Tag Archives: photo essay

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

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 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?

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 #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?

Contained by Containers?

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I’m thinking about containers…at least in part because of the weekly photo challenge over at the Daily Post. But I don’t want to limit myself to boxes and jars, those typical containers that we find around our homes and in our workplaces. Instead I want to think about other uses for containers. What capacities do they have?

Maybe like this skyride traveling high over the San Diego Zoo, containers can propel. In this shot, my mom–with a tremendous fear of heights–decided to board the ride to quickly descend from one side of the zoo to the other. She didn’t end up seeing any sights, her eyes were tightly closed throughout the whole scenic ride, but she did get to her destination!

And then there is my coffee cup from a trip to Starbucks the other day. I took this photo because this is the first time anyone has ever managed to spell my first name wrong! (Kim is not easily misspelled!) But then again…it is also a reminder that there is always a first time to be surprised, to be misread, to be redefined. And in defense of the barista, he has a family member who spells her name with the “y.”

In this photo, my container is the rear view mirror. Stopped at a stop sign, in a line of traffic, I couldn’t help noticing the beauty of the ocean reflected in the mirror. Instead of containing the reflection, it magnified and refracted the blues of the sky and the sea reaching into my heart and mind allowing me to relax in spite of the traffic, taking me away from the hustle and bustle of commuting into the wonder and majesty of the natural beauty around me.

And so I find myself reminded about a conversation going on at the CLMOOC today about the containments/limitations/shallowness about many of the containers we use on the web. How likes and plusses and hearts and favorites push us like a tide, more flow than ebb if we aren’t paying attention. Stopping to consider our containers and the forces that move (or don’t move) them can change the quality of our experiences. Maybe it is in our attention and in our interactions that we can reconsider and reinvent the containers.

What do you think?

The Art of Learning: A Five-Image Story

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What makes a story? That is a question that emerged during a Twitter chat last week that I wasn’t a part of…but somehow kept popping up in my twitter feed. And this week our CLMOOC make of the week is to tell a story in five images. I often use images to support my blog posts, prompts for my thinking, metaphors for ideas I am working to understand. I don’t often think of myself as a storyteller…but I’ve decided to give it a try today.

I’ve decided to call this five-photo story “The Art of Learning”…and it purposely does not have a linear structure, no purposeful beginning, middle and end. And yet, it reads like a story to me.

What sense do you make of the story? If you were to put words to it, what would it say? What songs would it sing?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Food

A Learning Walk: Relics

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Inspired by an upcoming trip to Montana and an opportunity to explore Yellowstone National Park, I have taken up hiking. It’s a pastime my husband has enjoyed–without me– for quite some time. And yet, inspired by play and my photography, we make an effort to include some kind of adventure–with an opportunity to explore through my lens–on our days off from work. So for the past three weeks we have hiked, exploring the local backcountry with our feet.

What I like best about hiking is being outdoors, enjoying the sun, the natural terrain, noticing the native flora and fauna, and finding views and interesting photo subjects that aren’t available without hiking in at some distance. It gets hot in the backcountry around here, so we headed out pretty early this morning to hike before the mid-day heat. After climbing some distance, I looked out to see this view of the mountains in the distance veiled by the clouds that were just beginning to yield to the sun.

And there are relics of days gone by in these wide open spaces. Evidence of the native peoples who lived here before the white settlers, knowing that the native plants served as a food source and pharmacy…that this arid place sustained life long before our modern conveniences.

Tucked up in the hills of the Daley Ranch, on an offshoot of the Sage Trail, we found this rusted old water tower.

After a much longer hike than we had anticipated (at about our 7 mile mark), we came across the old ranch buildings from the days when this land was a working ranch. It’s interesting to me to think about how much smaller buildings tended to be in days gone by. Compared to some of the surrounding homes, these buildings are barely the size of a single room of modern buildings.

But it was this relic that made me take a second look. More than a mile from the trail head, near these old buildings, sat a more modern relic, something that is seldom used these days…a pay phone!

We ended up hiking more than 8 miles today! Much longer than we planned, but also entirely enjoyable. The weather was warm, but not hot. The trails were varied and interesting, but not incredibly steep. It was a perfect learning walk and photographic adventure…with some exercise and fresh air thrown in as well. And who can resist a shadow selfie…this one is a hiking shadow selfie!

I wonder what relics future generations will find as they hike and look at evidence left from our lives. How will our remains help them understand a life they haven’t experienced? What will amuse and confuse them?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Light

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One of the things I love best about the summer is the light. Days are longer and filled with warmth and flooded with light. I find myself noticing how light shines from different angles, how different objects catch light, and how some light seems harsh while other light feels soft somehow.

I’ve been messing around with selfies (and subjecting my husband to them too!), trying to capture different angles and places and light too. I love the sky in this one and the way the light catches my hair and shoulder.

During a late afternoon glance around the back yard I noticed the way the light and shadow played with this succulent.

And I was drawn to the burr on this weed and the way the light served to highlight the prickly spines. I had to get my macro lens to capture it’s miniature beauty.

