Weekly Photo Challenge: Flee(t)ing Moment

The Race

Talk about fleeting (or fleeing) moments, caught these two one morning in the back yard.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Drumming Hands

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

End of the Journey

Stare-down

The Stare-Down

This photo was featured in the online section of the L.A. Times, Southern California Moments.

Nothing like being cowed by a squirrel. I saw him while outside in our driveway with the two greyhounds the other morning. He stopped overhead as he was traveling along this utility cable and just stared down at us, very intently. Even the dogs seemed uneasy, which is very unusual considering they are ex-racers who've been trained to chase small furry things. After several moments, he went on his way.

Little Things

Morning Light

It takes hundreds of pictures to get one like this of these fascinating little winged gems. Fortunately, there are always models out on the feeders who suffer me stalking them with that clicking black box thing with the big eye.

Laughter

A Happy Man

One of my favorite things, the face of a loved one while they're laughing. Joe wanted some head shots for his Linkedin profile and in the process of shooting some we started getting silly. I love moments like this.

Houseplant

Houseplant

The way the morning sun hits this plant on the window sill captures my attention periodically. I've never been a plant person (which is a way of admitting I'm highly irresponsible with plant care and I'm sure the dogs and cats are grateful I'm not as negligent with them), but I recognize they have a presence and a language, sometimes amplified by the light around them.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hope

Sunrise Over The Ridge

It's one thing to say there will always be a new day, but to see one with such unbelievable firey color is a gift......even if I was standing out in the back yard in my pajamas to take the picture. Hopefully, the neighbors were still sleep.

Peace

Sophie's Morning Snooze

For me, the perfect visual representation of peace is a sleeping greyhound. Her life at the racetrack is long over and she can enjoy just being a dog, napping in comfort on the sofa.

All The Little Things

Creative Outlet

This outlet is on the side of the wall next to my desk. I often sit at my desk while on the phone and this particular time, I was on the phone with my mother when the afternoon light hit the outlet and the wires, casting wire shadows on the wall. My camera usually sits on my desk as well, so even while we chatted, I picked up the camera and began taking shots of this very dusty outlet with the sun hitting it.

My mother and I talk nearly every day on the phone, separated as we are geographically by an entire continent. My husband often asks what can we possibly find to talk about every single day. I tell him we talk about all the little things, the daily details that we notice around us. Sometimes its about how much laundry we've done that day, or how one of the dogs misbehaved, or how the afternoon light hits an electrical outlet and makes me want to photography it. All of it is important in the way it weaves us together, reinforcing our connection across time and distance.

Caligraphy

Caligraphy

Sometimes the way the strong afternoon light streams in the window across my jeans captures my attention, revealing in the most mundane things an otherworldly dimension.

Western Sky

Sunset in Glendale

With the winter, there are more clouds in the sky and conditions that contribute to magnificent sunsets with such vibrant color. Where we live, we never get an unobstructed view, but the color seeps in between tree branches and utility poles and the chimneys of neighbors' houses.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Winter

On A Wet Black Bough

The weekly photo challenge for the end of December 2011 is "Winter." This photo was taken last Winter. There is no traditional Winter in southern California or what most people picture when they think of Winter. For us, this is the rainy season, when, unlike much of the rest of the country, everything slowly turns green. There are bleak, gray days made raw by the moisture in the air, but our backyard birds, like this hummingbird, still venture out to find food. I found this one huddling alone in the branches of a virtually leafless, wet mulberry tree.

The Center of the Sun

The Center of the Sun

Having come from the northeast, I am still astonished at seeing roses in bloom in December. The yellow roses on the side of the house are prolific and sweet-scented. There's no cliché in stopping to smell these roses. Yellow was always my least favorite color, but these roses have taught me to love yellow.

Slant of Light on the OED

Slant of Light on the OED

Late yesterday afternoon a beam of sunlight slants across a page of volume VIII Interval-Looie of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Ornamental

Ornamental Self-Portrait

Seems that everyone must do a self-portrait shooting into a Christmas ornament this time of year and I'm no exception. I love having the Christmas tree up and decorated. More often than not, I'm shooting the things I see around me, particularly when they're only around once a year.

An Ungraceful Moment

Scratching An Itch

We have many hummingbirds hanging around the back yard even in the winter here in southern California. It's an embarrassment of riches sometimes, with upwards of twenty hummingbirds mobbing the feeders (we have five). I stalk them quite often with my camera and many have gotten used to me. Still, sometimes it takes an ultra zoom lens to capture moments like this.....a  hummingbird in an unguarded, ungraceful moment in between trips to the feeder.

Orange Rain

Orange Rain

The rainy season has begun in southern California making everything look bejeweled when the rain stops. Drops cling to the orange hibiscus on the side of the house.

Holiday Appreciation and Gratitude

Christmas Through A Wine Glass

Preparing for the holidays. This is the first year in a while that I can assemble the tree (we use a fake, pre-lit tree so we don't have to kill any trees) and decorate it earlier than a few days before Christmas because I'm under the gun to finish academic papers. It's been a difficult year for us, as it has been for many people, but we're still very fortunate and very grateful.

The Camera and the Vine

Vine

Another foray into the back yard with the macro lens. Seeing things close-up makes me realize how many beautiful things I can miss noticing in a day because I'm moving too quickly or am too distracted.