Tag Archives: photography

Making Art

Participating in photo-a-day means that I am always on the lookout for an interesting photo opportunity. And even though this whole month is themed writing, that doesn’t mean that I don’t take and post other interesting photos.

Driving to work is one of those times when I keep my eyes peeled for promising places to return to for a photo or two. Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a house not far from my school that seems to be made of concrete. It’s huge, looks over the ocean, and has floor to ceiling windows…obviously designed for maximum visual impact, from inside and from outside.

And today as I drove by, I noticed skeletons and zombies and other creepy things through the windows and on the deck. I knew I would stop by later and take some photos. When I stopped on my way home I struggled to get a photo that captured what I could see with my eyes.

So I took this photo and used an editing app to play around with it. Could I pull the photo in and see those full sized bodies standing on the deck? Could I see through the windows? Here is what I was able to produce from the picture above using the app Tadaa and the filter otherland.

I love that moment when a snapshot becomes a piece of art. I wonder if that is what the owners of that house also had in mind?

In Search of Silky

Make it Write: October’s Photo-a-Day Experimentation

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Maintaining an extended photo-a-day practice (mine has gone on for over a year now!) means figuring out how to keep it interesting and creative. I depend on my friends to help me think through new ideas and consider whether my ideas are feasible or not.

So Abby suggested making this month about writing since it is the month of the National Day on Writing. And I was thinking about what that would look like. I know I don’t want to have to take pictures of hands and pencils all month! But I love the idea of exploring all the ways we “write” our world. What inspires our writing? What impedes our writing? Where do we find people writing? Where do we find writing in the spaces we inhabit? Where is writing absent? What is the writing on the wall? (How will I incorporate macro photography with this prompt? Hmmm….)

So all month in our photos I invite you to consider writing in the broadest sense. Where will this open-ended experiment take you? Will you find it restrictive or inspiring? And as always, take some time each week to reflect on your photos, write a blog post or comment sharing those thoughts, select a favorite photo, or create a collage and share it on this post.

And here’s a photo to get you started:

This is Jack, one of my two cats. He’s wanting my undivided attention and definitely interfering with my writing as he snoozes on my computer! (He even managed to type a few letters with his body in the process of being in the way!)

Can’t wait to see all the ways that writing can be interpreted in a photo…

Be sure to post your photo each day to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr using the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices. (You can post anywhere—if you want others to be able to follow your photos, Instagram and Twitter are best!) For more information about posting click here. At the end of each week you’re also invited to curate your pictures from the week and select one to highlight. You might post it on your blog along with some musings about why you selected it. If you don’t have a blog of your own, you have a couple of choices—you can create a blog (be sure to share it with us by including your blog address in the comments here—or better yet, tweet it using the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices) or you can post to the SDAWP Voices blog.

As the month goes on, come back to this post to link up your curated photos! Click on the link up button below and add your favorites. Or post a comment with an image on this post!

Noticing Texture: September’s Photo-a-Day Invitation (thinkingthroughmylens.wordpress.com)

A Jury Duty Learning Walk

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I did my civic duty this morning–I showed up for at the county courthouse at 8am for jury duty. And after a full fifteen minute pep talk from a judge trying to convince us all about the importance of our presence and the value of the jury system…and even quoting (from memory, as he pointed out) from the Declaration of Independence (not the preamble–the “stuff” in the middle), the mood in the room still seemed that of obligation, anxious waiting, and whiling away time.

The next fifteen minutes were spent on a video that reiterated the importance and value of serving as a juror and explained a bit about how the courtroom operates. (Don’t take it personally if the lawyer excuses you, it’s all part of how the law works!) And then we spent the next ten minutes or so filling in the back of our summons assuring that we were legally qualified to be jurors, signing our names and including a contact phone number. As we passed the paperwork in, the approximately 300 potential jurors were entitled to our first ten minute break (we’d been there less than an hour).

