17/365

Railroad Sign

In the south part of downtown it's practically deserted in late afternoon.  I had the area totally to myself.  I don't think I've ever photographed this sign from this perspective, but I really like it.  

It appears that the warehouse/factory just to the right of the staircase railings hasn't been in use for many, many years, but the building is still intact and has provided me with many photo ops.  The sign and the railroad cars have always been available too.  

16/365

Artwork on the Outside Wall of a Reception Venue

I've photographed this artwork many times before, but I usually isolate the art so you can't see any of the surrounding area.  Today I decided to include some of the reception venue to give the building a little more perspective. 

It was a warm overcast day, so the colors really popped.  The artist, Cal, has done many other artworks on buildings in town.  I like his work.

15/365

Ceiling Fan and Flower Print

I decided to take a short lie-down this afternoon and I was mulling over what to take a photo of for my daily post.  I looked up and thought, "well, why not?"

It's not a very exciting image, but I enjoy having a ceiling fan even though I don't use it much and I totally LOVE the grey, white and black flower artwork.

14/365

Church Building Just Before Dusk

I saw this building about ½ hour before sunset and thought the light was so beautiful.  

I only had my phone camera with me and although it's fine as a small image, I probably can't enlarge it very much without it looking pixelated.  I need to start carrying my Big-Girl-Camera with me all the time. I did that for a while a few years ago, and more often than not I didn't find anything to photograph while I was out, so I stopped taking it with me.  

Maybe I need to rethink that habit.  

12/365

Rotunda at the Texas State Capitol Building in Austin, Texas

11/365

People on line to enter chambers on the second day of Legislative Day at the Texas State Capitol Building in Austin, Texas. 

I took this image with my cell phone's pano function.  I've never tried that before and someone I was talking with showed me a photo she took, so of course, I had to try it.  The pano function elongated the roundness of the floor we were on.  I just think it's so interesting.

10/365

Abandoned Home

Well....it's day 10 of the new year and I've already outdone my posts of last year, when I actually only posted one image in January of the new year and the second image was months later.  

Anyway, I've seen this house before.  It's been like this for at least 3 years and maybe longer.  Wonder what happened to the owners?  Did they pass on?  Did they just get sick of supporting the home financially?  Did they move out of the area?

The houses around it are nice and well taken care of.  No one complains about this eye-sore?  No one cares?  No one wants to be the snitch?

No way to know since I'm not from that neighborhood and don't know anyone to ask.  This is sad though.  It looks like it was a cute house once-upon-a-time.  

9/365

Bee's Wax Candle

I'm trying to minimize the non-essential possessions in my home, because:

1)  the less-is-more philosophy is giving me a lot of peace

&

2)  I don't want my kids to have to Figure-Out-What-To-Do-With-Mom's-Stuff when the time comes.

My environment isn't austere and never will be.  I think a home should be inviting and comforting, not only to the people who live there, but to all who enter for whatever reason.

I love these statues.  The candle is a bee's wax candle that a friend made.  Her husband is a honey farmer and she always has plenty of bee's wax and she kindly gave me several candles the last time I visited.  It's really time to burn it, but I keep forgetting, so right now it's another calming piece of decor in my living room.  

8/365

The Toybox

The toys in the basket are a few that I brought with me when I moved and a few that I purchased at Goodwill after I got here. 

The grandkids don't come here too often, but when they do they head right for the toys.  It's so much fun watching them re-discover the items in the basket.  The toys aren't as creative as the ones they have at home, but when they're done the living room looks like a hurricane swept through.

7/365   Spider Plant

I love indoor plants.  There are a couple that I manage to not only keep alive, but keep healthy.  This is one of them.  

My roommate has three cats who are very persistent at swatting at anything hanging, so I need to keep this one in my bedroom.  I also need to keep my bedroom door shut so they can't get to the plant.  

I'd love to get more plants, but it's basically just throwing money away while the cats are here.

I guess I'll just have to take joy from this one.

6/365

Seen From the Airport Window

I've seen more pretty sun rises and sun sets in the winter in Alaska than I've ever seen anywhere else. This was approximately 3:30 pm.  I love the muted colors of the sky and the snow on the runway.

