christine anne photography: Weekly Header Challenge

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII

Fishing Guy

Katney

Imac

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ From the Ground

When I read this week's theme, my first thought was, "I wonder when the first time was that I actually got down on the ground to take a picture?" (You'll see that one below; it's not my header shot.)

Now, I'm typically a follow-the-rules girl, so you wouldn't normally find me lying down on the ground in the middle of a crowd of standing people. But put a camera in my hands, and it's another story.

About my header: After a rare trip downtown Chicago, someone had expressed surprise that we although had visited the Chicago Cultural Center, I had never really looked around. Fernando and I had been there once to see the works of Vivian Maier (Chicago street photographer, undiscovered until after her death and pretty amazing). But, we had never explored the building. On this second trip back, along with Joseph and Danny, I made sure to put my explorer hat on. We walked into Preston Bradley Hall, and my eyes naturally traveled up and up and up--the Tiffany Dome. Here's the full photo, which does not at all do it justice.

For the above photo, I first looked around the hall. A maintenance crew was cleaning up from an event, but motioned for us to walk around and view the amazing room. With my lens at its widest, I couldn't quite capture the entire dome. I looked around again, then got on the floor, fully, completely on my back, and really didn't care. I shot straight up, keeping the hanging chandelier off-center so I could capture the center of the dome. The below shot contains that chandelier (you can't even see the dome!) and one of the walls. This building used to house the Chicago Public Library.

Click here to see more from our visit to the Cultural Center!

A trip down Memory Lane. The first image I lay down in public for! After our friends' daughter's wedding, in which they had carted in sand so she could walk barefoot down a "beach" aisle to the altar, I wanted to get a shot of that bridal path. I was in a fancy dress, too! Later, another friend commented that she had seen me and exclaimed to her son, "Oh my--someone's on the ground!" Her son responded, "Oh, it's just Mrs. S." (They had never seen me do that before, but maybe the camera was a good excuse!)

On a trip to Georgia, my little sister took me to a graveyard smack dab in the middle of a built-up strip mall area. We wandered around, wondering at the stories behind the headstones. The below one caught my eye, so down I sent for a good angle.

On the same trip, I shot a mother/daughter event, where I learned that one of the young daughters was so excited to wear heels for the first time! I spotted her in the craft room, so I lay down on the floor and shot under the table. I wasn't able to get the heel in the shot, but I heard her whisper, "Mom--I think she's taking a picture of my shoes!"

Concrete patios are not comfortable beds, but I'll lie down on one to get a shot of a happy insect.

On another Chicago trip, Fernando went fishing off one of the piers, and I brought my camera. I got down low to capture some grass growing out of a crack in the concrete, with the city (and the Willis Tower) in the background.

One last image, from a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I can't even remember what this is--the rocket booster? Engine assembly? I can't remember! But I do remember I got on the ground in this Rocket Garden to get a good shot (shot wide open so no sun star).