Tag Archives: photo essay

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reach

February has been a whirlwind and we are less than a week into it! I’ve been across the state…and across the county, lucky enough to squeeze in a few minutes to appreciate my surroundings.

Yesterday I spent the day at the San Diego Natural History Museum as part of the Intersections project my writing project is involved in. After a full day spent observing a class in action on a field trip, my teaching partner and I headed off to a local cafe to do some planning for our upcoming focus on community with our class. And as we walked we noticed the cherry trees in bloom. When I headed back to my car to head off to another meeting, I took a few minutes to snap a few shots. I love this one of the tree reaching up toward the warm February sun.

Using the macro feature on my camera, I reached as high as I could to snap some close ups of the buds. When I got home, I decided to play around with a new app called Waterlogue that transforms photos into watercolor paintings. It was fun to experiment with the changes that the watercolor effect made to the photo using this app.

Over the weekend I had been at UC Davis with my California Writing Project colleagues and a group from our local writing project learning about Connected Learning. And part of our connecting was some playful photography. In this photo you can see a photo of my colleague taking a photo of another colleague…and me taking a photo of the two of them, and all of us reaching up.

After work on Tuesday, feeling a bit stressed by the demands of the month so far…and a kitchen remodel in full swing, I decided to stop by the beach. And as I parked, I noticed that the tide was low–and I had thrown my tennies into the car with me when I left home that morning. So I headed out for a walk with the seagulls. At one point as I almost reached this group of seagulls, they took flight, soaring and swooping, dipping and turning. And I snapped and snapped trying to capture the energy and beauty of the moment.

And I can feel my students reaching too. In their rolling systems lab they had to work in groups of five to complete a number of tasks, rotating the jobs with each trial. Coordinating their efforts and coordinating their actions was challenging. Making the stopwatch work, lifting the starting line, measuring distance, lining up wheels…and getting along in the process kept them reaching. Luckily, they will get another try…and an opportunity to reach again.

So this week’s challenge is about reaching…up, out, beyond… To help, to learn, to explore, to lend a helping hand. Where are you reaching right now?

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

So reach out…and take some photographs. What are you reaching for? Show us through your lens!

Follow Your Muse: February’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

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Sometimes I notice that I need to study my subject carefully through my photography. I find myself taking photo after photo as I work to capture the mood, the personality, the intricacies of what I am photographing.

Last week, it was seagulls that served as my muse. I worked to capture them in flight, up close, from behind…fascinated by their movement, their expressions, their antics.

Today it was a ladybug who happened to catch my eye as I knelt to study an interesting plant. It climbed around and around…seemingly playing hide and seek with my camera lens!

Sometimes it’s light…at night. Trying to figure out how to frame the glow, capture the shine, or the way light plays with dark.

So your #sdawpphotovoices challenge for February is to find your muse and study it carefully. You might take a number of shots of your subject or follow you subject over a series of days. Here are some possible prompts to help you find a focus:

Week 1: (February 1-7) Place

Week 2: (February 8-14) Nature

Week 3: (February 15-21) Light and shadow

Week 4: (February 22-28) Composition

So spend February following your muse. Let your eye wander, and then settle on that subject that captures your attention and spend some time with it. Try shooting from different angles, up close and further away, from below and above. Pick a single photo to post or create a gallery of your efforts. Post a photo or gallery 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 exploration, 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!

Take some time to be inspired by that ladybug, your furry friend, the buildings you pass each day as you head to work… 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–or make up your own prompt for the day or the week! You get to make your own rules…and find your own muse. Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them!

Head out in search of that muse…and follow it for a while. What will you learn by following your muse…and letting others see it through your lens?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Perspective

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I love when I can see the world in a new way, from a new perspective. Sometimes those opportunities pop up when I least expect them…like sitting in the window seat on my flight home from Seattle a couple of weeks ago. I’m an aisle sitter…but when I fly with my husband, I tend to sit in the middle seat to sit next to him (and it’s easy to get him to move if I need to get up and wander around!). But on this day, I decided to take the risk and sit by the window, hoping the middle seat would remain empty. And what an opportunity that happened to be…as we took off and gained altitude, I could see the top of a mountain rising above the clouds. And even when I heard the ding signaling that we had reached 10,000 feet, that mountain was clearly higher. As we continued to climb and came closer to the mountain…Mount Rainier…I was able to take this shot.

