A picture a day, August 31

Posted on 6:54 PM by jr cline | 1 comments

  
Well, this is the last picture for Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge.  
  
  After a long time trying, 
I was finally able to get a roofer to come out and make a minor repair on the roof.
$50 later I hope I am leak free.
  
Previous pictures 



 

A picture a day, August 30

Posted on 8:46 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

 

Kool-aid 
Kool-aid
Tastes great
Wish I had some
Can't wait
 
This is the 30th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
 
    
   
  

A picture a day, August 29

Posted on 7:30 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

 Figurine on a white coffee table

   
 
This is the 29th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
   
  

A picture a day, August 28

Posted on 5:15 AM by jr cline | 0 comments

Part time job
 
 
  
This is the 28th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
  

Photo give away

Posted on 11:21 AM by jr cline | 0 comments



Tara Wagner is having a cool photo give away: Singing My Song: My Photography Giveaway
My favorite picture from her RedBubble site is Queen Anne at Sunrise
          
Also, don't forgot to enter blendedpaths baby photo contest.

Monday Photo Shoot: Photographer's choice

Posted on 6:21 AM by jr cline | 2 comments

When my mom was alive, she had an extensive collection of villages set up in a floor to ceiling, wall to wall display cabinet.  Before it was all boxed up to sell, I photographed many of the little scenes she had created.
 

This is for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #104: Photographer's Choice

     

A picture a day, August 27

Posted on 8:43 PM by jr cline | 1 comments

 

I was walking down the street today visiting real estate agents 
and saw this scene through the dusty window.
I stopped because I thought it would make a good picture.
I thought I'd go in and speak rather than just press the camera to the class,
but the door was locked.
The sign said, 
"Closed, gone to treat patients".
There was no store name I could see and everything looked messed up and kind of dirty.
  
This is the 26th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
           

Once upon a time

Posted on 4:43 PM by jr cline | 1 comments

  
in another life, place, and time
  
I was this person.
  
Mama Nan loved this kid very much and
was always trying to get him to eat bananas.
She could bake one delicious pound cake too.
I still love pound cake! 
  
The Birmingham Zoo was one of our regular places to spend the day.
I remember monkey island and the waving polar bears being my favorites.
  
I don't know who wrote on the zoo picture, 
but if you look closely, 
I'm clearly labeled as one of the monkeys.  
 
Have a great day.
  

 

Baby photo contest

Posted on 5:50 AM by jr cline | 0 comments

Blendingpaths is having a baby picture photo contest
This is your chance to show off your photography and cute baby.  Better hurry though.  The entry deadline is September 8th.

  

Lens life 826 part two

Posted on 5:00 AM by jr cline | 0 comments

My life through a cellular lens
  
It's that time of year again around here.
Hot and dry
The farmers are out
  
making hay while the sun shines.
   
We've been clearing out my parent's old house 
for almost a year now.  
A difficult and tedious process at best.
  
The place is almost empty except for one room.
My siblings appear to be using it for storage.  
I don't really know, they don't share their plans with me.
 
I spent too much time sitting around there by myself this week.
I didn't do much work.
  
I was just sitting, letting go of memories, and grieving.
Saying goodbye and tying up loose ends in my heart I suppose.
  
My dad had an extensive library.
He loved books.  
There was a line in his budget for books each month. 
I know that is where my love of reading originates. 
   
The room that housed his library is now lined with empty shelves
and his books
    
sit in boxes on the carport waiting and waiting to be picked up.
  
People often say things and then don't follow through.
I'm used to that happening.
A minister should be a bit more dependable or
maybe it is just me.
Brings to mind Matthew chapter 12, especially verse 33.
I guess it is old fashioned to think a person's word is their bond.
   
I hope you all have a rockin' weekend!
    

A picture a day, August 26

Posted on 8:51 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

If I had a boat
  
  
 

This is the 26th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
         
      

Lens life 826 part one

Posted on 5:01 AM by jr cline | 0 comments

     

When I came in Tuesday,
I was struck by the love represented by these two pairs of sandals.
My heart saw a symbolic relationship between
Christy and Jeremy's shoes and their lives together.
 ____________________________________________
 
As most of you are aware,
my life isn't complete without at least one trip to the grocery store each week.
  
Moving the camera while shooting usually yields a poor picture.
But every once in a great while 
it produces something interesting for me.
  
This young family had the same idea I did
and appeared to be a lot more intent on getting into the store than I was.
 
The place didn't look crowded when I entered.
It sure was a different story when I was waiting in line to checkout.
rofl
 
One night I was attempting to take pictures through a monocular.
After a lot of shots (which I tossed) I got one I sort of liked.
This plan either needs more practice or
to be tossed on the bad plan pile.
(I'm leaning towards the tossing plan)
 
Sunday, I went to Desoto Caverns Family Fun Park.
The place was virtually empty it was so early.
I guess everyone was in church.
To hear preachers tell it though,
everyone was definitely not in church.
 
Earlier in the summer Christy and Jeremy did a little gem stone panning in the trough.

The pool looks totally different when the water is still like this.

It was so hot and humid I only took pictures there for about 30 minutes
and then fled back to the house.
 
  Like all babies, Jesse is growing larger by the minute (it seems).
I think he wants a bigger spoon to eat with. hahahaha
  
Have a wonderful day!
 
 

A picture a day, August 25

Posted on 8:05 PM by jr cline | 2 comments

A few years ago, 
this was a thriving little convenience store run by some middle eastern men.    

Someone has kicked in one of the front windows and appears to have ripped out all the copper and possibly other metals from the coolers.
  
The way the story goes, it never opened again after September 11, 2001.
   
