Tag Archives: writing

Weekly Photo Challenge: Outlines

I was recently reading a newsletter from a blogger I enjoy (joyfullygreen.com) and something she wrote caught my eye…that the word photography comes from Greek roots meaning writing with light. Now that makes sense to me. Sometimes I feel like I draw with the light…and sometimes I feel like I am drawing the outlines between the light.

The other night I was walking back to my room at the retreat center where I was staying in Austin and started to notice the shadows of trees along the walkways. As I stopped to take pictures, I also noticed that I entered some of the images as well, outlined in shadow.

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The tree in front of my house has become a favorite of mine, drawing my attention upward. It’s bare branches outline interesting angles creating a perfect frame for viewing the sky and clouds, helping me notice the blues and grays and whites beyond.

Sometimes I find myself chasing the setting sun, trying to capture the nuances of light and color. Hiking in Austin meant searching for the sun through the trees along the trails. This shot caught the sun outlined thickly in orange peeking through the trees. (That’s not snow or water…those are rocks on the ground!)

Apparently prickly pear is as common in Austin as it is here at home. I love the way the light outlines this view of the flat, spiky pads and the rounded red fruit.

Finding the word “Exit” outlined in thick black marker makes me wonder how many people have felt lost or confused trying to complete this loop trail. I know when I climbed the many log stairs at the end of the loop, I was looking for the exit! I didn’t need the sign…and actually overlooked it the first time I walked the trail.

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And there is something about sunsets. They seem to outline the landscape in color: rich reds and oranges and yellows. And if you look closely, you will find the moon–a thin sliver outlined in light.

So, where do you find the light creating outlines? Or shadows and color outlining images you see? How do you write with light and see those outlines you find in your world?

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

Take a look around for outlines you notice. Which are created with light? With shadow? With color? How will you interpret outlines through your lens?

One Little Word: Expand

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It’s that time of year…time to choose a word to guide my year. I’ve already selected and rejected several, testing them only to find out they were too literal or too confining, not the inspiration or guide I am looking for.

Last year I chose explore…and indeed I did explore. I looked under rocks, climbed up mountainsides, and discovered landscapes beyond my usual experiences.

A mushroom fairyland found in Olympic National Park near Seattle, WA

The year before that I chose play for my one little word. Play reminded me to find the fun around me, to push against my seriousness and to make time for myself.

On top of Iron Mountain

This year I am anticipating change. I will take on an important new role in my life. Very soon I will be grandma to not one, not two, but three baby boys! And I can already feel my heart expanding as our family grows. Over the last several years, I’ve been watching my sons walk the path toward fatherhood, becoming loving and attentive husbands and dog dads…and now nurturing, caring dads-to-be. My amazing daughters-in-law are big in belly and heart, one carrying identical twins, both women already imagining how they will balance motherhood and work, family and friends. I had such fun spending time with them over the holidays–talking about their dreams and fears, and watching the babies push and bump, making their presence known from the inside out. I am lucky that even when I am not with my sons and daughters-in-law, I am the recipient of updates and what were at first mysterious sonogram portraits, becoming more familiar and now revealing hints of the features of the babies that will soon enter the world outside their mothers’ bodies. As grandma, I anticipate building new relationships with my sons and daughter-in-laws…and with these little boys who are my grandsons. (I can’t wait!!! The time has passed both excruciatingly slowly and in a blink of an eye, it won’t be long now!)

And I want to continue my growth in other areas of my life as well. I am continually looking for ways to expand my understanding of teaching and learning. How do I create conditions where learning can happen–both for my students and for myself and other adults in the room? How do I facilitate learning within our writing project community–for myself and the others who comprise this inspiring group? How do I ensure there are pathways that welcome new voices and new perspectives, enriching our educational community by increasing the diversity within our community?

I also want to continue to play and explore the world on my own terms. My photography continues to be a tool that encourages me to try new things and expand my visions of what is possible. We already have some places to explore on our wish list…as nearby as Yosemite and some international destinations as well.

And so, my one little word this year is expand. I hope to expand my heart and mind, my understanding and empathy. I am striving for an expansive year of growth, of love, of adventure, of relationships (and not of my waistline!).

Space to expand…both in front and behind!

Weekly Photo Challenge: My Week

Weekly Photo Challenge: Best Of

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Since our Weekly Photo Challenge corresponds with New Year’s this week, what more perfect prompt than taking the time to pick a few of your photos from 2015 for a “best of” gallery to usher in 2016?

I went all the way back to the beginning of 2015 and after a lot of looking picked a few of my favorites. These first three include a shot of the brilliantly colored produce at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, a winter beach scene with kites flying from behind the lifeguard tower, and a dying tulip in the light on my dining room table.

These next three move to the beginning of summer. The first is one example of my ongoing experimentation with night photography this year, the San Diego County Fair at dusk. Then there is a sunset photo taken on the summer solstice and a shot taken from a sailboat out on the ocean off San Diego of a sailboat on the ocean off San Diego.

