Patti asks us to present three photos of a subject which bring the viewer ever closer to the details of the subject. This past week has been extremely stormy and wet here on the Long Beach, WA peninsula, so I am pulling from my archives to accomplish this challenge. In past posts I have featured the North Head Lighthouse, a lovely old one on the promontory at the approach to the Columbia River.
Volunteers have helped raised money to refurbish North Head, constructed in 1897, and located in Cape Disappointment State Park. In November 2012, the Coast Guard turned over ownership of the light station to Washington State Parks.
Tours of North Head’s interior are conducted by volunteers who provide history lessons as visitors wind up the stairwell to where the light had been, with gorgeous views in all directions.
The original first-order lens from North Head is on display at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Cape Disappointment State Park.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Patti, for another excellent challenge. Wish I had time to do more!
Kaї Love vs Money 2017Laura Ford Bird 2007Aristide Maillol La Rivière 1938-1943Jim Dine Big White Gloves, Big Four Wheels 2008Kan Yasuda Door or Return 2001
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Egídio challenges us to find qualities of silence in our photographs. Following the guidance of photographer Robert Adams, Egídio suggests that we feature five specific ways of expressing silence.
Though you may have seen this photo before, it is still my favorite image where the light creates a profound sense of stillness and tranquility. Taken from the deck of Cabin 1 at Beach Haven, Orcas Island, WA looking west.
My family has been fishing on lakes at the summit of Willamette Pass, Oregon for decades. This photo bears “silent witness to environmental change on the landscape as a result of human activity.” Just a few years ago, the waterline of Crescent Lake came all the way up to where I stood, as I took this photo. Drought and the demand for agricultural irrigation have had a significant impact on this once verdant place.
Many of my photos feature silent landscapes with no human presence: The Silence of the Subject. Here, a Bald Eagle soars out over the wetland and forest at Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco, WA.
Left: every time I walk along the surf’s edge at Long Beach, I remove a shopping bag full of trash from the shoreline. Right: on the pathway from the beach to The Breakers Condominiums is a pole which through the years is over-loaded with flotsam, and surrounded by junk. Some of the litter is understandable, like ropes and buoys that get blown away or dislodged from boats in heavy ocean waves and gales. The rest of it is plain human negligence. This is my silent protest against the destruction of our environment and the violation of earths natural beauty.
I struggled most selecting my best photo to represent The Silence of the Viewer. The goal here is to “bring the viewer into a contemplative mood and a silent dialogue with the image”. While on a beach walk, I chanced upon this alter set near the berm, and the scene captivated me. Hope it does the same for you.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
A big shout-out to Egídio for suggesting this tough and thoughtful challenge. Instead of watching or listening to news for the next four years, I intend to use my time exploring beauty through Lens- Artists posts, and being out with my camera.
For this week’s challenge, Ritva asks us to dig deeper than the surface beauty of our photography to reveal through them “the interplay between shadow and light, ultimately capturing the essence of optimism that arises from seemingly insignificant openings in our world.” She asks us to “let each image tell a story, convey an emotion, or illustrate a moment of seeing light.” To begin I shine the spotlight on some of the magic I found at the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House while in St. Louis, with my sisters this past week.
A Paper Kite butterfly (Idea Leuconoe), has emerged from its chrysalis and hangs suspended soaking in the light of life as it continues its metamorphosis journey.
This King Swallowtail (Papilo Thoas) has moved away from its chrysalis and clings to a wall in the chamber gathering strength. Notice how much more full and thick its wings are compared to the just emerged Paper Kite.
Amid the flowers in the Missouri Botanical Gardens, this Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is the first I’ve ever seen and photographed in the great outdoors! The remainder of my post features the first stanza of a poem I wrote, with illustrations from my photo archive.
“Light is Life”
Light percolates through mist,
Light clenched in dense fog,
Light splintering between dark clouds,
Light casting a rainbow prism,
Light is life.
Thank you to Ritva for this inspiring challenge. When we open ourselves to the beauty of light and life, we fill our being with “hope, healing, truth, love and peace.”
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
This week Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed, encourages us to experiment with Intentional Camera Movement. I have never tried this technique before, and if I were at home I would make myself go out with my camera and play with it. However, this week I am in St. Louis, where my older sister and I are visiting with our younger sister at her home and taking day trips to see new sights.
Looking through the photos I have taken here, this one of the St. Louis Arch behind the clock tower of Union Station, is the only one that qualifies. I was kneeling down to get a good angle when I pressed the button on my cell phone. The rest are close enough in spirit, like those of JohnRH of John’s Space, that I decided to include them.
Citygarden is located within the Gateway Mall, an urban green space extending from the Gateway Arch grounds to Union Station, in downtown St. Louis. Zenith, a bronze sculpture created by Mimmo Paladino, is one of 29 sculptures resident in the gardens. Seeing it through the windblown tree branches adds to its mystical quality.
We had hoped to take a sunset ride on the Ferris Wheel, but when we arrived we learned it had been reserved for a private function. Still, it was delightful be close up and see the wheel change colors against the night sky.
Oh, the Butterfly House! Now there’s true magic. In this photo, one Heliconius rests on a leaf, as two or three others flutter about.
