Day 90...Is That Heaven?

IS THAT HEAVEN?

With my dad coming close to his own passing these days, I wonder a lot about heaven.  Is there heaven?  If there is, where is it and what is it like.  Tonight, while I was sitting with my dad, he dozed off as he always does, trying to reserve his strength.  I turned around to let him rest, and when I looked out the window, I swear it was like the movie version of what some folks say heaven looks like.

Some have said that heaven is a place above the clouds and it's a misty and white and dream.  Now, really, I don't believe heaven is above the clouds and we all just float around on fluffy white steam.  But I swear, this photo looked like God turned the light on to show my dad the way.

Day 89 ... Fog on the Pitch

FOG ON THE PITCH

In the year of the World Cup, all the soccer fans, soccer players, soccer moms and dads are waiting anxiously for the snow to get off the fields so we can get out there and strap into our soccer cleats, or pull up a sling chair and plant ourselves on the sidelines.

I'd bet some of the die hard soccer players would willing play out there with the remaining snow cover.  Well, we have a tournament next weekend.  Hope the snow is gone from Iowa!

Day 88...Swing into Spring

SWING INTO SPRING

We can only hope that it will someday be spring here.  Since April is upon us, you'd hope that meant Spring, but in the words of my mother...If April showers bring May flowers, what does April snowstorms bring?

I can tell you it doesn't bring children to the playground as can be seen in this photo.

Day 87...Forest Floor

FOREST FLOOR

Actually, it's not the actual forest.  It is under a giant evergreen tree though.  I was trying to find something to photograph since we're in that weird time of year that it's not really winter and it's not really spring, and everything is ugly.  

This scene caught my attention because of the variety of different colors and textures and the random scattering of the different items in the pile.  

I'll admit, I'm really struggling with inspiration during this time, but I guess that's just way things go sometimes.

Day 86...The Puddle

THE PUDDLE

I am so happy that I can take a photo of a puddle.  That means that spring is in the air and all the snow will soon be either a puddle or gone completely.  Soon, the only puddles we'll have are from rain and the reflection in the puddle will have green leaves growing on it.  

I think when you first see this photo, it might be one of those that you aren't sure what it is.  But I like how you have to examine it to get the effect of the reflection.  It reminds me of looking at myself in a mirror.  Sometimes I have to get up real close and look hard at all the lines that have formed on my face and it makes me think of how the world has affected me.

Day 85... Melt Down

MELT DOWN

"Drip.  Drip.  Drip."  That's a sound I'm thrilled to hear right now.  The snow will surely be gone by the weekend.  In this state, there's surely no guarantee that it will be the last snow of the season, but I'm holding out hope.  

I love the way the drops showed up i the puddle and the way the splashes are frozen in mid air.  

I seriously don't mind having a couple less than sunny days to photograph so long as the temps are about 32f!  Let the melt continue!

Day 84....This Winter is a Blur

THIS WINTER IS A BLUR

Make it stop.  No more snow, please.  

I know this photo is out of focus and it's not straight.  It's that way on purpose.  This is how this winter has gotten me to feeling.  NO MORE SNOW, please!

My only solace is in knowing that it's supposed to be at least 50 this coming weekend.

Day 83...Sunrise Before the Thaw

SUNRISE BEFORE THE THAW

The river is not solid.  That's a good sign.  And if you look hard, you can see the ground within the snow cover.  I like this view of the city.  When you look out, you can see so many different things going on in city.  

This photo is not the highest quality.  It was taken from the 13th floor window of the courthouse.  But I think it's still kind of dreamy looking with the sun coming up over the horizon, and the reflection of the bridge in the water.

Day 82....Father, Son, Holy Spirit

FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRT

I don't want to make "Assumptions," but I wonder if that's what the three crosses stand for on the Church of the Assumption.

I walk by her a lot on my way to work, and I see the tall spires at several different angles, and as I was walking by this morning, the crosses aligned just like this and it made me think of the Trilogy that is the center of the Lenten and Easter season for the Catholics at this time of year.

Day 81...Twinkle Twinkle

TWINKLE TWINKLE

This one might seem a little odd, and it's definitely a stretch to fit into my them of outside.  This was more looking to the outside, or halfway outside, haha.  But it was a fascinating sort of work of "art" that was hanging in the entryway of Union Depot.

