Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above
There’ve been a lot of directions in the challenges.
Up, down. Round. Forward. No inside out. Yet
this week it’s FROM ABOVE.
I stand over garbage, see a lone glove on the road-
take a shot. A single baby shoe in the gutter.
Weddings from a church balcony, the mezzanine.
Not often, though. Directly above is rare, more likely above from an angled side.
Have they done sideways? I like that movie.
Here’s my From Above Gallery, though not celestial.
Laura and James at Marjorie and Dan’s Wedding Reception. Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
Seventh (Andy Warhol) and Ninth Street Bridges taken from the Renaissance Hotel.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Shadows at the entrance of school
John and Angie’s Wedding
Franklin Park Conservatory Columbus OH
Anna, Baby Jack and Michael March 2007
Roberto Clemente Bridge and PNC Park from the Renaissance Hotel
Last Year’s Rose
French Fries on Carson Street
Porsche Engine
Batteries from a week in digital photo class.
Dunkin Donut apron in the school parking lot.
Black Pussywillow Branches Cast Wall Shadows
When we lived in Germany, we’d get Pussywillow with fuzzy gray shapes along the branch and hang wooden eggs and rabbit ornaments to make an Easter Tree.
Add MediaI’d never seen Black Pussywillows until Wednesday night at my friend J’s home. I was to take a photograph over to her and the evening turned into an impromptu supper. My crazy part is I went over without the picture I was to take. J followed me back to my house after we ate and got the photograph to take back to her own home but she didn’t seem to mind.
A great blog post about this unusual looking plant is here. The Latin name (Salix gracilistylus ‘Melanostachys’)
I can’t remember the name/type of ceramic vase holding the branches. (Taken with the iPhone)
St. Michael in a Sunny Window
The Weekly Challenge is My Neighborhood. But I am not in my neighborhood today.
The only available photo of my neighborhood is a snow filled park with the benches piled high with snow. I figure I’ll wait until I get back home.
I saw the sun streaming into the window over the door and the backlit St. Michael the Archangel statue along with the deep blue sky and fluffy clouds. (more…)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine
This week’s photo challenge is MINE. The first photo is someone else’s MINE.
The second part of the post are MINE- my feet in the hammock on the porch, my shadow, my view from the front porch, my coffee ice cream cone, my junk drawer contents, my fancy toaster I received on my 50th- a self-portrait of stuff.
Nothing illustrates the Weekly Challenge of Mine better than the following phenomenon. In Pittsburgh when it snows, everyone reserves the parking space they shoveled. The most popular place holder? A chair! No one dare move it. Fortunately I have a driveway. Parking in the snow is serious business around the city and the chair screams MINE!!!
To see other entries for this week’s challenge you can click this link
And now for personal posts of mine.
Casting a Giant Shadow
You could really say it glowed-
We spent a good part of the day together, Maura (3) and I. Her brothers and sister at a swim meet for hours.
Got jammied up for nigh time.Then came out into the setting sun with Murphy and danced around in the driveway.
The angle of the sun does amazing things as it prepares to slip away for the day. Had just the iPhone with me.
Happy Groundhog’s Day as One Blog Leaks into Another
We haven’t really had a winter yet so at dawn, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, it won’t be surprising to hear there’ll be 6 more weeks of winter. I heard that Punxsutawney schools are closed on February 2nd for Groundhog’s Day. It’s a great holiday to celebrate. No gifts. Thursday night I will serve Groundhog Chicken from the NYTimes, late 1980′s recipe which is browned chicken in orange sauce with ginger, cinnamon, Tabasco and slivered almonds served with CousCous and some garlic green beans. I own cooky cutters in the shapes of Groundhogs, a large and a small, but did not make time to roll dough and cut out cookies to bake.
If you want to watch the Groundhog News or see the Live Webcast, click HERE and if I get a chance I will update what the furry prognosticator declares. UPDATE at 7:20 AM Phil the Groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter!!
There is such a wonderful Chicago tour written by Chicago John on the Cardboardmetravels blog that I am not going to bump it off the other blog with today’s groundhog photo. You have read many of his comments on my blog and you may have clicked on his link from the Bartolini Kitchens to read his stories of childhood memory and the preparation of heirloom Italian recipes.
