time change | Thinking Through My Lens

Time: a precious commodity, one that there is never enough of…unless you are waiting for something, and then it slows to a crawl!

Time has been on my mind all week. We started with the time change from daylights savings time to standard time. It should feel like a treat as we have the opportunity to “fall back” and gain the hour that we gave up in the spring. But with the time change comes early dark, with the setting sun before 5pm each day.

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And along with early dark comes more opportunities to notice the wonders of the night sky…even while doing errands like running to Trader Joe’s for groceries.

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Or walking out the door in the afternoon and noticing the sun dipping below the palms in the distance (and playing with some apps to magnify the effect).

This is also the time of year when time seems to get swallowed up…by assessments and report card writing and parent/student/teacher conference after conference. And inevitably, I get sick. Add to it the elections and the divisive politics–the outcome makes me feel voiceless. Predictably, being sick at this time results in laryngitis. I’m sure there is a message there from my body!

The weather is also confused and decided to take a turn back to summer. With coastal temps in the 80s and 90s,it sure doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving and the winter holidays are right around the corner! There was this stray leaf on the sidewalk…reminding me of the time of the year in spite of the heat!

I’m glad I also took some time to play and headed to LA for the Veteran’s Day holiday to spend time with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. A trip to the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) was just what the doctor ordered! I love these fluorescent lights as art…

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And even though I haven’t seen a single one of Guillermo del Toro movies, I enjoyed the exhibit of his creative processes and monsters that were larger than life. A great way to spend time away from work and politics.

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So, consider the way(s) time is being played out in your life this week. How are you spending your time? Is time flying or crawling? How will you represent the elusiveness of time in a photo (or a series of photos)?

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

How will you represent time this week? Will you take a literal approach and photograph clocks (now I’m starting to want to create a collection of clock photos!) or show time in other ways? Grab your camera…I can’t wait to see time through your lens!

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!

I’m not a fan of the time change in the fall. I mean, I love getting the bonus hour…for sleep, walking, exploration, photography…but I hate getting home when it is dark, especially when it isn’t even 5pm! But in this first week of the time change, I have found some interesting images BECAUSE of the time change.

I’ve been trying to squeeze more time for physical exercise into my life…and this week I’ve been carrying my gym shoes so I can take the time for a walk at the end of the day. Earlier this week I had a late meeting near UCSD, so when I finished my regular work day I put my gym shoes on and took a nice long walk around the campus. As the sun dipped lower and lower into the sky, I loved watching the way it caressed the buildings and played hide and seek through the trees.

In this image, the low sun found its way through the tall buildings, lighting up the midsection of the eucalyptus trees in front of them.

In this shot, the harsh setting sun created a flare of light as I shot directly into it. Using an app to convert it to black and white created a neat effect with the light.

The Geisel Library at UCSD is such an architecturally interesting building that I couldn’t resist framing some shots. You can see the sun setting behind the building in this shot focused toward the west. Again, I changed it to black and white, creating lines of light framing the building.

And as I walked I noticed the moon rising. I chased it through the trees, tracking it down when it hid behind buildings. And as I circled back toward the library, I found the moon sitting on its shoulder with the colorful afterglow of sunset in the background. This image is almost otherworldly!

Yesterday I was at school late, after all, it is report card season. And it’s hard to stay focused on work as the classroom gets darker and darker as the sun sets. About a half hour after the sunset, my teaching partner and I headed out…and looked out toward the end of the hall and saw the most incredible colors in the sky. Brilliant oranges sat on the deep turquoise sea, and even as I took the time to snap a few images I knew that my camera would not do justice to the intensity of the colors.

And here is one more, looking across the field at the baseball backstop with the ocean just beyond.

How has the time change impacted you? What are you seeing and capturing in your photos that are because of the time change? My pictures happen to take place as the sun went down, but I can imagine that the morning light is also different, changing what you see.

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

How did you take advantage of your extra hour? What are you noticing now that our days are shorter and our nights longer? I look forward to seeing the time change through your lens!