I'm kind of thinking this might be one of those things that you have to see in person to appreciate, but the photo still sort of captures the quality of the pieces of glass in which they were sort of reflecting different colors depending on the way the sun was hitting them.

Way cool piece of art.

Day 80...Phone Poles

PHONE POLES

I love how phone poles go on and on as far as you can see, and I love patterns of things, and one phone pole after another is definitely a pattern.  Then add to the mix the fact that these phone poles are in silouhette, and you have a few of my favorite things.

When I was looking at this shot tonight, it got me to thinking, how long do you thing these poles will be around?  I mean, one thing they "conduct" is the ability for the landline to give phone service to homes.  How many land based phone line do you think are left in this world?

Things that make you go, "Hmmmm."

Day 79...Off Into the Sunset

OFF INTO THE SUNSET

Yeah, it's still snowy out there, but the end is in sight.  I feel it in my bones.  

Now, this photo, though it IS  sunset, is far out of the "norm" for my project since I shot it with my iPhone.  I didn't have my camera with, and I'm falling behind in days on my project, but I thought I'd make the best of it and use my iPhone.  I see great photos from them sometime, and since I know I'm not blowing this one up to poster size for anything, it works.

And honestly, it gave the photo a blurred, grainy look that I think is a bit dreamy!  

Love me some sunsets.  I know you may be sick of them, but they're like snowflakes to me...none are ever alike.

Day 78...Leaving the City Behind

LEAVING THE CITY BEHIND

Heading out of downtown, and I caught a glimpse of the skyline in the rearview!  Couldn't resist taking the shot.  

With the onset of the pseudo spring, it's been a lot more difficult finding things to shoot outdoors becuase it's kind of ugly out there!  But I'm determined.  I just wish life wasn't quite so hectic right now so I could go on a relaxing hike and adventure to find some cool stuff to shoot and maybe even get out for some good old street photography since I know people will start making their way to the streets!

I'll keep em coming.

Day 77...Windows to the World

WINDOWS TO THE WORLD

Union Depot in St. Paul is a cool place.  I go down there on my lunch hour to walk away stress, and when you walk in there, it seems a little bit like you go back in time.  There are some sort of retro architectural features there, these windows being one of them.  

I couldn't resist photographing the giant windows with their reflection in the newly polished floor.  Soon the Depot will be bustling with passengers who will be going in and out to catch trains, buses, and light rail!

Day 76...Happy St. Patrick's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY !!

What could be better street photography opportunity than a parade?  And on St. Patrick's Day.  I could have spent an hour and gotten tons of fun photos of the crazy Irish folks out there, but I spotted these festive ladies in only a few minutes, and my job was done!

It was really fun to see the Irish of St. Paul getting in the mood for their yearly celebration at the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown St. Paul.  This is the first time I've ever really seen the parade in person.  What a hoot!

Day 75...Gulf Birds

GULF BIRDS

Seagulls, Egrets, Pelicans, oh my.  Sandpipers and Herons, all flying by.  Everywhere you go on the beach or anywhere in Florida, there are so many birds, and so many different ones.  I love that the birds seem "exotic" compared to Minnesota.  Although I've seen a Loon floating on the ocean in March.  That's an odd sight for sure.

Below is the Snowy Egret.  She's praying she gets a bit of that live bait.

I love watching the Sandpipers chase the waves out while they pick for fresh crustaceans and then run away as the waves come back.

This Pelican was waiting for a fisherman to discard the trimmings of the fish he was fileting.  Isn't he cute?

And then the beautiful Great White Egret perched on her one leg taking a rest in the sun.

Day 74...Florida Skies

FLORIDA SKIES

A week in Florida relaxing, and I was bound to catch a great sky once or twice.  This is my second "collage" for the week, and after the next one, I'll be back on track with my DAILY photo.  But I did sort of feel like I had a lot of really fun photos from my trip that I wanted to share.

We visited five different beaches, some of them twice, and I got some sort of sky or sunset photo from every one of them.  The one above is the end of the night at Clearwater Beach and the young people were finishing off their day at the beach with some sand volleyball.

This one was from Venice Beach at the pier.  The one below is also from Venice but it was on the north end of the beach near the jetty where the dolphins often appear.

My favorite day was spending it at the sleepy beach of Manasota Key.  It is a very quiet and rustic beach, and the day we went, the surf was high and fun to fool around in.

Siesta Beach is the number one beach in the US right now, and we can attest to it being a great place!!!

