Let is Snow

Snow. So many of you today are out there playing in it, thoroughly enjoying it. Or maybe you're  cursing it. Two years ago, we traveled to Illinois to spend the holidays with my parents and it snowed on Christmas Eve. It was magic, I tell you. magic. I grew up with snow but for most of my adult life, have only lived in cities where snow is a rare occurrence. I'd forgotten how magic it is. How quiet it is. How it so silently covers every little thing in sight. How it seems to make color and light sing.

Today, show us magic. Snow magic, that is. Dig up the old favorites. Or, if you have snow, get out there in it and make some new ones. Whatever the case (or whatever the weater), share a few shots of your outdoor surroundings with us here with us today as we recoup from the haze of the holiday.

b is for blur

Because it's how I remember things. It's how memories unfold in my mind. when I close my eyes and try to remember, this is what I see: lovely, blurry scenes. I've been shooting this way for a while, for three or four years now. Not exclusively, of course, but more and more. I intentionally throw the focus until it feels rights. Until it looks like what I see in my mind. So often, these are the images I revisit, the ones I come back to again and again. These are the photographs that tell the real story. They spin like records on a turntable-- soft, scratchy, inexplicably magic. 

If you've not yet tried it, go ahead. Today, I invite you to intentionally throw your focus. Fiddle with the lens til you find magic. And please, share the blur. Share it with us here today.  

today

"There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear." -John Cage

What did you see today? I mean really, really see? What made you stop? What had you reaching for your camera? Won't you please share it with us here today?

Evening

There's a sweet relief that comes with evening. The light shifts from gold to blue and like clockwork, I feel my shoulders drop, the hard angles of my body soften. As the sun goes down, I know I can count on the routine of the evening to get me through. There's nothing particularly unusual about it-- dinner, conversation, laughter. Last minute playtime, last minute homework, a collection of bedtime rituals. And then the house is quiet. The sky, finally dark. We collapse onto the big green couch, my husband and I-- let it swallow us whole. Well, we say, we made it through another day. We look around. Dirty dishes, everywhere. Stacks of books, papers, dirty socks, legos scattered like confetti. We're exhausted but we made it through another day. And we're thankful.

Today's prompt is 'evening'. What do evenings look like at your house? Please do share an image or two with us today.

water

Jump in and for a second, you are wholly submerged. Underneath, the silence is opulent. Your body fights buoyancy and tiny bubbles quietly suggest you take up full time residency. You think you can stay under forever, you are weightless and everything is so quiet. If you're able to open your eyes, the scene plays out like a random dream sequence. Limbs seem disconnected from torsos and move through the water in clumsy, lovely ways. You think you can stay under for hours. For days, months, years even. You always think this but you know that you can't. Eventually, you've got to come up for air.

Today, share your images of water with us. Leave us a link in the comments below, add your images to the OWP flickr pool or tag your images #sselevate on instagram.