Life: Through the Lens

Sunrise, Sunset Sunrise, Sunset Swiftly flow the years..... Our travel this past week has been to love and support and cry, To run errands and help with paperwork, To hold hands and tell some stories, To celebrate the life of one person, and To grieve the loss of four others. Each person a role-model for living a caring and meaningful life. Our journey is fragile. One plane meets the decptively beautiful water, Life changes forever, And the community comes together as one. Remember how we cared about each other during this crisis, as the years go by. Remember to celebrate life each day of our lives. Care, help, participate in the life we've been given. Our journey is fragile. God bless....

I've decided to create a Travel Tuesday regular feature, and we'll link our blogs together based on the travel theme. You can create a travel post based on a journey near or far - sometimes your back yard is the best place to travel, don't you think? Just send me a note and your blog address and I'll add links to your pages from my own. I've been a bit negligent in keeping up with everyone's blogs, but I will say I enjoyed Georgia's post on being by the water, today. I'm sure her sentiments are shared by many. And Oasis, on Shuttersisters , speaks loudly to being in the moment, wherever you are. Lens.Us.Together has themed weeks, and this week is all about lazy summer days. So....whether you travel near or far, there is much to see in our world. I caught up with Roamin' in the garden this morning. He's been feeling a bit left out lately, as he missed the trip to Texas and New Orleans. We began reminiscing about adventures we've had togethe...

We do love photographing nature and wildlife, but we also love to photograph people and places. New Orleans is a wonderful location for architecture, culture and atmosphere. Sometimes when you travel you have to grab your opportunities, and the shooting situations may not be "prime." This means, you may not have the best light, the best temperatures...the best time of day. I'd be willing to bet that if you have choices, you don't choose to go to a hot, humid climate when you know it's at its peak - like New Orleans in July! The only time we had for our whirlwind visit was on the way home from our daughter's, in Texas, and we didn't have much time to work with. This is how we found ourselves wandering the French Quarter of New Orleans on a hot, humid Friday morning in July. Doing the best we could meant trying to shoot as few contrasty scenes as we could, which was really tough. The hazy morning certainly wasn't conducive to sharp, crisp images, so we ...

We have just returned from a trip to Texas, welcoming grandchild 9 into the world and spending time with her parents and big brother. What a special time it was for everyone. On the way home we decided to take a side-trip to Louisiana, specifically New Orleans. It is such an interesting area, and one touched by tragedy more than once. Three years after hurricane Katrina devastated the area, you can still see signs of the horror the people of this area must have experienced. There were concrete slabs where once there were homes. Boats rusted in marsh areas and tributaries of the mighty Mississippi. Buildings abandoned when water and storm damage made repairs impossible. In the retelling it sounds as if the area looks like a battle zone, but this is not the case. We found ourselves looking hard to find the evidence of the devastation, as the people have done a phenomenal job of rebuilding, and getting on with their lives. Unfortunately we weren't there long enough to really talk with...

Another 4th of July - a day to celebrate how far we've come, and how far we yet have to go. Enjoy time with friends and family, enjoy the celebration, and be grateful for the blessings bestowed upon us. Enjoy!

On the road again, though you wouldn't know it from this photo. As many years as we've tried to find a fawn on our acreage, I had to come all the way across the country to have the chance to see, and photograph, one. My daughter and I were sitting looking out the window in the middle of the day, and there they came, walking across the back yard. I have lived on 40 acres and spent hours walking and looking and waiting, yet I can cross the country to a home in the suburbs and see one in the back yard the day after I arrive. This does not seem right! One of the things I really like about traveling is finding those pockets of local color, still life unique to these different surroundings. A couple of days ago we visited a lovely little town nearby, where I found a number of things to photograph. Just look at the colors and textures in this photo, taken outside a shop which looked just as inviting as this colorful display. Another thing I like is finding texture and pattern ...

This year we have a flower garden. Not that we haven't tried before, but the rabbits and deer seem to "win" more than we do. But this year I decided to be more aggressive in my attempt to grow flowers, for both decorative purposes and photography. We put a fence in front of the front walk, close to the house for maximum control, and I have been nurturing a variety of flowers and plants for a few weeks now. Not known for my green thumb, I am going to defy all odds this year and demonstrate that I can, indeed, keep flowers not only alive , but thriving for an entire season! I will keep you updated as the season progresses, and hopefully my posts will be both colorful and fragrant:). Enjoy!