Tuesday Photo Challenge – Vegetables

Orange you glad about carrots?

Last week’s challenge was of a more abstract nature in asking you to share your visual concept of the Human Spirit.  This week, in the tenth installment of TPC, I am going back to a more concrete concept in calling on you to share your best image(s) of Vegetables.

Of course, you may think that this will be an easy challenge, and you can make it that by taking a quick Instagram photo, but I’m counting on you to do much more than that!  In this challenge, I’m looking forward to seeing some of your creativity at work in putting together an image that is worthy of display.  Creativity in portraying your vegetables might involve color choices, composition, light angle and whatever else you may think to include!

A simple example is this organic carrots image that I did a couple of years ago.

This image is a simple approach to setting up a shot using a bit of lines to lead the eye, color repetition (that’s just orange paper) and a cutting board to provide contrast.  I used reasonably soft light to eliminate any harsh shadows, which would take away from the carrots.

For those who’d like to participate in this weekly challenge, the rules are the following:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

I am confident that there is going to be some serious creativity this week!  And don’t forget to invite your friends to the party and remember to have fun!!

Technical Details

This image was captured using a Canon EOS 5D Mk III using an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens.  Exposure settings were 1/100 second at f/8 at 1o0 ISO.

Summer Solstice

Sun salutations abound!

Yes, folks in the Northern Hemisphere!  It is the longest amount of daylight for us today, as we’re graced with the Sun’s presence longer than any other day this year.  The good news for readers in the Southern Hemisphere is that you’ll get more daylight tomorrow and each day after for the next six months.

On this day last year, I was in Iceland enjoying the days around the longest day without any night to speak of; at that time of the year, the Sun doesn’t go far enough below the horizon to let the night darken.  It was a magical time!

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Sunny Day!

This shot is from up in the hills in Northern Iceland, where I wanted to capture the houses in the valley against the cloud cover below the mountain top level.  The Sun rounded out the tableau rather nicely!

Technical Details

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III and an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens.  Exposure settings were at 1/1000 second at f/14 and 200 ISO.

Also in response to the Daily Prompt – Summer.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 9

The spirit lifts us!

This week’s entries were very impressive, which is even more impressive, as this week’s challenge was difficult, as I asked people to express an abstract concept, the Human Spirit.

I was inspired by recent events to select the human spirit, as it is what will pull us through and, most importantly, pull together, as humanity should and will prevail.

A warm thanks to all who participated, as the response was heartwarming!

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Pure Joy!

 

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • Steve, who writes Meandering Maverick, showed us a great memorial for local Police, Fire and EMS, who often put their lives on the line to help others.
  • Miriam of the Out an’ About blog, documented the incredible drive and determination of the people of Marysville, a village that was wiped out by bushfiers only to make a strong comeback!
  • Nadia, who writes blog Becoming Roots, shows us that many things, even little ones, help us maintain and sometimes rebuild our human spirit.
  • Debbie, whose blog is Forgiving Journal, provided a truly uplifting report of a wonderful person giving hugs against LGBTQ violence!
  • Nikki, who writes A Kinder Way, provided a report on her Life is Good shirt that was released to support victims recovering from the Boston Marathon bombing.
  • Kim may have been late, but his entry on Do You See What I See?, serves as a great reminder that we should not take our planet for granted and that it takes human spirit to stand up for the environment!
  • A late entry by Bikurgurl, whose Just a gurl in the world tagline belies the depth of her blog (great writing!), touched on the little details of the human spirit!

Thanks to each and every one of you, as I appreciate your taking the trouble and putting a great effort forth with these images.

Now to start preparing for Tuesday’s new topic…I’m trying to make up my mind on which one to pick:-)

Sunday Morning – Tradition

Tradition can be good!

After a Grace Potter concert experience on Saturday night that was well-executed, but left us missing some of the older material that we had hoped to hear.  Grace was dynamic, filled with energy and led the audience on a Rock and Roll line up that felt like a space-ship, tent revivial with a twist of voodoo high priestess thrown in, as she kept the audience mesmerized.

A solid show, but without some of the classics, such as Stars, Tiny Light, Apologies, Oasis, Ragged Company, which would have fit in beautifully to break the blistering pace of the show.  This lack of the traditional material from her extensive catalog keeps a number of us wanting an alternative version of the show…  Maybe next time, but I’ll share some tradition with you!

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Old Stone Church

Old Stone Church in West Boylston, MA

In the 19th century, the Quinapoxet River joined the Stillwater River to become the southern branch of the Nashua River in the town of West Boylston. Just to the east of the confluence of these rivers was constructed a magnificent stone church.

From 1896 through 1905 West Boylston endured the building of the Wachusett Reservoir and the destruction of its mills and farms. When the Wachusett Reservoir was completed, this impressive Old Stone Church remained standing as the last remnant of the town which was once in the valley, but was now flooded by the new reservoir.

The predecessor of the Old Stone Church was the second house of worship for the Baptist Society in West Boylston, dedicated on December 6, 1832.

The church and its neighboring church, Saint Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, were destroyed by a fire on May 2, 1890.

The present Old Stone Church was built on the same site and was scheduled for dedication on March 17, 1892, but a fire again badly damaged the interior of the church and the dedication was postponed until May 19, 1892.

In June 1897, the Metropolitan Water Board awarded the Baptist Society $22,500 for the loss of the church for the construction of the reservoir. The last Baptist service was held in April 1902.