5/365

Clouds and Blue Sky

Just step outside the door.

4/365

Lunar Ring

As I was looking for the Northern Lights during my last night in a northern location I noticed this ring around the moon.  The sky seemed pretty cloudy and I didn't see any "lights", but this ring was very prominent.  I've never seen such a phenomena before.  

It was a perfect ring around the moon.  I took several photos, one being the complete ring, but I like this one where the moon and the ring are intercepted by the trees.  

This happens where there are ice crystals in the air that reflect the moon's light.  According to the little research I did, it's a pretty common sight.  Considering I've never seen it before, it must not be too common in the lower 48 since this is the first time in my life I've seen such a beautiful sight. 

It didn't last long and a short while later the sky looked

 clear and the ring was gone.

I was in the "right place at the right time" and was so glad I was.

3/365

Northern Lights

I took this image with my new cell phone.  It was tricky~~it was cold and it was difficult to hold the phone steady until it took the pic.  It automatically went into night mode so it was a couple of seconds before the camera clicked.  

The interesting thing is that to the naked eye the sky just looked dark and there was a slight "cloudy" look to the area where the northern lights are, it didn't look green at all, so until someone told me, I thought it was just a clump of clouds.  The camera picked out the color. 

I only found that out about a week ago.  Who knows how many times I missed the lights, not realizing what that "cloudy" area really was.  I have one more night to see the lights and there's no telling if it will be too cloudy or if there will even be a light show.  It changes second-by-second. 

I'm happy I got the images I did.  

2/365

Almost A Full Moon

While looking at the sky for the Aurora Borealis, I turned toward the south and saw this beautiful sight.  I noticed the moon being ⅔ full and was surprised at how quickly the moon waxes and wanes.  

Just a few days ago, Dec 29th, the moon was only ½ full.

Tonight the sky was cloudless and the stars were bright.   The trees are lit by some motion lights in the driveway.  This is another image taken with my phone camera. I'm so impressed with the quality of the images.  That doesn't mean I'll give up my grown-up camera, but there's a saying in photographic circles:

"The best camera you have is the one you have with you". 

(the double watermark was an accident and it's late and I didn't feel like doing the image over)

Hello  2023

1/365

Hand Made Baby Blocks

There might be a new grandbaby in the relatively 

near future (not yet though).  

My last unmarried child married in 2022.   

These blocks are the entire alphabet with a pic for each letter. They take a long time to make so as soon as they announced the wedding date I decided to get a head start on them and have them ready.

There's also a grandson who's getting married later this year, so I guess I should get started on another set. Even though they're time-consuming, I'm happy to make them because it helps me stay busy in the evening when there aren't any meetings to attend.  

28/365

Museum of the North

This museum is seen on the campus of Alaska University at Fairbanks, Alaska.  It's a beautiful structure and it gives me the feeling it was constructed with the large white blocks to mimic the Alaskan heritage of igloos.  I haven't been able to document that idea, but that's what it makes me think of when I look at it.

This building is a cultural center, a museum and a learning environment.

 The sun sets around 4 pm in the winter and this image was made close to that time.  The light was beautiful and the sky was such a pretty blue. 

27/365

Tulip or Amarillis?

This is part of the decor where I'm visiting.  It was purchased as what looks like a wrapped bulb of some sort with the guarantee that it would bloom around Christmas.  And bloom it did.

It's a beautiful red flower and is a great part 

of the house decor.

26/365    Portrait in Winter

So...when you live in a cold climate and you want your portrait made during the winter, you just bite the bullet and work outside, even if the temperature is only 0 degrees F.  I was not the photographer on this job but I managed to get a couple of images while they were working.

25/365

Golden Heart Plaza, Downtown Fairbanks, Alaska

I was in the park today with a friend who was shooting a photo session.  Needless to say, it was a fast session because it was only 0 degrees F, so there wasn't much I could do to help.

I spent some time looking around to see what I could photograph, when I saw this scene which I actually found quite compelling since I love photographing bare tree branches.

The plaza is on the banks of the Chena River, so this is looking across the river at the buildings on the other side.  It would have been great had I had a subject standing near one of the trees, especially if they were wearing a bright color like red or yellow, but alas, for me it was just the 

scenic.  

