Scrolling through some photo files from a few years ago, I came across this photo taken in Illinois where water is generally abundant. I’m not likely to get many dew/raindrop photos in Arizona, but I also wouldn’t be getting spoonbill or cacti shots if we were still in Illinois. 🙂 This is a close-up with a telephoto lens, meaning I had to stand about 6′ away. When I took my Nikon, I didn’t always want to carry extra lenses. Needs must.
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge might have you seeing double. Although most things aren’t truly symmetrical, many are so close that you can’t tell the difference or you feel that you’re seeing symmetry.
When I think of symmetry, the William Blake poem springs immediately to mind:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Fortunately for you, there’s nothing fearful about the symmetry I’m sharing today. The snowy egret in this first shot is almost dancing on the water and with the water’s smooth cooperation, it’s almost perfectly symmetrical.
“Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference…”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées
Here’s another almost symmetrical shot from the Riverwalk in Naperville, Illinois.
Although this photo is less symmetrically perfect than the previous ones, there’s still a pleasing almost-symmetry about it and it feels balanced.
(more…)Cee’s Len’s-Artists Photo Challenge this week features single flowers. I realized I’m spoiled for choice, but that’s not a bad problem to have.
My first photo, an iris, was taken with an iPhone and has been one of my most popular photos. Of course, the light is what makes it and I never again could get that same light. Then the older man who grew these beauties on his tree lawn died and the family dug them up.
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.”
― Luther Burbank
Now that we live in the desert, I think it only fitting that I should include a shot of a cactus flower. Although you might not think it, the cacti have some of the most beautiful blooms you’ll ever see. Just be careful when getting a closeup!
“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
As my time in McDowell Forest Preserve begins to come to a close, I look back and realize I’ve seen many wonderful things. But until recently, I hadn’t seen a beaver. I’d seen their work: the gnawed on or gnawed down trees. I’d see the attempts to prevent that work: fencing around the bottoms of young trees. I’d seen what I thought were their dens, but I’d never seen an occupant.
(more…)I tend to be up before the sun, literally, but sometimes I’m around when the sun sets. On Christmas Day, I needed a bit of time away and walked around the little lake near our house. This was the view that greeted me, perhaps photos I should have used for my December 31st post.
Since I inadvertently posted my Friday flowers post on Friday New Zealand time, I’ll take this opportunity to share a wonderful Veteran’s Day display, the Healing Field of Honor, in Naperville. I was fortunate because, due to the weather, the flags weren’t taken down the day after Veteran’s Day and now I can share it with you as well.
Nuts!
