In Memoriam...

No, your eyes are NOT playing tricks on you!

When I took this image it was really not an ideal time to take a picture. Harsh morning sun and I'm talking to the proprietor while shooting and I didn't want to be rude and continue to make adjustments. I ended up with too contrasty an image, so I capitalized on that and added some effects. But, who could resist such a shadow?

Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted! You can view all of my 2009 Shadow Shot Sunday images on my Flickr account. Click here and then select the "Shadow Shot" set.

And, let us not forget...

...those who gave their lives while serving in our armed forces. They deserve more than a brief moment of gratitude...

Sliding into the Sunny Days of Summer

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. We are now in our sixth round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "S".

Sedum

Sedum: also know as stonecrop. It grows really well here in my New Mexico garden. It is very faithful; coming back in spring and is the first to bloom in my garden. The ones that I have are great as they bloom at least twice in one season! And, their dried flower heads are fascinating...

Sand Art

Me thinks this is from a trip home to Molokai in the summer of 2007. Mark and I hiked down to the Kalaupapa peninsula for a day trip and the beach is what awaits you at the bottom of the 3.8 mile switchback trail (27  switchbacks?). Can't swim at this beach because it has wicked cross currents and undertow-not to mention a lot of hungry sharks! Anyway, my husband, Mark decided to amuse himself by casting this image in the sand.

Sunflower

There is nothing that marks the arrival of summer as well as the sunflowers that abound everywhere here in this state. You see the first blooms in June and they continue on until the fall. These are called new Mexico sunflower and they get VERY tall; over six feet! And, they have clusters of flowers up and down the stalk instead of one large bloom.

Sea Shells

Say it. Sea shells. 

Say it again. Sea shells.

Come on, I know you know what's coming next!!!

Say it five times really fast! 

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

Now, go untangle your twisted tongue...

Washing Away the Dust of Everyday Life

"Life imitates Art, Art Imitates Life" was a book published by Duane Preble who taught Art 101 at the University of Hawaii when I was in college. It was the first art class I ever took and we used his text book for class. You know how some of those freshman level classes are at large universities: over 400 students enrolled in that class! It was taught at the Varsity Theater (movie theater) which was walking distance from campus. But, he really was a good lecturer and teacher to keep such a large teenage audience engaged. And, now, I forgot what point I was going to make...except that this introduction was a positive one to art. But, what got me thinking about this class is the 'art quote' pictured below.
This image is from a store front window down in Truth or Consequences. The cactus looks real. But, it's not!

Oh, boy oh boy, life gets pretty dusty!!

The big picture...

For my Shadow Shot Sunday buddies: I'll be in a four day encaustic workshop in Santa Fe, so if I do not get a chance (and I'm not sure how I will since these are all day workshops), please forgive me for not being able to stop by to see you this week. I do hope you leave a comment in spite of this! Have a great weekend!!

Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted! You can view all of my 2009 Shadow Shot Sunday images on my Flickr account. Click here and then select the "Shadow Shot" set.

Really Relieved!

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. We are now in our sixth round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "R".

Really Relieved...

That's our son, John Kenneth Scott (named after my dad and Mark's dad respectively), who just graduated from high school. What a milestone! As parents, I think we all pretty much 'hold our breath' as our child approaches major milestones in their lives. And then, heave a huge sigh of relief once they reach that milestone! Now, for the next one...complete college!

REDUCE

REUSE

RE-CYCLE

All three of these images are from last November's annual art venue called, "Recycle Santa Fe". It's been on-going for many years now, so it is very well established and attended. I love going to this show! It starts on a Friday night and kicks off with a fashion show with kids that are knee high to a bullfrog to adults participating in it. The catch is that what you wear must be made from recycled goods. And, to sell your art in this show over the weekend, at least 70% of each piece must be made from recycled items. The vendors come near and far and most of them do very well in selling their goods. My problem is that I find too many things that I want for myself!

I didn't get to attend last year's fashiion show, but I did make it up for the rest of it later that weekend. I have images from 2007's fashion show on a previous post. Take a look at it as it is a hoot! What made it even more fun is that my friend, Donna Barnitz was the one whose outfit that she made (with matching umbrella) won the grand prize (it was modeled by her daughter, Katie).

Chaco Canyon Revisited

It was truly a magical day...Linda and I headed up to the four corners section of the state (geologically know as the Colorado Plateau) for a trek to Chaco Canyon. It is designated as a National Historical Park. It takes about 3 hours of driving time to get from here to there, so we left at 5:30 AM. It is hard to get up and leave so gosh darned early in the morning, but for a trip to Chaco, always worth the while! And, after you turn off of the main road (highway 550), about 15 miles of the 21 mile road to Chaco from the main road is what folks call a wash board dirt road.

Our goal was to be at Chaco Canyon around 8:30 AM.

But, we got way-laid by two magnificent white horses frolicking in the early morning sun. Breathlessly, we stopped, grabbed our cameras, put the long lenses on and got as many images as we could.