Earlier during my trip to the rainforest, I came across the world’s biggest spruce. While I’m not sure how those determinations are made, it was a very large tree. And looking up definitely gave me the perspective of big!

A trip I took early in January enabled me to take a surprise snow hike. And on that hike I came across this sled, clearly broken and lodged between these trees. I hope there were no injuries involved with the abandoned sled, but I can imagine the perspective of landing head first, upside down among the branches!

Over the weekend, after an inspiring leadership group meeting with our local writing project, my husband and I headed off to make a final decision on granite for our kitchen countertops (we’re deep in a kitchen remodel!) and choose flooring. Once those stressful decisions were made, we headed downtown for an early dinner…and a lovely gelato just as the sun was beginning to dip low in the sky. I like this urban perspective, watching the sun set beyond the street and traffic.

And each day when I get home from work, the cats and I explore the changes to the kitchen. At first the perspective was dramatic, tearing out cabinets and counters, appliances and more. Lately it has been more subtle as new drywall appears…and you can see Jack going in and between for a closer look!

At the beach on Sunday I played with my telephoto lens. It was fun to zoom in on birds and surfers and waves and planes and more. I could capture images of seagulls and other birds that they don’t stand for when I have to come close. I like this perspective of the seagull…looking out to sea. And I love his little knock knees!

Yesterday took me out of my classroom to the university to work with a group of teachers exploring what “Smart Tech Use for Equity” means in their classrooms. As part of our work we created paper bag “bricks” that included our hopes for our students, our strengths as educators, our fears, potential barriers, and ways we might create a bridge to climb over those barriers. We worked together to create a bridge to scale those barriers. It was fun to hear folks describe this structure as a bridge…to possibilities for our students! (It’s all a matter of perspective!)

So this week’s challenge is all about perspectives. How are you viewing the world this week? Any new perspectives? From above, below? Through the eyes of a bird, a cat, another animal? What other images of perspective can 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 #perspective for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

What’s your perspective on perspective? I’m looking forward to seeing perspective through your lens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Growing

Appreciating Stillness

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As I waited for the passengers to board my flight home, my inbox delivered an article on stillness and its benefits…and the ways that we avoid stillness…by using our devices (to read that article, ironically enough) and keeping ourselves busy, busy, busy.

This weekend has been a nice exercise in stillness for me. Somehow, with my camera in my hand, I find myself watching and waiting, listening to my own breath and noticing nature’s breath too (even in the city). There’s so much around me that I don’t capture in photos, but because I am looking for interesting photos, I notice. (I have written about this idea before here.)

A hike yesterday took us out in the rain and wind into a park in Seattle. Not quite knowing where we were going, we headed out for a shore hike hoping to catch a glimpse of a lighthouse way out on a point of land that we couldn’t drive to. The wind and rain made me zip my jacket up to my chin and tuck my camera inside my coat for a while. Bare trees swayed, rubbing branches against branches, creaking and groaning. Most seemed to flex, but there was also evidence of breakage along the way. We made our way down some steep twists and turns and were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of that elusive lighthouse. Knowing we’d have to climb back up however far we went down kept us from going all the way to the bottom for a closer view.

We got back to a trail that would loop us back toward our car and continued to listen to the wind, feel drops of rain bounce off our hoods, and notice winter’s rainy splendor of leave littered ground, bare branches, and evergreens shaking off some excess water drops. Geoff’s eagle eye spotted a bright yellow mushroom and some local hikers were amused as we squatted low to the ground to photograph this beauty.

Earlier in the day, as we left Port Angeles, we took a bit of a side trip out to the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge. Alone in the stillness, we noticed how weather batters the trees and cliffs and off in the distance we could see the mountains we had climbed the day before wrapped in fog.

We headed into the city center of Bainbridge Island to find a place to relax with a cup of coffee and check in for today’s flight home. Even in the bustle of the coffee shop, I found a bit of stillness as I watched people, sipped coffee and nibbled on a crispy ginger cookie. My mind felt relaxed, not racing ahead to the next thing that needed to be done. We wandered around the island a bit, finding a walking trail around the marina, watching sea birds glide on the currents as everyone else seemed to be hunkered down in preparation for the big game. Seattle Seahawks were playing the Green Bay Packers for the divisional title…at home. We tried to time our arrival in Seattle for after the game had begun.

