WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background

24 May 2013

Lens:

1. ISELab, UD Campus, iPhone 4s, May 2103; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. ISELab, UD Campus, #2, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Yesterday on an overcast and threatening day I strolled downtown, which is shored by the University of Delaware. Even with grey skies my goal was to savor the architectural treasures that are rising with a modernist flare. The campus has become a seamless blend of the old with the new, and this feat has been accomplished with splendid visual appeal.

In the Lens section are two images from that photo shoot. They fit well in today’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: in the background. I was drawn to the almost-completed ISELab: Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Lab, which meets the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver designation.  This massive structure spreads itself (194,000 square-foot facility) for the better part of a block. The facility is awe-inspiring in its beauty and its promise for research.

I was drawn to the large swaths of glass that hid workers inside. The two images are different angles of the building that reveals what’s in the background.

I will return on a sunny day, which will give the space and structure a different visual appeal. Still, the grey skies did not lessen the building’s grandeur. Actually, a dramatic patina was cast in its favor.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

iPhoneography Challenge: Black and White

20 May 2013

Lens:

1. Mill Buildings, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Ceiling Lights, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Gracie (http://graciebinoya.com), Polly (http://watchingthephotoreels.com) and I began this iPhoneography Monday Challenge in February. If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details.

It’s black-and-white Monday, and a way to turn my universe into a grayscale wonder. Monochrome gives the visual a patina and tilt that focuses as much on design elements as it does on contrast, shadows and tone. It’s deeper effects play with our perceptions of reality.

Black-and-white images manipulate time. They spark our linear and non-linear notion of the here and now, or past and future, or each.

Time is a fixture that travels and toys with us, affecting nearly everything we contemplate and do. Just when we think that we might understand it, we are tossed into a quandary about what it is. Its silent or loud tick tocking wavers between black-and-white and  something that we cannot grasp.

Albert Einstein, who created the general and special theory of relativity, changed our perception about time. His view of its rhythm as relative to the universe’s physical space opened minds to new vistas. It’s easy to stretch his discoveries into the realm of human emotion, which is steeped in time’s hands.

Albert Einstein (1915), Google Images

Here are quotes by Einstein that move through spatial science and the alchemy of the heart.

“Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.”

“Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.”

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”

I know that when I push the shutter to record an image, I am in the realm of science. But that’s relative, because I also am in the arena of creativity and perception.

In the Lens section are two images that weave together time and the monochrome. The first is a sunset, which is one of the regulators of daylight. The second is a cluster of artificial lights, which radiate during nighttime.

Time is the construct of human genius. It slips and slides as though it needs control. It jumps, hovers, delays, and mostly, is mysterious. As an abstract and concrete concept, we hold onto it or let go of its importance.

As each day closes and another opens, time works its magic and then evaporates. It forces me to wrestle with it. It also forces me to see its constancy that gives our lives the grey that is (to me) obvious in the black-and-white.

Tip of the Week: If you are searching for an app that shouts monochrome, click here. Marty Yawnick, who writes for the online iPhoneography magazine Life in LOFI, reviewed the app Vint B & W MII. There are many, many apps available that render an image in black and white. It’s good to get advice from those dedicated to iPhoneography, but it takes experience to find the one that fits into our personal tool box.

Here are other entries:

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com

http://simplylifestuff.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-bw-2/

http://blogagaini.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/image-created-with-snapseed-2/

http://ayearinmyshoes.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

http://streetsofsfphotos.com/2013/05/20/eye-of-god/

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-monday-bw-challenge/

http://acrossthebored.com

http://nwframeofmind.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-monday-black-and-white-2/

http://watchingthephotoreels.com

http://weliveinaflat.wordpress.com  

http://graciebinoya.com

http://nosteptooloose.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

http://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. The following is a reminder of the weekly schedule and themes for upcoming challenges. 

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black-and-White

4th and 5th Mondays: Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

Lens:

Ashland Covered Bridge, Delaware, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know what you think about this image. If you like it and why.

Pens:

The weekly photo challenge sponsored by WordPress has been a sweet part of my week for months. This forum provides a platform for me to meet scores of others who are sparked by the notion of a photographic theme, and to express its meaning through individual interpretation. Literally and visually, we can escape into the world of images to fulfill it.

Escape is a tricky concept. We can move in various different directions, and still equate its posturing. We can: ran from the ties that bind, rush through a door of dark and meet the light on the other side, accelerate day to night or night to day, pierce the angst with creativity, shed the cool on a humid day, elude a confrontation, dive into an activity, and…

Truly, to escape is not always to flee the scene. To escape can be a way to build layer upon layer of good experiences.

