Shutterbugs and photo-lovin’ friends glad to have you join me for The World Through My Lens 09.2024: Everyday Images & SPSH and Sunday Stills. Again today, I am joining Kym at A Fresh Cup of Coffee for her Every Day Images photo challenge. Kym describes the challenge as a way to be more intentional about watching for interesting things in life that she can capture with her camera.
Every two weeks she publishes a few words or phrases to focus on, and looks for opportunities to take pictures of these things. As I have done in the past with other challenges I have participated in, I will just be sharing my photos once a month. Here are the photos for May, June, July and now August.
Also
Also joining my friend Ruth at This West London Life for the Summer 2024 Photo Scavenger Hunt (SPSH) who has taken over hostessing responsibilities for this photo hunt. Ruth and her BFF compiled this summer’s photo prompts. And I am glad to be joining the fun.
And One More
And glad to be rejoining my friend Terri at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives for her Sunday Stills series. Until July, it had been a ‘minute’ as the kids say since I had done a Sunday Stills post. And like all of the photo challenges I used to participate in regularly, I have missed seeing Terri’s lovely photographs and being a part of Sunday Stills. So, for now, I am back. Hope I can find a way to balance all of these!!
Everyday Images #44
I am usually very picky about the images I try to share for these photo challenges but not so much this time around. Ha!! Have had a limited perspective in September so in some cases, my captures for the prompts are not too exciting. And in a few instances, as indicated with an asterisk *, I used a photo taken earlier in the summer or maybe earlier in the year. Just wanted to share that upfront.
- at home (monthly): just some of the equipment I am using to get around at home this month. Additionally, there are 2 rolling office chairs upstairs and the one I am sitting on to take the photo.
- selfie (quarterly): going up the stairs on my behind to bed. Not a flattering shot but this is me, right now. You can see the yellow rolling chair at the top of the stairs that I use to move from room to room. Have learned to take things upstairs with me using a Vera Bradley bag I picked up thrifting earlier this summer. I set the bag a couple of stairs above me, then I bootie-scoot up to the bag, move it a couple of stairs above me and repeat.
- warning: again, not an pretty photo but it fits the prompt. This is a sign on our community post office. The first picture is unedited. The following 4 images are edited with Prisma to dress it up a bit. Which edited version do you prefer?
- sunrise and/or sunset: *this is a photo I took in August. Haven’t been able to hobble outside for sunrise or sunset lately.
- clean: I am a proud member of the Clean Your Plate club as evidenced in the photo below. Good thing the waitress picked up my plate when she did, or I might have eaten it, too.
- grow: the way these cactuses/cacti grow in a family is so sweet. The larger plants look like the mommy and daddy, and they have their little prickly babies snuggled up between them. I think that chubby, round cactus is the Gabba/Mimi.
Everyday Images #45
- technology: we have gone back and forth about having a clock in our bedroom. Mainly because our clocks (and Echo Dots) keep giving up the ghost. I wake up several times a night (and drag to the bathroom), and I like to know what time it is. Not that it really matters at all!! PC just bought this phone charging alarm clock for me. When it arrived I was not impressed as it looked like a cheap block of wood. Ha!! But it works great, has the time, temperature inside and outside, and charges my phone quickly. And of course, I love the Kindle Brennyn gave me this spring.
- sparkle: this was a recent creation of Lucia’s when they brought over dinner a few weeks ago. I have a box of all kinds of art supplies in the den and the girls feel at home enough to get out the box and start coloring with the markers and colored pencils or creating with the beads and stickers. The second photo is my baby sister Valerie wearing her crown and sash for Ms. 60 and over Cumberland County, TN. She is a beautiful queen.
- weather (quarterly): just meant to take a photo when I took this mini-video clip somehow of lightning in the far western skies earlier this month. Wish the rain would come back again. We have had 3.96″ of rain and are 3″ inches behind normal for this time of year.
- forward: *work with me, here, friends – the clouds in this photograph look like they are coming forward, 3-dimensionally out of the sky above my house. Yeah, that’s a stretch but this one was HARD!!