A trip to Chicago created many new memories for my husband and me. I conquered (or at least faced) a fear of heights with a trip up Sears Tower, viewed the magnificence of the city skyline from another high perch in the Signature Lounge in the Hancock building, and appreciated the natural beauty of a bee at work in Millennium Park.

The beach continues to inspire my photography, my writing, and allows me to reflect and relax. I take photo after a photo there. Sometimes I travel to other beaches. Dog beach offered a view that I don’t see at home. A trip to Catalina island brought me up close and personal to this friendly pelican. And my local beach is always changing. I found this tractor in the early fall building a berm on the beach to protect against the winter storms.

There is always inspiration at museums…like the reflective lights from the Kusama exhibit at the Broad Museum. I’m learning to find ways to get beyond simply being annoyed by traffic and long road trips. Some “out the window” photography allowed me to appreciate electrical towers in Los Angeles. And there is so much to photograph in December. I love the red of these tree stands in a Christmas tree lot near Walnut Creek.

So, take some time to take a walk through your photos and assemble a best of collection to share with the rest of us. (Or, of course, you can shoot a few new ones to create this week’s best of!)

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

So take a walk down memory lane and pick a few of your favorite photos to share with us. What constitutes your best of? What will you learn about yourself and your photography as a result? I can’t wait to see your Best Of!

Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Street

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I wander around my hometown with my camera (Sony a6000) hanging around my neck. And I get asked now and then where I am from. I always think it’s interesting that a camera somehow connotes tourist (of course I do live in a tourist destination–so maybe that comes into play).

With my camera around my neck, I feel like I see this place a bit differently. Sure, I have lots of opportunities to take photos of the beach. But there are other interesting photo opportunities too. Today I had a window of time and set out to wander the streets in downtown Carlsbad.

The sun was settling low in the sky…our days are nearly at their shortest right now. I kept catching glimpses of the sun through the streets when I noticed this fire hydrant dressed in its beach finery (a “woody” with a sign for highway 101…exactly where it is located).

A couple of blocks further west the street opened to a view of the ocean, framed by palm trees. If you look closely you can see the stairs that lead down to the beach…but I stayed up on the street today!

As I looped around to head back to get a cup of coffee before my appointment, I couldn’t resist a few shots of the classic Carlsbad sign. We have signs like this in many of our San Diego communities. (I love the way the setting sun is lighting up the historic building in the distance…it used to be a restaurant and is now a retail store.

Earlier this week I stopped to run some errands on the way to a meeting and couldn’t resist a shot of the way the sun was illuminating this building. You can see how shadowy things are near the ground…and how bright the sun is (again, near sunset) up high.

And we ended the weekend last week with a trip to get a Christmas tree. The tree lot at Home Depot doesn’t have the charm of the one I went to with my son and daughter-in-law the week before, but we did find a nice tree. Here’s my hubby with it hoisted over his shoulder in the yellowy light of the parking lot.

So what are you noticing on the street? How does your camera let you see things you might not otherwise notice? Take a look around and take a few shots to share.

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

So grab your camera and head out to the street…in your neighborhood, downtown, as you go about your everyday life. I can’t wait to see what you find on the street!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasonal

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I’m not sure how it happened, but it’s December already. And not just the beginning of December, but almost half way through December!

With today’s stormy weather (at least by San Diego standards), winter feels near. Our students were in for their snack recess…and out in the blustery wind for lunch. I couldn’t resist swinging by the beach on my way home to glimpse the wind blown waves as the sun started to set. There’s something magnificent about the way the clouds cluster over the sea, walking along the shore with my jacket zipped to my chin and my hood up, and the wind pulling and pushing as I explored.

Just a few days before I had stopped on my way home to snap a few photos of the sun setting, golden in the distance. Instead of feeling the wind, this day was warm and sunny–reminiscent of the summer–unseasonably mild.

This week is also the annual season for computer coding. Beebot is the perfect tool for introducing students to the principles of coding…and the kids love programming this mechanical robot to move around its grid. You can see the engagement and intensity on their faces.

We haven’t gotten our Christmas tree yet, but I did go with my son and daughter-in-law last weekend to pick out theirs. I love the smell of the pines…and I couldn’t resist this shot of the trees wrapped in their webbing. It was a fun surprise to look through my pictures and notice the red stands contrasted with the green of the trees.

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And my neighborhood is ablaze with light this time of the year. It seems that each house is more elaborately lit up than the next. There are the traditional strings of lights hung from the eaves, the palm trees wrapped in loops of lights, and the much more kitchy reindeer, santas, snowmen, and more! This image is the tiniest fraction of the lights in this neighborhood!

So take a look around for what is seasonal in your parts this week. Will you find evidence of the holidays, notice weather patterns, or come up with some other seasonal evidence?