This concept can conjure both the negative and the positive. It can be yin to yang or the subtle conversion to a new vista. Momentarily, a hot fudge sundae satiates a bitter argument. A mid-morning snack prevents hunger pains. A holiday can open worlds of discovery.

To escape can be a pile-high stack of possibilities, easing or slowing. Or pushing the air to vent itself from inhale to exhale.

In the Lens section is my entry: a covered bridge. It seems an apt choice, because it takes us from one place to another. It is a conduit for change, because escape is definitely a sign that life is about to be altered.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

iPhoneography Challenge: Macro

13 May 2013

Lens:

Part I: Macro Photography

1. Dandelion Flower Head, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Upholstery Nails, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Part II: Using Camera +

3. Safety Pins. iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Gracie (http://graciebinoya.com), Polly (http://watchingthephotoreels.com) and I began this iPhoneography Monday Challenge in February. If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details.

As I compose this post, I am thinking about a short, simple, and mostly, poetic sentence that I wish I had written: “I want to be a word” from Anna Moschovakis’s “Untitled” (Click here for the full text). The poem is worth more than a glance or two.

In 2011 I read those six words that: stopped my breath, soaked my heart, pumped adrenalin through mind, and forced a long pause to salute their brilliance.

Most days I want to be freedom or creativity or soulful or peaceful. Or a word conjuring ambling or rushing or slowing through time.

Right now I want to be macro, which is fitting for the iPhoneography Challenge. Why, you might ask?

Over the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with my iPhone to achieve better close-up photographs–photographs that unveil the unseen front and center. And not just revealed, but rendered in a way that changes our perception, our notion of what the images are and can be.

I shoot, shoot, shoot: pull into the image and tighten the framing. I read about others’ experiences, and view scores of photographs.

Inspiration can come from ordinary moments and mundane objects. When the everyday becomes large-scale, it is redefined, reoriented and re-imagined.  Meaning is twisted. The mind is fooled.

Often macro flatters our attention, and makes us notice some essence that eluded our visual capabilities. For me this play with large vs. small will continue as long as I hold a camera.

While I might be “macro” for a part of today or tomorrow, I also will be many, many other words. Words willing to hitchhike onto my day’s journey.

In the Lens section are three images for this challenge. The first is a “spent” dandelion getting ready to cast its seeds. The second is a handful of upholstery nails whose enlargement floated across my lens almost mimicking metal umbrellas. The third shows medium-size safety pins that seem ready to hold together very big objects.

Tip of the Week: A recent conversation with a dear friend spurred me to delve a bit deeper into Camera +. Since I hadn’t found the joy, I decided to give it another chance. During my “macro” journey this week, I read about a few features in Camera + that just might push me to use it more. iPhones have trouble focusing on close-ups. Also using indirect lighting will reduce shadows and avoid overexposure in a macro shot. Camera + has Touch Focus and Touch Exposure. Each boosts the chance for a better close-up image. Add the use of natural light (best to avoid flash in close-ups), and the stabilizer shooting mode (to avoid camera shake) that is also available in Camera + and the image is much clearer. Check out the results in Part II of the Lens section. Right now you can get the app for 99 cents. Click here to go into iTunes and read about it.

Click to view other entries to the challenge:

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/the-lucky-smile

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-challenge-macro

http://wp.me/p24idL-1sQ

http://acrossthebored.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-monday-macro-3/

http://streetsofsfphotos.com/2013/05/13/macro-photography-bark/

http://ayearinmyshoes.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-monday-macro/

http://watchingthephotoreels.com

http://triciabookerphotography.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-challenge-macro/

http://graciebinoya.com

http://nwframeofmind.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-monday-macro

http://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/iphoneography-challenge-macro/

http://weliveinaflat.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/donna-is-relaxed-because-i-dont-have-my-phone-in-her-face-o/

http://blogagaini.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/iphoneography-monday-challenge-macro/

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. The following is a reminder of the weekly schedule and themes for upcoming challenges. 

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black-and-White

4th and 5th Mondays: Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

10 May 2013

Lens:

1. Grate in Parking Garage, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Stairs in Parking Garage, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Pattern is the theme of WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. How delicious!!!!

Our visual landscape is stacked with lines that cross, colors creating shapes, positive spaces, negative spaces, light showing unforeseen angles–gems that bring a rhythm to what seems chaos and vice versus.

Once we focus, really give pause to our surroundings, patterns pop instantly and mesmerize as well as tranquillize. Patterns are repetitions of a simple or complex design, which add zest to our visual field.

We stumble over them in everyday living. We seek them for their artistic pull. We find them in the oddest places and the most common.

