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ABCD: will YOU take Part ?

Here’s a challenge from Gary France
Gary France ABCD

Maybe you would like to join in with this…..

A Bloggers Centerline Day, or ABCD, will take place on Sunday 1st May 2011.

The plan is to inspire as many bloggers as possible to go outside and take a photograph of themselves on this day, wherever they are in the world. The photo can be creative, arty, contain more than one person, be in any type of location and can contain anything else you like. It must however contain the centerline of a road and at least part of you, the blogger.

There are 5 rules….

Rule 1 – the picture must be taken on 1st May 2011.

Rule 2 – the picture must be of yourself, and you must be a person that publishes a blog. You can include whatever else you like in the picture, including other people if you wish.

Rule 3 – the picture must include the centerline of a road.

Rule 4 – you should publish the picture on your blog on 1st May 2011, along with a few words about the picture and why you chose that location or pose.

Rule 5 – when you have posted the picture on your own blog, put a comment on http://garysusatour.blogspot.com/2011/04/abcd-will-you-take-part.html and include in that comment the address of your own blog post containing your own picture.

Gary France will then pick his favourite photos and publish these as being the winners. There will be a prize of $100 awarded to the overall single winner, as chosen by Gary.

In order to get this event known as widely as possible, please copy and paste this posting onto your own blog, including the title. Please do that today!

As a reminder to yourself to take the photo and post it, put an entry into your diary for 1st May 2011.

Let’s see if we can get as any people to join in as possible.

Are you going to play? I’ll be watching!

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Stop. Look. Listen.

One of the things I love about our WV place is the quiet. It’s REALLY quiet in the winter when all the insects are hibernating, most birds have flown south, and all the hunters have finished killing stuff for the season.

When I go out walking with the girls, all I hear are their feet crunching through the leaves. Plus the occasional yips from K when she spots a critter. And Belle’s squeaky toy (assuming she was in the mood to bring it along). There’s also the thundering of feet as one or another of the dogs buzzes me (runs past me very closely at full gallop).

It’s amazing to me how much you can hear if you just stop for a second and listen. And the things you’ll see if you really look.

Going "Down the Hill"

The dogs are like little kids at a swimming pool. The ones who say, “Mom, watch this. Mom, look at me. Mom, see what I can do?” They get super-excited when I walk with them. We have to do it at least once a day. Usually more. Not that I am complaining. It’s just odd. Most dogs get excited when their person picks up a leash. Mine get excited when I break out the camera.

Textures

The many different textures in nature intrigue me.

Light Play

As does the morning light shining through the trees.

Oddity

If I were in Maryland, this would’ve just been another piece of trash. At the WV place, it’s a real oddity. How did this balloon get here? The closest Red Robin restaurant is about 100 miles away.

Bending Under Pressure

What happened to that tree? Is it alive? That’s not a fresh bend, but the tree doesn’t appear to be dead. I’ll have to try to remember and check it again once the leaves start emerging.

Holes

I’m fairly certain these holes were made by one of the many Pileated Woodpeckers that inhabit our woods. Those birds are about 17 inches tall. They look like small pterodactyls flying through the woods. And when they peck away on snags like this one, the hollow hammering reverberates loudly through the trees.

Nobody's Home

I couldn’t help but stop and look closely at this shell. It seemed completely undisturbed. Yet there was no turtle inside. What happened? Did it just shrivel up? Or did something extract it?

I hope you enjoyed your virtual walk with me.

Do you like walking through the woods, experiencing nature? Or would you rather stick to city streets. There’s a certain allure to both. But I sure enjoy the peace and quiet.

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Snow Geese

Since Friday, I’ve been trying to find the time to post pics about my Blackwater Refuge trip. I posted a couple here on Sunday, but since it was a motorcycle trip, the bulk of the shots went up on my other blog. It has always been my intention NOT to promote that other blog too much on this blog. However, since I don’t have the time to do a separate post about the trip AND since there are pics I think you would probably like to see, I’m just going to have to point you to that other blog for a minute or two. In case you’d like to see the rest of the trip pics.

Like this one…

Footprints at the Marsh

…which just happens to be one of my favorites.

It really was a pretty day. Sorry I couldn’t do a special post here just for you, but time’s been a bit tight of late.

