Done and Done ... 30 Day Photography Challenge Days 25-30

It's nearing the end of the first day of 2014. Woo Hoo!

I have been one busy chaquita! I've finished two fiber-wrapped brooches that have been languishing on my workbench for, dare I admit it, years, and I've revised some acrylic paintings I had previously started, to be more in line with my goal of fearlessness in my art this year. I'm takin' chances, folks! And I must admit that the paintings have a bit more verve and interest than they did previous to my adaptations.

But ... today's post is to wrap up those last six challenge subjects that never got posted. The photographs were taken, but one thing or another circumvented them being uploaded to my blog. In one fell swoop, I'm posting the remaining challenges: Strangers, Close-Up, Celebration, Flowers, Black and White, Self Portrait. Then I be done with this particular challenge (Thank you, Lori Sanstedt) and I can move on to bigger and better personal challenges.

I enjoy challenges such as this when my creativity lags a bit and I need a little something to prime the pump. This exercise helped a lot.

Some subjects were easier and more comfortable than others, but I liked the subjects with which I don't normally work. I've not done much in the way of photographing people and I think in the coming months I would like to explore the human animal a bit more with my camera lens. I cringe at self-portraits and being included in any photographs, but it is a fact of life so needed to get over my aversion.

We're such a color-oriented society, but I liked working with the Black and White subject to get back in touch with contrasts, textures and composition.

Happy New Year!

Day 30 Self Portrait

Day 29 Black & White (Tinman Gallery doorway entry)

Day 28 Flowers (Supermarket orchids)

Day 27 Celebration (Winter Solstice)

Day 26 Close-Up (Workbench Tools)

Day 25 Strangers (Garland Post Office)

Day 24 of 30-Day Photography Challenge (Animal)

Day 24 Animal

No-brainer for this one. I happen to live with an animal by the name of Suki Kabuki Tuki Tuki, or Suki to her closest friends and select associates.

Suki and I have been together since I saw her photograph on a Small Dog Rescue website in Blaine, WA about 8 years ago. The photo showed her in a plastic cone,  just recently out of surgery. She was a mess. But she was a mess for which I instantly fell.

Suki, or Anabelle or Daisy Mae or whatever she had been named by the rescue, had originally been the beloved pet of a woman who passed away and the woman's children were saddled with their mother's dog. An accident--legitimate--befell the dog, which was rushed begrudgingly to the vet's office. It turned out the people didn't want to, or couldn't, pay for the necessary surgery and they instructed the dog be put down. The vet called the rescue, the rescue paid for the surgery, which necessitated the removal of a shattered eye. I saw the dog on the website and the promptly re-named Suki has been with me since.

Miss Suki is the subject of today's challenge.

Day 23 Patterns

Yes, again I can't decide which to use. I loved the patterns carved in the soapstone and the patterns in the fan, even the ribs of the fan make a pattern, a repetition. I loved the pattern of the vintage molded glass. And to finish off the trio of photographs, I love the pattern of the dots in the day lily.

Patterns ... love 'em!

Day 22 Inspirational

Inspiration can be found anywhere. Whether we're ready to see it or not, inspiration abounds. But when we're ready and open, we recognize the gift of what was there all along.

I have found, for myself, that my inspiration can be found in nature. If I can walk among the trees, down a grassy path, along a shell strewn shore, so much the better. But, I live in a more urban area. Nature still exists in urban areas. Nature exists cheek and jowl with man-made things, often debris and junk, castoffs.

My inner whoever is delighted and enchanted when, as in this photograph, I come across a simple solitary pine cone resting against a rain-soaked weathered bit of corrugated cardboard. I'm inspired. I gravitate to the contrast of angles and lines to the curves. I love shadows cast, patterns identified.

Part and parcel with seeing such, is happenstance. This isn't a staged photograph. The lighting and the subject matter are found. I'm merely an observer, not a creator. I photograph what is already there.

This is my inspiration.

Another Double Up ... Days 21 and 20

Day 21 Faceless Self Portrait

I tried taking a photograph of my head from the back without any of my face showing. I tried a goodly number of shots and all of them turned out looking like Cousin It of the Addams Family.

Back to the drawing board.

Feet! This is an apt self-portrait because I LOVE to go barefoot whenever possible, any time of the year. I do bow down to the radical drop in winter temperatures and will then sometimes wear socks, but chances are barefoot is how you'll find me around the house.

This has been a good challenge, because it forced me to consider what other than a face could be considered a self-portrait. I thought of photographing my hands, but that would be hard to do if one is holding an iPhone camera. And I had already included my hand in a previous photograph.

The photos I took of the back of my head were interesting. I don't often look at the back of my head in my mirror. I usually comb or brush my hair and assume that the back is good to go. However, I am intimately acquainted with my toes, as in applying nail lacquer or accidentally stubbing my toe on a table leg.

I've enjoyed looking at things from a different perspective. Working with yesterday's challenge was a surprise. I wasn't sure what I would find at the bottom of my purse. I toss everything in there and oftentimes it's quite a while until it gets cleared out. Whew! Nothing incriminating. This time.

Day 20 In My Bag

Day 19 Something You Want

I'm a woman of very few wants. I'm at a point in life where I no longer want things and have started divesting, lightening my load.

I want what I suspect a lot of people want.

I have had recent email comments from several folks I've met through my Etsy business, which seem to share a common desire to connect with life more meaningfully. Not the often exhausting drive to make money, or attain status, but a search for a slower, simpler existence, able to take time to savor the joy of the moment, to reflect, to daydream.

I think there's a way each of us can find a balance, where we earn what we need, but still have time to reflect on who and what we are all about. I think it goes beyond happiness. Total bliss is just another imbalance, no?

I look at what I've just written and realize once again how privileged I am. I live in a country and a time that gives me advantages not possible for others with fewer options. I don't take my life lightly. I have what I need today. I'm grateful.

I came up with something, but I don't know how to photograph it. Or maybe I'm simply not clever enough to stage such a photograph.

Okay ... Okay ... Getting back on point. Here is something I want. I want options.

I want to wander along some warm sand beach beach-combing as I go, listening to the ocean, smelling the water and watching it dance in the sunshine, without a departure schedule, marveling at the ocean's treasures left at my feet.

Well, shoot! I already have that option, don't I? I just need to come up with a way to make it happen!

Day 19

Something You Want

(Options)

Day 18 My Shoes

Day 18

My Shoes

30 Day Photography Challenge

My shoes? Sure why not. I slide open my closet door to a tumble of rights and lefts. A good start. Then I saw a dusty bag at the back and yanked it out from under some other shoes. My tango dancing shoes! Oh my, I haven't used them at all since moving to Spokane. I had so much fun with that.

Just beyond the dancing shoes you'll see the clod-hoppers I now wear in Spokane oh-so-very-cold-in-the-winter. Not good for tango.

It was nice to see the sexy black heels, reminded me of what once was. And who knows? I might get back on the dance floor. I see there's something starting Monday nights. I just might check it out.