Next to the Butterfly House is a lovely old Carousel from 1924. Of course we had to take a ride! I really like this shot of the carousel horses reflected upon the inside windows, as we circled around with the wind whipping leaves outside in the grounds.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Sophie asks us to “look back at things you love(d) in your life, things that have happened, places you visited that you’d like to experience again. Anything, really, as long as it’s part of your treasured memories.” Here are places I loved and hope to visit again.
View of Mt. Baker from Ferry on the way to Orcas Island.
For thirty years Creighton and I took our summer vacation at Beach Haven Resort on Orcas Island, WA. We were avid bicyclists in those years, and toured every island where the Ferry docked. When I look at the photos, I see how young and active we both were
View from the summit of Mr. Constitution
There is no way I would try to bicycle up Mt. Constitution now; pedaling 4.8 miles, gaining 1,840 ft (561 m) at a 7.3% average grade! However it was a challenge we accomplished every year we visited.
Another thing we both loved was making music with Bill, an absolutely amazing guitarist. For several years the three of us played and sang swinging Jazz and Bossa Nova together as the “Jazz Casual Trio”. Over three summers, Bill vacationed at Beach Haven too, and we jammed on our deck and also performed for the guests at Beach Haven. Bill moved to Ashville, NC several years ago, so making music again is not in the cards, however a visit to Beach Haven is something I’d like to do again.
Creighton took us for a visit to Albequerque, a community he always enjoyed. We visited the Native American Historical Museum, shopped old downtown, and other sites. The best part was taking the tram to the top of Sandia Peak 10K above the town and seeing the lights at sundown.
For our 25th wedding anniversary, Creighton and I took a three week trip to France. We were hosted by his cousin Catherine, and her husband Jean-Francois. They took us on an intimate journey of France and the Le Coq family history in Bretagne. We were welcomed and entertained by many aunts & uncles and extended lines of family. I would love to go again, and tuck in a visit to Scotland as well.
Thanks to Sophia for this challenge. All of these photos are non-digital, as you can see from the fuzziness! Still, they bring back fond memories and it was such a delight to dig into the old photo albums to find them.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
In this week’s Challenge, Anne-Christine asks us to show photos that express the “mood of a place of situation.” What a wonderful topic to help me escape (if only for a while) the angst caused by hurricanes worsened by global warming, and politics fueled by divisiveness and deceit. In response, I have selected some of my favorite places and scenes in nature that visually express the poetry of peace and serenity.
The golden hour of sunrise at the Breakers, with mist rising from the dunes, and sweet beagle Jello. Mist and fog are both favorite mood-makers for me. They filter light and soften the edges of any landscape.
“Somehow I believe we search for surroundings that lift or match our own mood.” (Leya)
The green bower over the Martha Jordan Birding Trail, Leadbetter State Park, wraps me in tranquility. As my beagles sniff the underbrush, I amble, enjoy the sights and breathe.
An immature Bald Eagle, surveying the incoming tide, appears calm and unruffled.
When sunrays shine towards earth through clouds at sundown, the sight is awe inspiring. The technical name for this phenomenon is Crepuscular Rays. Somehow that just doesn’t fit how I feel when I witness these events! Understandably, many call it God’s Rays, and I have settled on Twilight Rays.
To conclude this journey through nature’s tranquility, another golden hour photo, this one at sunset on Long Beach, WA.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Anne-Christine (Leya) for this opportunity to calm my soul!
Thank you to Patti for inviting us to look around and find those wonderful moments of unexpected beauty. Often, as I am wandering along trails or walking the beach – or just about anywhere – I’ll see something that tickles my fancy and snap the photo. Sometimes they are duds, yet more often than not, I find a charming delight, and often mystery in them.
There were wildfires burning all around Odell Lake in central Oregon, when I was fishing with my family this past August. As I looked across the smoky lake, it reminded me of photos I’d seen in magazines of fishing boats in far-off lands surrounded by mist.
This strand of jewels is a bit of drying wave-foam reflecting light from the afternoon sun.
Could it be the Milky Way? Not quite. It is the reflection of our Sun, upon shallow tide water at Long Beach, WA. I was captivated by the beautiful shimmering light on the surface, and now I have a perfect excuse to show it to you! The original image is essentially black and white, to my eye the process filter creates more sense of depth.
Natures sand-art is another favorite subject of mine, like this single mushroom in the dunes with the shadow of grasses crossing it.
In previous posts I have featured this beautiful “by the wind sailor” jellyfish (Velella). Completely at the mercy of wind and ocean currents, these small blue gems can be found washed-up on shores around the world.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Patti for an opportunity to shine a light on unusual occurrences in nature that I find beautiful!
Walking With Eagles is a collection of original poems and photographs by Lindy Low Le Coq. A lifelong naturalist, amateur photographer and bird enthusiast, Lindy’s verse, composition and photographs open a window into the essence of her subjects. Her poems and photography reflect the rich natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest.
Bald Eagles mature over the course of five years. Walking With Eagles invites the reader to take a poetic and visual tour of this odyssey.
view ~ Walking With Eagles ~ in top menu bar for a preview, though the folio is much nicer!
Lindy Low LeCoq 