Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Something Old

Patti’s choice of subject for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue, proved to be just that, a real challenge, especially since I wanted to try and get everything into one picture. Trawling through a photo file of miscellaneous topics I came across some old pictures that I had taken years ago with my Minolta film camera. I was new to photography and was trying my hand at still-life shots.  I gathered some old books, a shiny new copper kettle that my husband had just bought me, borrowed an old violin from a friend of my daughter, stuck some flowers in a vase and started taking pictures.  The results were not that great which made me feel rather blue. The film was too grainy, the shadows too pronounced and the reflections from the flash, blinding. But luckily I kept the pictures anyway. I changed the color from sepia to blue and added a frame. This might also work for Nancy Merrill’s Photo A Week Challenge which just happens to be Still Life.

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APAW – Lit From Within

The subject for Nancy Merrill’s Photo A Week Challenge is Lit From Within and, although I hadn’t intended to participate this week, the opportunity to capture some appropriate pictures presented itself quite by chance and so here is my take on the challenge.  For the past three weeks I’ve been spending much of the time at the hospital visiting my 93-year-old mother-in-law.  Sadly she has reached the stage where nothing more can be done for her and has been moved to more comfortable surroundings in hospice there.  The only bright spot in these rather gloomy days has been the sight of the Christmas Village that has been set up in the lobby of the hospital. Apparently, the man who owns all these lovely ornaments brings them in every Christmas for everyone to enjoy.  Thank you, whoever you are!  You have helped to lighten our load.

For more on Nancy’s Photo A Week Challenge go to Lit from Within.

APAW Challenge- Crossing That Bridge When We Come To It

This week, Nancy Merrill’s topic for the Photo A Week Challenge is bridges.  My daughter always had a horror of crossing bridges, especially in a car, and would close her eyes tightly if we were going over an especially long one. I don’t know how she manages, now that she’s a mom who has to do all the driving. I imagine it’s still a white-knuckle experience but hopefully she keeps her eyes open. It isn’t always easy to plan a trip without crossing some kind of bridge or other.  Rather like life, you cross that bridge when you come to it.

The Serpentine and Zigzag bridges at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Crossing the Mississippi River in Cairo, Illinois.

A bridge across the train tracks in Milwaukee, part of the Hank Aaron State Trail in Wisconsin.

Crossing the mighty Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.

For more on Nancy’s Photo A Week Challenge go to Bridges.

APAWC – Under Glass

Nancy Merrill has us looking under glass for her Photo A Week Challenge this week.  I’ve got plenty of pictures of things that I’ve photographed through glass but, if I’m going to take the subject literally there aren’t too many pictures in the old photo files that show something is actually under glass. These are the only images that I could come up with.  The first two were taken at the Flower & Garden Show in Rosemont.  The third is a clock that belonged to my Mum & Dad, given to them by their workmates when they retired and came to live in the USA.  It doesn’t work and probably never will, but I can’t bring myself to throw it out.

 

For more on Nancy’s Photo A Week Challenge go to A Photo a Week: Under Glass

 

A Photo A Week Challenge – Threes

This week, Nancy Merrill is asking us to look for groups of three for her Photo A Week Challenge.  Having found plenty of twos for Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge, I realized that coming up with threes was not going to be quite so easy.

Three sea lions at the zoo.  This picture was taken some years ago and I’m having a hard time remembering where but I think it may have been at the zoo in Indianapolis.

Three beautiful blooms at the Orchid Festival in the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Three naked ladies, part of a fantastic music machine at The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Three pelicans preening on the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa.

 

Three jockeys entering the enclosure before a big race at Arlington Park, Illinois.

Three koi swimming in a pool at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois.

For more on Nancy’s A Photo A Week Challenge go to A Photo a Week Challenge: Threes

A Photo A Week Challenge – Boats & Ships

The current subject for Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge is Boats and Ships.  My earliest recollection of boats comes from when I was a small child and we went on a sightseeing trip down the river Thames in London.  Since then my water-going experiences have been limited to a ferry-crossing to Mackinac Island, the occasional trip down the Chicago river, a couple of outings with the Des Plaines Yacht Club on Lake Opeka, and one or two other sightseeing excursions on rivers and lakes.  I’ve never been on an ocean liner or cruise ship so I don’t know whether sea sickness would be a problem and since I’m never likely to find out, it will forever remain a question unanswered.

A ship and a boat at The Tall Ships Festival at Navy Pier in Chicago.

A boat docked in Sturgeon Bay, Door County in Wisconsin.

A sightseeing boat passing through the lock at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.

A ferry boat crossing over to Mackinac Island.

Competitors with the Des Plaines Yacht Club in a race on Lake Opeka.

Sightseeing boats making their way up the Chicago River.

For more on Nancy’s A Photo A Week Challenge go to A Photo a Week Challenge: Boats and Ships