Yesterday was Hack Your Notebook Day, which meant we were playing around with lights and writing and notebooks…and I captured Henry testing the limits of his parallel circuit, lighting up one, two, three, four…

Today I was craving the outdoors and sunshine and solitude…so I took a lunchtime photo walk out on the UCSD campus.. There are so many interesting art installations (part of the Stuart Collection) on campus…I found myself heading off toward the rock bear and noticing the light bouncing off the boulders that are the bear.

And if you look closely into the light and shadow of this shrub you might just see the little bunny rabbit that froze when it saw me…allowing me to snap a photo (although I couldn’t get close enough for a great shot of the rabbit).

So this week’s challenge is to find the light in your photos. Indoor light, outdoor light, dim light, bright light, direct light, diffuse light…take advantage of all the light that summer has to offer!

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

Chase the light with your lens…can’t wait to see what lights up your life!

Rubbing Elbows with Nature

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The Wabi Sabi photo-a-day challenge has me looking at my surroundings differently. I find myself looking for beauty that presents itself in unusual ways.

Today I had the opportunity to head out around the UCSD campus for a short learning walk in conjunction with a demo presented by a kindergarten teacher in our SDAWP Summer Institute. She explained how nature inspires her own writing and some of the ways she inspires writing with her students. As I headed out with the charge to spend some time in nature, tuning in the sights, sounds, smells, and feels, I also had my phone/camera in hand ready to capture evidence of my experience.

Down the metal stairs, past the row of ATM machines, across the cement walkways, sandwiched between the architectural wonder of the Geisel Library and the tall buildings that are Warren College, lies a secret garden. Garden often conjures lush foliage and brilliant blooms, but the space lives under a canopy of Eucalyptus trees. And to my surprise, growing from a fallen trunk were three new tall, thin trees.

Heading off to the Snake Path, an art installation leading to the library inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost, I found the natural beauty and familiar smells of the native plants that thrive in our arid, coastal climate. With phone/camera in hand, I noticed the contrast of the angular, metal and glass library poking up behind the fragrant, wild-ranging brush.

As I continued my walk, I came around the front of the library and found myself drawn to to the barrier poles laying on their side…with flowers growing nearby.

As I headed back to our meeting room, I noticed another of our participants lounging on some large boulders and working on her writing. I admit, I snuck up on her–wanting to capture the image that tells a story in one frame. (She does know about the photo…and has approved of it!)

I find myself looking for the Wabi Sabi of nature rubbing shoulders with the not always so beautiful man-made. And some of that Wabi Sabi I noticed was not only visual…I heard the buzzes of insects and the chirps of birds joining with the melody of car engines, back-up beeps, and snippets of conversation in the songs that are uniquely UCSD.

Where do you find nature rubbing shoulders with man made structures? Have you noticed any Wabi Sabi?

Finding Beauty in the Ordinary: July’s Wabi Sabi Photo-a-Day Challenge

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Summer is about the ordinary, it’s often the time we rediscover our playful selfs as we encourage children (and maybe ourselves) to run through the lawn sprinklers, lick popsicles from the ice cream truck, and spit watermelon seeds as we sit on the front porch. We roll up our sleeves, walk barefoot, and sip glass after glass of iced tea in tall frosted glasses that drip, almost crying with the pleasing coolness on a hot, summer day.

I first heard of Wabi Sabi from my friend Susan a few years ago when she asked her students to focus on the ordinary in research projects they were doing in her middle school English class. I remember how excited she was that they were discovering the beauty in the “old school”—typewriters, rotary dial phones, handwriting…and so much more than I can’t even begin to remember now.

Wikipedia offers us this definition:

Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.

My photography has heightened my awareness of the complexities of beauty in the ordinary as I have learned to tune my eye to seek out the familiar in new ways. So when Margit gifted me with the picture book, Wabi Sabi by Mark Weibstein, I found myself thinking about the Wabi Sabi around me. Weibstein pairs his story of a cat named Wabi Sabi with Haiku, following the Americanized three-line, 5-7-5 syllable pattern, that helps the definition-seeking cat understand its name…and adds this definition, for us slower to understand folks, as well:

Wabi Sabi: a way of seeing the world. It finds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest, and mysterious. It can be a little dark, but it is also warm and comfortable. It may best be understood as a feeling rather than as an idea.

The more I have been thinking about this concept of Wabi Sabi, the more I want to explore it more intentionally through my lens.

Here’s a few of my ideas…along with a Haiku attempt with each. Each of these represents my interpretation of Wabi Sabi, an appreciation of the imperfect, often fleeting beauty I find through my lens. Letting 17 syllables speak for me is a challenge, but an interesting one, creating another layer of Wabi Sabi for me.

A flurry and munch!

Time for posing and sunning

Scaly modeling

Purple mountains stand

Off in the distance watching

Both desert and beach

It’s a hard knock life

Reflecting privilege’s promise

Strong enough to thrive

Kegs and art mingle

Chatting on a street corner

Exchanging cultural news

And to stretch my exploration (and yours too) I have come up with a list of potential prompts or categories to consider. (I notice that I tend toward nature for my photographic exploration of beauty–these prompts are meant to push my thinking and seeing in new ways.)