As you can see, the jury lounge is not a particularly comfortable or visually stimulating place. There are a few tables around the edges of the room for those who want to work on their laptops (although not nearly enough electrical outlets) and some free, although spotty, internet access. People read, chatted, knitted, played with their devices, slept, and some did work (I can raise my hand for that one!). After about another hour we were granted another break–the difference between a break and not being on a break is that you can wander out of the jury room although the coffee cart in the hallway wasn’t much different than the vending machines inside.

After three hours in the jury lounge, we were summoned for an announcement. There would be no need of jurors today and all 300 + of us were excused. Be sure to clock out on your timesheet and leave your badge holder and pencil for others to use.

Whew! I was relieved to be dismissed. Not because I don’t want to serve on a jury, but because the uncertainty of the when and how long make my life complicated. As a teacher, it’s hard to be at the courthouse wondering if I will be asked to return tomorrow–and then needing to arrange for a sub, make plans for someone else to carry out and miss all the intangible evidence of learning that can only be understood by being there. So I’m happy to have finished my duty for at least a year. But I do worry about how this system works…and who is actually willing and available to serve on juries.

After being dismissed I took a little time to walk through the buildings and take a closer look at this public place. To be honest, the place is bleak. Long hallways with institutional white walls. No decoration, harsh lighting, guards at the doors, and lots of worried looking people waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

As I left the building I took a few minutes to appreciate the beautiful fall day. Warm with a little breeze…and some silky, billowy clouds in the sky. As I looked back at the courthouse I noticed that the clouds were reflected in the high windows above the entrance. This bit of beauty remains imprinted on today’s experience.

Taking time for a learning walk always changes my experience…for the better. Slowing down, looking closely, and taking time to reflect creates opportunities for learning and new perspectives. I hope you make time for a learning walk soon.

The Action of Stillness: Still Life

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Today’s daily prompt at The Daily Post is stillness. In our classroom we’ve begun to work on sketching techniques that help artists capture roundness. All this in preparation for sketching a still life of the fall bounty from the school garden. Last week we sketched pumpkins. Today…tomatoes!

So here is the action of a child working to capture the stillness and roundness of a tomato just picked from the school garden.

How do you capture stillness?

Lines and Patterns

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This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge at the Daily Post focuses on lines and patterns…something I have been exploring through my own #sdawpphotovoices photo-a-day challenges. In August we captured design elements such as curves, angles, symmetry, repetition, and patterns in our daily photographs.

Lines and patterns seem to be everywhere! Here’s a picture I took today on my way to a meeting at UCSD.

I like the way you can see the statue of the triton at the bottom through the lines and angles of the stairs. A few weeks ago I took this picture of a bike rack…and the shadow it casts that continues the pattern. It almost creates an image of giant paperclips!

I love to take pictures at the beach. I noticed the way the lifeguards had organized their equipment on this rack…I love the lines and patterns…and colors with the ocean in the background.

Lines and patterns are everywhere! What lines and patterns have you captured lately?

Too Much of an Interesting Thing…

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When I first spied the mushroom in my front yard I saw it as a photo opportunity. I watched it grow, seeming to magnify right before my eyes. I watched it for days until I found it kicked across the yard one morning–and then, once it was turn upside down, I captured what I had missed by looking at only the outside surface with my camera.

The following week I noticed a few more mushrooms growing in my lawn. Again, I watched them grow…this time with some “portholes” to look inside and see what was beneath the surface. I got out my macro lens and worked to capture my secret view of the underside of the mushroom.

And then this morning it seemed that an entire forest of mushrooms has exploded on my lawn! One was so round and on a tall stem…looking almost like a lollipop. When I got home–late (meeting and then traffic)–that forest had ballooned, each mushroom doubling in size from this morning. And while my photos don’t really capture the drama of the growth, my eyes registered it.

And now I’m thinking that these fascinating mushrooms are becoming a problem. What started as an interesting novelty has become a bit of an eyesore. Just where do these mushrooms come from? What effect do they have on my lawn? How do they multiply? What is making them thrive in my lawn? And now…how do I get rid of them?