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

Take a look around for the seasonal…and share the view through your lens. What does seasonal look like in your part of the world?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Glow

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Yeah…it’s cliche, but it is the holiday season. The days are short. The sunset comes early enough that I see that golden glow most every day as I drive home from work. Today on my way home I dropped by the beach because I heard there were high surf advisories (with sets up to 9 feet!). I caught the golden glow, but it’s hard to see that the surf is a bit larger than usual.

A few days ago I managed to catch the sun behind the lifeguard tower. The angle I caught created this red glow (along with the sun spot reflecting on my lens)…an interesting effect. (Does it have a technical name?)

Somedays the glow is less obvious, but there is something wonderful about this late afternoon light before the sun sets. The edge of the waves look so creamy and dimensional and the sand seems so flat and smooth in contrast. I love the beach this time of the year when it belongs mostly to those who can’t resist the lure of the sea.

Sometimes the sea and the sky seem to dance, intertwined as they swirl and swoop, partners in blue and gold. This particular vantage gives an expansive view looking out, looking down, and looking up.

And because it gets dark so early, we have lots of electrical light too. This tree was a-glow, lit from top to bottom, shining in the early evening darkness. There’s definitely a festiveness that comes with the wearing of the lights.

And there’s the sparkle and glow of indoor light. In this case, reflecting on the large glass globes adorning the tree. And if you look closely, you’ll see me glowing in there too. A nifty selfie reflected in the holiday glow!

So…what’s glowing in your world these days? Nature’s lights? Holiday lights? Or the warm smile of a friend?

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

Be on the lookout for glow, and capture it through your lens! I’m looking forward to your interpretation.

Looking Closely to Look Back: December’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through the Window

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Family is everything. And sometimes you do crazy things to make sure you can spend time with your loved ones. Like battling Los Angeles traffic on the day before Thanksgiving, knowing that the drive that should take between 90 minutes and 2 hours will likely be at least double that.

We left early in the morning on our way up to LA, well before sunrise, and were treated to a huge and gorgeous full moon sitting over the Pacific ocean as it got ready to set. I would have loved to have had time to park at the beach and try to capture this rare moon viewing through my camera lens, but this was a day for travel. And since I wasn’t driving, I pulled out my camera and did my best to shoot through the car window. In the dark, my camera shutter was slow–and the car was fast (yay…no traffic yet!), creating a streaking and blurring effect. I was delighted to find this abstract portrayal of light as I shot the moon.

After a wonderful day with my son and daughter-in-law, we got back in the car to head back home knowing that traffic would be heavy–but wanting to get home not too late so my husband could start baking his pies for Thanksgiving. And heavy was an understatement. After inching along the I5 for about 30 minutes and covering less than 10 miles, we decided to let Google maps on my phone take us on an adventure.

As we moved from one freeway to the next, we glimpsed views of downtown LA, watched airplanes and helicopters in their own freeway in the air, and noticed public transport rolling by on raised platforms. All along the way I pointed my lens out the window, trying to capture the interesting and beautiful things that caught my eye.

With the drought on our minds, we’ve been noticing the aqueduct system running below the power lines. Without the ability to stop and frame shots, I had to focus and shoot quickly hoping that I captured the image I was envisioning. This is my personal favorite, a serendipity of light and shadow and composition.

Part of the time we found ourselves on city streets, deep in an industrial area. Street art decorated the walls of buildings–some sanctioned (like the mural on the Farmer John compound) and some probably not. As I looked up, I noticed the graffiti-laden train overpasses and snapped a few more shots.

Heading onto yet another freeway (we found numbers we didn’t even know existed in Southern California!), I noticed tons of white birds sitting in a nearly empty aqueduct. Since I couldn’t see over the railing, I shot through the cement openings hoping to capture what I was seeing below. I’m pretty happy with the effect!

As the sun began to sink, the sky took on a gentle glow, silhouetting another of the miles of power towers that line the freeways.

And while our adventures in LA were fun and interesting, we were not alone or without traffic. Brake lights glowed red, lighting up the freeway like Christmas decorations.

Our trip ended much like it began as we watched the full, huge moon rise into the sky. It played hide and seek, first with the buildings and overpasses and later with the clouds.

It’s hard to know whether our “fastest route” actually saved us any time (we’re guessing we saved about 30 minutes), and it certainly wasn’t fast. But it was such a relief to keep moving and not spend hours inching in stop and go freeway traffic. We explored, we chatted, we noticed, and I took photos. We arrived home tired, yet relaxed. And we might just try that choose your own adventure route through LA again someday. There is so much to see when you take the time to look through the window.

So…what are you seeing through the window these days? Is it a car window, your house, or someplace else? Or is it a metaphorical window–the space between stormy weather conditions, phases of activity in your life, the break between holidays?

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

What are you seeing through the window? Take out your camera and give us a glimpse through your lens!