1. On the corner

2. Nature

3. People

4. Celebrate

5. Inside

6. Under

7. Home

8. Outside

9. Places

10. Animals

11. Food

12. Personal

13. Things

14. Mood

15. Looking up

16. Sitting down

17. Looking down

18. Early

19. Growing

20. Morning

21. Sound

22. Growing

23. Feeling

24. Places

25. Night

26. Light

27. Hot

28. Early

28. Travel

29. Between

30. Smell

31. Icy

So now it’s your turn. Explore what Wabi Sabi means to you as you examine the ordinary in your life this summer. After you shoot, 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. Try your hand at an accompanying Haiku and explore how it expands, defines, or changes the meaning of the image you share. 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!

With summer in full swing, it’s the perfect time for some playfulness and experimentation…look for beauty and the unexpected in the ordinary–let it surprise and delight you! 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!

Beach Contrasts

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Beach walks are full of surprises…if you are looking for them. Summer Saturdays are jam-packed with people…families, birthday parties, couples, teenagers, and so many more. Parking is a challenge and a beach walk means dodging paddle ball games, frisbees, sand castle builders, surfers, toddling just-beyond-babies, footballs…

And today’s surprise was all the flowers strewn on the beach. My husband loves to pick up trash as we walk and we noticed the petals immediately. They weren’t trash, but they were quite a contrast to what we usually see on the beach. At first we wondered if there had been a memorial service–not so unusual in the surfing community. But the flowers and petals continued as we walked and walked.

Was it a wedding? There were many different kinds of flowers…purples and whites, yellows and oranges. White roses, red roses, yellow roses… Like a trail of bread crumbs leading to a story not yet told.

I imagined a flower truck overturning and dumping its load into the ocean…a flower festival on a boat offshore where flowers were thrown into the surf as part of a ceremony…a flower field for fish that washes onto the shore when the growing season ends…my imagination took over creating more and more scenarios.

By then my mind was tuned for contrasts and I began to notice others, like the pair of surfers with their boards on their heads…one in a full wetsuit, the other in a bikini.

And the patch of nasturtiums growing along the cliffs instead of the usually bare sandstone.

And then there was the colorful seawall…someone whose property extends all the way to the beach. This stretch always reminds me of that Kevin Costner movie, Waterworld, with the floating buildings made of seaworn wood, metal, and whatever could be salvaged…this seawall has that quality.

And there was more…light and shadow, age and youth, affluence and poverty. The beach is full of contrasts, when you take the time to look and notice.

More than a Game

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Today we played Monopoly. We played in our Summer Institute…a leadership development program for teachers of writing. And as you might imagine, this play had more than one purpose!

There is something wonderful about giving a group of dedicated educators a Monopoly box and asking them to play a game during an intensive professional development experience. In our 4th day of a four week institute, we have already begun to bond, building trust and opening up, willing to be vulnerable even when faced with difficult topics and challenging situations.

The group seemed almost giddy about the thought of playing…even though based on the previous three and a half days, they knew this was not simply a board game break. They started by forming groups of five or six and then selecting a writing utensil from a plate on their table. A colored pencil, a smelly marker, a highlighter, an SDAWP pencil, and either one or two Crayola markers were mystery icons of the game to come. After spending time as a group reviewing the written rules of the game and setting up to begin, the significance of the choice of the writing utensil became apparent.

Those holding the Crayola markers were asked to begin playing…the others at the table were only allowed to watch. In my role as observer I got watch as some started to play with trepidation while others raced forward with delight…”Hurry, let’s get what we can while we can!” After the first player or players had played for five or ten minutes, the second group of players were invited in. At indeterminate intervals and not knowing which category would be called next, the players who waited and watched seemed to withdraw and lose interest in the game.

This version of Monopoly, which immerses players in an experience where everyone plays by the same rules…but the game is still not fair, is adapted from an article by Jost and Jost. Our goal is to get our participants to think about equity beyond what is experienced by individuals and consider the systemic influences of poverty and racism.

As the game continued we saw our participants behave in some interesting ways. Those that entered the game early seemed to play either with zeal…or with the weight of guilt on their shoulders. They frequently assumed the role of helper…often moving the pieces for their late starting peers or even acting with seeming generosity, offering “get out of jail free” cards or waiving some small rents due to them. The late starters either become apathetic about the game or downright devious…sneaking money from the bank or even wishing to land in jail so they wouldn’t have to pay fees that they saw coming as their money dwindled with each turn.

We saw early players become rule sticklers…at one point carefully explaining the rules to a late starter.

When time was called on the game, players were asked to take note of the results and then sent off to reflect on their experience. What did they notice about themselves, their peers, the experience? What implications does this experience have for them as educators, parents, human beings?

Our discussion was rich and layered…and sometimes downright contentious. This experience opened up space for talking about systems: economic, social, educational…and the differences in access and equity that are often dismissed or not considered with our more typical focus on individuals. And we’re not finished with these discussions…because although there are some who might ask, “What does equity have to do with the teaching of writing?”, we know that equity plays a crucial role in who has access to high quality teaching and learning…and who can see themselves as successful learners. This game “hack” is just a beginning for us…we have much more in store in our next three weeks!