They entertain. They delude. They trick. They calm. They agitate. They fool.

They fixate our attention. They play with our sense of reality.

In the Lens section are two photographs that I took last week. As I passed a parking garage, I was lured by the light and shadows that created patterns everywhere.

In truth, I cannot imagine a world devoid of patterns. They are a constant source of play with my imagination, and hope for variations that stun my sensibilities.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

iPhoneography Challenge: Nature

06 May 2013

Lens:

1, Poppy Bud, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Poppy Bud, iPhone 4s, may 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

3. Unfolding Poppy, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

4. Unfolding Poppy, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

5. Unfolding Poppy, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Okay, if you are wondering why this week’s challenge is another theme about nature (the third one in a row to be devoted to the quintessential mother of them all), here’s the scoop. At the bottom of this post is a reminder of themes for each Monday’s challenge. April had a fourth and fifth Monday (22 and 29), and they always are designated  challenger’s choice. I opted to honor Mother Nature on Earth Day (22nd), and I could not resist more praise on the 29th. Many of you followed my lead.

The first Monday of each month is slated “nature” day. And, of course, I’m bubbling with enthusiasm to continue placing her in “my” limelight.

Gracie (http://graciebinoya.com), Polly (http://watchingthephotoreels.com) and I began this iPhoneography Monday Challenge in February. If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details.

Bill Atkinson is renowned as a nature photographer, but his fame was established in another field: computer technology, where as a member of the Apple team he helped to develop the Macintosh and some of its most groundbreaking software.

Atkinson brought that problem-solving and technical sensibility to the world of photography. But he also brought an awareness and perception that gives his work a poetic lyricism. He uses a lens as his words.

Bill Atkinson, Google Images

Recently, I was compelled to order Atkinson’s latest book, Within the Stone. I read about his intuitive depictions of polished rocks, and lingered over a few of his photographs on the Internet. (To see his webpage, click here.)

Within the Stone (2013), by Bill Atkinson

During a photo shoot in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, Atkinson was inspired by these natural wonders. He spent much effort studying specimens, building new lighting equipment, and traveling to gem and mineral shows.

The results are a compendium of his “stonescapes,” which are brilliant glazed jewels. His photographs are euphoric photographic paintings that shock in their seeming fragility.

After gazing at his images, I knew that I must render his book mine. When it arrived this week, I sat in blissful amazement. His vision of time’s weathering is part meditation, part art, part science, part naturescapes, and part spirituality.

He has put his aesthetic stamp onto these rocks, and turned them into abstractions with a patina of mastery. Atkinson’s “stonescapes” act like magnets, which draw me into nature’s astonishing journey (as if I needed more incentive).

The book has additional perks that complement the powerful qualities of his seventy-two photographs. Seven writers have added their poems or essays to each image, giving another layer to a viewer’s experience.

In the Appendix each rock specimen is described and includes the origin of its location. While one does not need these details to be awed by the images, I found it fascinating that many of his selections came from United States. Still it’s a worldwide representation with others from Madagascar, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Russia, China, South America, Canada, and Italy.

In the Lens section is my ode to nature photography: an orange poppy. Sometime flowers become embedded in fossilized rock, and represent that ticking of time found in Atkinson’s work. My photographs show two stages of the poppy’s Spring debut: budding and unfolding–the glacial move of nature that can appear to be quicker than it really  is.

The first and second images have an outer protective sleeve that is beginning to reveal the petals. In the last three images that hairy fleshy part has fallen away, and tissue-like petals are beginning to unfold. They will become delicate-winged petals, almost as though they’re ready for the wind’s magic.

Tip of the Week: With Bill Atkinson’s talents come his innovation in digital technology. Serendipitously, I discovered that he created an app that I’ve been hoping to find: a postcard app that really works. To review Bill Atkinson PhotoCard, click here to get to the iTunes store. It’s made for the iPhone and iPad. Just downloaded this FREE app, and start the fun. Now I can turn my iPhone images into e-mail or snail mail: what a concept. It includes 200 nature photos, 200 stamps, and 400 stickers. You can use his photos or your own. I’m pumped.

Check these entries:

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/iphoneography-challenge-nature/

http://graciebinoya.com

http://ayearinmyshoes.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/iphoneography-monday-nature

http://simplylifestuff.com/2013/05/06/iphoneography-challenge-nature/

http://watchingthephotoreels.com

http://savvydesign.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/nature-iphoneography-charms-feeling-fresh/

http://wp.me/p3galV-H9

http://nwframeofmind.com/2013/05/06/iphoneography-monday-nature/

http://acrossthebored.com

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/iphoneography-challenge-nature/

http://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/iphoneography-monday-nature/

http://movethechair.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/ground-cover/

http://weliveinaflat.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/dog-free-friday-what-the-flowers-saw/

http://rfljenksy.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/8356/

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. The following is a reminder of the weekly schedule and themes for upcoming challenges. 

