I’ve taken lots of photos this week, but most of them are of my precious new grandsons, which means I am not able to post them on social media. But I have taken a few shots along my way here and there this week.  Today was a rare southern California rainy day, the perfect day to head out for a trip to an indoor mall–and allow my son and daughter-in-law to have an outing with the baby (getting out of the house is still a challenge). When we arrived back home after a few hours out, I noticed the white roses in the front of their house with raindrops on them.  I rushed inside to grab my macro lens and snapped some raindrops on roses (yeah, that song runs through my head whenever I see raindrops on roses!).

I love this view of one perfectly focused raindrop–it’s not a great view of the rose, but the raindrop…

And the Bob Hope airport is a funky retro place.  When I arrived on Wednesday, it was unseasonably warm (over 90 degrees)…just to have a 20 degree drop of temperature today along with rain!  As I waited for my son, there was something about this sign that caught my eye, especially when planes took off in the background (although I missed those shots!).

At my other son’s house earlier in the week, we took the twins for a walk to the nearby park.  As I pushed the stroller I also noticed the enormous trees, brilliant green against the blue sky.  And I found this line from a Pablo Neruda poem that captured the feeling I had when I looked at it.

What did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky?

Sometimes when I take a photo and later look at the results, I notice that the focus is not where I intended.  In this shot, the flowers in the background were focused, but the ones in the foreground were not…I played around a bit in Vintique to see what I could do with the image. Here is my result.

And as I headed to my car to leave (oh, how hard it is to leave those sweet babies), I noticed this thistle.  A weed…prickly…and beautiful, growing along the edge of the yard.

The beauty of carrying a camera at all times (most often, just my phone) is that you can take photos along the way–wherever you are, whenever you have the chance.  So this week’s challenge is just that, take photos along your way to here or there, with an eye for something interesting…or maybe even something ordinary in a new way.

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

What will you find this week along the way?  I look forward to seeing what you discover!