Moments Captured #2 - Places

"Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have someone click the shutter." (Ansel Adams)

Yesterday I shared some of my favorite photos that I had taken over the years of people.  I had such a good time rummaging through my files and selecting those 6 pics, that I decided to do the same again today.  This time I chose my 6 favorite pics of places or landscapes.  I have more of these kinds of photographs - probably because I lived alone for so along.  I traveled alone, and was usually shy about asking other people to even take pictures of me.  Glad that's not so much the case anymore!

So, here they are.  Six favorite photos; not only for the places, but also for what I captured in the photo.

My Six Favorite Photos - Places/Landscapes

Simpson Cove - February 2006

• Simpson Cove at Shore Acres State Park on the Oregon coast is one of our favorite places to go.  I took this picture on a windy, gray weekend visit there with Deborah.  I love this picture for all the textures seen in it:  the rocks have all been exquisitely carved by the waves over the years.  And I love the power of the crashing waves.  You can practically hear the white waves sizzling as they rush around the rocks!

Shore Acres Gardens - April 2009

• Keeping with the Oregon coast, Shore Acres theme (Can you tell I like going here?).  The gardens here are spectacular in the spring!  I especially love the rows and rows of tulips, and on this visit there for my birthday, I finally captured a shot I'd been trying to get for years!  An army of tulips trooping towards the caretaker's house - the whole scene framed in the bright greens of the fir trees and hedges.  Definitely another reason why I keep coming back to these gardens, hoping to catch another glimpse of heaven, like this.

• A favorite photo from one of my overseas trips.  This is a picture of St. Etienne's cathedral in Bourges, France.  Took this in July 2004.  I was walking through the city and saw this magnificent building.  I was struck by the "flying buttresses" - the curved outer "wings" that give the building its unique look and structure.  It took over a century to build this (c. 1194-1324), and the cathedral was added to the UNESCO list of "World Heritage Sites" in 1992.  I was amazed that I was able to fit the whole thing into my tiny lens, and that the colors and lighting turned out so well.  Just minutes later, the clouds rolled in and it started to sprinkle!

• Another photo from an adventure overseas.  This is a photo I took at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland on my 2nd trip there in 2000.  It's a perfect example of what you can discover if you just change your perspective.  Here's the picture that most people take when they come to the Cliffs (See below.  I didn't take this photo - the weather wasn't so good when I came to the Cliffs the first time)

• The Cliffs are majestic - 700 feet high, stretching for 5 miles out into the Irish sea.  Over a million people visit them each year.  But the 2nd time I visited them I decided to walk around and look back at the reverse side of them.  And took the picture above this one.  I love it!  You can see the seldom photographed O'Brien's Tower in the distance and I'm always amazed to see the people!  Look at the 4 or 5 daredevils standing or sitting on the very edge of the cliff!  Crazy!

• This is one of my all time favorite photographs (I've posted it a couple of times on my blog).  I took it in 2006 when on my 1st trip to Southern California to meet Deby's parents before we got married.  Deby and I loved stopping at the California missions to see and feel the history there.  We were at the San Buenaventura mission in Ventura, just north of her parents' home.  While waiting for Deby, I just stopped and looked up for some reason and snapped this picture.  It looks like something that Claude Monet painted! (In fact, I call it "Mission Monet")  The lacy pastel greens of the tree leaves and the bright red flowers in the middle make this a piece of Impressionistic art that rivals anything I've ever seen.  Don't know how I captured this - but it's always moved me.

• This final picture is one I took outside our home in May 2007.  I just call it "Quiet Home".  I could just as easily simply call it "Love".  It's just a picture of a part of our front yard.  The white picket fence with the heart on it in the middle always first attract my eyes.  But then the pinks of the roses and the bright red of the plum tree frame the picture so beautifully.  The picture always speaks to me of the comfort and warmth of home, and most of all, of the love that is present there.  It always reminds me of the blessings I enjoy and the wonderful life I share with Deborah here.  The plum tree is now gone, but we always look forward to seeing (and smelling!) the little pink roses that are the first to pop out in May.

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still" (Dorothea Lange)

I've enjoyed looking back at all of these little slices of life, captured through the tiny lens of my simple camera.  I hope I'll continue to have an eye, and heart open, to the beauty all around me

I think I used to take pictures to try to "capture" a part of life.  But I've learned that beauty isn't here to be captured.  It's here to be shared.  To be touched, and to be touched by.

I'm looking forward to doing more of both!