- chaos and/or order: *originally took this photo for one of the alternate prompts – stamping. These are stamps on display at Hobby Lobby. But I think they will work equally well for order. I like how neatly organized they are.
- logo: a 2-fer, the logo for Burger King and the logo for Boss chicken in one shot. Not an especially pretty photo, though.
Summer 2024 Photo Scavenger Hunt (SPSH)
The scavenger hunt kicked off 06.01.2024 but I was a little late joining the party. Would you expect anything else? It runs until 09.30.2024 and final day to share our finds is 10.02.2024. I have put checkmarks on the prompts for which I have found an image already. I shared those captures, here and here.
- family pet or cute animal ✔️
- look up to the sky: ✔️
- colourful front door: ✔️
- what’s on your feet ✔️
- favourite summer food/meal: ✔️
- something with wings: while we were in Ohio, we visited the cemetery where PC’s father and paternal grandparents are buried. I like to step back and allow my mother-in-law, Paul and his brothers time to talk and be alone there with each other. So I walked around on my own reading headstones, enjoying all the green and came across this little angel.
- favourite summer reading nook/space: ✔️
- something colourful in your garden/neighbourhood: I rolled my office chair out to the front yard yesterday in order to pluck the faded blossoms from our butterfly bush. It was delightful to be in the sunshine for a bit and to do something normal. The blooms are really pretty with shades of purple, their oranges centers, and a midnight blue on the spent petals.
And There’s More
- moving water ✔️
- something that casts a shadow: ✔️
- kitchen utensil you hardly ever use: we are back to drinking homemade smoothies again in an attempt to add fruit and veggies to our daily diet. We made bags of citrus fruit mixed with green vegetables like spinach and cucumber and then we made bags of a berry blend mixed with the same veggies. And threw a tiny piece of pepper into each bag for kicks. I have always struggled to peel oranges and tangerines so finally bought one of these little gadgets then promptly forgot all about it. PC remembered it when we got ready to attack our oranges and I could tell him in which of our many kitchen drawers he would find it.
- place of worship: ✔️
- mark the passage of time: yesterday I was baking sourdough bread. There are so many steps to making bread that it required me to be up and down in the kitchen all day long. Finally, it dawned on me to capture a picture of my timer on Google for this prompt. Again, not a pretty picture but earns me a checkmark for this one.
- your nation’s flag ✔️
- something you’ve repurposed: poor PC’s office chair. I have commandeered his chair and made it my personal chariot. It moves so easily from room to room and I feel more secure in it than I do using the knee scooter. But I am wearing it out. Will owe Paul a new office chair when this is all over with. It was like brand new until I started scooting around on it.
Alternate A: something misspelt
Alternate B: stamping
Sunday Stills
Glad to be back to looking for the Sunday Stills prompts again this month. Here’s what I found.
- 09.01.2024 all about bugs: one of the things I have missed most about being stuck indoors with this bum foot is the inability to go outside, walk in our yard, sit in the sun, float in the pool. PC knew that I had a photo challenge prompt for something with wings and brought this beautiful creature in to me so I could snap its picture. The pattern on its wings reminds me of a giraffe. Calling this a giraffe moth.
- 09.08.2024 no challenge
And…
- 09.15.2024 monthly color challenge: colors of peach and orange: I mentioned above how we are upping our intake of fruits and veggies. We somehow managed to buy 2 bags of cuties, those little mandarin oranges, so started having one every day with lunch. PC knows I struggled to peel them so he always does that for me.
- 09.22.2024 celebrate autumn or spring: our afternoon highs are still in the 90s around here. I haven’t seen any real signs of autumn yet. But figured out how to change my the watch face on my activity tracker from summer to fall. Have a look.
- 09.29.2024 oddballs, wild and weird: I haven’t really been anywhere in a month to look for something wild and weird. But we tend to think of our little Purrcy as an oddball. He is the most vocal kitty I have ever had. Deep, throaty meows. And he is ALL boy. Loves digging, tumbling with stray kitties who visit, rolling around in the dirt, and snuggling under PC’s dirty underwear. Purrcival looks tiny in this photo but don’t let that fool you. He is a big boy!!
