It's the little things....

My wonderful husband surprised me with a gift of a macro lens for Christmas.  I fell in love that day.  It was the best gift ever.  I love how it brings out the details of the smallest things.  On the day after Christmas, I went for a walk around the block, and I took my camera with me.  I took about 30 or 40 pictures on that little walk.  Pictures of flowers and leaves and berries. Things I normally walk straight past with barely a glance.  But with a macro lens in hand, the tiny things become beautiful, big and bold.  And I've found that now when I take a walk, even when I don't have a camera in my hand, I notice the little things.  I see the tiny flowers, and the spider webs glittering with dew.  It's the little things that bring me joy everyday.  I like that.

Starkly Magnificent

The prompt for today's pictures was Starkly Magnificent.  A stark landscape can be beautiful in the minimal detail captured. So we took the family to the beach.  It was a gorgeous day today.  Sunny and warm for a winter day.  And these are the pictures I took.  I do live in a beautiful place.  I need to visit the beach more often.

Signs of Life

The above picture is a fluke print.  If you know to look for it, it's the sign that a whale was recently in the area.  It is like a footprint, and it's left by the powerful upstroke of a whale's tail when it is near the surface.  A little circle of calm water in an ocean of waves and swells.  It's a sign that something really big is nearby.  It's a sign of life.

I love that calm can mean life.  I love that calm can mean something amazing is nearby.  Signs of life don't have to be craziness and chaos.  Quiet, calm, powerful, majestic life.  That's what I want. 

Balance

Finding balance, be it in my schedule, my finances, my eating or any other part of my life, can be a challenge.  There are so many things vying for my attention on any given day.  Take yesterday for example. It was a typically busy day, and when my hubby asked about my photography prompt for the day, I almost laughed.  I hadn't had a single moment to think about it.  And what was the topic for the day?  Balance.  Ha.  Being the wonderfully supportive man that he is though, he threw some ideas at me, and encouraged me to get the camera out and take some pictures.  We ended up working on my pictures together. He offered advise and suggestions, and helped with some post-production PhotoShop.  I ended up with some really awesome pictures of 'Balance', and the satisfaction of having completed my photography goal of the day.

I was also reminded that achieving and maintaining balance is much easier when you have someone to lean on.  Thanks Hon.

Quiet Beauty

My class prompt the other day was to find quiet beauty in the world around me.  The picture I took for that day was of an unripe lemon on our lemon tree in the back yard. But it also made me think of a recent whale watching outing the family took.  While that day was windy and the seas were choppy, the whale was unaffected by the conditions of the ocean.  It was a beautiful, elegant, calm, quiet beauty.

A Little Sunshine

I am currently enrolled in an online photography class through Big Picture Classes, that prompts  me everyday to use my camera.  Everyday I receive an e-mail, prompting me to take a picture based on a particular theme that challenges me to look at things in a new way.  Today's prompt was to find something in my surroundings that reflects the warmth, color and feeling of the sun.  It caused me to spend my day looking for things that made me feel warm and comforted.  Things bright and colorful.  I found a gorgeous little flower on the sidewalk as I walked the kids home from school.