In spite of the cold it was fun having something different to photograph other than the town where I live. 

24/365

White Birch and Hammocks

I came upon this scene today at a friend's home.  I only had my cell phone with me. I hope to go back with my big-girl camera.  I'd love to make this into a canvas to hang in my home.

I can probably name it something like:

"Dreaming of Spring"

"Summer Dreams"

"Waiting to Relax"

or something like that.  

23/365   Night Scene

I very recently got a new phone.  

During all the times I've visited Fairbanks I've never seen the Northern Lights.  I hope to see them this trip, so tonight I went outside around 10:45 pm (it gets pitch dark around 4 pm during the winter).  There were no "lights" then, probably because of the heavy cloud cover, but I wanted to try the phone camera in the dark to see how it well it photographed at night.  

This is looking south.  It's amazing.  The image can't be blown up too large because it would be too grainy, but what a great job it does for small pics.

22/365

The Vessel

This is a honeycomb sculpture-style structure seen on the High Line in Manhattan, NYC.  The image was made shortly after it was opened in 2019, and sadly, before 3 suicides closed it permanently to the public.  All of the components were manufactured in Italy and then transported to America for construction.

 21/365   Decor in an Air bnb space

What a nice idea for decor in the kitchen of an Air bnb.  It's the little homey touches that make a space welcoming, not only in a public space, but even in your own home.  

 20/365   Trio of wine goblets in black and white

Seen in the kitchen space of an AirBnB.  Not only for use if desired, but also for decor.  

 19/365   Snowy Mailboxes    

It's cold here, very cold.  When I made this image it was -32, but fortunately there was no wind.  The snow was crunchy, a sound I love even though I don't love snow, the air was crisp and it was the middle of the 4 hours of daylight so the light was really lovely.  

Now that it's Dec 22, daylight will last longer each day until it's light for 23 hours/day.  What a difference.

18/365   Small Texas town farm store 

I made this image a while ago but I like it.  Since I have nothing new, I decided to post this one.  Small town Texas grain store.

 17/365    Shadow Abstract on a Rug

While sitting in the waiting room waiting for a friend to see her chiropractor, I noticed this pattern of shadow & light coming through the window blind.  

16/365   Santa's Workshop

The local Y has decorated a little for the Christmas Season.  I thought it was cute and it's just enough.

 15/365     Less Is More

I bought this a couple of months ago.  I love it.  It's so simple and looks so real, it makes me feel so peaceful when I look at it.  It's definitely a case of "less is more".  I figured I could occasionally put one or two small flowers in with the leaves, but I haven't done so yet.  Unlike buying flower displays, this one isn't obviously seasonal, so I can leave it out year round.

 14/365      Old Theater Seats

I traveled to another town today to photograph the Christmas decorations, but alas, the town wasn't decorated yet.  So I spent some time walking around to see what I could see and I came across these old theater seats in a back alley.  Just enough grunge for me.

 13/365   The Christmas Tree

Every year the town puts up a large Christmas Tree in front of the Convention Center.  This year it's in front of the County Building because there's some construction for a new hotel near the Convention Center.  It's really beautiful.  I should have stayed a little later so the sky would have been more blue, but I didn't feel like it.  It was a beautiful 75 degrees so it was really fun photographing the tree in summer-like weather.  

12/365  Watching the Parade

So here in Abilene the Christmas Parade didn't start until 6:30.  Word was that there were almost 200 entries, so needless to say, it was a loooong parade.  When it started it was about 75 degrees, but by the time it ended it was much cooler and the wind was blowing, so not a pleasant end to the event.

I'm not a fan of nighttime photography but since my photo club decided it would be a good thing to attend the parade and try to photograph it, I tried.  But really, I deleted all the images I took because they were just plain awful.  All except this one of this couple watching the parade.  I don't love the image, but it's the only one that's halfway decent.  

 

 11/365    The Sink

I spend a god deal of time in this downtown building.  The upstairs now houses three photographers, a massage therapist a couple of offices and other business, but once upon a time there was an artist or two.  This sink is left over from those days gone by.

