For this issue of Picture to Ponder I am simply combining images reflecting decor and reflections with one photograph of nature.
Today’s Photos –
The top photo is looking inside a lamp in a restaurant in Delray Beach. I love the contrast of the sharp vertical lines of light with the softness of the reflections in the glass.
The middle photo is the pedestal of a glass sink in a small bathroom in the home of one of our subscribers whom I had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago. I was captivated by the reflections in it. Thank you Beth for allowing us in your home. You can see the sink by clicking on the photo or clicking BETH’S SINK.
The bottom photo is, I’m thinking, of leaves from one of the varieties of palm plant.
Today’s Photo Story –
There is no particular “story” around today’s photos. The lower two have been cropping up for a while as ones wanting to be shared and the top one “surfaced” today.
Although quite a contrast between man-made and Nature, they hold together in presentation through similar colors, light and shadows and linear movement.
I will say, as I consider the third photo, I think of Peggy one of our subscribers who has written to me about my featuring “dead” flowers. I now wonder at her response to these leaves. See Last Issue COMMENTS.
For me, generally the first thing that catches my eye is texture, then whatever form of movement there is relative to line and/or repetition of patterns and colors.
I’d love to hear from you in the COMMENTS section at the end of today’s post on the blog, what your responses are when I feature photos of items that are “past their prime.”
Self-Reflecting Queries –
Today, I invite you to look at the contrasts in your life, be they in the physical world, in your activities and/or in your interpersonal relations.
Are there one or more commonalities that hold them together? If you start noticing this for the first time, can you what you find as threads for other situations?
I also invite you to simply be more open than usual this week to seeing things that you do not ordinarily see or pay attention to. What is it that attracts your eye? In noticing, can you relate that to anything else in your life?
With regard to paying attention, I suggest that you remind yourself a couple of times a day to simply open your eyes and look. Sitting in a chair, this morning, I glanced out into my backyard and noticed the brilliance of the lights and shadows on the wall of high plants. There was nothing different than usual AND by my looking only in that direction for a moment or two I experienced an unexpected pleasure.
As always have fun with these queries and looking/seeing. Also, please post your responses in the COMMENTS section below.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Sheila, what a treat to spend some time with your photos and thoughts. Thanks for the reminder to pick my camera up and get out there again taking photos (after getting derailed by travel, a cold, broken AC, etc., which all take time & energy). I’m always re-energized when I do get out and look at things differently.
I especially loved the first photo – the light.
I will start noticing more again, camera in hand or not.
Thanks!
Lynn
Thanks, Lynn, and you’re welcome. I’m surprised to hear you’ve not been out with your camera. It seemed so routine for you.
And, I can relate. Believe it or not there are days that I go without using mine. Then when I’m feeling yucky, I am reminded “it’s camera time. There is always something new to see.”
Hi Sheila,
Gee, I feel sort of notorious! No one’s ever mentioned my name in a blog before. You take some very interesting photos. The first one today struck me strongly as monks standing around an Eternal Flame of energy. Or something.
The second was all about reflections and color and had a lot of depth and serenity.
And the drying fronds? I didn’t have the same reaction to them as I did to the “vintage” flowers, probably because I’m used to palm fronds in various stages of drying up on the trees. Since they’re hard to take off unless they’re really dry, we often let them hang about until they drop naturally, and they morph threw a variety of vivid colors including orange. I like the texture in that picture.
It’s all subjective, isn’t it? The world is what we think it is, what we make of it. The aging flower picture looks like a brown velvet skirt spread out for an elephant to gaze at, or …
I’m drawn to texture, too. I’ve probably taken 500 pictures of tree bark up close, and 500 of lichen.
Thanks for sharing your unique eye for beauty!
Aloha
Thanks, Peggy, for your comments here. I figured you already contributed to your “notoriety” 🙂 when you responded to an earlier post here and used your name. I always like to give credit when it’s due and usually ask first. Per the latter, I assumed it OK.
I love what you wrote here. Your descriptions are wonderful AND I’d love to see some of your photos. Do you have them anywhere online? Are you familiar with FlickR? If not, I have a PDF I created for participanst in my Through and From the Lens Courses on “How to Use Flickr”. If you’d like it, email me and I’ll send you the link for the PDF.
Hi Sheila,
I’d appreciate a copy of your pdf on how to use Flickr. My daughter uses it all the time for her photos and I’d like to start doing the same.
I hope to do a photo “processing” session this weekend – need to prep and print for a trip to the mainland – I’ll send you a couple of my favorites.
I’m OK with using my name – I like the dialogue that develops during comments, and I always enjoy your perspective.