For this challenge our host Tina has asked us to explore the magic of light.
To help celebrate this week’s anniversary of America’s National Parks I am focusing on images from three of the National Parks we have visited.
Sunrise in the Everglades is always a special event. The following images were captured at sunrise from the Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park. The sky put on a beautiful light show as the sun rose over Florida Bay.
The next two images were taken two years apart at Many Curves Overlook in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The sun was shining in the spring of 2011 when I captured the image on the left. We returned in the summer of 2013 when I captured the image on the right.
Next we go to Zion National Park in Utah. I captured the following two images of the Watchman peak while waiting for sunset. As the sun was setting a full moon was rising.
Our host Patti has challenged us to show what our inspiration looks like. I find my inspiration in the natural world.
In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir
Starting the day by watching the sun rise adds inspiration to any day.
The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.
Claude Monet
Black Eyed SusansSunflower on a sunny July DayGulf Fritillary on Mexican Sunflower
The natural beauty found in America’s National Parks never ceases to inspire me.
Grand Canyon North Rim Roosevelt PointGiant Redwood in Redwoods National ParkHot Spring, Yellowstone National ParkHalf Dome in Yosemite National Park, California
If you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere.
Vincent Van Gogh
Spoonbill and Snowy EgretWhite tail deerGreat Egret
The weekly challenges from the gifted lens-artists hosts Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy always inspire me to be a better photographer. I’m also inspired by all of the talented WordPress bloggers who respond to the challenge with their wonderful photographs.
Our final guest host for the month of July is Ana Campo of Anvica’s Gallery. Her challenge is Postcards. She writes about thinking about how many postcards were used in the past “to congratulate, as a souvenir of the places we visited or simply as collectibles.” The above image is a real post card I brought back from our trip to Hawaii.
Once upon a time, when long distance phone calls were too expensive, before Facebook, Instagram, WordPress blogs, and many other internet options were available, travelers would mail postcards to their friends and family back home.
I love receiving postcards so when we were planning our first RV trip across the U.S. and Canada I knew I wanted to send postcards to our grand children. I have kept up that tradition for all our trips, whether we were gone for a few months or just a few days. I enjoy picking out the cards, writing to them about our adventures on the back of the card, and even searching for a mailbox to mail them.
The cards usually were 25 cents each and sometimes I could get 5 for a dollar. I still have a collection of extra cards that never got mailed.
Sometimes as I edited photos from a trip I would find one almost identical to a postcard I had purchased! For this challenge I chose to show three postcards and my similar photos. The cards are in the left column with my photos in the right.
I hope my grandkids had as much fun receiving the postcards as I had picking them out, writing them, and searching for a mailbox to mail them.
It was my pleasure to host last week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #158: Along Back Country Roads. Thank you Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy for inviting me to host. Many thanks to every one who contributed to the challenge. Your beautiful photos took me along back roads of the United States and Canada, and around the world to South America, Europe, the U.K, India, Kuwait and many more amazing places. Thank you!
I am honored to be guest hosting this week’s Lens-Artists photo challenge. As I pondered what topic to choose for the challenge I thought about how many of us are happy to be able to travel again. For this challenge I am asking you to show us your images that show your interpretation of going along a back country road. It can be a road where you walk, go for a bike ride, take a scenic drive, go off-roading in a jeep or four wheeler, or a road you take to get somewhere.
To me, a back country road can be any road that’s off the beaten track. The road can be paved, gravel or dirt. It can be one that takes you through farmland, desert, forests, quaint small towns, or in the middle of nowhere. It may even be one with quirky roadside attractions or funny signs you see along the way.
When we go on a road trip we enjoy getting off the main highways for a more scenic drive. Recently, we have even started avoiding interstate highways altogether. The header photo at the top of the page was taken on the Dalton Highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Have you ever driven by a dirt road and wondered where it went? That’s just what we did one time when taking a scenic drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. We couldn’t resist turning on the road in the first image below. I don’t remember where we ended up but the beautiful stream shown in the second image ran beside the road.
Sometimes the only way to get where we want to go is on a dirt or gravel road. These next three images are examples of some we have taken in our adventures.
The Great River Road in Arkansas follows the Mississippi RiverTop of the World Highway in Yukon Territory, CanadaA steep dirt and gravel road to Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina
On a recent trip to Orlando, we traveled over 1,000 miles without driving on an interstate or major highway. It was heaven not dealing with semis or drivers passing us like it was the Daytona 500.
The roads were paved, two lane roads with little traffic. There were some fun things to see as we drove along.
Bison farm near Darien, GeorgiaWoodbine Fire Museum and Antique Shop on Highway 17 in Woodbine, GeorgiaBusinesses just outside the Ocala National Forest, FloridaI wondered where this road went in the Ocala National ForestLunch was delicious at this popular local restaurant in Salt Springs, Florida
I’m honored to be one of the guest hosts for the month of July while Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy took the month off.
In your post, please include a link to my original post and use the Lens-Artists tag so everyone can find your post in the WordPress reader. Be sure to check out the first three guest hosted challenges.
Wandering Dawgs 