Grab your phone, your camera and come play with us!! The scavenger hunt may be over for the season but Everyday Images and Sunday Stills continue year ’round.
Your Turn
What have you captured lately in your lens? This silly broken foot has really put a damper on my picture taking!! Hard to look for prompts when you are rarely leaving the 4 walls of your own home. And none of the prompts for any of the challenges have asked for pictures of crutches, a knee scooter or wheelchair!!
Thank you for spending some of your busy day here with me. Hope you will join me in visiting Kym at A Fresh Up of Coffee, Ruth at This West London Life and Terri at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives to check the images they’ve captured for this photo challenges.
I am back to the doctor this week. Hoping maybe, just maybe, I will get a good report and that healing has gone better and faster than originally expected.
Hugs and kisses,
Joanne
Being that you have such limited mobility you really did a fabulous job with all these prompts! That very first one with all the mobility equipment is one of those iconic ones that you’ll look back on years from now with a “remember when.” I love that simple photo of the clementine. Something about the colors and the composition it just lovely.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you so much. PC has been peeling a clementine for me most days at lunch. He set that one on my writing composition book and I really like the play between the green of the book and the orange of the fruit. Would never have thought that sucha simple photo could be that striking.
I need to scrapbook this broken foot adventure. My sister asked me to take pictures of how I am cooking, emptying the dishwasher, doing laundry, etc. so we can scrap those memories. Need to be sure to print that photo of all of my ‘rides.’
Retirement Reflections
Hi, Leslie – I am so sorry about your broken fit. I recently suffered from rib damage so know all to well about being confined at home when there are so many other things that you want to do.
Fabulous job on your photos. They are all real and relatable. You have a great eye despite your confinement.
Sending warm hugs that you heal soon.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Donna, for coming by. Hope you are on the mend with your rib injury. That can be soooo painful!! I thought for certain I had broken or cracked a rib from coughing when I was 9 months pregnant with my second daughter. I had the baby and they hauled me off to X-ray but determined I had just pulled something – muscle?? – from coughing so violently.
Hoping to be able to get out in the world for photographs in November. I am really struggling with cabin fever.
Marsha Banks
I love taking photos of angels in graveyards…they are usually weathered and moss covered. One near us has lost a wing. I would love to take photos there, but I wonder if that’s a little sacrilegious. I have one of those orange peelers and swear by it. I think I got one in a swag bag decades ago and lost it so I had to buy one at a Pampered Chef party.
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I think my orange peeler might be Pampered Chef, too. About all I could afford to buy from someone’s party!!
When we were kids, my parents always cautioned us about how we moved through/across a cemetery. To be aware of where the headstone was.
To look for a space or kind of alley of sorts between rows of headstones. But now days I see people making B-lines through cemeteries with
no concern for where they are walking. Seems disrespectful. I would think taking photos would be okay, though. I hope!!
Terri Webster Schrandt
So great to see you back in action with photography, Leslie! You have a great collection of everyday images from the first two prompts. Your Sunday Stills images are perfect for each theme. Love the “wild” kitty and your autumn watch face. Very clever! I hope some glimmer of Autumn comes soon!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Terri. We have broken records again all this past week with highs in the 90s. But the weather person just reported we will see a big change toward the end of the coming week. Hallelujah. I might have some opportunity to get a few fall shots after all.
Kym
Wow, you did great with all the prompts, especially considering your limited mobility these days! I especially like the cacti, the little stone angel, and your “oddball” cat! Hope you are healing up well!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, friend. Hoping to be able to start walking on this foot after this week’s X-rays and appointment. Sick of this!!
I have found some of my favorite subjects to photograph in cemeteries. The little angel was in an Ohio cemetery.
Amy Johnson
Oh my goodness, your living room filled with medical equipment reminded me of mine when I had my hip replacement. I was glad to have my living room back to normal, as will you. And PC’s chair! Oh my, yes, you will need to get him a new one. 🙂
Leslie Roberts Clingan
PC’s chair is in tatters but his new chair arrived yesterday. He promptly put it together and then carried it upstairs to his office where I won’t be tempted to try it out. I can’t wait to get all of this gear out of here and to be able to WALK again!!