Filed under: Cats, Movies, Photography | Tags: Cats, Flora, Movies, Parks, Photography
This tree with huge, twisting limbs and a gigantic canopy is my homage to Avatar.
It’s hard to show its vastness and contortions, even with a fisheye lens.
One can almost imagine the Na’vi living among its branches.
Its uppermost leaves mingle with those of other trees, contributing to a tropical feel.
This hometree has many stories to tell, I’m sure. Many living beings have sheltered in its shade, although probably none as exotic as the Na’vi.
Did you see the movie and like it? I loved it, not just for the awesome special effects and beautiful scenery but for its spiritual qualities and touching story. It was just a movie but I keep thinking about it days later so I guess I got my money’s worth.
Sun vs. Rain
glistening berries
sparkling in brilliant sunlight
foreshadow wet gloom
I can’t write poetry like my blogger friend, Unilove, but anyone can write bad haiku…and I just did.
I’m a traitor to my desert. I try to always preface my whine of “I hate rain,” with “I know we need it, but…” But I’m not the only one now…others are being bold and saying it, too. For the past 6 weeks, we have had 1-2 rainy days a week, very unusual. I think we’ve already hit our average rainfall for the year. And that’s good, I know, because drought is really bad but I’m sick of it! And it’s going to rain again this weekend. We will have a lot of wildflowers because of it…and more bugs in the summer…and a lot of dandelions now but it’s a good thing…I guess.
Filed under: Phoenix, Photography | Tags: 52, Phoenix, Photography, Religion
This isn’t my church but it’s the Catholic church in my neighborhood, the one whose lovely bells we hear chiming, St. Thomas the Apostle. For my 52 Project, I went there on Ash Wednesday but the place was jam-packed and the traffic was horrendous so I went back on Thursday instead and captured these images in the late afternoon sun.
Here is St. Thomas, carrying his symbol, the square rule. I’ve always found the attributes of the saints very interesting.
I had a little difficulty making the above pentaptych because I realized, when I got home, that I shot everything in portrait orientation so it was hard to make an interesting arrangement. It’s strange because I usually shoot more in landscape orientation.
This triptych is for Week Six of my 52 Project self-assignment. Week 6 was last week and I took these photos on a day off from work, having roof repairs done. I usually like shooting in the late afternoon because of the shadows and quality of light but these were taken around noon. All the flowers and trees looked like they were reaching for the light.
Now we’re in Week Seven and I had a shoot planned for after work today so I actually left work on time, went home, changed, and got my camera but there was a huge, huge crowd and tons of traffic where I wanted to be so I left. I’ll have to try again tomorrow. There shouldn’t be any crowds then as my shoot was going to be occasion-oriented. It’ll still work as long as I can get the shots I want…even though they won’t be taken on the exact day I had in mind.
Filed under: Arizona, Blogging, Cats, Photography, Valentines | Tags: Arizona, Blogging, Cats, Flora, Photography, Valentines
Happy Valentine’s Day! One of my blogging friends, Camilla, at Bloom, often uses textures on her photos and they’re so lovely. I’ve never done it before, other than the built-in textures on Photoshop Elements and they don’t look that great. But I found some free textures on Flickr by NinianLif and this is my first attempt at incorporating them with my photos. This is the Valentine I wish I had sent out instead of Plan B which will be at the end of this post. The text is from a poem called, I Want You To Know, by Micere Githae Mugo, a Kenyan/Zimbabwean poet who is now a professor at Syracuse University.
Now the exciting moment that you may possibly have been waiting for…
Google, my helper, is informed of the rules:
With eyes closed, he randomly selects 2 pieces of paper from the official sombrero:
He then methodically places the winners’ names where they can be photographed:
YAY! First prize goes to Pat of Lost and Found and second prize goes to Don of Slackwater! I’ll notify you by email so you can send me your addresses. Your Arizona prize packages will go out in the mail either Monday or Tuesday after work this week and will be winging their way to your homes.
Thank you to everyone for reading my blog and entering. I’ll be having another giveaway in a month or 2, non-Arizona related.
Happy Arizona Statehood Day and Happy Valentine’s Day.
