Sara’s Fave Photos

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.

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.

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:

Here is a bouquet I picked last week. The sun came out strong and before I took them to a cooler location, of COURSE I took this photo.

For more shadows of all types and descriptions, visit Shadow Shot Sunday.

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 have read that swimming koi (goldfish?) must be pictured from above, or else it is not good luck. Okay, I’m hazy on this, but these beautiful specimens appears lucky to me. The many fish in this large indoor pond were large and healthy looking, and so thrilling, the way they move so quickly and gracefully.

For more water photos of all kinds, visit Watery Wednesday. You’ll like it a lot.

I really love this photo and have tagged it a Best Post of the Week. For a fascinating selection of the blogosphere, check out their site.

It’s Pink Saturday again, and here are some pink flowers that are different from my usual kinds. Cindy of the fabulous garden and deck flowers shown here a while back sewed this beautiful crazy quilt. And visit Color Carnival for more amazingly bright colors of all kinds.

Enjoy!

Sorry I haven’t posted this earlier, but there’s still time to sign up for the last session (composition, should be fun) of the free Digital Photography online course offered by CreativeTechs.com. I’ll be there!

Their course offerings have been spectacularly wonderful, and all free. You can purchase the webinar and handout downloads, but you don’t have to. Highly recommended.

4-Week Digital Photography Course

This is the final week of John Greengo’s digital photography course. And this is the topic we’ve all be waiting for. You’ve learned the technical aspects of your camera, is the fun part.

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-4-week-photography-course/

Date/Time: Wednesday Aug 5, 11am Pacific
Length: 90 Minutes

I was up earlier than usual last week, and the morning sun was already strong. Look what I saw on my patio, waiting for Shadow Shot Sunday!

Happy Fourth of July to all. May we all enjoy the freedom and independence of this American holiday.

I know there’s a special name for this sort of statue, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. Anyone? She is from the prow of an old ship, and has a nice, inspired look about her. A goddess in an old-fashioned dress? And is that a very low cut neckline, or not? She is a bit dusty, but still so lovely. She lives at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), a wonderful and unusual museum in Seattle. And she casts a great shadow, I think! Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more shadows seen around the world.

That trip to New York City’s Chinatown was a great photo excursion. Here’s a Ruby Tuesday post for you, full of good luck red lanterns. Visit there for lovely visions of red of all kinds.

I think this is bright enough for Color Carnival, too. Check out all the bright colors!

By the way, has anyone had experience, good or bad, with CafePress.com? I’m thinking of making some notecards and such to sell there. With my fave photos, of course! Any advice about that? Thanks in advance for sharing any experiences selling (or buying) with them.

Here’a a shadow shot of my friend’s sofa in the Bronx, New York. For more interesting shadows of all kinds, visit Shadow Shot Sunday, aka Hey Harriet.

My recent trip to New York included a truly wonderful trip downtown to Chinatown and Little Italy, which is right there alongside of it, although smaller than it used to be. There are sidewalk cafes everywhere and the best place to go for pastry and sweets is Ferrara’s. Here is a street scene, and the outside of Ferrara’s where they serve yummy gelato (Italian ice cream) and my favorite, the pastry display. This is only a small section of what they have! If you go, try the Baba au Rhum. A plain looking but completely fabulous experience, but not for teetotalers.

This fountain/art piece was somewhere in midtown Manhattan, not far from Rockefeller Center. If anyone knows the name of the artist or more about it, I’d like to know. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I prefer the first photo with my friend JoAnne marvelling at the noisy rush of water all around her, but the one below that shows more of it. Enjoy the Watery Wednesday post, and visit there for many more watery photos.

The story in our family is that Mom would make the requested strawberry shortcake for a birthday, but since it had to be kept refrigerated until after dinner, when we saw it there after school she would pretend that we were dreaming and say, “Cake? What cake? There’s no cake there,” so that we could all enjoy the “surprise” later. Mom is gone now, but What-cake lives on. Here’s the one, almost exactly like she used to make, from my recent birthday.

For more ruby redness in photos around the world, click HERE.

Finally some decent weather, so with an extra ten minutes, I ducked out to Des Moines (WA) pier and found some actual shadows, courtesy of actual sunshine. Felt great to be in the light like that. For more fascinating shadows, click HERE.

We were invited to a pre-wedding party (“Cocktail & Sangeet”) for a young Punjabi Indian couple we know. It was at that big old building at the south end of Lake Union in Seattle. The clothing worn was magnificent, the music was loud, and even though the light was low, I thought I’d share a photo from there for Ruby Tuesday. And I just realized the bride’s name is Ruby! For more photos with red heaven in them, click HERE.

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I was in the mood to show a few pix from that Arizona trip we took. There were many photos I really loved but I’ll just show three. These are from the St Xavier Mission outside of Tuscon. The sky was really that blue. For contrast, below are some of the candles lit by the faithful in the church’s exquisite interior.

For more skies around the world, click HERE.

I took this in Berkeley, California right before Valentine’s Day a year or two ago. It was a great store. I especially liked the old paper valentines they had from the 50s saying things like “You Are Nice” and other tender messages.

For other things ruby, click HERE.

This was taken in March at the other house, and the light in it seems so bright and clear on this dim January day today. But I read the sun rises at 7:44 and sets at 5:00 tomorrow, so we’re up to over nine hours of daylight, up from a mere 8 at solstice. The days do lengthen, but so slowly.

For more fascinating shadows, click HERE.

A late August day on the way to Burning Man Arts Festival in Black Rock Nevada, stopped to rest a bit. For other shadows of all sorts, click HERE.

This tiny fellow oversees the garden, bringing luck and fruitfulness. It feels like his benevolent spirit is still there, even in the present cold and wet. For other ruby ideas from everywhere, click HERE.

I keep looking at the photos I’ve taken in Arizona when I think of shadows. This time I’m including a zoomed-out one so you see what this place is like. Jerome, Arizona is a neat, touristy but artsy town way up in the hills a few hours north of Phoenix. Since there are ruins I figure the town’s been there awhile. The middle photo is a restored tin ceiling in a cafe. And the bottom one is the real shadow shot, taken about a week before the solstice and pretty far south, so that shadow is dark and short. This was taken just walking down the main street. A good shadow, I think! For more fascinating shadows from all over the world, or to post your own, click HERE.

I know I should save one for next week but I can’t resist. I love these photos, taken at a party on Sunday. Hope you enjoy them. The cake was at least as delicious as it looked. Not too sweet, with four layers of chocolate cake with nuts and cherries inside, just whipped cream on the outside, and the holly leaves handmade from white chocolate. I think it’s one of the best cakes I ever ate.

For more photos with the color red, click HERE.