We spent our last night in Florida at St. Pete Beach near St. Petersburg.  The last one is the kids watching the sunset.  

Day 73...A Greek Town

A GREEK TOWN

So this is another multi photo day, and I'm still one day behind.  While my intent was to do each photo of the 365 on each consecutive day, it has not worked out that way.  I plan to have 365 days in the end, and as much as is humanly possible, the photo will have been taken the day I post it. However, some personal issues have interfered with me being able to accomplish posting the past two days.  

So today, thought these photos were taken on my trip last week, I loved them enough to share them and I didn't have time the past two days to go out shooting.

In these shots, I primarily focused on what would be considered Street Photography! I think the fun thing Valerie Jardin has taught me about street photography is to see what the story might be in the different shots.  Try to think of what the story of the following photos is....

Day 72...Dune Flower

DUNE FLOWER

In the dunes on the beach, these beautiful brown-eyed Susans grow.  To arrive in March and see flowers somewhere is a happy thing for me.  And I think I've made it known that a few things I love...i.e., sunsets, and the other is THE BEACH.  So what could make the beach better than just being the beach?  Well, I guess being welcomed to the beach by a peppering of bright yellow flowers in the dunes just as you enter the paradise!

This photo is dedicated to my sweet Facebook friend (and former classmate) Jane Maki St. Ores since she wanted to see some flowers to cheer up her spring, and she follows my photos (and maybe even this very blog!)  

Day 71...RELAX

RELAX

It may be stormy, but how can you not be relaxed when you're at the beach?  I went to take the sunset, and this is what I got.  It makes me chuckle slightly just because I thought certainly there was no way I could post a photo tonight without it being a sunset.  I planned the last half of my evening around the sunset.

And actually, I got amazing sunset shots too, but this is the one that got me the most of all the shots I took the entire day.  The day was filled with beauty, from the minute I set foot on the beach at 10 am until the minute I left it at 7 pm.

Tomorrow's my last day here for a while.  It will surely be a challenge to go back to the hideous snow.  Pray for me!!! Ha!

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Day 70...Salty Sky

SALTY SKY

I'm madly in love with the salt water, and the way it makes the air smell and feel.  Tonight, I stayed at the beach waiting for the sunset and there wasn't one because it was too cloudy.  But whenever I glance up at the immense sky, my breath was taken away at how beautiful it was.

It's not lost on my how completely blessed I am to be in this place right now.  During a difficult time in my life where I find it challenging to relax and keep my mind stress free, I am taking the opportunity to be thankful for the opportunity of being in a magical land of absolute beauty so I can recharge myself and prepare for the tough times ahead.

Whenever I see this shot, I'm going to remember how my skin felt and how the air smelled and the soft cool feeling of the sand between my toes, and hugging my kids at the end of yet another amazing day at the beach.

www.photosfeauturingyou.com

Day 69...Come Sail Away

COME SAIL AWAY

So I had a sunset photo all cued up.  It was a silhouette of a man fishing in the sunset.  But at the last minute, I decided to change to this one.  

This photo was not a challenge for me.  I was standing there, and it was just beautiful, so I took it.  I know that many of my blog photos have ended up being landscapes and that is really not my "thing," but I do think that and landscape photo is easy on the eyes usually if it's something that's interesting, pretty, or beautiful, etc.  

I really want to try to capture a very "Florida" photo without being too cliche.  We'll have to see what the beach day brings tomorrow.

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Day 68 ... BFFs

BFFs

I think watching the sunset on a beach would have to be one of the best moments in life.  I know I said I wasn't going to make my trip to Florida be all about sunsets, and I truly want to stretch my imagination and do something that isn't easy or ordinary, but the sunsets really are beautiful here, and it's been difficult for me to bring my camera out on the beach during the day when I knew sand would be flying all around us.  

So for now, enjoy the sunsets!  

This one was taken no Siesta Key at Siesta Beach which is a gorgeous white sugar sand beach with pale aqua colored water.  If I hadn't gotten such a late start, the day photo opps might have been better, and in the next day or two, I'm going to try harder to get a day shot of the bleached out beach.

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Day 67...Wave Runners

WAVE RUNNERS

I love a sunset.  I love the Golden Hour and Blue Hour.  Seems like I kind of captured all of that in this one shot.