In 1990, three years before Groudhog Day (Bill Murray movie) hit the theaters and everyone had heard about Phil the Groundhog in Punxsutawney, my sister flew out from NYC to Pittsburgh. In the middle of a foggy night, we drove to Punxsutawney for the event. Mary wrote postcards and mailed them so they would have the February 2nd postmark from Punxsutawney. We had a fun day although it was freezing in the woods and all felt a bit strange. You’ve seen Nativity scenes and Santa in yards at Christmas? Well, the residents have GROUNDHOGS on their lawns. Big wooden cutout groundhogs. We experienced the occasion and I guess it could have been something on a bucket list if we had one. Visit Gobbler’s Knob at least once in your life!
So a single post for Groundhog’s Day and here is my Groundhog Folkmanis Puppet holding the original Flat Ruthie in the backyard after school and I will take some license and say he is looking for his shadow? Only problem is the time of day.
Not screaming like Fay Wray did with King Kong
Windy With a Chance of Sunlight
A beautiful day. And though inside from 7:30-4:00 I was able to catch the unfurled flag from the second floor window AND the flag shadow on the asphalt during lunch. Right through the glass.
The Cathedral of Learning in the distance, the light fluctuating as clouds rolled across the sky. Had to tilt the camera to get both the flag and the shadow- the angle a technique I don’t use often.
Windy
In the daytime look out the windows.
Branches bend, papers blow across the yard.
Ripples or waves on water.
A pile of leaves caught up in a whirl.
You can tell it’s windy.
At night, listen.
A train along the river whistles.
Calm, a burst, a roar.
Earlier in my car on the bridge.
Wait for the light.
Feel it. Vibrate.
Bounce bounce bounce
right up through the tires.
Eye level to the top of a flag pole- a cool perspective.
School Chairs & Chain Link Shadows in the Snow
Someone left the chairs out in the snow. Today the sun came out. I photographed these a couple of weeks ago and they just looked uninteresting to me. So not the whole chair, just a part. It was the shadows that attracted me today.
This morning I saw my first sundog*.
I was unable to photograph it properly.
It was a stunning sunrise from the Birmingham Bridge.
I didn’t even know what a sundog was until Joanne
sent me a photo of one.
It was clear and cold, blue sky and a magnificent sun.
It is amazing how you can feel when it is light.
The view of the sundog from the school parking lot seemed less dramatic.
I was trying to show our librarian. Definition below.
*from good old wikipedia
A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, from Greek parēlion, (παρήλιον), παρά(beside) + ήλιος(sun), “beside the sun”; also called a mock sun or a phantom sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[1]
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.
A classic assignment for beginning photographers- Capture the shadow!
Groundhog Sports Black and Gold Beads
Happy Groundhog’s Day. A friend sent an email of a groundhog finding a Lombardi trophy as a shadow.
You can click here for all the serious information from the official website in Punxsutawney PA.
I hear there are some competitors around the country but Phil lives close by …. “If Candlemas be fair and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.” or this poem from Wikipedia “In Scotland the tradition may also derive from an English poem:
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop
One year(1990) my sister and I went to Punxsutawney to see Phil the groundhog. Pre-Groundhog Day movie.
Red Leaf’s Shadow
Late afternoon sunlight on a red leaf as it blew across the walk in front of school. Unaltered photo. A true crimson red.
if you wait long enough, the wind blows leaves across the concrete.
CMU Campus Lights and Shadows at Night
Waiting for Steve to pick me up in the turnaround, I saw the pattern on the concrete. I had just viewed Waiting for Superman. I was in a good discussion group after the film. You can read an editorial piece by Tony Norman from the Post-Gazette my friend V told me about. Lots to think about. There wasn’t much in it that was hopeful or positive, especially when it comes to public education. In fact , it was downright depressing to me.There are a ton of reviews at Rotten Tomatoes if you want to see the splats, too…. But getting back to the patterns of light and shadow on the sidewalk while I was waiting for Steve….
Looked like a good target for a spaceship landing.
Baby Casts Giant Shadow
Late sun. Not really a baby anymore. I was watching her play at the baby pool.
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