 10/365    Key Holder

I've always wanted a key holder.  Yup, how ridiculous that I've wanted one of these and never had one in my entire life.  When I moved into this house, I asked the caretaker to put it up for me and silly as it sounds, I'm really enjoying it.  No more wondering where the keys are, no more looking for them, and if my roommate needs to move my car for any reason, she knows exactly where the keys are.  It's definitely a win/win/win situation. 

I just love how sometimes it's the really little things that can give such joy.

9/365                The Mermaid

So...it's been such a long while since I've posted.  Unbelievably,  I've almost forgotten about my blog.  The days when I posted everyday or even once a week are long gone.  I've been concentrating on Flickr and Fine Art America right now.  Also, I still struggle with what to take photos of.  

Years ago when my friends and I challenged each other to post every day, I forced myself to photograph any ordinary things within my vision. I should probably just do that again instead of waiting for inspiration, which seldom provokes me to photograph these days.  There are about 34 days until the end of the year~~maybe that's what I'll do.  Take a photo of anything, post it and add a little text about why I thought that item was worthy.

But here's today's image.  I took a trip to San Angelo, Texas a few weeks ago.  They have a River Walk and this mermaid statue is one of the destinations along the way.  She intrigues me every time I see her.

 8/365

The Local FireHouse

So it's almost the end of September and this is only my 8th post of the year.  Whaaat???

Fact is I just don't have any inspiration and I don't feel like I have much to say and I don't have any followers. So I basically just forget about the blog.  But once in a while I remember and then feel stupid for forgetting and not posting. 

Several years ago some friends and I made a pact to post a pic a day.  We did that for a couple of years, then we decided one pic a week would work and then we just decided to call it quits.  It's been difficult to keep this going with no motivation.  I actually now have a collection of images I can post, so maybe I'll remember and can post for a couple of weeks almost every day.

Anyway, here's my image for today.  I might just get up to 10 for the year, hahaha.

I made this one today.  I was walking around town in an area I don't usually walk around in and I came across the local fire department.  I started out by just photographing the outside of the building, then I walked around back.  The doors were open, I told them I was taking pics and they invited me in and let me shoot to my heart's content.  

Kudos to these guys.  These first-responders, paid or volunteers, are amazing.  I promised I'd send them some of the images.

 7/365

Reworked Work

I recently listened to the blog post of a working photographer.  He emphasized that we should occasionally go back to previous images, chose one we may have overlooked and rework it.

I took that to heart and found this image from Jan 2021.  I changed it up a little from the original and this is the result.  

I would rather post brand new images, but there aren't many to be had around here.  Spring hasn't completely sprung yet and it's pretty ugly around here even at the best of times.  I keep trying to find new images though, but going back and reworking older images might be a "thing to do" when I'm feeling hopeless about making new work.

 6/365

An Ordinary Thing

A friend took me to the location of a defunct  power plant yesterday.  I couldn't get as near to it as I wanted because of the chain link fence surrounding it, and alas, there were no openings through which to crawl closer.

 I saw this fire hydrant and tried to make something interesting out of it.  Not sure "interesting" is the best word for it, but I like the matching colors of the hydrant, the grass and the building in the background, and as always, I love shooting through chain link.

5/365

An abandoned home on a rural road in Texas.  The winter landscape makes it look even more abandoned and forsaken.

4/365

Silos in Black and White

I decided to stop off in a little town on my way home from an event the other day.  I've been there before and there isn't much to photograph, but hope springs eternal.  

I love these silos and even though I have many images of them, I still make more when I'm there. This time my edit was a little different.  Black and white and a blue sky with clouds.  I love selective color and I really  like the way this turned out.

Hmmmm, 76 days into the year and this is only post 4.  I'm behind on flickr too, but not as behind as here.

Oh well....

3/365

The Annual Rattlesnake Roundup

When I first heard about this Roundup a couple of weeks ago, I thought  they were pulling my leg?  Really?  A rattlesnake roundup????

Well, rattlesnakes are dangerous and they are over populated in Texas and they are NOT endangered.  If you encounter one, feel free to kill it or it might just kill you.  

