Every Day is a Gift!
Terri’s latest Sunday Stills color challenge is Amethyst. Here are a few flowers that I hope will brighten your day.
Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge The Purple Haze of Amethyst
Also shared with Terri’s Flower Hour #17.
Every Day is a Gift
What have you seen or experienced that has astonished you? The challenge is to include photos about things that astonish you and tell us why you are astonished.
I got the inspiration for this challenge from these words by Mary Oliver from her poem “Sometimes”:
“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention
Be astonished
Tell about it”
According to the Merrriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of astonished is “feeling or showing great surprise or wonder”.
There are so many astonishing places and things to experience in our world if we just take the time to pay attention to what is around us. Sometimes we can be surprised by something in our own backyard or neighborhood. It may be something in nature or it could be something created by humans like a piece of art or interesting architecture. We may want to travel to see astonishing wonders of nature or things created by humans. The challenge is to show us what astonishes you. What makes you go “WOW”?
I can find wonders all around my neighborhood and my own back yard when I slow down and look around me. It’s the little things like these that bring me joy. I’m astonished that this weird looking caterpillar on the left will become a beautiful Gulf Fritillary like the one on the right.
I plant flowers in my garden to attract hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators. During the warm months I keep my hummingbird feeder filled with fresh nectar. No matter how many times I have witnessed it I am always astonished when I see one of the huumers hovering in mid air.
I am always astonished at the vastness and power of the ocean. These waves were crashing on the beach as a tropical storm was approaching Tybee Island, Georgia.
Sometimes my husband and I travel long distances to see astonishing sights. When I pay attention I often find astonishing things I wasn’t expecting to see.
I was in awe of the ancient giant Redwoods in Redwoods National Park in California. I spent most of my time looking up, taking in their enormous size.
And then I looked down at the forest floor and was astonished to discover the beautiful trillium flowers were blooming.
My husband and I have traveled to Arizona twice to visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon is awe-inspiring and makes me feel how truly small I am in the grand scheme of things.
We spent two months in Alaska in 2013 and every day brought new things that astonished me. Seeing and hearing a glacier calving was one of those events that has always stayed with me.
Not only was observing Whooping Cranes in the wild an astonishing experience, knowing that they migrate 2,500 miles from Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge every fall was even more astonishing. After wintering in Texas, they begin their migration back north to Canada about mid March each year. We made a special trip to Texas to see these magnificent birds who once were on the brink of extinction.
I am always astonished when I see ancient structures built by humans that have survived for thousands of years. I’ve never seen the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China but I have seen the Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. How did they build these structures and how did the people survive in the harsh environment?
Last week I enjoyed all of your wonderful shapes and designs in response to Tina’s challenge. Thank you to everyone who joined the challenge..
I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. I can’t wait to see what astonishes you. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to this post.
Be sure to check back on Saturday, February 14 at noon eastern time when Ritva will be hosting the challenge.
For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.
Every Day is a Gift
In Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge she reminds us that February is Feed the Bird month. Her challenge is Let’s Feed the Birds in February. For this challenge I am focusing on two birds I photographed in February earlier this week.
I went out in my back yard the first day of February to see the dusting of snow that had fallen overnight. A few small birds were searching for food on the ground and at the feeder. The featured image is a House Finch. The following bird is probably a female or juvenile Eastern Bluebird perched in the snow.
Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Let’s Feed the birds in February
Every Day is a Gift
Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge is Storm. She titled her post “Riders on the #Storm” and took us along on a some of her stormy road trips.
Terri’s challenge reminded me of a cross country RV trip we took towing our 5th wheel trailer. We left home in early April, 2007. Our plan was to drive north to Wisconsin and then travel west on I-90, visit Olympic National Park and then drive south along the coast on Highway 101 to see the Pacific coast in Washington, Oregon and California. What we didn’t plan on was driving through snow during the first part of our journey.
We started seeing snow flurries in Illinois. When we got to a campground in Wisconsin the snow was really coming down. The featured image is of our dog Blondie in the snow for the first time.
We left Wisconsin and started west on the interstate. We ran into a huge snow storm in Minnesota. The road was icy and driving on it was terrifying. We decided not to try to go any further when we saw a sign for a motel at the next exit. We parked in the motel parking lot hoping they would let us stay for the night with our dog Blondie. The desk clerk was very kind and let us have a room near the parking lot exit so we could take Blondie in and out without disturbing the other guests. Luckily they had a restaurant and we were able to have a hot dinner. We kept our eye on the weather and the road conditions all night. The next morning the roads were predicted to reopen later in the morning. The hotel staff was very helpful and let us have a late check out while we waited for the roads to open.
When the roads were opened back up we hit the road and continued west. We arrived safely at a state park.The rangers checked us in and since we were the only campers there and we could have any site we wanted. The water was frozen but there was electricity so we were good. We had quite an adventure camping in the snow in this beautiful park.
The next day we continued our westward trek. The weather was clear the next few days as we wandered around South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana without any problems. Our final stop in Montana was another snowy adventure. Everything was fine when we went to sleep that night. The next day we woke up to several inches of snow. We were headed west with more snow moving towards us from the east so we got out of there as fast as we could and arrived safely at our next destination in Washington.
We were grateful to have survived the storms and were able to enjoy nice traveling weather for the next two months as we continued our west coast adventures.
Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Riders on the #Storm
Every Day is a Gift
For this challenge Egidio is asking us find some photos that we have rejected because for whatever reason we have not previously published them. Maybe the lighting is wrong, they are out of focus, they are too busy or they just don’t look right.
Egidio gave us some great examples and ideas on how to improve a photo that didn’t turn out the way we hoped. I chose a few photos to work with and had fun using some of his suggestions to edit them to create a better image.
A year ago we took a boat tour through the swamp in a Louisiana Bayou. The conditions were terrible for photographs. It was winter and pouring down rain. I used my cell phone because I didn’t want to have my camera get soaked. As our guide was telling us stories about witches and ghosts in the swamp we passed by an old cemetery. In the photos below the first photo is the original unedited version I took as we went by the cemetery. It is out of focus and doesn’t have the creepy feeling I wanted. I started the editing process by cropping the photo. I then added an old paper filter and added texture to get the effect I wanted.
In the next pair the unedited version in the first photo was taken a few years ago on a jaunting tour through Killarney National Park in Ireland. I wanted the person in the blue shirt to stand out more so I cropped out the horse’s head and added some texture to the finished photo.
I took the original photo of the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming as we were driving towards the park entrance. I thought the original was kind of boring so I converted it to sepia tones and added texture to give the feeling of an old photograph.
My final edit is of a herd of bison in Custer State Park, South Dakota. The unedited original on the top is ok, but not great. For my edited version I started out by cropping for a closer image. Next I adjusted the color a little and added a texture to give the effect of a painting.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Ritva’s Minimalism in Black and White last week. I really enjoyed seeing all of your great responses.
Many thanks to Egidio for his challenge Lens-Artists #382: Rejected. I hope you will join us for the challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and link back to Egidio’s post.
Be sure to check back on Saturday, January 24 at noon eastern time when Egidio will be hosting our next challenge.
You can learn more about how to join the Lens-Artists challenges here.
Every Day is a Gift
Wandering Dawgs 