Anticipation

   

After all the holiday rush, January is always a let down for me.  The days are short, the air is too cool and everything seems drab and colorless.  Wanting spring and all it's glory to be here now, I find myself searching out color anywhere I can, be it the finches that populate my bare tree or the many spring seed catalogs that arrive in my mailbox on a daily basis.  My anticipation of the new season is palpable and I find it difficult to wait for the colors of spring.

What about you? Are you a spring or winter person? Please make my winter a little bit brighter and share with us your seasonal shots, too. 

taking a moment

As I sit here, scarf around my neck and a steaming cup of tea close at hand, I know by the way my head is spinning that I wasn't able to outrun the cold and flu season. Drat!

Now, more than ever, it's time we pause and take a moment. To slow down. To let our bodies rest. To give our mind a few minutes off. To look around, breathe deep and appreciate the little things. No matter what is going on around us.

I won't be telling your how many days there are until Christmas, I promise. Instead, I will urge you to move more slowly. To give yourselves a little extra time to get to the places you are going. To drive more carefully than usual. To try to keep your mind on only one thing at a time. To avoid distractions. To exhale.

If we all use our collective energies to slow it down a bit, maybe we'll actually feel it in the air. All of us together, taking a moment.

In honor of the day...this day I declare is the day for slowing down (why not?)...share an image of calm, of peace, of stillness. Show us what it means to use your camera as the tool to take a moment.

I'm feeling a little bit better already, aren't you?

unexpected beauty

"The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." ~Marcel Proust

The other day while driving I spied something I wanted to photograph.  I pulled my car over as I often do.  Kids snug in their car seats,  not batting an eye at my behavior.  I am sure they both look at each other with a look of knowing... there goes mommy, taking a picture...  Autumn is in full swing here in Maine and the past few days have been beyond beautiful.  Everywhere you look, eye candy.  The trees glow in the sunlight.  That is what brought me here, to this spot, those glowing leaves.  My neck should hurt right now from constantly looking skyward at them.  As I got out of my car, camera in hand, i carefully side stepped a puddle breaking my focus from my intended subject just for a moment.  It was just an ordinary puddle on a dirt road,  a place where many cars pull off so a mix of oil from some other vehicle had leaked into the puddle. I was mesmerized.  The darkness of the puddle,  the swirling opalescent colors of the liquid, a lone fallen leaf floating in the mess. I was transfixed by this beautiful swirling canvas.  

I eventually made it past the puddle to the giant orange tree,  but those shots were not the favorites of the day like i assumed they would be.  No, this shot, this strangely beautiful, unexpected shot was the one i loved and keep coming back to.  

What unexpected beauty have you captured lately? Share it with us here today.

signs of change

Change.  The word has been ringing in my ears for a few weeks now.  The leaves on our trees are beginning their change from greens to golden browns. My kids returned to school ending what felt like the best summer vacation in years. The temperatures are dipping from the heat of summer to the cool of autumn.  The daylight is shortening.  So much change all at once.  It can throw a routine loving girl like me off balance.  Rather than fight the change I take out my camera and search for the beauty in the signs. The morning I dropped my son off at his first day of first grade I was really feeling tender.  I had my camera on me since I had just snapped what felt like a zillion photos of him walking into school, his new classroom, and of course, he and his backpack.  On my way home I took the long way.  I stopped a few times, each time getting out of my car, camera in hand, searching.  For what I had no idea.  I just needed to slow down and take those few minutes for myself.  I tend to go small on these occasions.  Beauty in the details sort of thing. Most of summer's wildflowers have come and gone here already.  The queen anne's lace have turned inward.  The once pretty parasols of white flowers now wrapped upward as if they are holding on to one another.  A true sign of season's change.  I snapped away at them and somehow felt lighter, happier.

As we say goodbye to another season what signs of change do you find?  Please share your images with us.

gearing up for spring

The grass is still brown and the trees are not budding yet. But there's a buzz in the air. Easter bunnies and bright, colorful scarves and boots are appearing at every turn. Spring is coming and there's no turning back! Not only is spring the a great time for shopping, it's one of the best times for photography. As the color starts coming back and the days get longer I always feel a renewed sense of inspiration.

I want to see how spring is creeping into your lives. Leave us a link and show us your "early" spring photos.