We got there in the morning.  The  awards ceremonies weren't happening until the afternoon, and when you're with three littles, hanging around anywhere for too long is just too long.  So we walked around the pavilion, got some great carny food and then visited the next pavilion where there seemed to be about an hundred more vendors.  Then we left.  Before the awards.  Awards for:  longest snake, most weight of snakes, beard (probably longest, thickest, or whatever), etc.  

It was interesting, so now I can say: "been there, done that" and unless I'm compelled by photographer friends to go again, I won't have to go back for several years, if ever.  Just sayin'

 2/365

Closed for the Day by Sunset

So here it is, the middle of March and it's only the second time I've posted this year.  I need a shot of umph to get me going.

As I was walking around downtown yesterday, I came across this business that was already closed for the day.  I don't even know what the business is because there isn't a name on the window or the building.  But I could see the shadow of what appears to be a conference table and chairs right inside the door and then a beautiful neon heart decoration.

Nothing spectacular about the image, I just like the lighting, the graphic look and the less-is-more of the structure. One of these days I'll ask a local if they know what the business is.  

 1/365--2022

Keys

I seriously failed to post a photo-a-day on my flickr page for 2021.  It was disappointing, but totally my fault...laziness, lack of inspiration, just-don't-care, nothing interesting to photograph--all very weak excuses for not keeping up.  Really, how difficult is it to take one photo a day a post it?

So I started again for 2022, this time with a list of January prompts from a random site.   8 days into it, it's going well, hahaha.  I didn't like the prompt for today and as I was looking around for a possible photo op, I spied these keys.  

So this is the photo for day 8/365 on flickr. The keys belong to "G" and I just liked the way they were clustered around.  I used a wide angle lens and tried to get as much limited depth-of-field as possible. 

39/365

The last post of 2021.  

I haven't posted very much this year.  I've been trying to post a photo-a-day on my flickr page, and I wasn't even successful at that.  I was about 68 images short of 365.  sigh

Right now I'm visiting my son, He Who Loves Alaska, in Fairbanks until around Jan 12.  They're having an unexpected amount of snow this year and it's cold, which is not unexpected.

When I left NY I figured I'd never have to deal with snow and cold again, but here I am, killing it.

So this is my "farewell to 2021" photo.  I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because I'm going too try the photo-a-day on flickr again starting tomorrow.  

In case you want to take a look, the address is www.flickr.com/photos/intheimage

 38/365

Cold Sunrise on the morning of Christmas Eve

A visit to Fairbanks, AK.  This morning it was -20 degrees, oh my goodness.  But as the sunrise began, the colors in the sky were beautiful.

It's supposed to warm up into the 30s in the next couple of days, but the forecast for those days is 100% chance of snow.  I don't know which I dislike more.....the cold when the roads are clear and it doesn't feel life-threatening to drive, or the warmer temps when the snow is falling and driving is a nightmare.

It's kind of a crapshoot.

 37/365   

I attended a flower photo workshop this past weekend where there was a lot of explanation, instruction, encouragement and flowers.

Flowers are expensive and then they die, so I usually don't buy them.

Also, I don't really have a place to set up for photographing them in my house, so it was fun to be at the workshop and be able to shoot whatever looked interesting.

This is one of my favorites, although I'm editing a few more.

 36/365    

Some of My Favorite Books

There have been other times when I've posted photos of a pile of books, but I decided to do it again because they were composed differently than this one.  

When I moved I got rid of most of my books and only brought my absolute favorites with me so I could read them again.  And read them again I did.

There's a new one on this shelf though.  "Bonhoeffer".  One of the best books I've read in a long while.  Full of the history of how Hitler took over Germany before and during WWII.  Bonhoeffer was a believing Christian who saw the writing on the wall almost immediately.  He became a pastor and spent many years teaching/preaching God's Word while at the same time being part of a group that attempted to assassinate Hitler.

All assassination  attempts failed and Bonhoeffer was ultimately put in prison and then a concentration camp where he was murdered only weeks before the war ended.

It's a history book that should be read by everyone, especially these days.  Be warned.

 35/365

Stair Step Fire Escape

The town/area I live in is photographically boring.  I've wandered around town many, many times looking for photo ops, usually without much success but today I was desperate enough to try again.

This is one of the structures I love, and I was there at just the right time this afternoon to capture this great shadow which helped make the image graphically appealing.