Weekly Header Challenge -- Looking Down

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

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

Visit the other participants' blogs to see their entries!

Theme ~ Looking Down

Chosen by Tom.

I smiled when I read the theme for this week, because it reminded me of a line from the movie Winnie the Pooh.  Pooh is walking along with Piglet, explaining that "jag-u-lars call out 'Halloooooo!' and when you look up, they drop on you."  Piglet responds, "I'm looking d-down, P-p-p-pooh!"  Since our family is well-versed in movie lines, we are fond of often quoting Piglet's line.

Here is the image I chose for my header.  I took this just a couple days ago; I arranged everything on my pretty china and placed it on the floor.  I used my macro lens to capture the "looking down" shot.

Oolong tea, Irish soda bread, honey-cinnamon butter.

On to the rest of my picks for Looking Down!!

I've been traveling/working alongside Fernando for a few months, so I've had some great opportunities for taking interesting pictures outside my normal routine.  Some of them are featured below.  Enjoy!

End of February, Akron, OH hotel room, looking down out of the window.

I love the diagonal lines formed with the sidewalk and the cars.  I don't like the snow.

Looking down into the lobby from our hotel in Bowling Green, KY.

Early morning Bible reading, with a cup of English breakfast tea.

Looking down at my bowl of tortellini & spinach soup, a family favorite.

All the nature images were taken at the Morton Arboretum a few weeks ago on a very chilly afternoon.

Tree roots along Lake Marmo, at the Morton Arboretum.

Water drain hole on Lake Marmo.

I've been fermenting vegetables!

Forest floor, west side, Morton Arboretum.

Daffodils getting ready to bloom!

Scilla or other ground cover.

I saved my favorite image for last.  I was standing on a little footbridge, and shot down looking into the brook below.  There were little orange buds from the tree, plus a few leaves, floating on the water.  The reflection of the tree branches is there, too, making this a beautiful abstract image.  It looks autumn-like with the orange color.  I just love this shot!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Looking Up

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

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

Visit the other participants' blogs to see their entries!

Theme ~ Looking Up

Chosen by Tom.

For this week's theme, I traveled back in time to our silver anniversary trip to Paris.  Although pictures don't do justice to the view, it's pretty amazing standing at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and looking up.  Here is the uncropped image I used for this week's header:

Closer to home is another tower--the Moser Tower which houses the Millenium Carillon in Naperville.  At the bottom, looking up, you can see a series of bells, from the largest bell, "Big Joe," to the smaller and smaller ones, until you have to climb the stairs to see the smallest bells of the carillon.

At the very top of the Moser Tower, you can look up and see the sky.  I took a picture, then turned 90 degrees and took a second picture for a different look.  I do like the second one better, though both are visually interesting.

In Chicago, you can find many old churches, one of which is Notre Dame de Chicago, which boasts this beautiful dome in its sanctuary.

Lots of signs can be seen if you look up; here is one of my favorite ice cream shops, in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Finally, here's one old image I took at a springtime church picnic.  Daddy sure had to look up so he could catch his little son!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Looking Up

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

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 ~ Looking Up

Chosen by Tom.

For this week's header, I have fresh, new images to share!  These were definitely an occasion where everyone was looking up, and looking all around--we were surrounded!

Some big storms came through just a few nights ago, and we happened to be out on our front lawn at the perfect time.  Sometimes we're oblivious to the shapes, colors, and scenes of thunderstorms, and we didn't think about this particular storm until we went outside to say goodbye to Jake's girlfriend Allie and her family, who came for a visit.  Sunset was nearing, and the sun was reflecting the most brilliant colors off the clouds to the northeast.

Here is my header image, uncropped so you get the full effect:

When weather "happens," digital images usually don't do justice to the grandeur and majesty of the sky lit up with clouds and colors.  But, I did my best to capture the sky.  Below, our house was framed with blue-tinted clouds.

As we turned our backs to the house and looked northeast, these billowing clouds met our eyes.

A little later, as the storms continued to develop north and east of us, we saw the color display become even more dramatic.

