The What I Love Series #3: Road Trips

Road Trips!


If there's one thing I really need after this week it's to lift my spirits up a bit. I can't think of a better way to do that than to put more love out there. Y'know, the whole, what-you-put-out-there-comes-back-to-you thing... Soooo... here's another thing I love.

(This photo was taken somewhere in the Arizona desert the summer of 1982.)

Ball chains

Flora Non Grata

Ice plant is not something to be mentioned in polite California company. Environmentalists and native plant advocates agree, this non-native interloper causes big problems in many natural areas. It forms nearly impenetrable mats that dominate resources; has invaded native habitats; competes directly with threatened or endangered plant species for nutrients, water, light, and space; suppresses the growth of both native seedlings and mature native shrubs; can lower soil pH in loamy sand; change the root system morphology of at least two native shrub species... in other words, does not play well with others.

And yet... kind of pretty, huh?

Greek Fishing Float

When I was very, very young some neighbors, upon returning from a trip to Greece, presented each of us neighbor kids with a glass fishing float, in it's rope netting, as a souvenir. As a small child I was underwhelmed with this gift, hung it from my bedroom curtain rod, and didn't think about it much. Oddly enough though, I have taken this item with me, through every stage of my life, and to every place I've ever lived. The string it originally hung from broke and fell apart years ago, and the rope netting has decayed to the point of being more like a loose nest for the glass float. I truly love this object now and really like watching it's evolution as it ages.

Look closely

One part of what I love so much about the actual act of photography for me is the isolating and capturing of a small element of a larger picture and having it stand on its own merit. I frequently have to remind myself to look up and see the larger landscape as a whole because I am so captivated by the amazing things that are happening on a "small" level all around us. I think the macro lens was invented for us "God is in the details" type of people.

Sometimes it's obviously breathtaking, like looking closely at a blooming Protea or strands of pearls in a glass jar. Sometimes it's seeing how the cracks and bumps in an old chalkboard make an amazing texture. I think beauty really, truly is all around us if we just adjust our lens.