As we waited for the ferry, parked in our rental car, the rain poured down, creating a little bubble of solitude around us. I noticed the bright yellow slickers and tall rubber boots that must be the uniform for ferry workers…having the right kind of clothes for the weather makes all the difference!

The rain stopped right before we drove onto the ferry, and once parked, we headed up onto the viewing decks. While it was warm and cozy with lots of comfy chairs inside, I feel better outside on a boat…and the picture taking is better there too! We found a spot under an overhang, with a bit of protection from the wind where we could watch Seattle come into view. The whistling wind sounded almost like native American flutes in the distance, welcoming us to the city.

We checked into the hotel just as the football game went into overtime and by the time we were on the 14th floor, we could hear the roar that signaled that the Seahawks had won! Horns honked, people danced in the streets dressed in blue and green waving flags with a 12 on them (the city is clearly part of the team…the 12th member on the field at all times!). As we walked down to our favorite doughnut and coffee place a couple of blocks away, we could feel the camaraderie of the city, gathering together to celebrate this win that almost didn’t happen.

Strangers chatted and re-hashed the game as we navigated the powdered sugar and dripping jelly of the most delicious doughnuts…and even better coffee. There is stillness even in the hustle and bustle of the city, if you stop to find it.

And we went to sleep to an amazing view of the Space Needle from the window in our room, knowing we would make one more trip to Top Pot in the morning to gorge on doughnuts and coffee before heading to the airport.

And after reading that article as people boarded the plane this morning, I gazed out the window, lost in my thoughts, watching planes coming and going, thinking about stillness. I’m grateful for a weekend of stillness, of quiet and reflection, and for the opportunity to spend time just being…with someone I love.

I’ll be looking for some moments of stillness to squeeze into my everyday life…and remind myself not to turn to my devices to fill that precious down time.

Rainforest Serenity

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Where I live it seldom rains…and when it does, it creates all kinds of havoc because we are not equipped to deal with it. And our environment reflects the lack of water, with plants that take the least water–cacti, succulents, sages and other brushes–thriving, while others only survive because we take the time (and expense) to water them.

Today we snuck away for the long weekend to a place known for rain–and specifically headed off to explore the temperate rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula in the Olympic National Park. We knew that rain was likely for the entire weekend, and still headed off to spend time outside in this environment so different from the one we are used to.

Somehow, we managed to avoid rain today, but had plenty of evidence of its presence. As we walked among the giant evergreen trees (spruce, cedar, and firs) I could feel the calm settle over me. Out in the cool, damp air among the towering trees, the sun had to work to reach the ground. The serenity was tangible, but seems difficult to put into words.

I started to notice the water droplets hanging from tree branches as I brushed against them and caused my own little rain storm. And then I became fascinated with the jewel-like quality of the water, trying to capture it with my camera.

I noticed ferns and mosses and lichens all around me and I started to play with my camera, trying to capture the light as it danced and played hide and seek in the forest.

And I started wondering about mushrooms…why hadn’t I seen any? At about that moment, I came around the corner and noticed this beauty growing on a fallen log.

There were more…and more as I began looking closely. I love this entire colony we found growing on the flat face of this stump.

Geoff caught a picture of me leaning in closely with my camera trying to capture the unique beauty of fungi!

We left the rainforest and headed toward the beach…hoping to catch both the low tide and sunset before darkness pushed us indoors for the night. And you know that I spend plenty of time on the beach…but these wide, wild, untamed beaches are very different from the beaches I frequent. The tide was low and sand seemed endless. Instead of driftwood, drift logs were in evidence! We spent only a short time walking the beach as we took in the sunset.

And as we headed off to a tiny town that would be home for the evening, we made one last stop after sunset, but before darkness had settled. I love this post-sunset glow that shines pink through the silhouettes of trees that frame the ocean beyond.

