Stained Glass

Make A Difference

Do you remember the story about the guy on the beach,

reaching down to throw a starifsh into the ocean now and then?

A stranger passing by asked him what he was doing.

Many starfish had washed up on the beach and there was

no way this one man, tossing some of them back in,

could possibly save them all. The stranger told the man that because

there were so many to save, what he was doing didn't really make a difference.

"Made a difference to that one," the man said as he tossed one into the ocean.

I thought about this story today as I encountered a homeless person.

I recently had taken some pictures under the I-235 bridge in Des Moines

and commented on how we don't notice the homeless.

Today I noticed.

I made a small difference to one starfish.

I can't make a difference to all of them.

No one can save anyone else, a lesson

I learned from a wise friend.

I didn't save  him.

My effect one one man was small in the grand scheme of things.

I could do more.

We all could do more.

We could all do more to make a difference in someone's life.

It could be helping the lady next door with raking her leaves.

It could be offering to watch the children next door

so their mom can have a break.

It could be giving a sandwich to a homeless person.

It's reaching out and helping those around us and

letting others know we care.

Who amongst us doesn't need that?

 I asked D, as I'll call him, if I could take his picture.

I asked if I could post his photo on my blog.

His answer surprised me. He said yes, but said he had

to leave his sunglasses on.  He said he wears his sunglasses

because he need them to hide his eyes, to hide his shame.

I didn't ask him to remove them.

I assured him that no one reads my blog besides me

so no one else would see it anyway.

Despite that, I didn't feel it was fair to him to display his

photo on here as if he were the poster child for the homeless.

That would be taking advantage of him.

I certainly didn't want to do that.

Out of respect for D, I've used Photoshop to help

conceal his identity and I won't use his name.

It just seems like the right thing to do.

I hope I was able to make a small difference

to one of God's children.

Amazing Grace

I love photographing churches.

What I'm posting here isn't the shot

I was even going for.

 I took a lot of pictures of the stained glass.

They're absolutely beautiful.

This photo I'd taken from behind this church,

getting in the cross on the steeple.

The sun was bright and it's not a wise move to

look through your camera at the sun.

So I held the camera up and quickly took

a few shots without looking through the camera.

I was stunned, tonight, as I was going through

my photos as two things struck me about this picture.

First, the beam of light hitting the church surprised me.

In this black and white it comes across as a dark beam

coming down, where it was really (in color)

a turquoise color of light hitting the church.

I know the sun can add streaks of light and color into photos,

but I liked the way this light in this photo was

shining on the church.

Secondly, seeing the cloud in the photo surprised me.

There were some clouds in the sky today,

but they were all much higher than

the ones in this photo.

Divine intervention?

You be the judge.

I don't know why this photo turned

out as it did. I just thought it was interesting.

No Whining

 This photo of the grapevines was very striking to me.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaa

Taking my time coming home today and came

across a barnyard full of sheep. One of them was not

happy to have me standing in the road taking pictures and

he let me know it. The others just watched me or went

about their business. I thought they were cute.

Love this guy who was watching me.

I really like these old red barns and the windmill. They're disappearing in Iowa.

The sheep in the front was the ring-leader, telling me to get lost

and leave their babies alone. Granted, I was behind the fence, on the other

side of the ditch, on the gravel road, but it was too close for him.



Isn't he adorable?

In the Country

Traveling some back roads a few days okay,

just taking my time and looking for interesting photos

to shoot. The sun was in and out, behind the clouds,

constantly changing. One second I'd have a perfect shot

with the sun reflecting off something, the next second the sun

was gone. So I drove on, stopping occasionally to try for a good

photo. The three I'm posting where amongst my favorites.

As I looked at them, I decided to play a bit in Photoshop.

I could spend forever playing with photos in Photoshop.

Often I end up leaving the photo alone in the end or just

slighty tweaking the photo. I decided to play with an artistic effect

on these three photos. It's the same effect on all of them--a dry brush

type of painting, yet it's interesting how it changes each photo

in different ways.

I love how the Photoshop painted effect brings out the subtle changes in the sky.

This photo looks so much like a painting it amazed  me. I loved how the sun was

hitting the hilltop and brightening up that area. If only I could paint like this....



I've always liked reflection pictures so I liked this as well

as the texture on the water, which was increased

by the Photoshop effect I used.

My Little Lexi

I never would have dreamed

I'd ever become a

"cat person."

Cats were okay, kittens were cute,

but leave me alone and we'll both be fine.

As a family we're now on cats numbers 3 and 4

in 16 years.

Over this time I've changed.

I am now a cat person

and I'm in love with these

 two little sweet things.

I never thought I'd allow

a cat to jump up on my bed,

walk across my pillow,

or sleep next to my head.

Lexi has the sweetest little baby face

and is irresistible.

She's also a thief

(having stolen earrings, bookmarks, toys,

and who knows what else

that we've not yet discovered).

She's gotten into my purse

and taken everything out, throwing

it all over the floor

(seriously!).

She is like Boomer's annoying little sister,

never leaving him alone,

constantly chasing his tail,

following him everywhere,

always wanting to sit where he's been sitting.

 Boomer plays with her and puts up with it to a point;

then he finally tackles her and says,

"Enough!"

He makes a good big brother,

though, as he then puts up with more.

They're friends.

She licks his head and back to clean it for him.

(Ughhh! Imagine the furballs!)

I'm in love with my kittycats.

They're part of our family.

They keep us entertained.

They greet us at the door when we come home.

They greet us in the bathroom during the night.

They greet us whent he refrigerator door opens.

Okay, so they're stalking us.

But we still love them.

And they love us.

I could post a picture of these two every single day.

I try to find other subjects,

but some days they're so darn

cute I just can't help myself.

Today was one of those days.

Lexi watched the rain today (when she wasn't being ornery).

My Pink Sunrise

I know (or hope) we're getting

close to the end of winter,

yet I still have so many

winter pictures I really like.

So before it gets too warm

I thought I'd better share some

winter photos

or I'll have too many

spring photos

 to choose from.

It's tough choosing which pictures

 to share some days.

My favorite pictures

aren't always the best photos.

And sharing my photos is a lot like having others

 reading this see a little piece of who I am,

just a little touch of what's in

 my heart and soul.

That's sometimes a

risky thing to do

when you don't know who's

going to be looking.

Who are you and what do you see?

This photo was taken on a winter morning

when the trees had some frost,

and the orange glow of the sun

was making the trees all pinkish-orange.

It looks a little bit like smoke

behind the trees, but it's not.

Just the glow of the sun

on the frost.

Snowfall

We received a little bit of snow this afternoon. Not enough

to worry about. Not enough to make the streets slick.

Just enough to notice on a Sunday afternoon.



Lights on 235

When I was taking my photography class we were

 experimenting with taking action pictures.

 I convinced my husband to come with me to take pictures

one evening over I-235. I lay down on a pedestrian bridge

 to position my camera on the ledge under the fence.

 I set the shutter to be open for 20 seconds.

Then I just let the camera do it's job and this is the result.