Tag Archives: Photo a Week

Photo a Week Challenge: Abandoned

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Smith Mine Abandoned Buildings. Photo: TLCLark, 11/17/2020.

I’m a week late to the challenge, but have thought about this picture since Nancy Merrill issued her photo a week challenge: Abandoned. These buildings mark the Smith Coal Mine, “the site of the worst underground coal mine disaster in Montana history.”

My parents and I had taken a drive, in part, to check out this site near Bearcreek, Montana. As much as we would have liked to get closer to look around and take pictures, we heeded the “no trespassing” signs. Besides that, the wind was cold and it was a steep walk down to the fence.

A Photo a Week Challenge: JOY

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Longtime Friends. Shiloh Conservation Area, Billings, Montana. Photo: TLClark, 11/6/2020.

In this strange time of pandemic, what brings you joy?

Julie and Judy. Shiloh Conservation Area, Billings, Montana. Photo: TLClark, 11/6/2020.

For my parents, it’s a walk and a visit with longtime friends. The walking started as rehab for Mom. In this time of social distancing, it’s grown into a (nearly) daily habit – good for body, mind, and spirit.

Tom and Don. Shiloh Conservation Area, Billings, Montana. Photo: TLClark, 11/6/2020.

The gals stay on level ground. The guys take a longer loop. The dog would like to go with both but is forced to choose.

Snickerdoodle. Photo: TLClark, 11/12/2020.

Posted in response to Nancy Merrill’s challenge “A Photo a Week Challenge: Joy.”

A Photo a Week Challenge: Yellow

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It’s Thursday already!  I bought a new cup and saucer at the Iowa State Fair the other day and was thinking I should photograph it for Nancy Merrill’s challenge Still Life (sort of)  But it’s Thursday and she has a new challenge:  Yellow.

Since the cup holds plain old Lipton tea in the morning and there is an open package of lemon sandwich cookies on the counter, here’s one effort.

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Tea and Cookies.  Photo: TLClark, 8/15/19.

Another thought:  add honey!

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Tea with Honey plus Cookies.  Photo: TLClark, 8/15/19.

Looking at the pictures after-the-fact, I realize I should have experimented with some different light.  Always learning!

Having finished my attempt at Still Life Sort Of plus Yellow, I took the cup of tea to my desk.  It’s my favorite picture of the morning.

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Morning Tea.  Photo: TLClark, 8/15/19.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Three of a Kind

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Have you looked, really looked, at leaves on trees in the springtime?
As in walk over to a tree and examine the little bits of green growing on the branches?

New leaves are AMAZING!

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Tiny New Leaves. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Tiny and perfectly shaped.
Reaching for sunlight.
Connected to branch to trunk to earth.

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New Leaves Reaching Upward.  Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Growing from branches old and new.
Unfurling as they expand.
Ready to dance in a breeze.

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*******

Thank-you, Nancy Merrill, for this week’s photo challenge:

… take three photos of the same subject, but from different angles or distances or whatever. This will give you the chance to look at your subject in a lot of different ways. This is the only rule, so have fun.

The pictures are from yesterday’s morning walk (to see post click here).  There are more leaf pictures to come!

A Photo a Week Challenge: Colorful

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This week’s photo challenge from Nancy Merrill Photography is the word “colorful.”  She says, “I’m looking for the most colorful thing you can find to photograph.”

The most colorful thing in my house is a quilt currently under construction.

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Every block is made with scraps from other quilts.  There are 35 blocks, each one will finish at 12″ square; the sashing between blocks is 2″ wide.

The idea for the quilt goes back to when I was playing with the number of squares needed to make a square block.  A 6″ block (finished size) easily made with

  • thirty-six 1″ squares (6×6) or
  • sixteen 1.5″ squares (4×4) or
  • nine 2″ squares (3×3) or
  • four 3″ blocks (2×2).

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The squares in on the outside edges of the blocks pictured above began square and will be square once the blocks are completely sewn into a quilt top.  Quilters know you need an extra 1/4 inch on each side for the seam allowance – so an unfinished 6″ block measures 6.5″ square.

Here’s my first 144-patch 12.5″ unfinished block; it may be my last.

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A Photo a Week Challenge: New

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Photo:  TLCLark, 12/31/2018

In the weekly photo challenge Nancy Merril Photography asked “What will the new year hold for each of us?”  The challenge is to “SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF SOMETHING NEW.”

Last week as Dad showed me the storage space below their new house – more crawl space than basement in terms of height, more basement than crawl space in terms of being water proof – I caught sight of a box of crayons.  They’d been spilled across the lid of plastic tote box and onto the floor.  The crayons were new.  But I didn’t have a camera and I wasn’t going down there a second time just to take a picture.

My next thought for the challenge was a new box of colored pencils.  All lined up in a rainbow array, every tip precisely sharpened.  The colored pencils I had with me were definitely well used, some just a stub of their former selves.  I had new box at home but hadn’t wanted to spoil those perfectly pointed ends!

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New colored pencils.  Photo:  TlClark, 12/31/2018

As we drove (and drove and drove) the last few days from Montana, across a corner of Wyoming, through South Dakota, and into Iowa on our way home, I had plenty of time to think about “something new.”  I kept returning to the idea of a blank page.

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Blank Page.  Photo: TLClark, 12/31/2018

What will we write or draw or scribble or paint or create in this new year?  What relationships will we renew or strengthen?  What opportunities will we embrace?  What books will we read?  What will push us to think new thoughts or look at the world in a new way?

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Photo:  TLClark, 12/31/2018

May you treasure the best of the old and embrace the opportunity of the new each and every day, regardless of the year!

A Photo a Week Challenge: Water

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Photo:  TLClark, 8/16/2012

I stumbled across a photo challenge in the blog-o-sphere.  The instructions this week:  “In a new post created for this challenge, share a photo or two that features water of any kind.”

The intent, I think, of the challenge is to take new photos.  But I immediately thought of the photo above.  Taken more than six years ago, it’s water from a well at the Neumann Ranch in eastern Montana.  The pump on the well is now run with electricity, but once upon a time it was an old fashioned windmill.

The water runs through a pipe and then a hose to fill a stock tank from which the garden is irrigated.

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While waiting for the water to flow through the rows of the garden, you might use the watering can to hurry things along.

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Photo:  TLClark, 8/16/2012

The best part:  digging a few carrots, washing them off at the well where the water is clean, and enjoying the treat of really fresh produce.

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Grandpa and Grandson.  Photo: TLClark, 8/16/2012