Penning Photography Daily

I grabbed this one on the way in to choir practice tonight.

A shrub with new growth. Leaves budding into Spring life.

When I first glanced at it, I only saw the sticks of bare Winter. The bits of green glinted at me and I got real close to see the buds.

These are really very small. The branch is about 1/4th of an inch wide. Yeah, real small.

I put my Panasonic LX3 into manual Macro mode and dialed down the focus. Carefully positioning the lens nearly on top of the buds, I fired off several frames, hoping to get something in focus. I was moving, the branch was moving. Not good combinations for macro photos. I think I did ok.

I like the small spider web strands you can see on the left. I didn’t see them until I started working to bring out the best in this one.

Some things are not seen until later. It’s a luxury to be able to stop and look back to see fully, what passed quickly. Life is that way too. Take time to reflect and see the beauty of the moment which pass so very quickly. Savor the richness around you.

Waimea Canyon on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

I’ve got other photos, using a nice telephoto lens, where the helecopters taking tourists through the canyon look like very tiny insects.

This place takes your breath away with it’s beauty.

One of the amazing wonders of nature.

I’m happy that Karen & I had the opportunity to see this during our 30th wedding anniversary trip.

The wonder of it all is captured in our photos.

Nice to be able to pull them out at times when we could use a bit of calm and delight.

The Na Pali Coast mountains of Kauai, Hawaii.

From our 30th wedding anniversary trip last October.

I decided to dig into the archives and enjoy some of the jewels there. Hawaii is sure full of jewels.

To get an idea of how large this mountain range is, I was using a 50mm lens, which on my camera equals a 100mm lens setting on a 35mm camera. That’s telephoto. We’re about a mile away from the coast in the ocean.

These mountain tops really are up in the clouds.

If you take the 11-mile Kalalau Trail, you can get across these mountains. Walking is the only way to get around the island at this end. It takes two days to walk it. Nope, I didn’t do it. Many others have. I’ll live it vicariously.

When Karen Sue & I were married, some 30+ years ago, we had the rainbow as a theme to our wedding. We were making a covenant with each other. The rainbow is a reminder of the covenant between God & humanity from the Bible story of the Great Flood in the book of Genesis.

We’ve continued to see rainbows at significant moments of our life together.

One special time was during our 25th wedding anniversary. We saw rainbows all that day. It was a super thrill and a reminder that our love is much more than just us.

Today, my dear Karen Sue was laid off from her position at a local hospital. A victim of the extremely tough economic times the whole world is experiencing. We both are experiencing a teriffic emotional turmoil, as expected.

We both are very understanding of circumstances which caused the need for the hospital to reduce staff. There’s only good feelings about the mission of the hospital, and hope that they are able to come through this with a renewed strength.

There’s hope in Karen, amdist the turmoil and tears.

We gathered at our son Christopher’s home after work tonight. Hugs and talk gave us strength and encouragement.

Jennie, our dear daughter-in-law, called – she was working late – and to let us know about a beautiful sign in the sky.

A bright, beautiful rainbow was breaking through the rain clouds.

Once again, the sign of our love for each other was placed before us at a critical moment in our lives.

We have hope. Hope in each other’s love. Hope for the future.

One door closes, and another opens. Opportunity abounds around us. Just like we see things in nature, when we stop to take it in, the opportunities are there if we open our eyes to see them.

Thanks to all who send kind thoughts and prayers our way.

Take time to feel your own hope in your lives. Give each other strength and a hug.

We’re looking forward to the next chapter in our journey together. My Karen Sue and me.

A drake mallard duck enjoying a moment of solitude.

This was taken in a small tributary off the main lagoon at Washington Park in Springfield, Illinois.

The main body of water was full of various ducks and other birds. Mating season was in full force and there was lots of activity going on.

I can imagine this fellow went off in search of some respite from the action. Taking some time to rest up.

It’s always interesting, what is revealed through a macro photo. What isn’t seen normally, is revealed to be quite interesting.

This is a closeup of the webbing on top of my shoe.

What fascinates me are the bits of dirt in some of the threads, and the threads underneath the top web. What are those threads? Are they the top of my socks?

I took this with my Panasonic LX3, on extreme closeup macro. 1 centimeter away from the lens.

It was really just a goofy thought, to take a macro of my shoe. I had this in my to-do pile for a few days, just sitting in wait for me to discover.

I discovered the stuff under the cover.

My palm, held with a slight cupping of my hand, to accentuate the lines.

Some say that futures and fortunes can be read in the lines of a palm. Hence the palm-reader.

I just find the complexity of my body, just a fraction of that complexity is revealed in the lines on my hand.

Fingerprints, carried beyond the tips of my fingers, down to the patterns on my palm and beyond.

Complex, but when viewed from afar, blur into a common color and smooth surface.

Up close, the uniqueness of me revealed.