“ Zoom! ” This old pickup truck is behind an antique store & used to be hidden from view until a bike trail was just paved behind the building over the old rail tracks. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it as I was striding up the trail. I actually took a photo of it on Week 44, but someone said - use that for Wabi-Sabi & thankfully I was still in the area to do it this week. I took photos of it on Monday & I'll post those on my blog, but on Thursday I went striding

“ The Calm High Low Tide After the Flood ” From Thursday night through Sunday we had significant flooding. Despite it not being a named storm the winds from the south, the rain, and normal higher tides came together for the creek, river, and Bay to come up and over many of the finger piers, piers, bulkheads, and even into homes. Living on a creek and around a marina we all worried about our homes, boats, and safety - it's a time when the community really comes together to che

“ Cool Blue Steel ” The Cambridge water tower always captures my attention. Maybe it's because it's a block from my condo, maybe because they light it at night, or maybe because I just love the blue hue. I think the blue and how it reminds me of the water inside and the sky above is the perfect contrast to the hardness of the steel that actually makes the tower. I'll admit that I never paid attention to all the textures of the tower before this week, but this photo definitely

“ Midnight Mischief ” There's a heron that's been around all summer & he has recently taken over the dock & the turtle float since the Ospreys have left their nest. On Friday night I saw an image in the dark & I could barely make out the heron from my 3rd floor balcony. I grabbed my tripod & quickly set up for a photo knowing he would fly off quickly & he did. A bit later he came back & walked around the dock so I kept taking long shutter photos as he walked, so there's some

“The Bird” I spent all week hoping for better weather & a sky full of stars, I even drove hours in the middle of the night to try & capture the perfect shot this week, but nature didn't cooperate. One night I started at one of my favorite locations - the Choptank Lighthouse & started to take some photos on a pitch black night. The lighthouse reflected well on a fairly calm river, but it just wasn't doing anything for me. Then I moved my position just slightly & captured this

“An Ant's View” This week brought Tropical Storm Isaias right over us & provided the new experience of seeing people paddle board & kayak through our town, which I did document in photos. I also tried photographing the sunset clouds with a telescopic lens making the clouds seem like their own planets. The photo I chose this week is what I'm calling "an ant's view." On my way to swim the day after the storm there was this solitary little mushroom in the grass. It was so small

“Water Equals Life” So we all know we're all made of water, but sometimes I feel some of us are considerably more connected to it for life. Water is life for many in my area. Water is livelihood. Everyday the watermen, generation after generation head out in their boats at 4am to make their living from the water around us. Our economy, our families, our food depend on this water. It's a hard living and in many ways our watermen are a dying breed like the farmers on the land a

“Hard to Distinguish” On an early morning walk, on a very humid day, after one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever gone through here, there was this indistinguishable trash floating on the creek. It isn't bright in color, there's not a lot of contrast between it & the water, but it was there & it made me sad. With every rain storm there is trash that appears in the creek & I wonder why we can't do better in picking up after ourselves. So this picture shows the beauty - not o

“The Natural Background” How can one compete for the perfect background when this is the natural competition? This lighthouse is often photographed on its own or used as a background for wedding parties & other events. I've even used it as the background for a client's food product, but this week the lighthouse had its own spectacular background almost every night. I took this Monday night from the outer seawall, with some rough water behind me. This was my second walk out to

“The Long Pier Metaphor” The calm water and blue sky surrounded the pier tonight. Such a serene place to sit or walk. The boards are a little uneven, but isn't that part of life - there's always some unevenness or bumps to navigate. It's early enough in the year that the mosquitoes aren't out in force, but you kind of know they're coming later. That's another metaphor for life - there's always some nagging force or pesky situation/person that will crop up and ruin a good time

Surprise Takeoff So this week's photo was a complete surprise for me. I was out for my daily walk with my husband and the dog, and I was taking photos along the way. At the end of the walk there was a single duck paddling by itself in the shallow end of the creek. As I was snapping photos, he turned towards me and took off. I amazingly caught him and the water trail he left in one of my quick photos. So that's how I got this week's challenge photo. Not my usual planning, nor

“Oh the stories...” I love my 2nd home. It's a very historical town dating back to colonial times. Both Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass have history and are celebrated here. It played a role in the civil rights movement in the 60s. What's sad, even though eerily beautiful, are the currently abandoned buildings along the main drag. This old theater for example, the marquis dented and warped. What headlines were once placed upon it in its golden age? Who attended what and

“ Obstructed View ” So I almost forgot that today was Sunday and the challenge ends in less than 90 minutes, I had to think of something fast for this week. My thought with what I have near by on a cold and rainy night... "obstructed view" to the rescue. Having a photo with things in the way, a tree, a car, or in my case a railing is not an ideal photo, it is breaking a rule in photography. Add a hazy focus and a darker composition and it doesn't usually make a good photo. Br