Trillium

After taking these photos while I was at a retreat in Union, I checked facebook and saw that a friend on holiday 35 miles away took the same picture at the same time. 🙂

Trillium

Trillium are perennials, and picking the flower can damage the plant so much that it takes a few years to recover. In fact, it’s actually illegal to pick them from public lands in Michigan and Minnesota. So, just take pictures, friends.

Trillium

Trillium

Trillium

yes, more pictures of my little adventure are on their way, but first: homework. The semester ends in two weeks, so all my procrastination is catching up with me.

Salt Water

Salt Water

Isak Denison once wrote that the cure for anything is salt water: tears, sweat, or the sea

Gem and Daddy at Golden Gardens

Personally, I’d much rather take my cure from the sea, than sweat or tears.

Gem at the beach

We really should get out here more often.

Gem at the beach

This wasn’t Gem’s first trip to the beach; last time she was just a few months old, so it’s unlikely she has a memory of it.  But she took to it like it was already her favorite place in the world.  We didn’t tell her where we were going, but when she saw the water she immediately started trying to unbuckle herself, and yelling “Beach! Beach!” Either that, or she was calling me a bitch, but I don’t think she’d be quite so enthusiastic if that was the case.

Gem at the beach

My little girl definitely inherited her parent’s love of the sea.

Gem at the beach

Every day since she has asked to go back to the beach. Perhaps it’s time to go get some more cure.

What They Do: Discovering

I’m participating in Willette’s Joy of Love photography challenge this month because, ahem, I don’t have enough on my plate right now.

Today’s focus was photographing a loved one doing ‘what they do’ – in my case, that was Gem completely in awe of everything she discovers.

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Today’s challenge was using natural light, and capturing the catchlights (the little bits of reflected light) in your subject’s eyes.  Of course, my challenge was the same challenge I have every day – keeping up with Gem enough to capture her face. I’ve got hard drives full of photos of the sides and back of her head. The girl does not have time sit for portraits, she’s got some exploring to do.

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Oooh! There’s her face. Of course it’s backlit…

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Then she was done. Just like that. No more discovering, she wanted a hug. I held the camera out at arms length to grab a shot of that hug, and finally caught the ever-so-faint catchlights in her eyes.
snuggle

Reasons I Love Seattle: #1 Sunset Over Lake Union

Reasons I Love Seattle: #1 Sunset Over Lake Union

I was running late for a meeting, but I just had to stop and capture a couple shots of this sunset. I pulled over alongside the lake, rolled down the passenger-side window, and clicked away.

sunset-lake-union

sunset-01

sunset-seattle

As I continued on my way to the meeting, the sunset intensified. Each time I pulled through an intersection, the break between buildings revealed a different sky, full of different colors. It was changing by the second.  This was during rush hour traffic. I was looking around for a place to pull over so I could catch some more shots when I pulled off on a side street – and in to gridlock.  The sunset, of course, completely blocked by the concrete monstrosity of a building where the road curved in front of me.  Now, not only was I late for the meeting, I didn’t get that additional shot I was looking for, and I was trapped in place by traffic. Crap.

It occurred to me at this point that the sunset was not there to stress me out, or even for me to “capture” on film; it was there to bless my day. At that moment, a spot opened up for me to pull a U-turn and get back on my way, and the next break between buildings revealed the Space Needle, backlit by a fully fuchsia sky. Breathtaking. And just for me. I did not capture that shot of the sunset, but it did bless my day.

border-green

This has been an amazing week, full of wonderful news and new opportunities.  Much of it I can’t discuss just yet.  As if full-time school, cancer treatment, and motherhood were not enough, I’ve had a few writing gigs come my way as well.  I’m stealing this idea from The Bloggess and creating a regular post that will link to some of my other writing on a (hopefully) regular basis, as well as drawing your attention to other creators of awesomeness on the web.

Me: As seen on…

Goodies: Five Fabulous (and Inspirational) Bloggers – I was asked to highlight 5 amazing bloggers, and when I did, I used the opportunity to describe one of the coolest literary events I have ever experienced.

Awesome people who mentioned me (or linked to me) in their posts this week

Chookooloonks: seattle jazz trip: on the jason parker quartet, and what became one of the most beautifully different nights of my life – the amazing literary event I described above, from the perspective of the headlining author, the beautiful Karen Walrond.

My favorite reads from this week

THXTHXTHX: Dear Instances Where I Don’t Have My Camera – I came across this post when I got home last night, after my experience with the sunset.  Amazing. You see how that works? 😉

Seattlest: An Interview with Nancy Pearl, Seattle’s Celebrity Librarian – Our libraries and librarians are so needed right now, and so underappreciated for the services they provide to our communities – and Nancy Pearl is a Seattle treasure.

The Pioneer Woman: Daisy the Dog – I love the Pioneer Woman, but I usually don’t highlight her because she already gets more hits than Google. However, this post reminded me of the cow I had when I was a kid. The one with the oh-so-clever name of Milky, who then calved, and I assigned the even-less-original moniker of Calfy for her offspring.  Yeah, my naming skills have improved since then. No, Milky and Calfy did not have this much access to the house.

Chatting at the Sky: 3 things to do when they don’t like your art – Another timely piece.  It’s hard to think of putting your work out there without thinking you’re putting yourself out there, but rejection comes with the territory. Here’s how to deal with it.