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black-and-White

4th and 5th Mondays: Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

03 May 2013

Lens:

1. Reflection of Afternoon Sun, iPhone 4s, February 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Tulip, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

“From Above” is the theme for WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. It had me contemplating rushing to the city, and climbing scores of steps to stand atop and watch the throngs of urbanites parading below.

While interpretations for this challenge are aplenty, I have posted two in the Lens section that are true to the literal interpretation.

The first image was taken at the crossroads between a road and a creek. The bridge hovers above, and daily I am able to ponder its changes: the water reflecting, the flow rearranging, the wildlife appearing, the trees unfolding. I gaze below and much is revealed.

On this day in February the sun mirrored itself as the ripples moved around its glow. As usual the scene gave me a calm moment to meditate and be at one with nature.

The second image is part of an ongoing series of experimentation with the iPhone and its many apps. In the beginning of the week this tulip caught my attention as it stood in the afternoon sun. It’s flowerhead heavy, and yet it’s beauty was evident. I played with PhotoStudio and converted it to black and white.

In each photograph I’ve selected an example from Mother Nature, which is another tribute to her abundance and bounty. Earth Day may be beyond us, but my reverence for nature never waivers.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

Wordless Wednesday: Almost #10 (Spring Awakening with Geraniums)

01 May 2013

Lens:

1. Geranium, Nikon DSLR, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Geranium, Nikon DSLR, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens: It’s Wordless Wednesday, and I must resist praise about the deliciously scrumptious geranium. Since I must hold my pen, so to speak, I will await another post to commend Mother Nature’s beauty that blooms in my sunny kitchen throughout the  winter.

The Back Story: When I discovered Wordless Wednesday, the notion that my blog, which focuses on lens and pens, would occasionally go wordless was not necessarily a conflict. For me, photography has always been about its visual language. So here I am with my tenth submission (first was on 19 February 2013), and (yes), still creating words.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

iPhoneography Challenge: More Portraits of Mother Earth

29 April 2013

Lens:

1. Tulip, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Tulip, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

3. Pansy, iPhone 4s, April 2013; Tulip, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Gracie (http://graciebinoya.com), Polly (http://watchingthephotoreels.com) and I began an iPhoneography Monday Challenge in February. If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details. Since it’s the fifth Monday of the month, the theme is challenger’s choice, which gives me another chance to salute Mother Earth through portraits of nature.

For those of you who are regular readers, you know that I’m not a stand-on-the-soap-box-megaphone-in-the-hand kind of gal. I prefer a subtle and quiet way to free my passions and philosophy.

The most obvious advocacy is through my adoration for the natural wonders of the universe. This praise is not new. My devotion began many moons ago on an inaugural visit to the Southwest, where every turn was touched by nature’s majesty.  Then I discovered Henry David Thoreau. My world was dramatically rearranged.

“In wilderness is the preservation of the world”–Thoreau

Walden is Thoreau’s masterpiece–a masterpiece that continues to influence our understanding of the connections between nature and human nature. Observations in this classic are the compilation of his experiments in solitude with nature that cemented his love and passion for Mother Earth’s bounty, mysteries and secrets. They also turned him into a well-respected nature writer.

Last week I read that Boston University Professor Richard Primack and colleagues at Harvard University are studying Thoreau’s writings. Between 1852 to 1861 he meticulously recorded  day-to-day changes at Walden Pond: stages of local plant life. His detailed journals are being compared to present day botanics. Results supply credibility for climate change.

The academic team is finding some species have disappeared, and many others are blooming much earlier than in Thoreau’s time. The notable work from his journals is being used to predict how environmental change and urbanization has and is affecting flora around Concord, Massachusetts.

Currently, Primack’s work is available to the public. If you live near Concord Museum, I encourage you to visit the exhibition titled, “Early Spring: Henry David Thoreau and Climate Change.” To me, this confluence of ideas and connections are yet another gift from my über hero, Thoreau.

Concord Museum, Google Images

To learn details about the exhibition, click here. If you live in the area or New England or want a fascinating place to take a summer holiday, do consider Walden Pond and the exhibition that runs through September 15.

Maybe it’s the non-winter that we had—the short dips in temps, the lack of snow, the increase in rain, the grayer than usual days. Maybe it’s Al Gore’s new book.

