Meri's Play Place

The 52 Photos Project theme this week is Uncommon shapes. . . .  this assignment intrigued me  "Born Again into Color" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian Piqued my curiosity. Made me excavate my photo files to see what fit. Should I choose this? Or this? So many possibilities I can't decide. Please forgive me. . . . I'm feeling a little gluttonous. . .  it's a Miss Piggy kind of day. (For a more weighty, philosophical post from me today, check Meri's Musings .) Since so many of you are intrigued by the teapot, here's some info from Conde Nast .  The close up of Chihuly glass is from a huge installation in Tacoma, Washington outside the Museum of Glass . If you're an art glass lover, check out the museum's website and the live feed when artists-in-residence are working in the hot shop.

This week's theme for 52 Photos Project is water drops. Plenty of those falling  out of the sky  right now.  They beat a soft snare drum sound  all night on the skylight in my bathroom. Somehow, those water drops  seem most suited for soaking into the garden than capturing with my camera. I'll bless them, of course, but leave them to do their job. Which is to create shots like this one. "Ballerinas" ©2011 Meri Arnett-Kremian I got up early one morning  when the sun had broken through the clouds, remnants of the previous night's showers, and went out camera in hand to meditate through the view finder. Looking up looking down there was magic all around me.

The theme this week in 52 Photos Project is "crop." As in taking a photo straight out of the camera (or, in this case, with the saturation  bumped a little to approximate what I remember of the absolute saturation of color, the variety of blue to aquamarine, the hazy blue of the distant sky, Surfer © 2013 Meri Arnett-Kremian and  cropping it to enhance the composition by focusing in on a particular part of the original. Surfer © 2013 Meri Arnett-Kremian Here, my goal was to focus in on the surfer, showing a world in which the ocean, its magnificent power,  and the thrill of riding a wave successfully are the only things on his mind. In the moment. Present.

52 Photos Project  This is an "iconic shot" I took  from the restaurant in  Musee d'Orsay with Montmartre and Sacre Coeur on the horizon. I know.  You've seen this view  hundreds of times. Everyone who's stood in that spot with camera in hand has seen the potential. But it's the memory that counts.  I treasure images from this memorable jaunt in Paris. This particular trip, I was with my best friend and my mother-in-law for over three weeks, one of them spent soaking up Paris from our home base in the Left Bank's 6th Arrondissement.  My m-i-l, Jean, was a gifted artist who'd come to her passion late in life, after working for virtually all her working life for the Illinois Central Railroad. She loved the impressionists and had seen work at museums in the U.S. but never dreamed she'd go to Europe. Her son, my husband, wanted to make that  unimagined dream happen, so he desig...

Bella loves bokeh, so here is my 52 Photos Project post. Cathedral at Guanajuato © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian What I want to know is why Cross near Guanajuato © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian the circles of light seem more dramatic and bold Luxor Temple Bokeh © 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian when the photo subject has a religious or spiritual meaning. . . 

I'm late coming to play to this 52 Photos Project . I saw the prompt and knew just what I wanted to use then life got in the way. So here I am, playing catch-up. My focus is on Ireland, not far from Sligo.  There's a stone circle in a field a few yards down and across the road.

See other quiet places at 52 Photos Project .

The 52 Photos Project prompt this week is "In the Garden." They've bloomed and dropped their petals by now (the ones that weren't gathered for bouquets) but my favorite frou-frou girlie flowers are my peonies. Some of them have formed seed pods, so I'm hoping to grow some new ones from seed. Wish me luck!

52 Photos Project

Summer treat? The one that springs to mind is the marvelous photo workshop I went to last summer in Venice. It pushed me technically in ways I never imagined. Filled my heart (and stomach). And let me find that my love affair with Venice isn't dependent on being there with the someone  I loved  truly, madly, deeply on my first magical Venice visit. My love for Venice is soul deep. 52 Photos Project . 

52 Photos Project prompted us to post a photo that we hesitated to take. . . that we had to push through the brain chatter to capture. So here's mine. I was on the shady side of the street in Guanajuato. The wind was plucking at the curtains on this sunny balcony, making the lace dance. And in the shadows, I saw an elderly lady sitting on a chair  between the curtains, watching life pass her by  on the street below. I hesitated -- it seemed like a private moment. What was she thinking? Was she waiting for someone to come and share her silence? For someone to bring her a cool drink on a warm day? But I pushed through the questions and the feeling of intrusion and snapped. Was it only coincidence that  she disappeared from view  a moment later? 

The blue hour. Those moments when the streets and passages are silent and empty except perhaps for those who focus on the world through a lens. When the world is sleepy and still newly made. . . full of promise. Just one step beyond the land of dreams. 52 Photos Project .

52 Photos Project One word that describes me.   No, not "distorted."  

The view out the window in my little workspace is one of the things I love best about my home. A vine maple has grown to second-story height. This is how it and its cousin maples look on after a rainy spell on an early autumn morning. This morning, a dampish late spring day, I saw raindrops lined up along the thin branches like pearls strung into necklaces. Very often, I have a very special visitor who flits and hovers and darts up and down. He's ever-so-charming and a hyper-drive of activity. But sometimes he'll kindly perch and even pose because he knows it thrills me so. And if I'm looking out at just the right time, I'll see the eagle on his way to the pond for a little fishing. 52 Photos Project

The 52 Photo Project theme this week is HEART . I can do that. Oh yes I can. How 'bout you? Do you look for signs of love? Do you think hearts rock? Do you think every heart is charming? Do you believe that every heart is sacred?  My blessing for you today and always is that you may receive and give love abundantly.