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You Capture – Cold

This week’s theme for You Capture is COLD. Fitting, eh? Especially considering we’re in the middle of what feels like a never-ending winter. I am not usually one to complain about the cold, but, jeez. Enough already!

My “cold” images are below for your viewing pleasure.

From a cold, dreary, not-quite-freezing morning in the mountains.
Brrr
Enough with the cold already!
I am so tired of seeing this when I look out my back door.
May the force be with you!

Do you see a Storm-trooper when you look at that snowy grill shot? Or is it just me? I actually captured that one about a week or so ago after having to go outside around midnight to drag my rodent-obsessed dog in so we could go to bed.

Snowy Night

Now that last picture really says cold! I didn’t actually shoot it specifically for this week’s entry. But after looking at it this morning, I was compelled to share it. I shot it through the glass of our back door. I found it quite intriguing to see the stove reflected pretty much dead-center. The stove was not beside me, but about eight feet away on my right. So how did it end up in the middle of the frame? Weird. The white streaks are snowflakes, by the way.

To see how everyone else captured COLD this week, pop over to Beth’s site and follow a few of the links.

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Intriguing Discovery

One of the photography blogs I started following recently (I Take Pictures) had a very interesting post the other day about a little-known photographer named Vivian Maier. Danelle, ITP creator, did a great job summarizing the story. It’s a story I urge you to take a few moments to read.

ToadMama's Shadow

In a nutshell, Vivian Maier, was a street photographer in Chicago from the 1950s to the 1990s. Her work, which was just recently discovered, “includes over 100,000 mostly medium format negatives, thousands of prints, and a ton of undeveloped rolls of film.”

The quality of some of her images is amazing (she captured people like Ansel Adams captured landscapes). The story many of them tell alone makes the pictures worth a look. But what really gripped me was how her work was discovered and what is very lovingly being done to share her work with the world.

The guy who discovered her work, John Maloof, created a blog as one way to bring Vivian Maier to the world. You can read more of the story and see the amazing images on his blog.

All of the images are copyrighted, so I couldn’t share any here. I just added that shot of me because imageless posts are just boring.

If you do visit John’s blog, let me know what you think.

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Sharing the Love

One of the best things about the You Capture meme I try to participate in each week is “meeting” other like-minded individuals. And getting to see the stuff other people take pictures of.  I’ve met some very cool folks over the last year or so that I’ve been watching/participating. Like StillMary at Musings of the Sixties. She’s one of my most faithful blog fans/commenters. And I love seeing her beautiful nature pictures and images of her family. She’s Beth’s Mom, by the way, so there would be no You Capture without her. Make sure you click on her link to see her top 10 of 2010. Especially the flying swan. 🙂

This 2010 Top 10 was hard, but fun. It took so much effort in fact that I was determined to look at all of the pics posted by other participants. And comment whenever I felt I should. To make their effort worthwhile, you know?

After I started looking at everyone’s shots (I looked at 100 posts and commented on many), I realized there were some images I knew I just had to share, too. I mean, they were just so good, I had to point them out to others.

Some of the pics I was able to embed here. Others will require you to follow a link. But it’s worth it. This is some GOOD STUFF!

I hope you enjoy these contributions by other You Capture participants as much as I did.

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July Reflection by Jen Higgins

July Reflection - Jen Higgins

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Engagement Shot by Katie Lloyd

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Toy Story Comes Alive by Beth Fletcher

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Tough Being a Kid by Brooke Chambers

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Mom Love by Chas

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Here, You Take Him by Marla at Blue Skies Photography

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Concentration by Tracey Washington

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Cardinal by Ashley Vechinski

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Paying Homage by Christa Umphrey

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You have GOT to check out Rebekah’s entire post at It Only Gets Better. This very cool snake shot is just the tip of this chick’s iceberg.

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Coffee by Heather at Our Life in a Click

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You have to see all 10 of Danelle’s images at I Take Pictures.

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I bet you’ll laugh out loud at Chelsey’s Tortured Poodle.

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LOL… don’t you just LOVE this baby picture by Kate at Big City Belly? Really.

Click on it for a bigger view, and a bigger grin on your face.

And now I need to go back to ALL of these posts to tell them they’ve been featured here. I hope no one gets mad. And I hope you have enjoyed the extra show!