Over the past twenty years or so, our Christmas celebrations have shifted away from presents towards presence. This year our celebrations included preparing and enjoying several meals with extended family and friends, movie and board game nights with our young adult sons, and plenty of nature walks for the two of us! It was a Merry Christmas, indeed!
What's it like to spend a day photographing Banff with like-minded Olympus enthusiasts? Tons of fun and lots of learning! Thanks to The Camera Store and Olympus Canada for organizing/sponsoring the "Discover Banff" event with Olympus Visionary Peter Baumgarten.
We don't always realize how much the presence (or absence) of colour influences how we're feeling. But the range and depth of our response to colour is embedded in language: seeing red, feeling blue, mellow yellow and "orange ya glad" are some of the common English phrases that reflect the influence of colour on emotion. So when winter hangs around longer usual, leaving the landscape drab and a little depressing, it's a challenge to spot uplifting splashes of colour in nearby nature.
The Photo Blogging Challenge is itself a threefold exercise in self expression: 1) articulation of thoughts through writing/blogging; 2) portrayal of feelings and views through photographs; and 3) declaration of belonging, to the community of PBC participants. The beginning of the month was a good time to reflect on the ways I express myself, such as cooking, gardening and photography. As the month progressed, events like the January 21st Women's March and more widespread airport demonstrations in the US prompted me to think more broadly about the concept of self-expression. I am grateful that I have the right to hold opinions and share information and ideas through any media. I wish that for the world.
After a long day hiking the Fimmvörðuháls trail, we opted for a driving day focused on photography between Vik and Jökulsárlón. By the end of the day, we 'd photographed a DC-3 plane wreck, black sand beaches, rock formations, puffins, glacier lagoons, the icy beach and Laki lava flows.