As you can see, I've moved from winter, if only for a week.  We made it to the beach just in time to watch the sun go down.  I will try not to make every shot for the next five days be sunset shots, but I've said it before....I love the sunset and intend to see it EVERY night this week and I intend to see it near sand and water.  

But I will try to give variety!

www.photosfeautringyou.com

Day 66...Ready for Take Off

READY FOR TAKE OFF 

I think any photo taken out of the window of a plane is cool.  I'm so tired right now as I'm posting this, so honestly, not even sure if this is NOT blurry.  I was just happy to be going AWAY from the snow and ice and cold that honestly I wasn't really concentrating on my photo of the day.  After today, it will be EASY EASY to get the photo of the day since I will be at the beach for the next five days and basking in the sun.

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Day 65...Lenten Days

LENTEN DAYS

In the spirit of the season of Lent, here's a shot of one of my favorite Catholic churches.  You've seen this one on my blog before in the early days of my project.  This is just a bit of a different "angle" on the shot.  

I love churches, especially older ones.  This is Assumption in St. Paul and it's just as old and beautiful inside as it is on the outside but I'll save the inside shots for a future project.  

Next up...photos from a sunny place!

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Day 64...Distracted by Abstract

DISTRACTED BY ABSTRACT

As I've made clear in the past, my forte is NOT architecture nor is it abstract.  So combine architecture and abstract and what do you get?  Me experimenting!  

The one thing I see most clearly drawing my attention in this particular photo is the reflection in the windows that create the inner corner.  One of my more favorite things to try and capture in photos is reflection and in a city, there are reflections abounding. 

Whenever I walk beneath a towering building, I often want to try to capture that dizzying feeling you get when you look up at its height and notice the geometric symmetry that is often present.  I don't think this photo is quite there but I do think it gives a slight sense of disorientation.  

I'm soon going to be introducing photos that will inspire SPRING!  Yay!

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Day 63...Dear Soldier, Thanks for Our Freedom

DEAR SOLDIER, THANKS FOR OUR FREEDOM

Such a cool memorial that I hope my capturing it in a photo does it justice.  For me personally, this figure was large, and hard and made me feel intimidated, yet at the same time I could sense the protection a soldier would give.  

If you've never been to this memorial, it's near the State Capitol, and it's totally worth the trip.  When you stand on the other side of the cutout, you can see the Capitol in the background.  Just COOL.

Day 62...By Way of Sky

BY WAY OF SKY

So I'm kind of on a black and white "roll."  And the main reason for that is it's just that time of year where everything is gross outside, so changing it to black and white makes it a little more timeless.

Today I was caught by this vision of a silhouette of a skyway pedestrian and loved how you could see the beautiful Cathedral perfectly centered by the skyway and the street!  Of course, it's not hard to tell I was in St. Paul because the Twin Cities is known for their sky high crosswalks.  

Now everyone, pray for spring to hurry and arrive!  

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Day 61...Smoke Break

SMOKE BREAK

Went for coffee in a great little place on West 7th today, and while waiting for my mom to grab her to-go, I decided to get in some "street photography" despite the AGAIN sub zero temps.  I love taking candid photos of people doing every day things, though surely I wouldn't categorize myself as a street photographer.  

For some reason, I'm really drawn to the image of smoke and steam, and that includes smoke or breath coming from people's mouth.  My good friend Valerie Jardin is a reknowned street photographer and I learn many good tips from her.  Photo walks with her are usually one of the only times I participate in street photography, but during this project, having a daily assignment for shooting leaves more opportunity for me to do street photos.  And I really haven't done too much of it simply because it's too damn cold.  

The weather says it's warming up, so I'm guessing things will start getting more interesting as the weeks pass.

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Day 60 ... Color in the Cold

COLOR IN THE COLD

I'm probably seeming like I'm on a new theme now, that being railroad.  It's not intentional as tonight I set out to take photos of an abandoned and desolate builing.  Those photos tunred out to be so, so.  And I ended up kind of lost on this road.

So I came across these trains by complete coincidence and accident and I could not resist.  For some reason, the way the trains were parked, and the fact that they were shooting up steam reminded me of Clydesdales at work.  

Like some of my other pieces, this may  not be the most perfect selection to hang on your wall as art, but it' cool nonetheess.  The odd thing is, I thought I could manipulated the photo a lot to render it more interesting, but there's something about the RAWNESS of this shot ath I absolutley love.