Hungry

May 27, 2014 Photo (147/365): "It's a date!"

"[All] are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own." - Mother Teresa

Blog Tour

I am so honored that talented photographer and kindred spirit Catherine Goron of La Mémoire Vive invited me to join in this virtual blog tour. Here are my answers to the tour's four provocative questions:

1. What am you working on? 

For the past two years, I have challenged myself to complete a Project 365. Each day, I take photos of beautiful or interesting things that inspire me to stop and take a closer look. This challenge has been an awesome opportunity to slow down, to recognize the beauty and inspiration that surrounds me each day if I just take the time to see them. Project 365 has taught me to be present, to pay attention, to rejoice in the unexpected moments that did not go unnoticed.

2. How does your work differ from others of its genre? 

My photographs are all taken with my iPhone. So often, I imagine how lovely my photos could be if taken with a proper camera. I could stealthily zoom in on the lovely creatures that visit my garden. I could take photos in low light, focus on the tiniest details, and achieve a lovely depth of field. Yet, I quite enjoy the portability of my iPhone, knowing that it is available whenever something catches my eye. I also appreciate the challenge of achieving clear, vibrant, creative images without an optimal lens.

3. Why do you write/create what you do? 

Technically, I'm learning about angles, focus, composition, and light. In addition to the visual components, writing challenges me to express my creativity in words that complement my images. I feel inspired, dedicated, and so very blessed by the encouragement of all who have followed my progress. Thank you!

4. How does your writing/creating process work? 

Over the past year, I have become keenly aware of opportunities to capture beautiful moments. Some days, there is so much loveliness that it can't possibly be contained in a single photograph. Other days (during the fourth or fifth month of winter in Wisconsin), it can become almost frustrating to find something that it beautiful or inspiring. But the challenge is exhilarating and rewarding.  I love water, flowers, clouds, sunsets, wine, Paris, French culture, and my beautiful home state of Wisconsin; however, I have yet to find a true focus/theme for my blog, other than that each image has inspired me to be present and reflective.

It's my honor to introduce you to some wonderfully creative and inspiring women whose blogs I look forward to reading everyday:

Remember

May 26, 2014 Photo (146/365): One day is not enough to remember our brave servicemen and women including my dad, Robert A. Larson, em3c - US Navy WWII. Thank you today and everyday!

“Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.” – President Harry S. Truman

Mayflowers

May 25, 2014 Photo (145/365): "Au jardin"

Take a stroll though my garden and enjoy the May flowers!

Lemon yellow columbine

Sweet little violas

Pale pink primroses

Big blue hostas soaking up the morning dew

Blue butterfly pincushion flowers

Pink swan columbine

Chokeberry blossoms

Ruffled pansies

Morning dew drops on primroses

Double columbine almost ready to bloom

Tender new leaves on my seamfoam rose bush

Dark trillium

The first few lavender leaves

Pink columbine buds

Russian Sage

“May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.”

- an Irish blessing

Blossoms

May 24, 2014 Photo (144/365): "Apple Blossom Time"

"The apple blossoms' shower of pearl, though blent with rosier hue, as beautiful as woman's blush, as evanescent too."

- Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Flyover

May 23, 2014 Photo (143/365): "Flyover"

"Spring here is at first so wary, and then so spare that even the birds act like strangers, trying out the strange air with a hesitant chirp or two, and then subsiding. But the season intensifies by degrees, Imperceptibly, while the colors deepen out of memory, the flowers bloom and the thick leaves gleam in the sunlight of another city, in a past which has almost faded into heaven. And even though memory always gives back so much more of  what was there than the mind initially thought it could hold, where will the separation and the ache between the isolated moments go when summer comes and turns this all into a garden?   

Spring here is too subdued: the air is clear with anticipation,  but its real strength lies in the quiet tension of isolation and living patiently, without atonement or regret, in the eternity of the plain moments, the nest of care — Until suddenly, all alone, the mind is lifted upward into light and air and the nothingness of the sky...Somewhere up in the sky an airplane drones." [or three!] 

~ from “The Late Wisconsin Spring” by John Koethe

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NOTE: This is not my clearest, most impressive photo, but it is certainly what captured my attention this evening. When I heard the droning, I grabbed my iPhone and snapped a quick shot.