Photography | Change Is Hard

This week the WordPress photo challenge was light…and not just light that makes a photo interesting but the actual source of light. Once again I had a few ideas that weren’t all that practical. It’s so easy to get overly ambitious when it comes to photo challenges.

But when I drove into my driveway this evening I realized I had light right there in front of me.

Home

Stop by WordPress to see other interpretations of light. There are already over 800 comments; randomly click a few and see what you find. There’s still time for you to show us your version of light as well!

Meanwhile I wish you all the warm light of home in this holiday season.

Wordless Wednesday`

November 27, 2013 by dawnkinster 14 Comments

November 25, 2013
by dawnkinster 16 Comments

Weekly photo challenge – Unexpected

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is Unexpected. I have a photo in mind, but as I mentally work through my schedule for the week I realize I’m probably not going to get there. That felt disappointing.

And then I was going through photos I took on a drive down to Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon and found something. I took this through the windshield of a moving car. At the time I thought the light on the lines was…well…unexpected.

All I have done to this photo is crop it, taking out the noise of the rest of the street scene.

And that other unexpected subject? It might show up later.

Unexpectedly.

November 19, 2013
by dawnkinster 15 Comments

Re-entry

Larger than life

I have survived the first day back to work after being off for a week. Can’t say that it was easy. I felt as though I had been to another country and gone for a very long time. I suppose that’s good, it must mean that the vacation successfully removed me from the stress of the office.

Even bigger

But being back in the cubicle was difficult today, too many emails, too many issues, too many people that needed something. Too much to do in too little time. I’m sure I’ll get back on top of it, get it back under control.

Relaxed

Meanwhile I hope you enjoyed a few more photos from last week, photos I hadn’t had an opportunity to show you yet. I didn’t take one of them, all the credit belongs to husband, but they remind me that there is more out there in the world than my beige cubicle and that sometime, hopefully soon, I’ll be off on another adventure.

Tips of the mountains

Far or near, adventures sure make things better!

Fly away

November 18, 2013
by dawnkinster 25 Comments

Weekly photo challenge -layers

When I saw the weekly photo challenge was ‘layers’ I immediately thought of a watercolor piece of art and how the layers of paint create the image. But I don’t have a water color available right now to show you.

Then I thought of the layers of clothing that runners wear now as the weather gets colder. But I couldn’t think of a creative way to show you that.

I even thought about the bark on some trees I saw in California last week, the colors there were layered and the bark was peeling off. Interesting and pretty but not exactly what I wanted.

Then I thought about the saying we use when we’re trying to get to the truth – to peel away the layers like an onion – and I knew what I wanted to do.

Off to the grocery store I went to collect some onions, many sizes and colors, layering in the texture and interest…with one large red onion cut to more explicitly express layering.

So there you have it. My interpretation of layers.

Time to make some soup now.

November 16, 2013
by dawnkinster 7 Comments

Between here and there

It’s quite easy to see the beauty of the ocean or the giant trees; easy to see the photo opportunity in beautiful canyons or majestic mountains. When you’re traveling you’re always looking for that outstanding photo, the one that tells the big story. It’s easy to miss all the little things when you’re going from here to there.

On this California trip the place between the big photos was mostly farm. And just as I am at home I was drawn to the farmlands there. The deep black fields, the orderly lines of crops or vineyards, the homesteads far off the road surrounded by acres of crops or by nothing at all.

I want to go back and concentrate on the places between here and there, the places that aren’t so easy to photograph, the places not so glamorous. Not so obviously beautiful.

I want to think about where our food comes from. I watched cabbage being picked in a huge field, and though I only saw a moment of the action as our car raced by, I saw cabbage heads furiously being tossed by stooping men crowded close behind a trailer hauled by a tractor.

I want to think about the true cost of our food. Affordable fresh food comes to us on the backs of people hunched over in a field. And what do these people get paid? I don’t know enough. Just like the fast food workers fighting to earn a living wage, how are these cabbage pickers living?

I want to think about our food supply I’d like to understand more. And I’d like to show you how beautiful the places between here and there are, not from a speeding car, but more slowly, more carefully.

