Penning Photography Daily

A quick self-portrait of the two of us with smiles on our faces.

Not bad for having spent much of the past two days in a car together. I think it’s being on vacation and being at the beach. Two of our favorite things to share together.

That’s my bride next to me, my Karen Sue. She’s put up with my shenanigans and quirks for going on 32 years now. A fair piece of time. When we go away to get away, we often come to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. The beach is beautiful, the ocean breezes are refreshing and the land is a lush, soothing green.

The folks here have very strict land use rules, keeping the commercial growth in check and the natural habitat as close as possible to what nature intended. It makes it hard to find a certain store if you’re not from around here, but that’s one of the things we like. The trees are dominant here, not the signs or buildings.

We’re soaking up each other, and recharging our senses.

I highly recommend it to you.

Previously taken form a photo stroll through the University of Illinois Springfield campus.

Time to Spring forward here and move the clock ahead an hour as the time changes with the lenthening daylight. Another sign of Spring approaching.

Karen & I are on the road, taking a week away together to refresh "us" and eachother. We both were busy with work up to the end of yesterday. My bride & I enjoy these honeymoon times away with just ourselves and adventure as companions. I recommend it to you.

So I’m posting this after a 13 hour drive, with another 5 in front of us tomorrow. Then, the beach will be ours, with the promise of more undiscovered delights.

Til then, rest well.

Matthew D. Penning
Matt@mattpenning.com

Photography: mattpenning.com

- Sent from my Palm Pre

I passed this one up, over a year ago when I first took it.

That was a different me, a less able set of eyes.

I was looking through my catalogs of photographs, seeking today’s photo. When I saw this, I was amazed at the simple beauty of this farm landscape at sunset. I then searched to see if I had posted it, and was really surprised that I had not.

It’s from a short trip that Karen & I took to Pike county, to see if we could find an eagle’s nest which I’d been tipped to by a friend. We found the nest, and grabbed some photos of the magnificent bald eagles there, and were heading home. On the way, the sunset was spectacular. I stopped several times to pull over and capture some frames of that wonderful play of light on the clouds and landscape.

This one was taken with my Panasonic LX3. It’s a mighty fine optical instrument. I prize it as much as my DSLRs, and it’s pocketable!

Best viewed large.

I consider myself very fortunate to have this in my collection. Such a display of clouds and sky, with the pond reflecting the colors of sunset, and the trees and land as a fitting frame.

Change happens in time.

I’ve changed so much since I took this over a year ago. Something changed, that I see this in a new way, and value it more than I did.

I love revisiting my catalog of photographs. There’s something new to see each time I dip into the archives, and much of that newness is a reflection of who I am now compared to who I was then. Think of the freshness that I’ll bring two years hence!

Here’s to you, and to me. Our journey continues.

I kept seeing the sky full of dancing clouds today.

More than once, I wanted to grab my camera and rush outside to grab another spectacle in the sky. I kept bottling it up inside until I walked out after work. I was rewarded for my patience with clouds all around my head.

I grabbed my Panasonic LX3, and selected this setting for my one and only grab. I had a bunch of errands to do before heading to choir practice tonight, so I wanted to get a good one.

There’s something inside me that I’ve been training, with every snap of the shutter. The more I practice and reflect on what I’ve taken, the better I get at these quick compositions, especially if I don’t think about it much but go with what my inner instinct tells my hands to do. I really didn’t think about my composition. I kept walking as I opened and set my camera up, looked up and did a quick framing and single snap of the shutter. I kept walking, after a quick review on the back of the screen, hoping for the best.

This one reminded me of a large wave, calling out to the surfers on the shore to come ride the wild crest of nature.

This ant is doing it’s part to keep the growth cycle going, both it’s own and that of the flower it’s digging on.

I just happened to see it roaming and rooting through the flower’s golden stamen, looking for it’s own sustenance and picking up pollen to carry on to another flower. The constant work, unceasing effort is what fascinates me about ants. Another of Nature’s marvels.

Me, I have to rest in order to renew and start fresh.

For example, I seem to be in a lull for taking daily photographs. It happens from time to time. I get a bit overworked, or under nourished (in the inner creative spirit way), and need to just rest a bit, or concentrate on something else. This pause never lasts long. There’s a constant stream of interest flooding my eyes everyday. Something will speak to me and I’ll have to pay attention to it, grab my camera and try to capture a bit of what struck me.

In the mean time, I’ve got tens of thousands of photos in my archives, like this one from two years ago, that are just waiting for me to take the time to revisit and rediscover the special something that reached out and grabbed my attention.

Lucky me.

Once more for the orchid group.

What gets me about this one is when you look at it up close, how incredibly hairy it is. See here: farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/4420866739_231c062784_o.jpg

Another of Nature’s interesting aspects. There’s enough interest in the world around me to last several lifetimes. Imagine the wonders that are in the vast universe of stars and planets. I’d never be bored.

Being an observer of life is plenty enough to fill my cup to overflowing. When I hear someone, or worse, feel myself being bored, that’s when I realize there’s too much inward looking going on and not enough appreciation of life that’s beyond me.

Going for a walk, in any weather, is enough to fill notebooks with what bits of beauty, nuances of nature, wonders of the wide world that lay within reach of my feet.

Even the tiny hairs on this orchid are fascinating. I’d overlooked them before, when I first reviewed this photo two years ago. Lucky me, I’ve got new eyes to see them and appreciate their particular peculiarity.

There’s a reason that the sun, the sky & clouds all touch something deep inside.

With these elements of our universe dancing in perfect harmony, we are able to live. Without them, we would cease live. .

At a base level, the sun, the sky & clouds sustain our life. The air we have to breath, the warmth to keep us from freezing, light to enable our food to grow, and clouds to bring water, which is what each of us is mostly made of.

So when I see this tableau of the sun and moisture-laden clouds against the blue sky backdrop, I’m moved in wonder and make to grab it with my camera.

The dark band of clouds looks like a river of moisture. At once both compelling to look at and allows me to see the clear outline of the sun, which, in a clear sky, I would be unable to glance at, nor see it’s perfect roundness.

A simple scene, but one which reminds me of my good fortune and clear dependence.