Walking Into Winter

This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year's threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.

Margaret Atwood

Winter Sun

Beneath heavy clouds

blazing brilliant light it dropped

then fell out of sight

Saturday -a beautiful expanse of dune grass blew gently in the wind. (Saugatuck Dunes)

Sunday over ripe berries hung from a bare branch…but those looked like tiny buds below them.

Monday, a dark-eyed Junco sat still for a moment looking right at the camera

Tuesday, a neighbors Hydrangeas; blossoms dried, faded and gone to seed…delicate as paper

Wednesday in the garden, a dried up rhododendron blossom that Dr. Seuss could have drawn.

And on the beach, a pair of pigeon’s prints in the sand by Lake Michigan - as if he just stood there, looking over the water and then flew off

Today - Winter Solstice, the sun was muted by cloud cover but still came through - looking more like the moon.

Movement is good for the body. Stillness is good for the mind.

Sakyong Mipham

This is a time of year that often gets me down, so I did a lot of walking and looking for little signs of light and life. A little color, a little sun, some flowering plants with seeds and buds waiting for spring, a couple of footprints in the sand, the stars in the morning, the cold crisp air and crunchy frost-covered grass under my feet - all these things get me outside of my mind as well as my house and those are both good things. And today the days begin to grow longer again! Happy winter solstice- and Merry Christmas if you celebrate!

Thank you so much for being here! I will see you next week!

The morning sky on the shortest day. Within the darkness, there is the promise of light to come.

Going Home again

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Terry Pratchett

an unexplained ruin in Joshua Tree

my last desert hike

I stumbled on a ruin

crumbling into dust

and realized I was ready to go home

home again - water everywhere

home where water flows freely

pussy willow blossoming

where spring blossoms riot - bursting through their skins

Allium breaking through

Narcissus looking down

where narcissus is already in full bloom

Ferns unfurling

where the forest floor fills with ferns

single-minded squirrel

where squirrels sneak up to steal suet

living in the land of tulips

where the silky tulips glisten

swimming silently by

and silent mallards swim

lily of the valley

where lily of the valley is wet with dew

solitary tree on the edge of the dunes, overlooking the channel

and a single tree keeps vigil over the grassy dune.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

I loved the magic of Joshua Tree, but I am so happy to be back home. I am grateful that you are here with me.

The Challenge of Seeing

Photography makes one conscious of beauty everywhere, even in the simplest things, even in what is often considered commonplace or ugly. Yet nothing is really 'ordinary', for every fragment of the world is crowned with wonder and mystery, and a great and surprising beauty

Alvin Langdon Coburn

HEY! Marfa, Texas.

A metal pole with arms, casting its shadow on a pillar out in front of the NPR station in Marfa, Texas. It looked so much like a person waving his arms - I had to take a picture. Converted it to black and white so background colors wouldn’t distract from image in the foreground. Marfa had so much bright sunshine that the shadows were fantastic everywhere. I will include more photos of my visit there in a future post.

This week I’m doing something a little different. Almost all of the pictures here (except for the first and last) are not mine, but were taken by subscribers who accepted my challenge a few weeks ago and took pictures of ordinary objects in unexpected ways. I included their names, and their own words wherever possible. They are posted in the order I received them. My comments, if any, are in italics. Any mistakes here are mine!

This was really eye-opening and fun for me. I loved seeing everything you all shared, and felt like I got to know you a little better. If you enjoy this, please let me know! Maybe I’ll make challenges a periodic part of this blog. Now, on to the photos

From Lisa Potter - Aluminum boom, 70mm by 6000mm

Love these crisp, industrial photos, taken from the ends of the metal booms.

Lisa Potter - Aluminum booms - 70mm by 6000mm.

They’re all the same size, but you can see how distance makes the ones further from the camera look smaller. RL

Lisa Potter - an intimate portrait of a houseplant and its shadow.

An example of taking a photo of only part of a subject, but still expressing a complete idea. RL

Lisa Potter - Peeking through the leaves at her cat, Pearl.

An example of using an object in the foreground to frame your subject, which is further away. - RL

From Michelle Shaw - Crystal Doorknob

“As I looked around to uncover my subject matter, one of our doorknobs caught my eye.  

We live in a house that was built in 1870, and when we remodeled, I fell in love with these crystal doorknobs that we now have throughout the home. I love having something special, that feels so good in my hand every time I open a door in our house. It’s like a beautiful spark, an auspicious beginning, to whatever is in front of me.”

This is an example of extreme close-up photography, where the photographer fills the lens with her subject, creating an abstract image.

Michelle has been my yoga teacher for a few years now. She has a newsletter that comes out on Thursdays, which I look forward to every week, full of wisdom, humor and practices to help improve your sense of wellbeing and health. You can find her at www.MichelleShawYoga.com or on Instagram as @MIchelleShawYoga.

A different view, from Rita Labelle. Taken with her I-phone angling down at her linen closet.

Changing the angle changes its appearance - the sides of the cabinet begin to look like wedges at the bottom - the straight line between the two doors becomes triangular… RL

Rita Labelle “The flowers faded, the leaves furled.”

From a hyacinth after it finished blooming, leaves curling. RL

From Rita Labelle - “rotated the picture”

Rita used the same picture as above, but rotated and then cropped it to get a close-up of curling leaves. The greens are so beautiful against a textured white background.

Rebecca Majewski - “The Beauty of the Car Wash”

I love that something so simple as a car wash becomes magic when you get close in like this.

Rebecca Majewski. “The Beauty of the Carwash.”

I like to think of this one as ‘the car wash blues’. Amazing how the light streaming through the soapy water creates such beautiful colors and shapes.

Rebecca Majewski - “The Beauty of the Car Wash”

From Mary Deur - “The first 2 photos are part of my world right now. We are watering these little seedlings every day. It is so amazing that something so beautiful comes from a tiny seed.”

I love the extreme simplicity here - it makes the seedling seem even more tender to see its fragile roots against the hard surface. RL

Mary Deur - Seedlings.

I love that you can still see fragment of the seed, split open, at the tips of the seedlings.

Mary, her daughter and granddaughter grow and sell flowers and floral arrangements - you can find them on Instagram @three.flowers.farm.mi. The bouquets they create are beautiful! RL

From Mary Deur: “The 3rd photo is taken of the underside of a wooden bowl my dad made. I look at it every day.

It’s amazing the beauty we have around us if we take the time to look.”

From Lois Bartlett - “Just a graceful tissue with folds and lifts. My eye went from lower left to upper right. Reminds me of challenges I face …daunting with the possibility of collapse and yet upwards if the tissues were released to fly away, free in the breeze. Challenge faced and resolved.”

Reflections, From Lois Bartlett - “I was sitting in my chair and noticing the reflection in the glass of the picture frame. The colorful sunset photos were superimposed with the giant outlines of trees from my yard. It felt like you could walk through the rainy day right into the beach at sunset.”

Using reflections is another technique for getting an unusual picture… this is almost like a double exposure as well, with one image superimposed over another. RL

From Kat Needham - Light on Granite - From the top.

The End of the Line, El Paso, TX.

On the last night of my road trip into west Texas, I stayed in El Paso at a hotel near the airport. Before my flight, I walked outside and noticed these power lines overhead…the literal end of a segment, against a clear blue sky. It seemed like an appropriate photo for the end of my trip and for the end of this post. Thank you all for being here!