This one is the young male galloping off-the young female already took off in the other direction. I got some sweet shots of them nuzzling each other and I'll save those for a future date. In looking at the images, I realized that these horses are quite young-perhaps around 2 years old. AND, that the female was an albino!

So, although we did not get to Chaco at the time we had planned, we were well rewarded for our delay!

Shadows are abundant at Chaco-no matter what time of day. And they have a quiet drama about them which speak of the Anazazi culture from many centuries ago. It has an energy all its own.

Linda and I decided that a trip to Chaco will have to be at least a once a year event. We are fortunate that it is only 3 hours away from our front door. And, the drive there and back is as spectacular as the site itself.

Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted! You can view all of my 2009 Shadow Shot Sunday images on my Flickr account. Click here and then select the "Shadow Shot" set.

No Queues for Queens

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. We are now in our sixth round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "Q".

 QUEEN Liliuokalani

 (image is from Wikipedia's site)

Queen Liliuokalani is my favorite Queen. She ranks high on my list of people I admire and am inspired by. And so gracious too, under such tragic circumstances. And really, that is an understatement...

QUILL

Quills. Now, that's certainly a thing of the past! Most people I'm sure would not even know that quills were used for writing. When we were little, my brothers and I liked to pretend that were were growing up in Abe Lincoln's day and thought it exciting to write with quills by candlelight. Kinda kooky, huh?

QUATREFOIL

Quatrefoil-I didn't know what it was until I stumbled upon this word, looked it up, then did the quest for an image. During the quest, I kept thinking,"Where have I seen this in my everyday life before?". Good grief! My hallway mirror, that's where!

QUEUE

 (image from Hub pages.com)

Queue. Most people know this word as in being 'queued in line". But it is also a pigtail-really, a Manchurian hair style. Read up on the link I've provided. It is really fascinating how it was used by the Chinese. I had no idea!

See Saw Shadows with a Teeter Totter

This lovely play thing is out in front of a family restaurant in Jemez, NM. Now I wish I had paid attention to the name of the establishment to share with you here, but, alas! Not enough foresight!

Isn't this a welcoming image to have in front of your store? I think so. And it speaks volumes about how they feel about families and kids. That children are valued and welcomed. They know that it is hard for young ones to sit still for too long and give them a way to burn off their boundless energy.

Fun toy, fun shadow shot. It was so tempting to relive my childhood days. Except the person sitting on the other end of this see saw would have been my husband who is about 6 feet tall. I think the owners would've frowned on us if we had! 

Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted! You can view all of my 2009 Shadow Shot Sunday images on my Flickr account. Click here and then select the "Shadow Shot" set.

Perspectives

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. We are now in our sixth round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "P".

PINWHEELS

Rather large ones, at that! This was an installation I did on the UNM (Univ. of New Mexico) campus many, many moons ago. The pinwheels are about four feet tall and the stands that they are on are galvanized pipes and the 'wheels' are made of a plastic called 'cintra' that was spray painted and cut to size. I've bee known upon occasion to place these pinwheels in my backyard for fun. They're not good as a permanent display since wind and weather disintegrates them.

POLAROID PRAYING MANTIS

This fun little guy was a cell phone capture as he was hanging outside the door to our local library. And of course, I had to play around with the image even more so and added the Polaroid feature (courtesy free on line photo software called: Picnik. www.picnik.com).

PLYMOUTH

Not where the Pilgrims landed, but in the automobile!

PERSPECTIVE

My husband did a 'study in perspective' with his GoPro HD Motorsports HERO Camera. It's a pretty cool little video camera and he tried it out at what is known as The Rail Yard in Albuquerque. It is a very wide angled lens camera which also does remarkable HD video and time lapse photos. It is housed in an indestructible weather/water proof case and takes amazing images. To see what it can do, be sure to watch all of the video! We are very happy with the camera. You can stick it onto just about anything and his buddy stuck it on to his pair of skis when they were up in Durango a month ago. His video is called, "My Ski's View". We've seen all kinds of applications of this camera and there are a slew of videos done with it on You Tube.

10th Annual Park in the Park in Rio Rancho

Park in the Park is a free car show held annually here in Rio Rancho. The stipulation is that your car must be old (by about 30 years I think). It's free to those who come with their cars and free to those who come to see the cars. It's held in one of our city's parks (hence, Park in the Park). People come from everywhere with their cars! I mean, even out of state.

I took a TON of photos at this show, but here's the two I selected for today's meme! There is never a shortage of shadows here in the southwest. Never! Anyway, I found myself taking a lot of shots of hood ornaments at this car show.

My husband, Mark, did a video on this show last year that is on You Tube. I hope you go check it out. I think it's pretty a good production (slight bias, though!). If you like or love old cars, then you'll love the video! Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted! You can view all of my 2009 Shadow Shot Sunday images on my Flickr account. Click here and then select the "Shadow Shot" set.