Pacific Quest ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Gone, But Not Forgotten

Whenever I walk by this sign, it gives me pause to contemplate what it must have been like to navigate this country over two hundred years ago.

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Another Beagle Wins My Heart ~ Sunday Stills ~ Pets

On November 7, Miss Jello came to live with us from the home of a loving young owner who needed to place her right away.

IMG_1595_2Two days later we hosted a family baby shower and Jello was very much into it!

IMG_1659Yesterday, about twenty friends and neighbors came to our home for a Welcome Yule/Pearl Harbor Day party.

It appears a good time was had by all! IMG_1731 - Version 2Another Beagle winning my heart!

 

 

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Come Together ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Converge

This week’s challenge is to explore how lines and shapes can converge in interesting ways. In these photos, taken on a recent visit to Orcas Island, the lines in nature brought my focus to a point in the distance and created a sense of wonder and mystery in the process!

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1970 Vietnam War Protest ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Accomplishment

As this week of highlighting “accomplishment” comes to a close, I feel compelled to talk about my participation in student protests against the war in Vietnam. It was a time of passion on college campuses, and a defining moment for our country. Creighton and I had been married less than a year. We were both students at the UW; he was a month away from earning his BA and I was a junior. When the call came out to march, we joined in. We walked side by side past the Burke Museum, west on 45th Street and onto I-5. When faced with a line of SWAT police officers, those of us in the front sat down.

Seattle3-May-5th-257This was one of many marches that occurred across the nation — and it made a difference. The leaders of our country could no longer ignore the rising tide of civil discontent. I still am proud to have been a part of this remarkable, grassroots movement, which remains as proof that when a group of people have a reasonable argument that is ignored by their leaders, they will rise — and change will occur.

Seattle2-May-5th-cropThanks to Al Young — who marched with Creighton and me and is still a dear friend — for giving me the link to these photos: http://www.pophistorydig.com

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Project V ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Achievement

There are many things I’ve done successfully which required effort, courage and/or skill. Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, 45 year marriage (through better and worse, in sickness and in health) a 30 year career, a home to live in and a yard to play in. When I started this blog, my goal was to “be the artist I am.”

Recently, I completed five illuminations to illustrate a poem that will be in Judi Goldberg’s (judigoldberg.wordpress.com) upcoming hand-made book of poems — Cross Purposes. In a future post I will provide photos of the making of these illuminations. In response to this week’s challenge here are the five finished V’s — an achievement I treasure.

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River Otter at Dawn ~Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Minimal

P1020800 - Version 2Another lovely scene with no photographic enhancements. Just what it looked like as I snapped the shot.

 

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Readers ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Minimalist

I have been waiting for just the right challenge to post this shot.

IMG_0278

I love to capture moments like this when by accident of light and place a perfect image presents itself.

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Downward Climb ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Descent

Into The Palouse June 20, 2014 landing in a Horizon airplane at Pullman-Moscow Airport.

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Autumn Surprises ~ Sunday Stills ~ Fall Folliage

It’s berry ripening time here in the Pacific Northwest. Holly berries are shading from chartreuse to tangerine and the Porcelain berries are showing us why they have that name! Throughout the Willamette valley you will find vast acres of Blueberry shrubs like this one with bright crimson leaves shining.

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Bending Light ~ Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Refraction

Refraction occurs when light passes into a transparent material. Instead of reflecting or changing the path of light (as my Sparkle photos of light on water show) refraction bends the light, changes its direction as it passes into another transparent material of a different density, like glass, water or lenses. The best examples I have in my archives are from a visit to Old Point Loma Lighhouse in San Diego, CA.

Point Lorma was one of the original 8 west coast (USA) lighthouses built in 1855 in a Cape Cod style. Its forty foot tower rises from the center of the lighthouse keeper’s house, and is fitted with a third-order *Fresnel lens.

The site has a small museum with displays including the third-order Fresnel lens from the New Point Loma Lighthouse, and the fourth-order lens from the Ballast Point Lighthouse.

P1000630The third-order *Fresnel lens (above & below) has twelve bull’s-eyes. Its focal length is 500 mm and it has an optical area of 1.576 mm.

P1000632 - Version 2

The fourth-order *Fresnel lens (below) has a focal length of 250 mm and an optical area of .722 mm.

P1000631
* French physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827) reasoned that it was the surface curvature of lenses which gave it focusing power. He reproduced the surface curvature of a thick lens in sections, maintaining the same focal length with a fraction of the weight. The lens strength in diopters is defined as the inverse of the focal length in meters.
Now I see the light!

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