Besides this storm, there were other recent images I took where I was looking up.  Here's one from last week's fireworks show in Naperville:

Also, as I was gardening last week, I heard a familiar tap-tap-tap, and looked up to spot this female downy woodpecker on a half-dead tree on the other side of our back yard fence.  Yes, I garden with my camera nearby, since you all know I blog about our everyday life!  I was able to get close enough to this bird and set my telephoto to 105mm to get the below image, with no cropping.

Finally, here's an older image at my favorite portrait session location just a few miles from my house.  These are the concrete steps leading up to the wooden footbridge across the DuPage River at Knoch Knolls Park.  In order to look up these stairs, I had to crouch really low on the ground.  It's a great perspective to use with stairs!

I will be out of town for next week's theme, so I will see everyone the following week with (Lord willing) lots of new images to share!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Found Object

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

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 ~ Found Object

Chosen by Kathy.

For this week's theme, I decided to show you what I found on my last two visits to the arboretum.  I expected to see certain things there, such as trees and daffodils (at least I hoped for the daffodils to be in bloom!), but some things were unexpected. 

Pictures from Visit #1 -- Using my Macro

Here is the image I used for my header:

This little fella was happily munching away on a nut, right in the middle of the walking path, in the shade of a tree.  I had brought my macro lens as the only lens on my camera, and that allowed me to get a little closer without having to crop the image.  Also, this squirrel was apparently a longtime resident of the arboretum, because he let me get up close and personal without a bit of concern on his part.  Plus, he posed for me, too!

It was a challenge to find shots with just my macro lens, but the below worked well.  Imagine how tall this tree is, since I missed the bottom half!  I discovered a nest up high, plus I loved the twisty trunk.

Fernando discovered a garter snake in the leaves, and "helped" the snake slither my way for its portrait.

Pictures from Visit #2 -- Using my 24-105mm F/4L

Yesterday, Fernando and I went back to the arboretum to see if the daffodils were in bloom yet.  I brought just one lens, a challenge yet again.  Here are the things we found.

Daffodils with scilla scattered around:

Here is part of the daffodil glade.

We took a walk around and found a section of woods covered with mayapples.  They weren't quite open, but when they are, they're the neatest looking sight--the wooded floor covered with little leafy umbrellas.

In an open field, we came upon a clump of white and pink magnolia trees.  What a pretty spring sight! 

Here are the fuzzy buds from a few of the trees:

And one of the open blossoms:

Those are just a few of the things we found on our two trips.  I know there'll be other things to discover the next time we go, and I can't wait until then!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Vertical

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 ~ Vertical

Chosen by me.

I had this specific image in mind when I thought about a theme for this week.  I'm always intrigued by perspective, and I was tossing around the idea of how different an image can look and feel depending on whether it's taken vertically or horizontally.  First, here is my header image, full frame:

I'm still slightly a-wonder when I see this image, and I'm saving my pennies to have it developed on a large canvas to be placed in our dining room.  Note the difference in the feeling evoked with the vertical perspective (below), which is how I usually want to orient really tall tree pictures:

These pine trees at the Morton Arboretum are massively tall, but I really think that the horizontal perspective gives a completely different feel--I get the sense of tallness, to be sure, but the sheer vastness of the pine forest overwhelms me, and I am taken back to that moment I walked among the pines, the whisper-feel of the ground as I walked by, just the silence and majesty.  I'm waxing eloquent here, but you see the difference.

One more horizontal vs. vertical, so you can see the difference.  I also like the horizontal perspective of this next image over its vertical companion.

Now on to purely horizontal images of vertical things!  Usually, I shoot fireworks vertically, because they go way up, up, and up, but I shot some of these horizontally, and was able to capture the fireworks bursting in the sky, shooting up from the water, plus the reflection.  I really like this shot.

ISO 100, 17-40mm at 17mm, f/8, 4-second exposure. 

(In case you wondered.)

Buildings are another thing typically shot vertically, but I love this next one, which really gives an impression of height.

Flowers, too, with their stems, tend to be shot long-wise.  Here are a few horizontal frames that show a vertical sense.

Well, that's what I had in mind for this week's theme.  I love trying a challenge, and I think this challenged me to see things in a way I don't usually see them.  Thanks for visiting me today, and I hope I've inspired you, too!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - From the Ground

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).

Now I'm tired.  I think I'll go lie down.  ;)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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