From a distance, the middle of winter can seem unsightly. Brown, gray, wilted, withered and downright dead.
But get up close enough, and winter looks deceptively glamorous.
The vertical glamour shot:
The glamour head shot:
The cheesecake/beefcake shot:
The ubiquitous close-up shot:
And the perfect boudoir shot:
MUST BE 18 TO ENTER:
It seemed like a perfect day for a saunter down the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. The quintessential pedestrian mall was teeming with tourists, students, Boulderites, shoppers, sightseers, musicians, wannabe musicians, and very bendy buskers who can contort themselves to fit into small boxes or walk along on stilts while juggling burning torches. You can even rent a bike…you know, that whole eco-transportation thing.
The colors are vibrant, the smells tantalizing, and the people are fun to watch. Several of the street musicians were actually very good. An adorable little girl seemed pretty taken with one guy’s tunes!
Oh, and I discovered my new favorite store….Penzeys Spices. I wonder if there’s a recipe on the internet that uses both Vietnamese cinnamon and Chinese five spice?
— Gertrude Stein.
One rose viewed in different ways is still the same rose whether uplit, backlit, spotlighted or highlighted.
“You’re in Radiator Springs, the cutest little town in Carburetor County.” — Mater
A recent Sunday drive south on Parker Road out of Denver ended at Castlewood Canyon State Park. This is a lovely state park with hiking trails, sightseeing, and picnic areas. Cherry Creek runs along the bottom of the canyon. Ruins of the Castlewood Canyon Dam that broke in 1933 flooding Denver and an abandoned homestead reveal bits and pieces of local history. This park should be on your list of places to visit this year.
I know I’ll be going back.
Sounds like the opening of a terrific rant, right? A rant that could be somewhat fitting in today’s climate of against-ness: political finger pointing and fault finding, economic blaming, moral side taking, and overall polarization. “I’m against daylight. It wakes me up, makes me squint (which will inevitably cause deep wrinkles), forces me to buy special tinted prescription glasses, and has been known to turn my skin a shocking shade of crimson.” I could go on and on.
But I won’t (I can feel your relief from here).
Against daylight or contre-jour (look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls) refers to the deliberate use of backlighting a subject. A silhouette emphasizing shapes and outlines. This high-contrast technique can produce some striking results.
A line is a straight one-dimensional figure having no thickness and extending infinitely in both directions. The equation of a line is y = mx + b (that’s for all my mathematicians! And yes, I do realize that equation is the slope-intercept form.)
Lines can run parallel or perpendicular. We can travel the world via cruise line or airline. Why not sail across a river gorge on a zip line or sail a boat using a jib line? We can cross a line or draw the line. Sometimes lives are forever changed by pickup lines, party lines and picket lines. There are some who define the world with hard lines, fine lines or blurred lines, even straight and narrow lines.
We get in lines, wait in lines, color inside the lines, and tow the line…at least those of us with a certain upbringing anyway. We can read headlines, bylines, tag lines and between the lines. We begin at the starting line and end at the finish line. And to flat line can mean the end of the line.
Lines have tremendous visual appeal to me. These are some of my favorite photographs with prominent lines.
When most plant life outside is hibernating, it’s nice to have pretty tabletop nature inside. I managed to coax a funny looking bulb into this graceful bloom.
It is still on this eve of a coming new year.
So before all the revelry and parties draw near,
Before champagne toasts, funny hats and good cheer,
Before to-do lists are written and resolutions are signed,
Before ringing out the old with an Auld Lang Syne,
Take time to think of all that is dear,
For now is the quiet before a new year.
In this quiet, I am taking time to reflect on the past year. Celebrating the successes, getting over the hurts, and remembering the little things that made me smile. Snowflakes falling off branches and making angels in the snow. A game of hide-and-go-seek when you think you’e too old.
How to find beauty in everyday items of life is sometimes all that I need to know.
Colored Glasses
Early morning icicles
Amber bottle in the window
A perfect apple
Sugar cubes
Dinner mints
Edge of the leaf
Clock on the wall
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
The beauty of winter is upon us.
Colorado’s Front Range does not often see a white Christmas. In fact, we have only seen one inch of snow on the ground in 37 percent of our Christmases over the past 111 years. This year we have A LOT of snow on the ground…over a foot at our house.
This Christmas morning was covered in snow with a dusting of frost. Catching frost in the sunlight at just the right angle can be magical.
As EYE See... 