Black and White Inspiration…

My daughter tagged me on Facebook to do a Black and White Photo Challenge a little while ago.  The challenge was to post a black and white photo every day for five days.  When she first tagged me, I simply didn’t have enough time to get it done.  I wasn’t spending much time with my camera or my computer except for mostly “work” related things, but I put it in the back of my mind and determined to get to it.  And I did and will post the five photos today.

When I first saw the tag, I kind of cringed internally because I really didn’t have time for it, but ultimately I was glad for the tag.  It got me out with my camera and thinking about what to do during this kind of difficult time between fall and real winter when things outside are rather dull.  I have found over the years that if you look hard enough, there is always something interesting to be seen.  But the simple practice of inspiration is often not that easy to come by and a little push is appreciated.

So starting in January (or maybe before), I think I might embark on a Fifty-two Week photo project.  Problem is I am not sure what theme I want to go with.  I did one a few years back when I took a Purple Monkey with me everywhere and got him into all sorts of situations.  He’s here on my Flickr site.  But what to do next…  If you have a suggestion, I’m more than willing to consider it.  Meanwhile, I am going to do my best to not let the hype of the Season get me down.

Yes, I'm bad at math, but I do know there are more than five photos here.  There are a couple of rejects amongst them.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Another Sunday...another Scavenger Hunt.  Here are the prompts:

  Glow, Old, Shadow, Spring and Smile.  And here's what I came up with.

On my way home from the grocery the other day, I noticed that the pond was nice and flat and the sun was in an interesting spot.  I had to stop.  Here is Blueberry Island with a nice GLOW.

What's better than an OLD barn?   Nothing!

A ride out in the country this time of year reveals lots of tree SHADOWS.

There isn't a whole lot of stuff springing out around here yet but Carrie and I came across this nice row of willow trees the other day.  I love how they turn gold in the SPRING.

Question of the day:  Do Bearded Dragons SMILE?  I think they do.

LINKING TO ASHLEY SISK'S SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY!

A black and white night…

Like many people in the world today, I struggle with bouts of insomnia.  The magic hour for me is usually right around 4:00 a.m.  My eyes spring open and I lay there in the dark staring at the ceiling thinking, “WTF!  Not again.”  Normally, I just pick up whatever book I’m reading and read for a while.  Between five minutes and an hour later, I am back in dreamland.   But now and then, it just doesn’t work.  I can’t shut my mind off and I just have to get up.  That happened to me the other night.  I decided to get up and work on editing some photos…a practice I find very relaxing.  In the light of day, I checked out what I did the night before and here is what I saw:

I almost deleted it without a thought.  To me it looks like an illustration out of an Edgar Allen Poe story or something sinister like that.  But I guess, I was just in the mood for black and white in the middle of the night because I did a couple more, although these seem a little cheerier.

Personally, while I have nothing against black and white photography, I really like color.

  So here’s to a good night’s sleep!

Black and white fences….

I took a lot of photos of the snow last week and looked through them hoping to find a fence, but there were no fences in the whole batch.  Must be that the snow was so high all the fences were buried.  Oh, well…  So I went back to our trip down to Florida and found a couple that I like and will post them today for Friday’s Fences.  These particular photos were taken somewhere off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia.

LINKING TO FRIDAY'S FENCES.

Feeling black and white…

I’ve been sitting at this computer most of today trying to get things ready for a meeting I have to go to tomorrow evening.  It’s true I should have done most of the work in the month since our last meeting, but I guess it’s a fact that I would rather mess with my photos and photo accessories than to do actual work.  So here I have been getting stuff done at the last minute.  I must admit to being pretty sick of looking at my computer screen.

Not only that, but pug Olive is staring out me with the most pitiful look.  It is past her dinner time and Greg isn’t home to feed her.  It is up to me to rescue my dog from the depths of despair, which she reaches every day about this time.  She is positive no one will remember to feed her and she will have to try to figure out how to open the food door herself.  Believe me, she much prefers to have her servants to do it for her.

Okay, enough said.  I am going to post a couple of black and white photos that I have been working on this week.  I know in advance that I won’t have time for the Scavenger Hunt tomorrow.  Bah!  Life is getting in the way of my photography.

LINKING TO THE WEEKEND IN BLACK AND WHITE

Sunday Scavenger Hunt…

Here are my entries for this week’s Scavenger Hunt.

TRAVEL:  If you’ve followed my blog even a little bit, you know that I love to travel.  I feel very fortunate at this time of my life to be able to go to places that were out of reach when I was younger.  One of the things I really like about travel is the research that goes into the trip beforehand.  My “go to” travel books are the ones in the Eyewitness series.  I love these books because they are full of photos and you know I love photos.  By the time I ever get to the place we’re going, I have thumbed through the book a million times.  Currently, I am wearing out the Norway and Sweden books because that’s where I want to go next year.

SILLY:  Any of you out there who are living with a pug know that pug is the perfect definition of “silly.”  Our pug Olive is silly and she doesn’t really need to do anything to make herself that way.  She came out of the womb silly.   I mean, just look at her…  I consider having a pug is a true blessing because the pug’s innate silliness makes me laugh every day and it sure is good to laugh every day.

BLACK AND WHITE:

SPOTS:  We finally got a bit of rain this week.

PAPER:  I am old school.  I read the newspaper every day.  And on Sundays, I read two newspapers.  My favorite sections of The Boston Sunday Globe are the Ideas section and the book reviews.  I save those for last…well, I save the crossword puzzles for last really.  Anyhow, I love reading the newspaper.

The news is always easier to take with a good cup of black coffee.

Linking to Ashley Sisk's Scavenger Hunt Sunday.