On April 13, 1973, the Old Stone Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On June 27, 1974, the State awarded $87,000 for reinforcing the roof and walls of the church building. The following month, the church roof and three walls collapsed requiring rebuilding which was completed in the Spring of 1977.

On September 25, 1983, on the occasion of the year of the 175th Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of West Boylston, the Rededication of the Old Stone Church was held.

As you can imagine, the Old Stone Church is a popular backdrop for wedding and engagement photography and looks magnificent when bracketed by New England’s special offering of magnificent autumnal colors!

Enjoy a little quieter bit of Grace Potter with Things I Never Needed!

 

Have a wonderful day!

Daily Prompt – Perfection

Nature’s bounty

Today’s WordPress Daily Prompt of Perfection made me think of the only place where I see anything approaching perfection: Nature.

The continuous optimization of design and implementation in order to better survive over competing species in changing habitats ensures that, even though perfection is never truly reached, each expression of Nature gets closer and closer.  To my eye, many plants are beautiful examples of this strive for perfection:

Dandelions
Carriden House garden
It’s Spring!
Leaf Structure
Form, shadow and light
Study in Green
Greening in Spring

These are some examples that have caught my camera’s eye.  Of course, there are nearly countless examples!

Hope you can find some more examples on this wonderful day!

Saturday’s Sunrise – pt 5

Tiny Light

This Saturday is starting with great weather to kick off what is going to be a fantastic day!  It’s always good to have some plans for the weekend, which is the case today!  First, let’s take a look at a morning image from a couple of years ago…

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Hydrant Morning

This image comes from one of my commute photos acouple of years back.  Clearly, the hydrant is getting good reception with its antenna attached!

Tonight, my wife and I are going to a show at Blue Hills Bank Pavillion in Boston: we’re going to see Grace Potter, which is a show that I am very much looking forward to seeing!  It should be a perfect evening after a rather hot day!

Hope you have great plans for your weekend too!

Atlantis – Lost City?

High altitude image of Atlantis?

When I saw the WordPress Daily Prompt of City today, the first thing that popped into my mind was the lost city/island/continent of Atlantis.

Atlantis (Ancient Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, “island of Atlas”) is a fictional island mentioned within an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato’s works Timaeus and Critias, where it represents the antagonist naval power that besieges “Ancient Athens”, the pseudo-historic embodiment of Plato’s ideal state.

In the story, Athens repels the Atlantean attack, unlike any other nation of the (western) known world, supposedly giving testament to the superiority of Plato’s concept of a state. At the end of the story, Atlantis eventually falls out of favor with the gods and famously submerges into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Frosts of Atlantis

Despite its minor importance in Plato’s work, the Atlantis story has had a considerable impact on literature. The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and Thomas More’s Utopia.

On the other hand, 19th-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Plato’s account as historical tradition, most notably in Ignatius L. Donnelly’s Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. Plato’s vague indications of the time of the events — more than 9,000 years before his day  — and the alleged location of Atlantis — “beyond the Pillars of Hercules” — has led to much pseudoscientific speculation.  As a consequence, Atlantis has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations and continues to inspire contemporary fiction, from comic books to films.

While present-day philologists and historians accept the story’s fictional character, there is still debate on what served as its inspiration. The fact that Plato borrowed some of his allegories and metaphors — most notably the story of Gyges — from older traditions has caused a number of scholars to investigate possible inspiration of Atlantis from Egyptian records of the Thera eruption, the Sea Peoples invasion, or the Trojan War.  Others have rejected this chain of tradition as implausible and insist that Plato designed the story from scratch, drawing loose inspiration from contemporary events like the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC or the destruction of Helike in 373 BC.

This leaves Atlantis as one of the ultimate mystery locations… and my photo does not help to reveal its coordinates!

Technical Details

The image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk II using an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens.  Exposure settings were 1/100 second at f/6.3 and 400 ISO.

Friday Mystery Place – vol 18

A mystery castle

After last week’s visit to Scotland’s border abbeys, which was recognized correctly by ZeroCreativity0 as Melrose Abbey, we’re looking for the location of a castle this week.

This castle is seen from across the river on a cloudless day about 9 years ago, when I took this shot.

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A Castle in the Trees

This location has its own unusual history and might not be exactly what you expect!  Where is it?

Enjoy!

Daily Prompt – Open

Potty humor?

Today’s Daily Prompt of Open is one of those interesting ones that we can take into multiple directions.  We can have Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors, be Open to New Ideas and even work with Open Source.

In today’s image, the Bathroom is Open, and I’d like to suggest that it’s open to all!

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The Bathroom is Open!

This image was taken a number of years back at the Chester Fairground in Connecticut; I got a couple of strange looks for setting up a tripod, but the end result was well worth it!

Technical Details

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 1D Mk III with an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens.  It was taken as a series of 5 shots with exposure values of -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2 EV, which were processed in Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image.

Three Line Tales – Buttercream

Delicious recipe

Welcome to Week Twenty of Three Line Tales

three line tales week twenty: cupcakes, icing, frosting
photo by Stephanie McCabe – click here for full res version 

 

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Bowl, sugar, butter,
Blend with vanilla and milk.
Simple Buttercream

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Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.

You’ll find full guidelines on the TLT page –

  • Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
  • Link back to this post.
  • Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
  • Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
  • NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
  • Have fun.

Happy three-lining!