Silent Sunday
Photography
Lens Artist Challenge #345 – My Go to Places
It’s a new week of the Lens Artist Challenge and John from Travels with JohnBo has us sharing our “Go to Places” for photography (you can read John’s original post here). It’s a wonderful theme and one that I didn’t have to think too much about, because really any place I have my camera becomes my “go to place.” But specifically, my “go to place” is anywhere I can be outside connecting with nature.
It can be in a garden enjoying the blooms and color while watching the birds and insects gathering food and nectar:
It can be a walk in the park on a Fall Day enjoying the crisp air and changing colors of the leaves:
Or walks along the beach taking in the salt air and ocean breezes.
So where is your “Go to Place” when you need inspiration?
Many thanks to John for this wonderful challenge. Next week, Sofia will host. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss her post, which will go live next Saturday at noon Eastern time.
Until next time.
~donna
Lens Artist Challenge #344: Abandoned
Well, Anne sent me heading down a rabbit hole this week. A rabbit hole that almost had me on a point of no return. A rabbit hole that had me traveling back in time twenty (20) plus years. A rabbit hole full of memories and painstaking regrets of not being more organized with my photos. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to pull myself up out of the hole and focus on the challenge at hand!
This week Anne challenges us to think about abandonment in photography. You can read her full post here. I doubt there is a single photographer who isn’t drawn to “things” or “properties” that are abandoned. Afterall, photographers are curious by nature, always looking for the next photo and always looking to tell (or create a story) with their images.
Take for instance this abandoned train car, Michael and I stumbled upon in Hartwell, SC. Why it’s there I have no idea, but as I wandered around it, I couldn’t help but to think about the many passengers who traveled on this car. Who were they? Where were they going? How long had they been traveling? Why was the train left on the tracks in the middle of a field? So many questions to be answered.
Sometimes, we stumble upon unfortunate, temporary circumstances of abandonment. Take his mail carrier, who abandoned his vehicle in the midst of an unexpected Atlanta ice storm. Looks like he decided to heck with the postman’s motto “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But there are still questions like “Where did he go?” “What happened to the mail left unattended?” I guess I can’t blame this postal carrier too much. Ice in Atlanta is not a force to be messed with.
Other times, new life is breathed into the old and abandoned when communities find a way to repurpose them while preserving their original characteristics and a little bit of their history. Whether an old mill or laundry center like the photos below, you can’t help but wonder who the people were that filled these places so many years ago. What was life like during their respective time periods?
Oftentimes, abandoned places offer up great photography backdrops like the one below. Can’t you just imagine this as a backdrop for senior portraits or perhaps a movie setting? Located in the small town of Senoia, Georgia I took this photo of abandoned railroad tracks thirteen (13) years ago on one of our day trips. Little did I know at the time we would one day call this home. I’m still learning about all the history of this small town and I’m hopeful one day I’ll be able to uncover the story behind these abandoned tracks.
Thank you, Anne for this wonderful challenge and trip down memory lane. It was fun to scroll through many forgotten images and revisit days gone by. For those of you who would like to join in on this challenge, be sure to link to Anne’s post in the “comments” section and also use the Lens-Artist tag.
Until next time!
~donna
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
When Cardinals Appear – An Afternoon Visitor
They say when cardinals appear a loved one who has passed has come to visit. Cardinals are frequent visitors to our yard so it’s hard to say whether or not they’re family members coming for a visit, or just simply coincidental visitors.
Last Sunday as I was in the kitchen meal prepping for the week out of the corner of my eye, I could see this little fellow hanging out on a bare tree limb. He was a perfectly bright red color with a beautiful black mask surrounding his beak. I desperately wanted to snap a few pictures of him, but I knew he would fly away before I could get the camera ready. To my surprise he just kept sitting there, looking around from side to side, puffing up his chest with no sign of budging.
Finally, I pulled out my camera, attached the 200m to 400m lens (the big lens as Michael calls it), raised the blinds and……..ugh! The windows have screens on them! Obviously, auto focus wouldn’t work, so I switched to manual focus. That was a little better, but not perfect. Trying to hold the camera (the big lens is heavy) and adjust the manual focus made it difficult to get a sharp image. Oh well, he was such a pretty bird I decided to make the best of it and kept on shooting.
This guy stayed on the limb for at least 10 – 15 minutes. Was it a family member? Who really knows for sure, but for me personally, just having him hang out for a while brought some comfort and a smile to my face.
Until next time!
–donna
Cellpic Sunday – Secret Hiding Places
We’re beginning to realize that we never know what we’re going to see on our daily walks. Last week, as we were making a turn on the path, I noticed something (I wasn’t quite sure what at first) moving around, slightly peeking in an out of a hollow tree.
As we drew closer to the tree, Michael and I slowed down so as not to startle the critter and to get a better look at just what it was. If you guessed a squirrel, you would be correct. This little fella wasn’t the least bit scared of us, so I was able to snap off a few shots of him (or her), slowly coming out of its hiding place.
I was able to get one last shot of this cutie coming out of the tree, stopping for a brief second, before he decided to scamper off.
About the images. I used my Samsung Galaxy 20 Note and only did a little editing in Photoshop. A quick haze removal, slight saturation adjustment and some cropping is all these photos needed. I was surprised that I didn’t need to add any sharpness (except for the feature photo) after cropping.
Our walks are fun and as I mentioned earlier, we never know what we’ll see/discover.
-Until next time,
donna
Cellpic Sunday – Mystical Gnome Village
Michael and I have found a great walking path near our new home. It’s on a golf cart path that meanders through the natural habitat of Flat Creek, several neighborhoods and a golf course. About halfway through our 8 – 10-mile walk is the cutest gnome village that someone strategically (and very creatively) placed around the base of a tree. It sits just off a golf cart path between the 10th and 11th holes, so you can’t help but to stop and look, whether you’re walking or playing golf!
I’m not one to carry my camera with me on our daily walks, so I pulled out my Samsung Galaxy 20 to capture the focal point of the make-believe village. It was an overcast day, so I brought it into Canon Digital Professional to pump up the lighting and saturation a little. I then brought it into Photoshop for cropping and blurring the background.
What really drew me to this village was the detail the creator went to, in making this door and having it perfectly fit within the trunk of the tree! Notice how they also placed the gnome (one can only assume the lead gnome😉), tiny mushrooms, a snail and a mailbox. Again, the creator went to great lengths with their imagination!
I’ve recently taken more photos of the rest of this little village, so stay tuned for Part II of “Mystical Gnome Village” 😉
Until next time!
-donna
Silent Sunday
Wordless Wednesday
Donna Robinson Photography 