Weekly Photo Challenge – Lines

Until I saw the subject for this week’s Photo Challenge, I never realized how frequently the word line is used in describing different situations, actions or things. For instance; toeing the line, dropping someone a line, the thin blue line, crossing the line, behind enemy lines, fall into line, hook line & sinker, forgetting your lines, along party lines and so many more, but for now this is where I draw the line.

Lines on the great Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.

An interesting use of lines in this modern art sculpture in Galena, Illinois.

Quite a sight! Lines of airplane trails in the sky over our hotel in Marion, Illinois.

Part of a ceiling at the State Capitol Building in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Lines of trees in winter at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.

A pergola in the Rose Garden at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois.

For more on The Weekly Photo Challenge go to Lines

 

Seven Days Black & White Photo Challenge – Day 6

Seven days, seven black and white photos of my life. No people. No explanation. Day 6.  Challenge someone every day.  Today I challenge The Humble Fabulist

If I pick you and you don’t feel like participating or if you’ve already taken up the challenge, that’s fine.  I understand.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Wish

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”  It’s certainly true that not everything we wish for will come true but it doesn’t stop us from trying.  And there are so many opportunities for making wishes.

A wishing tree at a Chinese Lantern Festival in the Missouri Botanic Gardens, St. Louis.

Blow out the candles on a birthday cake and make a wish, but don’t tell what it is or it will never come true.

A fancy substitute at the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills; I’ve seen this described as a wishing well, although I’m sure it was never intended for that purpose.

How many times have you thrown a coin into a fountain or stood inside a fairy ring of mushrooms and made a wish?  Shown above; Buckingham Fountain in Chicago and an interesting find at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

For more on The Weekly Photo Challenge at The Daily Post, set for us this week by Jen H, go to https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/wish/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Path

The Weekly Photo Challenge at The Daily Post, set by Cheri Lucas Rowlands, invites us to share a path.  As we move forward into the New Year I find that I’ve set one or two goals for myself and I’m fully aware that the path to achieving them may not always be easy to follow.  There are many different paths in life, some smooth and others rocky. Some lead to interesting places and others merely come to a dead end. Whichever path you take in 2017 I hope it takes you wherever you want to go.

The path across the causeway to Cana Island in Door County, Wisconsin.

A garden path in the Green Bay Botanical Gardens, Wisconsin.

Take my word for it, this is a path, and it didn’t get any easier the further we went.  The way to Cecret Lake in Alta, Utah.

Plenty of paths to choose from at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.

A delightful springtime walk among the daffodils along a well-kept woodchip path at the Morton Arboretum. If only life was always this easy.

For more on the Weekly Photo Challenge at The Daily Post go to https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/path-2016/

Ribbit!

Here are a few of the pictures that I took at Ribbit! The Exhibit, at Morton Arboretum this week.

Sculptor, A.J. Cobb, who lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, shapes these adorable creatures from sheets of copper.

There are 23 frogs currently on display at the Arboretum, ranging from 4ft – 7ft tall.  It takes Cobb about 120 hours to create each piece and approximately 500 pounds of sheet copper were used to make the entire collection.

Ribbit! The Exhibit is open through September 25th at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Orange & Green

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week calls for images that included the colors orange & green. 

An orange signpost amongst the greenery points the way to a gnome garden at the Vander Veer Botanical Park in Davenport, Iowa.

Not only did we find gnomes in the garden but also beautiful orange canna lilies.

An orange dinosaur crushing pumpkins on the green at Goebberts Farm in South Barrington.

Pumpkins and other kinds of squash in a slightly more tranquil environment at the Morton Arboretum.

Despite the fact that this orange truck only has a hint of green, I find my eye immediately drawn to the color, perhaps because it is something of a leading line.  Found at Bluesmobile Cruise Night in Mount Prospect.

We found this old tractor at West Street Sculpture Garden in Galena. Artist John Martinson works with scrap metal to make some interesting if rather bizarre pieces of sculpture and we weren’t entirely sure whether this was one of the exhibits or just something that he uses to move the pieces around. I think probably the latter.

A hummingbird and flower made of Lego on display at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to http://ceenphotography.com/2015/11/17/cees-fun-foto-challenge-the-colors-orange-and-green/

 

 

 

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Leading Lines

Right from my early years as a member of a local camera club I became accustomed to look for leading lines when composing images.  The habit has stayed with me and my photo files are filled with pictures emphasizing leading lines which came in very useful for Cee’s current Compose Yourself Photo Challenge. The picture shown above was taken on the Esplanade at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  The image below shows tram lines leading back down the mountain to the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah.

Some of these leading lines have distinct destinations such as the pool on the roof of the Visitor’s Center in Temple Square, Salt Lake City while others disappear somewhere along the way, leading us to wonder just where they are taking us, as in the image of a bridge at the Morton Arboretum leading us into the trees and on to whatever’s beyond.

Some leading lines are strong and straight, while others may have a curve or two along the way like this gravel path taking us to the farm at Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg, a brick path drawing us to a gazebo at the Green Bay Botanic Gardens in Wisconsin, or one of the many bridges in the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Finally, leading lines in triplicate. A view of the canal, footpath and railway lines which all run along the same route in Galena, Illinois.

For more on Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge go to http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/28/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-5-leading-lines/

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: More Than 5 Items

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge always seems to provide the perfect opportunity for me to share some of my more recent captures and this week’s theme, More Than 5 Items, does just that.

A pod of pelicans waiting for fish at lock & dam #11 on the Mississippi river in Dubuque, Iowa.

Six windows in President Grant’s home in Galena, Illinois.

Nine rungs on a ladder at the Apple River Fort in Elizabeth, Illinois.

A colonnade of columns in the Rose Garden at Cantigny Park, Wheaton.

A stand of trees in the Morton Arboretum, Lisle.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to http://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/07/cees-fun-foto-challenge-more-than-5-items-2/

Travel Theme: Bountiful

Some signs of a bountiful harvest in The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Goebbert’s Pumpkin Farm in South Barrington and The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe.

For more information on Ailsa’s Travel Theme challenge on Where’s My Backpack? go to http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/10/03/travel-theme-bountiful/

A-Z Challenge: M Words

Frizztext’s A-Z Challenge this week is M Words. I haven’t participated in this particular challenge for a while so here are a few images that I thought would work well for the M theme.

A Metra train arriving at Bartlett station.

A monarch resting on some asters in the Green Bay Botanical Gardens.

Mushrooms growing in the Morton Arboretum.

The Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago.

For more M Words go to Flickr Comments at http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/m-words/