The Future (2013) by Al Gore, Google images

Maybe it’s miscalculations by meteorologists. Maybe Primack’s work has made everything in my thoughts about the health of the planet even more pronounced.

With Spring here, I feel compelled to say the obvious: our world is fragile at best, our future is dangling on a precipice.

Tiny shoots and budding trees are optimistic signs of rejuvenation—renewal is bursting forth. Gardening season is bouncing into shape. I’m spending every day caring for some part of my gardens.

Last Monday was Earth Day, and as I said on my post (click here), we need to honor Mother Earth each day. There are so many small and grander ways to contribute, and I keep adding to make my lifestyle “greener.”

Then I see the work that others are doing, and my hope surges. Inspiration is never in short supply. It’s everywhere.

One of my contributions to the shifting tides of weather and its effects on gardening and wildlife is to plant natives. Not only are they able to react to seesaw climate variations, they also provide food and shelter to animals, and, most especially, my menagerie of birds.

One of the easiest ways to help birds survive this rearrangement of the earth’s weather patterns is to become a casual or more fanatic birdwatcher. Really, it can become one of the most satisfying of adventures and avocations. I’ve gotten numerous people baited and hooked on this wondrous activity. Many also become enthusiastic bird feeders.

While there are millions of birders in the United States, the allure is multifaceted, including being awed by their behaviors and habits. Now this group of nature lovers are proving to be significant in the study of climate change. They’re recording migration patterns that are being altered, which is like dominoes are being tossed into their food supply and timing for mating.

Regional and state-by-state Spring bird counts have become more than a ritual. They are significant contributions to our understanding of how wildlife’s habitats are being altered. Just as extinct plants are predictors of a new world order, so are more and more birds migrating further and further northward.

Novel actions speak loudly, but small acts can have an accumulative power. Small acts can be accomplished and piled next to others, giving each of us a sense of fulfillment. We are working toward the greater good, which affects the whole of nature and human nature.

In the Lens section are my tributes to Springtime and its marvelous daily un-foldings.   Nature herself gives us all the reasons we need to work on her behalf. The flowering of the landscape being one divine example. Happy iPhoneography Monday.

Tip of the Week: The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an apt that “helps you plan outdoor photography shoots in natural light, particularly landscape and urban scenes. It’s a map centric sun and moon calculator.” Check it out on iTunes here. I have not used it, but it sounds useful and intriguing. It’s not free, but probably worth the $8.99 investment. I’m tempted.

Check out these other entries:

http://watchingthephotoreels.com/2013/04/29/nature-iphonography-challenge

http://ayearinmyshoes.wordpress.com

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/iphoneography-monday-more-portraits-of-mother-earth/

http://nosteptooloose.wordpress.com

http://nwframeofmind.com/2013/04/29/iphoneography-monday-more-portraits-of-mother-earth/

http://acrossthebored.com/2013/04/29/iphoneography-monday-nature-3

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com

http://movethechair.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/a-simple-ending

http://savvydesign.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/iphonography-monday-on-tuesday-nature-2

http://hiaja.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/early-iphone-mondaynature/

http://blogagaini.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/iphoneography-monday-challenge-travel/

http://graciebinoya.com/2013/05/02/capturing-nature-iphoneography-challenge/

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. The following is a reminder of the weekly schedule and themes for upcoming challenges. 

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black-and-White

4th and 5th Mondays: Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: (Visual) Culture

26 April 2013

Lens:

Wall Art, Newark, Delaware, iPhone 4s, December 2012; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know what you think of this photograph.

Pens:

Billboards and other signage are engrained in the popular culture. They vie for our attention.

Our visual communication has changed radically. We are inundated with so much in our field of vision that much gets lost, and other pieces rise to the surface with gusto.

When I read about this week’s theme for WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, my mind started listing numerous ways to interpret culture. For me, I wrestled with the possibilities. When I began to muse about the way technology has redefined our lives, I knew that I had to move into the arena of digital innovation with its punch to everyday design.

Visual culture is so layered within society that it has become an area to study. It crosses disciplines, merging the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences (both locally, regionally, nationally, and globally).

Visual Culture, Google Images

Its effect has already altered the way generations navigate. Our social norms are spiked with these new influences.

Visual communication and its culture has reinvented how we live. While we moved from t.v. and typewriter to an iPhone, iPad, PC, and other devices, a gold mine of innovations await for what is yet to be.

Metro Logo Design, Google Images

In the Lens section is an image that I took at the end of last year. For me it bridges old and new cultures that stream through our visual fields. Murals as wall art are just a miniscule part of what we see daily, but it is indicative of the constancy of design that infiltrates our view.

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.