The prompt: “Focus closely on your subject and use a wide aperture.”
The View From Elk, CA
More of Elk, California
And still more of Elk, California
More Rule of Thirds: Elk, California
February 22, 2015 at 4:20 pm (Places, Sundays, postaday)
Tags: California, Elk, postaday, postaweek, Sundays, Wordpress
Scale: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
February 7, 2015 at 5:19 am (Links, Places, postaday)
Tags: California, destinations, discoveries, fairy tales, inspirations, memories, Mendocino, postaday, postaweek, travel, Wordpress, writing process
Self finds this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge — SCALE — very interesting.
She thinks the theme has a lot to do with surprise and contrast. She finds the photograph accompanying the prompt (by Michelle W.) very amusing.
The instructions are to “share a photograph that highlights a size relationship.”
Here are her takes on the theme:
A miniature lamp enlarged self’s childhood imagination (and probably went a long way in determining what she would eventually become: a writer)
Self has had this lamp since she was three or four: a present from her parents. She has it with her in Mendocino, a little talisman. Also, an indication of what work she hopes to do here: an exploration of myth and legends and first life.
Her second trip to Elk was when she finally got to appreciate the view (On her first trip, she was too nervous trying to get out of the way of trucks, buses, etc that all seemed to be crawling up her bumper). Self took this photo from Cottage # 3 behind The Griffin House Inn. A view isn’t a view without something to lend it a sense of scale, and here self used the deck.
Elk, California: View from the Back of The Griffin House Inn
En route to Chicago, last fall
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Depth 3: Ocean and Trees (Off South Highway One, California)
February 2, 2015 at 9:20 pm (Places, postaday)
Tags: California, destinations, Mondays, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
The ocean is vast, isn’t it? God, it is just so beautiful.
Today, self left early for Elk and got there just before Read the rest of this entry »
New 2 for the New Year
January 4, 2015 at 11:57 pm (Links, Lists, postaday, Sayings)
Tags: California, inspirations, lists, postaday, postaweek, Sundays, Venice Beach, Wordpress
This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is NEW. NEW as in:
Possibility. Opportunity. Potential.
With that in mind, self selected three pictures from her archives that seem to embody the spirit of the New Year.
(1) Bruce Lee Postcard: New Year Resolution: TEACH ME TO BE FEARLESS.
Self has this taped over her desk at home.
(2) T-Shirt Slogans with Attitude (Key to Positive Mental Attitude is Wearing a T-shirt with the right slogan. For example: POP THE CHAMPAGNE). As Effie Trinket herself might say: Chins up! Eyes front! Attitude!
Ojai, California
(3) Sign on the Venice Beach Boardwalk: One of self’s New Year resolutions is to spend as much time near a body of water as possible:
Venice Beach, CA
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Warmth 3: Venice Beach
December 30, 2014 at 11:05 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Places, postaday, Weather)
Tags: California, discoveries, Los Angeles, memories, nostalgia, postaday, postaweek, Venice Beach, Wordpress
Self visited Venice Beach twice this year: the first time in September, by herself. The second in November, with Angela Narciso Torres, who was giving a reading at Beyond Baroque (which, incidentally, was where self discovered that Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame used to participate in their poetry writing workshops, way back in the ’80s!)
Both times, the weather was beautiful and warm.
The beach itself had very few people, surprisingly.
Venice Beach, November 2014
Venice Beach Boardwalk, November 2014
Sunbathers, Venice Beach, September 2014
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Warmth: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
December 28, 2014 at 12:30 am (postaday, Weather)
Tags: California, farmers markets, Garden, memories, postaday, postaweek, Saturday, seasons, summer, Wordpress
This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is WARMTH.
Think “indoor pools . . . heated sidewalk cafés . . . spaces dedicated to the preservation and celebration of warmth.”
That said, here are a couple of pictures self took in the fall, when northern California had a month-long string of sunny days.
There is nothing more calming for self than being in her garden on a sunny day:
The Side Yard (It looks very different now: for one thing, all the trees are bare.
The Apple Tree
Another image that recalls WARMTH is this picture of sunflowers self took at the Redwood City Farmers Market. The market is held every Saturday from April through November.
Redwood City Farmers Market: Summer 2014
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Converge in Venice Beach, California
November 30, 2014 at 3:12 am (Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: California, discoveries, memories, postaday, postaweek, Saturday, travel, Venice Beach, Wordpress
This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is CONVERGE.
The instructions are “to find geometry in photography — shapes, diagonals, vanishing points.”
Self decided to focus her search on the photos she took of one of her favorite places of 2014: Venice Beach, California, which she visited for the first time in September.
Hope these have the requisite geometry and/or contrast in shapes.
The first time self saw Venice Beach: September 2014
Sand, Sea and Bird in Venice Beach, California
Coca-Cola, Hot Wings, and Palm Trees: More Convergence in Venice Beach, California
Minimalist: San Gabriel
November 9, 2014 at 2:47 pm (Holidays, Places, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: California, Christmas, inspiration, postaday, postaweek, Sundays, Wordpress
In this week’s challenge, show us your minimalist photos. Find an interesting texture, color, or silhouette.
– the WordPress Daily Post Photo Challenge this week
Self is back in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The friend she’s staying with decided to start putting out Christmas decorations. She has a string of Filipino capiz-shell lighted lanterns (parol) to hang on her Christmas tree. She began un-boxing them yesterday:
Capiz-shell Christmas lanterns, a tradition in the Philippines
It was a lot of fun stringing the lanterns on the tree. Self’s friend even played Christmas music. We shared some of the organic apple cider self brought down from Ojai.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Descent 3: All Sorts of Things in Venice Beach, California
November 4, 2014 at 3:16 pm (Links, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: California, postaday, postaweek, travel, Wordpress
There are all sorts of inspiring photographs on the WordPress Photo Challenge, DESCENT, this week.
There are cliffs. There are winding stairs. There are shots of the London Underground.
Self is currently soaking up the sun in Venice Beach, California, so that’s where all these pictures were taken.
It is such bliss to be on a beach. In November.
Loft, Venice Beach, CA: November 2014
What did this woman think she was doing, taking a picture from the middle of a busy street in Venice Beach, California?
Geometric in Venice Beach: The Lobby of Self’s Wee Hotel
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Dialogue 5: Blur
September 5, 2014 at 1:41 am (postaday)
Tags: Bacolod, California, Events, Filipinos, photography, postaday, postaweek, San Carlos, The Philippines, Wordpress
Self thinks these three photographs are in dialogue with each other. Agree or disagree, dear blog readers? (Funny how she started this post thinking she was going to post a series of landscape shots! Self is so unpredictable — even to herself LOL)
Book Sale at Public Library, San Carlos, CA
Masskara Festival, Bacolod City: October 2012
