Sara’s Fave Photos

This view of Mt. Rainier was taken while flying to Arizona a couple of years ago. It fits the Thursday Challenge theme this week: HIGH or LOW (Photos from a different perspective, Photos from the top or bottom of Buildings, Mountains, Towers, Underneath,…).

Do you like this one or the previous post’s photo better, I wonder?

Today I saw rainbows in three locations as I drove around and did errands. You’ve gotta be quick with rainbows; they just won’t wait for you. So while I was driving down this alley in downtown Burien, I stopped the car, leaned my head out the window, and took the shot. I actually like it, even though this type of urban shot isn’t my usual thing. Gotta love rainbows.

Visit Thursday Challenge for more Sky photos, and/or visit Skywatch Friday for even more skies around the world!

Thursday’s Challenge is “ROMANTIC” (Flowers, Chocolates, Hearts, Lace, Red, Pink, Sunset, Holding Hands,…) and so of course I have to post flowers. This bouquet also photographed at the NW Flower & Garden show in Seattle last week. It says Be Mine to me!

This also works for Color Carnival (the local gray skies make me crave color!) and is a straight-out-of-the-camera shot, or SOOC.

The Thursday Challenge is “SOMETHING DIFFERENT” (Unusual, Strange, Rare, Different, One of a Kind, Weird . . .). I didn’t think I had anything worthwhile, but then I remembered my sojourn at Burning Man in ‘07 in the Black Rock, NV desert, the enormous week-long alternative arts festival. Now there’s a surreal event. Here’s only one photo. I hope you like it.

Visiting a friend I was surprised to see the amount of papers on her desk and all around her office. I’ve heard that “a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind,” but I can’t look at too much disorder without getting antsy. How do you find important things? Sometimes I’ve just got to straignten things up, or at least line up the piles. But we’re all different, aren’t we?

In any case, the theme for Thursday Challenge is “Messy.” This qualifies.

It was sunny for a little bit yesterday so I went out for a walk while it lasted. Here is our active volcano (could blow any time), Mt. Rainier, showing its winter snows. The theme for  Thursday Challenge is “Winter,” so take a look there at some other wintery ideas.

This is a good one for Scenic Sunday as well. And hello, Skywatch Friday folks!

When I was a kid in New York City, we called them fireplugs. I think that now they are fire hydrants? In any case, I loved the bright colors seen while driving by on a wet, fall day in Portland.

Today is Thursday Challenge, and the theme this week is “Red.” This photo is also a good entry for Color Carnival.

Rings worn by a man intrigue me. This is the hand of a man who was born in India but now lives in Seattle. It must be so cold for him here! I find this photo to be mysterious, and I don’t know why. I hope you enjoy it.

For more unusual photos, check out Thursday Challenge. And if you like reflections, visit Weekend Reflections for some great ones.

Yes, this is with the new camera, but unfortunately I did not have the right settings in place, and the quality of this image, which is straight out of the camera, is pretty poor. But isn’t it a lovely scene? There I was down near the water, with such a sunset and the ferry right there, as scenic as it gets, and fumbling around in the almost dark I just failed to get it right. Darn. Well, try to imagine it with sharp, brilliant edges, and all the water ripples showing.

Visit Thursday Challenge for other special images. This week is free choice as to theme.

I do love Santa the best, but Frosty is my second fave holiday personage. Something so delightful about him; I just can’t explain. Perhaps his rotund shape, and now that I think about it, Santa qualifies there, too. In any case, one of those houses near me that go all out with Christmas lights and decor featured this Frosty who doffs his hat repeatedly for you. Nice!

This week’s Thursday Challenge is Lights, and a very perfect subject it is. Merry everything to you!

Today’s Thursday Challenge is WRITING (Pens, Paper, Words, Signs, Graffiti, Books, Magazines,…) and I’ve got to go back to the two printing-related workshops I took for more cool photos to show you.

Here are two from the snowflake block print class. We each made a little paper snowflake by folding and cutting a square of paper, then tracing it onto linoleum, cutting away the snowflake or the background, then inking the blocks.

And voila, giftwrap! Later sheets got better.

And then the letterpress class had (besides the colorful inks I showed a couple of posts back) this fabulous array of letters you could arrange on a tray. It was fun figuring out how to spell things backwards, sort of.

One more photo, I can’t resist, of one of the the truly magnificent presses:

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here’s a photo for the Thursday Challenge of the idea of energy. Las Vegas is sure a great place to see that in use, and lots of it. This Eiffel Tower may not be as big as the real thing, but I’d hate to pay that electric bill.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Scallions (green onions) are super easy to grow and have lovely flowers as a bonus, which easily reseed new little scallions. This post is for Thursday Challenge, and the subject this week is “Youth.” And for Think Green Thursday, growing your own food is the greenest thing I know. This photo, like most of the posts on this blog, is straight out of the camera, or SOOC.

Must be away again for a few days; see you on my return.

These Meyer lemons fell off a tree in Sonoma County, California and made their way to Seattle, courtesy of a visitor. Lemon trees have thorns but do an unusual thing: they can flower and fruit at the same time. Those flowers smell so sweet!

Thursday Challenge this week is “Food.” And Think Green Thursday is always about living lightly, to my mind, so eating extra lemons from a friend’s tree is pretty “green” to me.

My daughter bought a new camera and took this photo of herself in the mirror. I love the way the fabric in the background seems to make a halo around her.

“Cloth” is the theme of Thursday Challenge this week.

This photo has a simple subject, but the complication is that I don’t know what the plant is. First I thought comfrey, but I looked it up, and no. Then I thought Lambs’ Ears, but I looked THAT up, and it doesn’t grow in rosettes like this one. So, I don’t know. If anyone can enlighten me, I’d be grateful. It’s growing in a neighbor’s yard near my home in Seattle, Washington. [It appears to be Mullein. Thank you, Ms. Toastburner!]

For more ruminations on the theme of Simplicity, visit Thursday Challenge. And because I’m pretty sure it’s an herb, and that qualifies for Thinking Green, visit them for more ideas about being green.

Beauty’s a pretty broad concept, and of course mine has flowers in it. This is from August, from my bedroom window. The horse’s name is Ranger, boarded in the neighbor’s pasture, and the flowers I planted with my own little hands. To me, a scene like this gives me feelings I can’t describe, so I guess I’ll call it beauty.

For more interpretations of the idea of Beauty, visit Thursday Challenge.

I am sorry I had the wrong link to Thursday Challenge last week. That post has been updated with the correct link.

For this week’s theme of containers, I went to the archives and found these photos from St. Xavier Mission south of Tuscon, Arizona. The interior of the mission was truly gorgeous, in a sweet and handpainted style, and in back and around there were gardens and a museum. I was charmed and intrigued by this holy water dispenser.

I am trying out a new meme called Thursday Challenge, and the theme this week is “Fresh.” This here is one fresh flower! I sure love dahlias, in their infinite colorations and forms, and the way they truly embody the word “fresh” as they open their petals to our view.