Early morning update: As my husband was leaving for work, he came back into the house saying, “The fairies are having a field day at our house!” I looked out the door…the mushrooms are enormous this morning! They ballooned overnight–and the biggest among them are between 6 and 8 inches across. Here’s a picture trying to capture the magnitude. (The photos don’t really capture the size adequately!)

Some Macro Play

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I love using my macro lens on my iPhone…but it’s not easy. I have to take my case off and attach the lens to the magnetic ring…so I don’t take macro shots spontaneously, I have to think about using this lens and make the necessary preparations.

I definitely have days when I feel at a loss for what to photograph. Things feel ordinary…or I feel like I have already taken those same shots some other day. Today I headed out to my backyard with plans to sit in the shade and read for a while. But when I headed out there, I noticed the aloe plant that has gone crazy! It started as a small house plant…and now is obviously loving the growing conditions in the back yard! This week on #sdawpphotovoices our photo-a-day focus is #scratchy…and what could be scratchier than aloe spines? I took a photo with my regular lens…and then headed inside to attach my macro lens.

I love the way the sun behind the plant makes the spine tips glow!

In the same big pot with the aloe there is also a cactus that outgrew its tiny indoor pot and ended up in the backyard. The long, thin, needle-like spines create interesting flower-like patterns. I love that the top spines are a brilliant yellow, creating a beautiful sunburst!

These ordinary cactus almost look like exotic sea creatures when you get close! My attention turned to the lavender plant–the one I wrote about here–that was almost killed due to neglect! The plant continues to improve, although it is not in full bloom right now. There are a couple of beautiful blossoms…and some buds developing.

And I wasn’t quite done…I noticed a “volunteer” plant–one that planted itself in a pot of dirt on the edge of the patio. It was green, but in the last week it has turned to a rusty red-orange color. I’m not sure if it is dying…or if it is a natural cycle of growth for this plant.

All of these photos are unedited…and I love the colors and the way the sun creates glow.

I decided to take one last photo…of a spiderweb down in a hole where my husband is fixing the sprinkler. As I moved my lens in close, the web began to glow, catching the sun.

Playing with my macro lens today helped me see the ordinary things in my backyard in a new way. The colors popped, the patterns emerged, and the light created beauty that’s hard to see without looking closely. And, as I always notice, opportunities to play and make help me find my creativity and the fun that is so often right in front of me. And best of all, all this noticing piques my curiosity and wonder at the world around me.

Have you taken time to play today?

Looking Beneath the Surface

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I suspect my neighbors thought I was crazy as I crawled around the lawn in my skirt when I got home from work today. I had spotted some new mushrooms growing this morning and noticed that one had a hole where you can see through to the inside.

After unloading my work bag and feeding my cats, I attached the macro lens to my iphone and set out to get a closer look at the underside of the mushrooms. One had been kicked over and lay with the underside exposed. It was already turning brown on the exposed texture that is in such contrast to the smooth outside surface.

And then I got down on my hands and knees to look through the hole along the edge of the mushroom top. I peered through first with my eye…and then with the lens of my camera trying to capture the interesting layers I spied beneath the surface.

These mushrooms remind me that what I see on the surface doesn’t always capture the complexity of what lies beneath. My classroom is like that too. There is so much about each of my students that isn’t visible unless I take the time to bend down and look carefully beneath the surface. And sometimes I need a special tool, like my macro lens, to bring those interesting layers into focus. Sometimes that tool is those informal conversations that I have with the students near me as we walk in lines. Other times it is the opportunity to listen into a discussion a small group is having about a math concept or a story we have read. Oftentimes it is through my students’ writing that I learn the most. Their stories reveal their interests and their experiences…and show me what they know about reading and writing and science and sometimes even math and social studies. Looking at a piece of student writing is like looking at the underside of a mushroom. When you take the time to get beyond the surface, there are layers and layers that unfold and reveal new information that helps me know my students and helps me help them learn.

What have you learned from a student lately?

Thinking Through My Lens