Tag: Photography

  • Urbanscapes and Letterforms in the Built Environment

    Urbanscapes and Letterforms in the Built Environment

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    I\’m tempted to leave this picture stand on its own merits, because \”a picture\’s worth a thousand words.\”  But I\’m proud of it, and figured I\’d share why:

    I\’ve been a photographer since high school, when I was privileged to take two years of art photography with one of our better teachers.  We were given black and white film, ASA 100, and taught to see the world around us with new eyes.  This is well before the digital revolution took the photographic world by storm.

    Fast forward to a few years ago, when high-quality digital cameras first started appearing in cell phones.  What a revolutionary idea for me!  I\’d resisted joining the digital photography movement because I prefer to shoot with an SLR camera (Single Lens Reflex) and the little point-and-shoot jobbies didn\’t satisfy.  But now, with my ubiquitous phone, it allowed me to snap things as I saw them, instead of lament not having a digital SLR.  (In a side note, I inherited my husband\’s old SLR when he upgraded to his new one in his freelance photography business, and I once again can wander around of an afternoon haunting my environment.)

    This particular image caught my eye on a bridge over the railroad tracks near the Chicago Art Institute, the subject of my \”A\” entry on the main blog of this very website.  The bridge is made of cast concrete, and joined with whatever substance one uses to join such things.  I caught sight of this obvious \”C\” and had to have it.  It\’s a hyper-close-up, as the original object is only a few inches across, smaller than the length of my hand.

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Bears Napping, Bears Pacing, Bears, Bears, Bears! B Is For Bears!

    Bears Napping, Bears Pacing, Bears, Bears, Bears! B Is For Bears!

    There are many bears at the Brookfield Zoo.  There are polar bears, and brown bears, and black sloth bears, not to mention the red pandas over in the Hamill Family Wild Encounters.

    Bears are, however, difficult to photograph because their dens have thick Lexan between us and them – which, all things considered, is just as well because I don\’t want to be a bear\’s dinner.  (The fact I\’d love to pet one isn\’t really relevant to this particular discussion, and the Encounters I mentioned let you do just that – so that will be on our list to visit next time we head over to the zoo.)

    I was able to snap this shot of the snoozing polar bear over the fence.  His face surprised me by how similar it is in appearance to some breeds of dogs.    He looks so cozy here, doesn\’t he?

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    Is there such a thing as a \”bear nap?\”  Cats can\’t have all the fun, now can they?

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    See what I mean about the Lexan here? It\’s got a heck of a glare.  I like this shot because it gives you some idea of his size; I\’m standing maybe five or six feet away from him.

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    He has an interesting ridge on his nose.  It seemed like he was trying to smell something.  In this shot, he more resembles a seal in his facial structure.

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    You can really see the resemblance to a dog here.

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    I\’m disappointed at the glare in this shot, because he looks adorably sleepy.  He had a lie down right after this, but I couldn\’t do it justice with the lighting.

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    I thought I got several more shots of the brown bear, and now that I\’m typing, I\’m thinking it may actually be a grizzly?  Not sure.  But this one startled me because of how friggin\’ huge he is.  You can\’t tell it in this shot, but there are actually two bears in the enclosure, sound asleep.  I couldn\’t get the other one to come out with the lighting because they were so shadowed; I\’m not sure if thi one is the male or the female.

    The ears are adorable, nu?

    Totally want to scritch his/her head, too.  Last thing I\’d ever do, but omg.  Cute!?

    Check back on Monday for C Is For Camel – remember, no post on Sunday!  (Thank you J. K. Rowling for that earwig.)

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    • My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.
    • The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.
    • The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!
    • The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

     

  • B Is For Bush! (No, Not THAT Kind of Bush)

    B Is For Bush! (No, Not THAT Kind of Bush)

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    I got home and downloaded my pictures and, for the life of me, could not remember what I\’d intended when I shot this one.  Then, as I was writing about doing the challenge, I said something like, \”B is for bush,\” and it hit me – I must have meant bush!

    Now, as I am putting my posts up, I realized it\’s because it has Berries.

    You know, with a B?

    Sequitur much?

    Okay, on that topic, I have to share a cute joke with you:

    How many Zen masters does it take to change a light bulb?

    Fish.

     

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

     

  • The A-Z of the Natural World – Letterforms In Nature

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    I waffled on whether to do the A-Z on my craft blog, because I\’m already doing it elsewhere.  But I already went out and took half the photographs for my idea, so I decided what the heck, I\’m gonna throw my hat in the ring.

    So here\’s what I\’m doing:

    The A To Z of the Natural World – Finding Letterforms in Nature

    Inspired by calligrapher Margaret Shepherd\’s blog, I decided to take a different tack – rather than look for human-made letters around my neighborhood, I am looking for letter shapes in the natural forms made by botanicals and objects in the built environment.  Over the next month, I\’ll share with you my discoveries, beginning with today:  A In a Tree.

    Enjoy, and Happy A-Z!

  • O Is For… Outdoors!

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    The outdoors. It calls to us, if we let it.  It wasn\’t until I moved to Chicago and met people who had been raised their entire lives in a metropolis, (Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States), that I realized not everyone feels the call the way I do.

    When I was young and living with a mentally-ill mother, one of the common escapes for me was to go hiking into the mountains behind our ranch.  It backed up to a thirty-acre cow pasture, but beyond that, it was just National Forest – no houses for, literally, miles.  Since my mother disapproved of my writing, I hid my papers and pen under my shirt and took off with my dog to go walking.

    At the time, I only knew I was escaping.  Now, at a couple decades\’ remove, I realize that I was also communing with nature and finding peace in what was a very dangerous and unpeaceful situation.  Many spiritual traditions talk of the silence one gets in touch with when one walks, and I find that silence is accessible as much in the city as it is in those faraway mountains of my childhood.

    What about you, Dear Reader?
    Where are your favorite places to walk?

  • A New Way of Looking at the World with a Smartphone

    Join me at the Samhain Publishing blog for some thoughts on taking pictures with your smartphone.  Where have you wandered lately?

  • Aunt Noony\’s Blog Bus

    Want something to read?  Of course you do!

    Join me today at the Writer\’s Retreat Blog for \”Ways of Seeing.\”  Then, over at LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers, I have \”Training the Eye.\” I\’m in an artistic mood today.

    Enjoy!

  • Aunt Noony\’s Blog Bus

    Want something to read?  Of course you do!

    Join me today at the Writer\’s Retreat Blog for \”Ways of Seeing.\”  Then, over at LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers, I have \”Training the Eye.\” I\’m in an artistic mood today.

    Enjoy!