I didn’t know I was looking for serenity today, but it found me as I explored the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Outside

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I don’t always think about the rhythms of my life…until they are disrupted. I’m now into my second week back to work after two weeks off, and my schedule is off. I usually write this weekly challenge on Thursdays in the afternoon after I get home from work. But last Thursday I woke in the early hours of morning, and was on the road to the airport before the sun began to stir. A long day of travel with a meeting sandwiched between pushed the challenge to the back burner…

After that refreshing winter break and lots of time exploring, I have felt cooped up, confined by my calendar and my schedule, not creating spaces to get myself outdoors to feel the sun on my shoulders and the breeze on my face. I love my work and my students, but I do need to remember to make time and space for inspiration and fresh air for myself too.

I’m reminded of the animals I saw at the zoo not long ago. Confined, but somehow seeming to find space to stretch out. This polar bear seemed to find rolling in the dirt comforting…like creating a disguise—a mask of sorts—to wear as people peered in through the viewing windows.

This young panda seemed to make an exercise course of his enclosure as he lumbered in around the trees, in nonstop motion. It was hard to get a sharp photo because of the motion…but then this guy was not there for my photographic pleasure, this is the life he lives and because he lives and breathes and lumbers, we still have pandas among us.

Looking back at my time in our local backcountry, with the lake framed by snowcapped mountains, fills me with energy and wonder and reminds me that I have to make more opportunities to get outside the ordinary of my life. This winter wonderland is far from my everyday experiences!

A trek to the nearby beach to capture images of these common folks—the seagulls—has the potential to change my day, improve my mood, and inspire my thinking. I see seagulls every day, and often think of them as pests (especially when they are stealing my students’ snacks!), but when I take the time to watch them in their environment, they fill me with wonder at their adaptations and quirky posturing.

Even a simple stop along the side of road to appreciate the colors of the sky can be a treat. I still need to remind myself to pull over and take the few minutes to look and snap a few shots on a regular basis!

I’ve yet to master nighttime photography, but was mesmerized by the long train going by on our way home from the airport the other night…and by the colorful warning lights. You can’t really see the train, but the red lights sure stand out!

So this week I looked back at the inspiration I get from being outside…either physically or maybe just outside my ordinary routine. So head outside…physically or mentally and catch some images that inspire you, or offer you a break from your usual routines.

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

What does outside mean in your life? You can venture near or far…take the prompt literally or use it as a metaphor. I can’t wait to take a peek outside through your lens!

Taking Time to Explore

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I’ve been debating on a word to call on as a muse for 2015. I’ve been looking for a word that is active…that will push me to move out of my comfort zone, challenge me mentally and physically, and will work for both my professional and personal life.

And today’s adventures pushed me to decide.

We knew we wanted to squeeze one more hike into these precious days off…something a bit out of our ordinary choices. And when we left the house this morning in our hiking gear, with cold weather layers ready, we thought we were heading up into our local mountains. But at the gas station, we changed our minds and headed off on a two-hour trek to Palm Springs and the aerial tramway.

The tram takes you from the bottom of the mountain near Palm Springs to near the top of San Jacinto at over 7000 feet. What we didn’t anticipate were the crowds…or the snow. Each tram holds about 80 people and takes about 15 minutes to go from the valley to the mountain station…and there are two. We were lucky and only waited 90 minutes for our turn to go to the top. By the time we boarded the tram people were waiting more than three and half hours!

Once we got to the top, we headed off on a five plus mile hike…in the snow! And ah, it was breathtaking! As we walked away from the lodge, we moved away from the throngs of people who had come solely to throw some snowballs and slide in the snow. The sun shone brightly on the clean, white snow. We could hear birds chirping and our own breath as we climbed the mountain. We happened by this family of snowpeople as we headed out on our hike.

We reached our destination at 9100 feet! Crisp and white and fresh…Round Valley (the peak is another three miles up, we’re saving that for another day!).

The views were gorgeous! I had that same feeling of peace and relaxation that I get when I walk on the beach–a sense of the power and beauty of nature.

From the magnificence of the trees, rocky mountainside, and enormous boulders, to the fragile elegance of icicles and the reminders of what is yet to come from the pinecones…the wonders of Mother Nature surrounded us and wrapped us in her arms.

And for the cherry on top, as we got back into the tram for the trip back down the mountain, the sun was setting with the full moon in view. As the tram floor rotated 360 degrees during our descent, we were treated to amazing and colorful views of the entire valley below.

A friend reminded me that I could actually stick with my word from last year for more than a year…play has plenty more potential. I could probably stay with it for a lifetime. (And I think it will remain with me!)

