Friday Shoot-Out: Look Up Look Down

I love this week's topic.  I love taking pictures of the sky and also the ground.  I love the colors of the sky.  As many of the great photographers of FSO have shown, the sky turns so many different kinds of colors, from violet to red to the deepest blues.  I am also always trying to get great shots of the moon--although I do not think my current camera is up to the task.  I also like taking pictures of the ground because of all the textures and designs that nature provides.  Also, looking up and down is not something we do often so by photographing them, we are bringing attention to an unattended beauty, which, to me, is one of the goals of photography.  I could have totally "archived" this post as I tend to take a lot of sky and ground shots.  However, all of these shots were taken today. 

The greenery are bushes near my house and they had some morning frost on them.  The sky shot was taken from my car.  I just liked the particular shade of blue of the sky at that moment.  Then, below that, is my attempt at a moon shot.  Then, the last shot is water melting from a big pile of snow nearby.  It is a pile of snow left from a December storm.  I predicted that the pile of snow would still be there in February.  If it is still there in a few days, my prediction will have come true!  I took this picture because I liked the pattern that the water made. 

Hope you enjoy!!

Friday Shoot Out--Sounds in your Town

This particular shoot-out comes from a great blogger, Nanu at http://sciencegirltraveler.blogspot.com/.  I found this one challenging and ended up dipping into my archive.  After I read what she wrote about the blindfold idea, I wished I had done that!  Read it too late.  But I definitely will try that some day! 

From my archive, I chose some of my favorite sounds and pictures that represent them.  Of course, I love the sound of the cat meowing.  I guess that is where the phrase "the cat's meow" originated.  The gray and white one, Magnum, likes to go into the living room in the middle of the night and meow as loud as he can.  Winston sometimes mouthes a meow as if he does not have enough energy to get out the sound.  And, what is better than a purring cat! 

This favorite sound is probably shared by many people.  The sound of water is varied and amazingly beautiful.  I love the sounds of a fountain, the soft sweet song as the droplets hit the surface.  Then, the sound of waves crashing is a wonderful dichotomy in its combination of powerful and gentle rhythms.  As soon as I hear the ocean, I immediately feel more relaxed. 

This picture was taken on my patio.  There are a lot of sounds that I love represented here.  First, the sound of the birds in the morning.  Of course, dry leaves rustling.  Then, the sound of wind chimes.  Wow, after writing this post, it made me realize there are some really beautiful sounds in the world!   Thanks, Nanu, for opening my eyes to wonderful sounds!

Photo and a Poem: Haiku

Following the road
in winter's white-blue tunnel,
Quiet Peace Awakes.

If you like my poetry, check out my new poetry blog at spiritsoflenapoetry

Friday Shoot-Out Birds

This weeks assignment comes from Scriptor Senex at http://scriptorsenex.blogspot.com/.  I think it is a great idea!  Everyone has birds in their town (hopefully) and birds are fun to photograph.  When looking through my archives, I was surprised at how many shots of birds I have actually taken.  I think one reason why birds are so fun to photograph is they have so many visual variations which are interesting.  They come in so many different shapes and sizes providing a variety of silhouettes.  Also, they come in varied colors and designs. 

Another thing that is great about photographing birds is that they bring up so many associations.  For instance, I included pictures of some seaguls from Wildwood.  Seaguls bring up associations of the ocean, beach, and summer. 

Birds also represent freedom and lightness.  I am lucky that I get to see a lot of birds out of my patio door.  There are a lot of blue jays, robins, and sometimes humming birds. 

This picture I took in a strip mall parking lot.  I could not believe how cute the chicks were!  I was glad I had started the habit of taking my camera with me wherever I go.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you enjoyed!

Friday Shoot-Out Fences

Fences.  What a great shoot-out idea for MyTown!  So I give props to Sandra Leigh at http://sandarastraveljournal.blogspot.com/ of Canada for suggesting this theme. 

I am late with posting my shoot out because last night, when I normally would be posting, I was at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia to see the musical "Wicked".  If you want to hear about my musical experience, you can check it out at wickedly-good-night-at-academy. 

What I like about this topic is that fences can be found anywhere and come in such a wonderful variety!  For this shoot-out, I really stayed true to the intent of FSO.  All of these shots were taken in my town of Vineland, NJ. 

I love the shape of this star which was hanging on a fence near where I live.  I have tried to sketch it but am still trying to perfect the drawing. 

We had a little bit of snow this morning and I caught this shot on the way to work.

I played with some of these photos with cropping and changing to Black and White.  Looking for cool looking fences was a lot of fun. 

I call this The Rusted Bee.

I just like the way the branches are hanging down over this fence.

Everytime I think of fences, I am reminded of Frost's line "Good Fences make good neighbors."  Frost is one of my favorite poets because he can be interpreted on so many different levels.  One level in this particular poem, "Mending Wall", is about how we build barriers between each other, both figurative and literal.  However, with the FSO, fences are bringing us together!  I hope you enjoy! :)

Photo and a Poem: Winter Watch

White has taken over like a phantasm
of cold pain.

The snow slowly falls in silent waves
a quiet refrain.

Under a sky, scraped like fingers raked across skin,
leaving a red stain

The ground is cruelly hard, dark with death
and frozen rain.

The longing for green fills the field, my heart swelling
to remember.

The leaves bursting forth with life, with love, with sun,
early September.

Even then, the end was close against the edges, the wind ready
to dismember

the trees arms and limbs stretching their hands and fingers, soon to turn
to crimson brown embers.