Just when you think you’ve outsmarted them, they eventually find a way to reach the food. I guess he was tired of picking up the scraps from the ground!
Oh well, there’s a lot to be said for being resourceful!
Winter forms our character and brings out our best.” ~Tim Allen
I don’t know about you, but it’s about this time of year when I begin to long for warmer, sunnier days of winter. But, like life as I push through the damp, cold days I come out stronger as the seasons begin to change.
How about you? Do you find the “winter days” help build your character?
“Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” This photo doesn’t do the morning sky justice, but I couldn’t resist trying to capture the moment. BTW, see that big tower in the background? That’s soon to be the new North American Headquarters for Thyssenkrupp Elevator Company. It’s over 400 feet tall and is located next to the Braves Stadium. Michael has literally watched this come out of the ground when there was nothing more than a pile of dirt. Take a close look, you’ll be seeing more of this when it’s complete. 😉 Happy Thursday! #redskyinthemorning#sunrise#atlanta#thyssenkrupp#daybreak#morning#wintermornings#photography#photoops#viewfrommywindow#donnarobinsonphotography
“Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics.” ~DaveWillis,org
This week I challenge you to be the encourager and not the critic, including with yourself😉! Just one positive word of encouragement can go a long, long way.
Such a simple statement about how beautiful true friendship can be! You don’t need to have a lot of friends and sometimes the friends may not live close by. But the best of friends do make the world beautiful!
“Monday is not the day to be back at the grindstone. Monday is the day to be back at your passion. If you’re working for the weekend you’re doing it wrong. Give it your all EVERYDAY!” ~unknown
I can honestly say I found myself working for the weekend when I was in Corporate America. Every now and then it’s ok, but what if we think about our careers as the fuel to our passion, perhaps our perspective of Monday’s would improve.
What is your passion? How will you give it your all everyday?
A while ago I started posting inspirational/motivational quotes on my Instagram Account. I typically post these on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. They’re my way of inspiring and encouraging others through my photography and inspirational quotes. With the New Year in full swing, I thought it would be helpful to share these posts here. Sometimes I add my own thoughts about the quote and others times I find it more appropriate to let the quote and photography speak for themselves.
Below is this week’s quote. I hope you find it inspiring!
Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year. There is something so wonderful and special about the cooler weather and changing colors of the leaves. In the Fall, Mother Nature has a way of nudging us to slow down and pause.
And so, with Mother Nature nudging me to pause last week, I couldn’t help but combine a little bit of exercise with a photography outing. Even though we live in the city we are surrounded by several county and federal parks with the Chattahoochee River meandering through and alongside most of them.
For my exercise/photography outing I was hoping to capture some of the wild birds camping out on the river. But, it was high that day and the rocks where they normally rest were completely submerged. So I had to settle for some landscape opportunities instead.
This particular park is loaded with several little creeks which the deer and other wildlife feed from. This stream is about a mile into the park.
A small creek just off the main path.
I was just making the final turn of the path and had to go back because the path was flooded. It wasn’t deep and I’ve used the stepping stones before (with Michael’s help, of course), but since I had my camera with me I didn’t want to risk being thrown off balance.
I’m actually glad I had to turn around, because I was able to get this great shot of the inside path loop. Don’t you just love how the trees frame the path?
It may not have been a good “bird siting” day, but I did manage to get a little bit of wildlife into my photos. This little, fuzzy caterpillar was just hanging out on the ragweed (at least I think it’s ragweed).
As I mentioned earlier, there are several creeks running through this particular park.
As for the exercise portion of my outing, the path is a 3.52 miles around and my Fitbit tracked me with 4.5 miles. I’ll take it!
For those of you who have been following me for a while, you may remember a post from a few years back titled For the Love of Photography “The Accidental Sunflower Garden” . The post was about two (2) beautiful sunflowers growing wild in our backyard thanks to a few leftovers from our backyard critters. They were so much fun to photograph that summer. One photo even managed to make its way into my Etsy Shop as both a greeting card and matted print.
So, you can image my delight when the same thing happened this year! Lucky for me, this time they were growing on the lower section of our yard and within easy reach of my macro lens.
When I discovered them, there were three (3) scraggly little stalks each growing at different heights. From a distance they weren’t much to look at except for a few buds and one (1) bright yellow flower standing tall with its face pointing towards the morning sun.
As I moved closer to the tallest stalk, I noticed the brightest flower was surrounded by a few other buds each waiting for their chance to shine.
Macro photography of a sunflower
Macro photography of a Sunflower
Rain droplets on the Sunflower petals
Clearly, the sunflowers had another purpose in their short lives. The garden insects quickly found them and began to nourish on their sweet nectar and delicate petals.
Green bug devouring the Sunflower petals
Fortunately for me, the bees didn’t seem to mind my camera lens snooping around them.
Bumble Bees gathering nectar
But my favorite shot is the one below with the detail of the disk florets beginning to take shape. Don’t you just love the geometric shape growing from the middle outward?
Disk Florets beginning to take shape
It’s been a few weeks now and the flowers are beginning to shrivel up and the stalks are slowly drooping towards the ground. I’ll miss my little sunflower garden once the blooms have all faded away. Hopefully, if they’re left undisturbed, they’ll dissolve into the earth and will come back bigger, stronger and brighter next year!
I love the beginning of a New Year. The fact it is a new decade makes it even more exciting. Some may look at the turning of a calendar page as just another day or month but to me the New Year brings a sense of self reflection and renewal for all things possible.
2019 definitely brought the opportunities to follow my passion in oh so many ways. As I reflected on the events from last year I pulled together a few of my favorite photos to remind me of how fortunate I am that God has me in a place where I can immerse myself in doing the things I enjoy and spending time with those I love.
I am truly grateful, humbled and blessed for those who reached out to me for help with their photography needs (along with all the great help I had along the way) and look forward to what 2020 has to offer.
Speaking of 2020, I came across a great quote which seemed so appropriate for staying focused on the things you enjoy. The quote is by Mike Rowe and it goes like this…
So, I leave you with this thought. Whatever your passion may be, whether photography, writing, painting, pottery, singing, needlework, helping others, parenting, etc. don’t just chase after it….. LIVE IT! DO IT! BE IT! BRING IT WITH YOU EVERY DAY!
Here’s to 2020 and a new decade of “Bringing Your Passion With You!”