More thoughtfully.

November 15, 2013
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

The long goodbye

On the beach

We spent the day headed down Highway One saying goodbye to the Pacific yesterday, stopping to play among the waves and sand at several beaches. The first was early in the morning at the deserted Ocean Beach, just north of the Vanderberg Air Force base. I had my shoes on so didn’t venture into the water. It looked cold.

Ocean Beach…original name

The second, and best, beach we visited was the Jalama Beach, a county park where we had to pay a $10 entrance fee. Worth every dollar. There’s a campground there that I’d visit again in a heartbeat, right on the beach. Being November there were a lot of spots available. It made me want to fly home and pack up the tent and Katie and head right back out here. Though I think all the pounding waves, salt water and funky kelp on the beach might not be to the princess’s liking.

Anyway, this beach had a few more people on it, like the surfer…

Surfer dude

…and the fisherman.

Fisher guy looked warmer than surfer dude.

I played in the water here and got quite wet. Turns out the ocean wasn’t as cold today as it was yesterday. Or maybe I was just getting more acclimated.

Jalama Beach – wonderful!

We stopped somewhere just north of Ventura to watch some people sailboarding. The wind was strong and they were just flying across the water.

Almost flying

We ended the day watching the sun set at Malibu. Amazing I know; sunset on Malibu’s Zumba Beach!

We had no idea the beach is home to about a gazillion trillion seagulls. Or more.

Some of the many

I found them quite fascinating. They sat in massive groups…

Waiting for the next flight

…and then flew as a unit when anyone approached them.

Jogging at sunset

I almost missed the sunset I was so interested in the birds.

Catching the last light

It was a lovely day that ended in a lovely place with the moon rising over Malibu.

California moon

I can’t ask for more. Except maybe more time in California.

November 14, 2013
by dawnkinster 18 Comments

Magical

Today’s topic is magic. No not in Disney kind of magic, but in the way you feel about a place. That it’s magical for reasons perhaps only known to you.

We visited Hearst Castle yesterday. It’s opulent and way over done for my taste, yet it’s still magical.

Mr. Hearst built this on land he inherited from his parents. They had gone camping on top of this hill when we was a boy, and after they died he decided to build ‘a little something’ because he was getting too old for camping in a tent. There are 192 rooms, almost all done in heavy Italian or Spanish style.

I was most fascinated by the ceilings, each room different. You can see the European influence in the ceilings of the Gothic library where he ran most of his businesses remotely way before remote working became a trend.

Notice the deeply coffered ceilings in the library. I can’t imagine the man hours required to put that together.

And I was taken by the intricate detailing of the ceiling in Marion Davies’ bedroom.

But what made this house so magical for me were the pools…both the indoor tiled pool under the tennis courts…

…and the outdoor Neptune Pool overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Sitting next to the pool, enjoying the sun, with my feet up I could, for just a few magical moments understand what it felt like to be a wealthy socialite visiting the Hearst ranch. It felt pretty good.

After our tour of the castle we wandered the coast again. We stopped for a bit and visited with the seals just up the road from the castle. They were feeling pretty good themselves, enjoying the sun in a way only seals can.

A couple of them were doing a little bit of young adult male testing the waters so to speak as they played a bit of a duel.

But most of them were just enjoying a day at the beach lounging in the sun, having a magical California afternoon.

Finally, further down the beach we found the best dog park ever!

What a great place to run and play in the waves! I got to get my feet wet too, and noticed these cool patterns the water and sand made as each wave receded.

I can’t tell you how many photos I took of not ripples…it was hard to catch it just right and I couldn’t see my camera screen in the bright sunlight to tell. But this is exactly what it looked like and it was magical. I loved having my feet in the ocean, even if it was darn cold. Nothing a kid from Michigan hasn’t felt before!

Actually, having my feet anywhere in California has been great. Couldn’t ask for a better vacation so far. Where to next? Hmmmm…I have no idea. Let me put my feet up here next to the pool and think about it.

Or nap. Whichever comes along first. Magic.