But I’m ready to add to play…and this year my word will be explore. I want to explore possibilities and places, new ideas and old habits. I want my explorations to take me in new directions, to push me to try things I haven’t imagined I would ever do, like hike up a mountain in the snow! I look forward to exploring this year…physically, intellectually, imaginatively, and playfully. Hope you’ll come along for the ride!

New Year, New Eyes

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There’s lots of cliches about the New Year…resolution making, retrospectives on the year that passed, champagne at midnight, polar bear plunges on New Year’s day, and so many more.

And somehow, there is something about a new number for the year that encourages the idea of fresh starts, new habits…and maybe a new way of seeing the world. I got ready for my new year by heading up to our local mountains for a rare…and wonderful snowy day. You might remember last week that I said it never snows where I live. Well, that is still true, it didn’t snow in most of San Diego…but we did get enough snow in the mountains and surrounding foothills to create a winter wonderland.

For someone who seldom sees snow, this was a treat! The world looks entirely different when covered in a layer of white.

Even the familiar…dandelions and native plants take on new dimensions against a snowy backdrop.

And we couldn’t resist the urge to build a snowman…even if it was a miniature version!

I love the way snow creates a quiet space, there is a sense of a hush and opportunity for reflection and introspection.

Maybe that’s what the cows were thinking (although this was later in the day after lots of snow had melted…and at a lower elevation)!

I’m sure I’m not going to be able to depend on snow to give me new eyes to view my life this year. But maybe a ride high above the ground will help…like in these skyfari buckets at the zoo!

But mostly, I know, I will need to stay on the lookout for new ways to see what is most familiar to me. I couldn’t resist this shot of three seagulls as I walked to the parking lot at our local beach…seeing with new eyes in the new year!

What will you see this year as you look with new eyes?

Zooming In: Reflecting on One Little Word

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Early in 2014 I decided that the word “play” would be my One Little Word (OLW) for the year…my muse, reminding me to make time to play and to plan for fun in my life and in my work. And I have loved my word.

And play I have. I have spent an extraordinary amount of time at the beach this year and learned to see it in ways I wouldn’t have considered possible. Photography has helped me play this year, encouraging my exploration, taking me outdoors, making me more observant, stoking my curiosity.

I mentioned the new camera in my life in this post, a Sony a6000, and with a new zoom lens, we set out for the beach yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my iPhone and have gotten quite comfortable with its photographic capabilities over the last couple of years. So heading out with our new camera is a challenge. So each trip feels like a playground filled with unfamiliar equipment. I’m still mostly in the automatic mode, and with the zoom lens, trying to figure out the boundaries of focus…what is too close, what is too far, how to get a crisp image…

So zooming in, here’s a seagull in the light.

I like the way the background is blurred while the one bird is crisp in the foreground. And you can almost feel the warmth of the sun in this shot.

This guy, in contrast, is silhouetted against the water. I like that you can see that he is wading in the surf, you can even see where his foot is displacing the water.

I was also playing around with action. This particular camera is known for its quick focus, allowing me to focus and capture motion that I might otherwise miss. I caught this gull gliding right into the edge of my frame as I looked out toward the horizon.

And this surfer almost surfed his way into my line of sight. I love the energy of the shot even though he didn’t quite make it all the way into the frame.

The last few days when I have been at the beach I have noticed seagulls flocking, gathering and swooping through the air. Through my lens yesterday I was able to capture some of that energy and the numbers of gulls.

And in contrast to all of this energy, I also captured this moment of solitude as I zoomed in on this hiker with a full pack pausing to notice something in the rocks. I’m not sure where he came from or where he was going, it is not usual to see backpackers on the beach.

There’s so much that I see when I am out taking photos that I am not able to capture in my digital images. As the sun was setting last night, I was able to watch gray whales frolicking offshore as they migrated south. We could see the spray from the blowholes in the distance as they surfaced and then the dark of their bodies as they breached, leaping up out of the water. It was like they also were inspired by my one little word!

And the sunset was beautiful in oranges and reds as the bird flew through. (All of the photos in this post are unedited.)

I’m still contemplating my word for 2015, searching for one that will inspire me all year. I’m looking for a word that is active, encouraging exploration and possibility and that will work in both my personal and work life. I’m open to suggestions if something occurs to you!