bubbles we blow as the kids sing. It always brings a sense of joy and a big smile–to the birthday child and to the rest of us too! Is it the translucent hint of color or the temporary nature of these fragile balls that delight us?

What has piqued your curiosity lately? Has something stopped you in your tracks, to crouch low, drop your guard, and focus that lens? What are you still thinking about long after the photo has been snapped?

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

So now I am curious about what makes your curious! What are you noticing? What has gone from ordinary to extraordinary as you paid more attention? I can’t wait to see curiosity through your lens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

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As I walked near the Tower Bridge in Sacramento today, I was noticing all the things I could see through the bridge: the water, boats, restaurants along the banks, the state capitol building, and the cars driving through the middle.

And that got me thinking about photos that represent through–like this one I took of my niece ice skating through the plexiglass window (which definitely did not keep the cold away!).

We have a really interesting library at UCSD…and I was taking pictures through the buttresses the other day looking out into the distance. It makes it look much more closed in than it is in person.

And high above the San Diego Zoo on the skyfari ride, I looked through my gondola to capture this shot of the gondola coming from the other direction.

To give a bit of perspective…here is one from the ground, shot through the trees.

We came upon this water tower while hiking a week or so ago. I like to experiment with perspective, so stood close to the tank shooting upward. I was interested in this ladder…here is shot through the ladder looking up.

And of course, I have to include a beach photo! This one is looking through the umbrellas out to the water. I’m always surprised with how much stuff people bring to the beach!

So this week’s challenge is to represent through with your lens. Is it something you are through with? Will you look through some things like I did? Or do you have another interpretation of through to explore?

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

What’s going through your mind…and how will you represent it through your lens?