This is the 24th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
      
      

A picture a day, August 24

Posted on 7:02 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

 

At work today I walked past this plastic glass
holding 1/2" of clear liquid, 
sitting on a wooden table.
When I came back by, I took this photo looking down into the glass.
Post processing:  reduced exposure slightly and sharpen a little

This is the 23rd day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
    
      

A picture a day, August 23

Posted on 5:59 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

  

The ice man cometh 
  
  
This is the 23rd day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
      

Which way is out?

Posted on 5:28 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

    
It is comfortable to do things the same, think the same, and to solve problems using the same paradigms to which we've become accustomed.  Living out of habit (not a bad thing is some situations) is quite natural for all us.  But doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is, as Albert Einstein is thought to have said,. the definition of insanity.
 
Sometimes we need to think laterally, or vertically, or just different in some other way.
  
Occasionally, life will throw something at us that forces us to change our habitual way of being. Other times we have to work at it ourselves. 
   
Sharing a home with other people has changed my habitual patterns dramatically. Very few of my former ways of doing things exist anymore (I don't miss them) and I never know what I am going to find laying about, who will be in the house, or what the atmosphere will be like when I walk in the door. 
 
I'm using a bathroom as an example*.
  
The shower I use is populated with baby items. 

 
One morning recently, as I was preparing to shower,
I was greeted by a baby bath tub
still filled with baby bath water. 

The sink in the same bathroom has a sponge, baby toothpaste, and a dental hygiene tool 
(you don't want to know what it was used for).  
Each appeared on the sink at different times

Over the weekend, these appeared between the sink and the toilet.
I'm sure some of you have similar experiences related to sharing a home with others.

There are many ways I could react to these minor changes in my routines.  I could become a little upset, pissed off, or mildly annoyed.  I could adopt a stoic attitude.  I could find it amusing. I'm sure you can think of other reactions because each of us is different.
  
The whole thing reminds me of Baba Hari Dass's chalkboard story about the shoe.  A small child hides your shoe and you become upset at the child.  The real reason you are upset is your attachment to the shoe.  Not something we are predisposed to realize.  And \it is harder to see in some situations than others (like the death of a loved one).   But it is the attachment that is the problem, not the missing shoe or the child (who we probably are more attached to than the shoe).
      
Most my adult life I've been saying attachment is the trap.  It is my expectations of the way things 'should' be, my desires, my wants, and my attachments that cause my pain.  The vast majority of the time, it isn't the situation.
   
Regarding all the bathroom examples, they don't annoy me, they entertain me.  They are great photo blog fodder and more importantly, they get me out of my 'box' a little more, expanding my world.   

And that is a great thing!

I'm not saying we shouldn't plan.
I'm not saying we shouldn't love or want to better our lives.
I'm not saying we shouldn't expect the best life has to offer.
    
I am saying, seeing life events as lessons and growth opportunities is a wonderful way to expand and think laterally instead of in habitual ways.  Often, the detours are the most interesting ways to get from one place to another. 

 
I think conservationist Lawrence Anthony was onto something when he said, "I have never understood the saying 'To think outside the box.' Why would anyone sit inside of a box and then think outside of it. Rather just get out of the box."  That makes a lot of sense to me.

So, which way is out?  How do you get outside your life patterns?  How do you expand your world?  Do you even what to?
    

*The things in the bathroom don't remain where they are.  They move to their real homes quickly.  The stuff just worked for the ideas in the blog and never annoyed me at all.

A picture a day, August 22

Posted on 6:31 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

  

 
I didn't take a lot of pictures, it was too hot and humid to stay long.
Since it was closed, I was able to go to a few places I wouldn't normally see,
like this area where employees smoked.  
  
This is the 22nd day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
    
              

A picture a day, August 21

Posted on 8:49 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

 

Ridiculously over processed and almost as tasty
Mocha Frappe
  
This is the 21st day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
              
   

Speedy Baby

Posted on 4:31 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

  
Speed Racing Baby from jr cline on Vimeo.

      

A picture a day, August 20

Posted on 8:55 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

 

Tonight I went to a new restaurant in town for take out.
 
I don't think it has been open long from the looks of things.
   
It wasn't crowded,
 
but the people who were there raved about how good the food tastes.
This man said he ate there every other day.
   
Besides this large group, there was one other couple there.
The place was about half full and several people came in to pick up take out orders.
 
I picked up our chili cheese fries and headed back to the house.
Christy and I split this order.  
They were pretty good and I will go back and try the hot wings another day.
  
This is the 20th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
              

 

Vintage New York City

Posted on 10:50 AM by jr cline | 0 comments

  
 This isn't my work, but I thought it was quite interesting.


Hauschka - Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.
  

A picture a day, August 19

Posted on 10:06 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

  Another year of school has cranked up.
  
This is the 19th day of Shift.org's 31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 challenge. 
                                   
              

Lens Life 819

Posted on 4:00 PM by jr cline | 0 comments

  

Last week, my towel and I traversed the space time continuum from the
 
stone age
 
to the space age.

A few stops along the way
  
 After a brief exploration of rural agriculture
  
  we zipped on over to the Comet arcade
 
We attended the 24th annual fall Intergalactic council meeting
  
  in the grand palace of Graham
   
  The discussions primarily addressed two issues:
1. continual preparedness in case of invasion by
   
by those of nefarious intent.
    
2. Objectivcation and standardization of the 
  idea implementation process
As abhorrent as I found the second topic, I didn't panic.
 
OK, so this is all BS.  But it sure was more fun than the descriptions of what all this really is. 
Regardless of what 'really' is, aren't things what they are perceived to be?
Do any of us perceive the same world?
   
Perceive a good one!
You get to pick.