Lens-Artists #292 – People Here, There & Everywhere

People
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world

Written by: Jule Styne, Bob Merrill Sung by Barbra Streisand

When I saw the challenge Tina set for us this week, I almost didn’t participate. As most of you know, I don’t take many pictures of people, even those who interest me, as I feel I’m invading their privacy, that they’ll get annoyed if they see me taking a photo, and, as a hangover from years ago, I always felt I should have a release form to use the photo of a person.

But I went dumpster archive diving and manged to come up with some I like and that I hope you like as well. Children are often irresistible and this munchkin kept peering over the top of his airline seat so what was I supposed to do?

Ice skating in downtown Chicago. Hearty people.

Boy meets dog. ❤

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
― Groucho Marx

My brother-in-law (left) participated in a vertical mile on a ski run in France one year while I was visiting. The participants walked/ran/struggled up the slope under the ski lift, then rode the lift down and began again. Time started at the bottom, stopped at the top, then resumed at the bottom. I don’t recall how many times it took but the man who won also walked down instead of taking the lift!! My sister-in-law and I shouted encouragement to everyone, then I took the lift up, waited for my b-i-l, and rode back down with him, admiring both the view and the fortitude of everyone who took part! I think the black and white gives the feeling of the difficulty of the event.

Imagine this as my look of bemusement at the above race. However, this man is in Philadelphia, a city full of wonderful street art.

One of my favorite photos of my dad with one of our horses, in Wyoming, of course.

Just “Awwwww.” ❤

We’re avid cycling fans and in 2014, while visiting in France, we watched a stage of the Tour de France, waiting for hours almost at the finish line at the top of the grueling Planche des Belles Filles, the pain clearly etched on the face of every finisher. The agony here isn’t of defeat. Vincenzo Nibali was both the stage winner and leader of le Tour 2014.

Where’s my person?????

Finally, a photo of our younger daughter with the red rocks of Sedona in the background. I had to take the photo as I would never have been able to do this myself!

Direction

One-Word Sunday: direction

Some things really should be self-evident!

Six-Word Saturday 3.23.24

And it’s also green.

Yesterday you peeked at some of the beautiful wildflowers gracing the desert right now. These photos are from the same trip, highlighting the green brought about by the rains we’ve experienced.

Patches of yellow flowers.

Clouds and light, just right.

The desert is starting to bloom.

Last weekend my husband finally had the weekend off, so on Saturday we hopped in the 4Runner, driving into Tonto National Forest in search of wildflowers. Although the desert was showing off its green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day the next day, we didn’t see many wildflowers until we got some distance in. In a staging area for dirt bikes and off-road vehicles that apparently came from the Mad Max series, we came across the glorious patch of poppies, no Wicked Witch or Wizard of Oz in sight.

I love lupine and although there weren’t many of them, they were beautiful.

Even the cacti were breaking out in spring finery, although much like a beautiful woman who’s prickly, you’d best mind your manners and keep a respectful distance!

There was rain in the distance, but where we were, the sun was shining. But I appreciated the drama the clouds added. A clear blue sky is lovely, but clouds generally make a photo better.

Wordless Wednesday…just the two of us

LAPC #291: Cityscapes

Cityscapes. That’s where Patti’s going this week and where she’s asking us to go. Although we live in the suburbs, the suburbs are really part of a city. Cities come in all sizes and in all shapes. They can be lovely and compelling or they can be deadly or deadening. Probably there are parts that are each. I’m not sure what you think of cities, but while I enjoy things about them, I prefer living at a distance from them and visiting.

“A city isn’t so unlike a person. They both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. They see many faces. They tear things down and make new again.”
― Rasmenia Massoud, Broken Abroad

Here are my takes on cityscapes. Let’s start with Chicago as reflected in the iconic Bean, perhaps my favorite thing in that city.

In the Southwest, a saguaro cactus can be a small city for a variety of birds and insects. Here’s an apartment in one such city.

Some years ago while visiting San Francisco with my husband, I spotted this eye-catching sight, one that could just as well be in New York City or other city with this type of hotel or an apartment building looking like this.

“The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more successfully, casually (and economically) its people thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can thus give back grace and delight to their neighborhoods instead of vacuity. ”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

In France I was introduced to insect cities and fell in love.

Thankfully I wasn’t driving when we visited San Francisco on this occasion, crossing the Golden Gate bridge.

“I liked the idea of living in a city — any city, especially a strange one — liked the thought of traffic and crowds, of working in a bookstore, waiting tables in a coffee shop, who knew what kind of solitary life I might slip into? Meals alone, walking the dogs in the evenings; and nobody knowing who I was.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

When you want to sit and watch the people go by in the (small) city.

I think a big city might look best at night, as does Los Angeles in this shot from Griffith Park.

“There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I’m born to leave.”
Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: in search for The Great Perhaps

Finally, it’s back to France to the picturesque city of Colmar, showing it’s history as part of the tug of war this area experienced between France and Germany. The outcome is completely charming as this shot of Little Venice shows.

“Cities that exist in harmony with nature are also most welcoming to people.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

Friends

Orchid

One Word Sunday: orchid

These two scents make perfect scents

Six-Word Saturdays 3.16.24