Hometown History Photography Assignment

The following is a response to: Get your Hometown History assignment in before the Rapture, please. from Kathy Drue, over on Lake Superior Spirit

Ok, I went out yesterday with two cameras.  I am still fortunate enough to be using a borrowed Sigma SD10 and lenses and my own.  The life at the very large city park was amazing and I am glad I was able to attend to it.  I grabbed a few shots in the park of structures, and, they simply had NO life to them.  I felt it when I was taking them.  My insides said Screw assignments, your own history is and was created by LIFE and your sensory tactile approach to it.  Nature and surroundings in public places carry all of the feelings and emotions of the humans having walked there before me.  THAT is what makes a Hometown to me.

That being said, part of me wonders if there is something about building images that has to be juuuuuuuuuust right for me to consider it more than a flat and one dimensional shot.  I DO have wonderful images of barns and walls, which usually have a great deal of history connected to them, if I can find an elder to share stories about my chosen subject.  I keep coming back to the idea of NOT having a hometown and either attempting to join in and force one upon myself or enjoying seeing what creates such a feeling and expression from OTHERS.  Share their stories and feelings within a single image.

So, I will share here some of the images that I have taken over time, and then some of the nature ones from Brandon Park, which is of historical value to the town where I live and a place of gathering for growing and sharing memories.

Little League World Series Opening Parade

Parade Glamor

Mrs. Styers Queen of Blueberries

Montgomery Patriot--by Elisabeth Connelley

Beckonings--by Elisabeth Connelley

Well, go figure!  I got to the end and I had plenty, silly me.  I’ll post Brandon Park images another time.

Please visit and Scott Thomas at Views Infinitum if you would like to view or are interested in participating in more photography assignments.

One Shoot Sunday and Passion–Purple Profundity: Poetry by Elisabeth Connelley

Sunday Photography Interview: Walter Parada & Poetry Challenge
“Walter Parada is a California man, born and raised, and a passionate pursuer and tweeter of all things photographic. Though he shuns referring to himself as an artist, Walter is a professional that certainly knows his art, and pursues a wide spectrum of the field with precision and talent. One Stop would like to extend a warm welcome to him this week as he shares his insights and his images with us…
Picture Prompt Challenge!
~Chris Galford”
Thank you to Mr. Parada for sharing this Sunday’s Picture Prompt.

Picture Prompt for Sunday, May 22, 2011 Taken by Walter Parada

Passion
To live without passion is to strip us of our humanity. Every expression is life! Every suppression and denial is a cut with a knife to the inner flame, the I AM! There is a way to be unique, individual and yet, part of the group of other humans.

PASSION! The ability to taste, touch, feel, see, smell, shout, scream, cry, laugh, fly…

The majority of time that I have seen, grief and sorrow are not seen as a Passion. Passion, for many, seems to denote sex and Valentine’s Day. Other times, passion is labeled to crimes.

Perhaps passion then, is each vulnerable bubble let fly from the spirit, exactly as it is, uninhibited and let go, to watch it until it can no longer be seen in the distance or is eclipsed by the next moment of passion.
–by elisabeth connelley

Faces of the Trees

This is Grum

I know this one's name, but the sounds in it are not sounds I am familiar with making as speech.

This one makes me think of Janus, I did not hear its name, nor did I ask, this trip.

All of today’s Brandon Park images were taken by Elisabeth Connelley, Purple Shoe Photography while playing with a Sigma SD10. Many thanks to the owner of this camera!

One Shoot Sunday and The Door–Purple Profundity: Poetry by Elisabeth Connelley

“One Stop Poetry Challenge – the Photography of Fee Easton

Today we welcome back no stranger to One Shoot Sunday. UK photographer Fee Easton was featured back in March. Her interview with Chris G. and picture prompt challenge for that day proved very inspiring to many of us.

Since talking to her via Twitter, she has offered her work to our community to allow poets a greater choice for poetic creation, thus presenting a challenge from which participants may choose from five of her amazing photographs.”

One Stop, Challenge Time!

Option 4

Option 4 One Shoot Sunday May 15, 2011--by Fee Easton

The Door

Rusted metal

Arrested function

Pistons heat frozen

Viscosity
Erected long ago
Sluggish
Remembrance

Fleck
Fire
Flame
Into form
Blazoned
Hot breath
Shimmering through
Old creases

Drop
Moist
The old man’s eye
Trained, placed against that old tree

Settle back
Creaky chair by the porch
Gazing

At the door

–elisabeth connelley

Cacophony Light (or Mourning Wake)–Purple Profundity: Poetry by Elisabeth Connelley

faint watercolor waking

sun

along thoughts of sand

but trees

swaying in the water

of the dawn

violets summering across the lawn

pinks rising

hearts singing up the sun

cacophony light

thinks the view of the dark

stretching sinews

receding further

luscious

silky 

sleep

scatters on the grass,

glittering jewels

oceans of dew

dreams melded with the day

breathing and alive

–by elisabeth connelley

Just Be

Wait for it!!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaait for itttttttttttttttttttt………… lol

Yearning

I have so many thinks about how I feel today. Nothing is striking me as more than a facet of the expression of it. Thinking of that phoenix again, absolute pain beyond measure and at the same moment joyful rapture, explosion of expression without bounds, before resettling. So many things to notice at once, joy, pain, suffering, creation, destruction, which is which? Do they feel any different? Does it matter? Must I be passive? Must I act quickly? Is my help needed in the helpful word granted me in a book, in the song of unmaking, am I unmaking “I”, am I making a new “I”? lol See now looking at it this way isn’t feeling quite so heavy, but in a minute I might be back writing in flame wishing escape instead of dancing with it.

This is how i feel today

Growing Is Forever from NPCA on Vimeo.

My strength is gone. I cannot get back up. There is no difference. A dent is only an illusion, a hope, a wish. I can do anything, will do anything if it makes one tiny mark, but if there are none, I want to go home.