Photo Challenges. Before this week, I didn’t know they existed. Since then, it’s become almost a full time job…one that doesn’t pay a cent…but I love it anyway!
I mean, if I have any photographs of photographers taking photographs it would be in my photographs of photographing London (phew)
So…on a mission, I went through my London photogr…oh nevermind. I went through my pictures and found exactly 2…TWO with people popping pictures
Okay. Well, then I thought, hell…I know that everyone everywhere on every High Street corner over there, is being photoged by someone somewhere, so I looked for the eyes in the sky rather than the lens on the land and what do you think I found?
Yup…Big Brother!
So…for this challenge, I challenge you to find the spying eyes on the Highs (streets, that is) in these chock full o’ stuff pictures
Once I found one, I couldn’t stop!! I couldn’t have kept going (there are 1200 of them, yikes) until the evereadies died, but I controlled myself
Anyway…besides giving me a whole new way to look at my Zoom with a View, I got some good practice taking them from color to black and white. I don’t have any special photo editing software, so I just play around with what’s available on my computer. Still, it’s a practice I shall endeavor to get better at, but in the meantime, please enjoy my entry and thanks for lookin’ (you will of course need to click on each photo to get full size…it may help)
Can ya see it? This one ‘blends’In the financial district…naturallyThis is the top of the Southwark Cathedral…where SHAKESPEARE is buried! Think they are spying to see if he’s writing again? Can ya see it?Absolutely need to spy on people’s comings and goings into and outta the pub. Right?The epitome of Eye in the Sky. See it? Talk about a Crow’s Nest!Captured from the top of the bus (man, what fun those buses are!)…cameras are like birds on a wire!This one isn’t shy…front and center and proud it! I figured I’d give ya an easy one
In and around Canterbury Cathedral, man made his mark: In and around rivers and oceans, man made his mark: In and around our everyday lives, man made his mark (and a good thing too!):
I’m having fun following my newest and most wonderful blogging friend – MLou’s Photography Blog – and for a bit of Tuesday fun, I’ve seen that she enjoys posting in what is called “Tuesdays of Texture” as hosted by Narami at De Monte Y Mar
I wanted to join in on this one as it gives us a chance to look at photos from a different perspective…how they feel vs how they look. I dig it!
Here are some of mine, but I tell ya, it was hard to choose becasue there are…
So Many Textures – So Little Time!
please, feel free to click on the gallery for full size images 🙂
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Boundaries.”
We must teach them to children…for their own goodWe must take care with those that we allow to cross ours…Respect them in others…for their sake as well as ours (there is a glass boundary here you can bet your life!)Some come and go with the tide…Some are foreverWhether man made…Or by design…We need them…If only to cross them
“Hey Guido” “Yeah Tony?” “Com ‘ere” “Oh, sure ting Tone”“Listen up…you see dat boid over there on da roof yeah? So, you sit right here and watch me good. Dis gonna be good” “Oh yeah sure ting Tone. I sees ‘im and I’ll watch good. Hey Tone? Watcha gonna do Tone?” “Never youz mind. Jes watch like I says. Got it?”“Hey Tone. Tone…over here Tone. I see ya on da roof. I’m watching. Jes like you said!”[JeZus, don’t he ever shadup?”][Da Boid thinks…WTF?]“Guido! Shhhhhhhh, jes watch I said. Ima gonna scare da shit outta dis boid.”‘Uh, hey. Ugly-face. You know I can hear you right? You DO know I’m still alive right? I thought all you goombas only ate dead meat. I ain’t dead. Ya freakin’ meatball.”[What a dummy. Thick necked, thick headed GOOMBA. Hahaha. Thinks he can scare me?]“Dat Tone, he’s such a funny guy!”{Tone..whistlin} {Da Boid thinking…WTF?}“Watzamatta Boid? Ya nervous?”“Whatever Man…I ain’t scared of you, I just ain’t into your goomba games.”“NO…I ain’t scared. That’s just the wind rufflin’ my feathers ya putz. But I got other stuff to do…I’m outta here. Go pick a scab or something ya thug!”“Hehe…not scared he says. Hey, Guido! D’ya see da boid no more?“Hey Guido. What I tell ya? I told ya I waz gonna scare the shit outta dat boid! See it?”“Bwaaahaaa. Ya sure did Tone, ya sure did! Bwaahaaa, scared the crap right outta dat boid!”‘See ya’z later Guido. Ima go see if ol’ scarity boid tastes as good as he lies!!! Maybe I’ll save ya some. Bwaahaaa!”‘“Hey Tone. Hey Tone, wait. Ima come too. Wait for meeeeee!”
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Change.”
CHANGE
What easier way to showcase change than with the seasons. I’ve been known to take a thousand shots of a single mountain because each shot offers something different. Whether it’s the cloud formations that waft over the top, promising changes to come, or the way the sun strikes it on a sunny day vs. the rays that struggle through to kiss the peak on a cloudier one…One of my favorite changes is the coat of brilliant color that adorns it today when, just yesterday, that coat was green and brown…
And tomorrow, it’ll be gray as ash, soon to be white as snow…The once empty horizon now filled with the winds of change in the form of wind powered turbines. All in the name of progress and, for some, the sacrifice of beauty…a change some do not like.
But…there’s more to change than the obvious. Some is predictable, some inevitable, some wanted, some not.
But it’s always coming. We all know this to be true.
Below, a slideshow with photos and thoughts on what I think about change.
I’m not afraid of it.
Much.
But like it or not…it’s coming.
So I’ll celebrate it here.
So much time is spent negatively talking about, writing about, thinking about, debating about, and snarking about, our country in the last several years, that many folks forget what it feels like to be proud of who we are, where we live, who we cry for, and what we die for. Perhaps forgotten too, that the generations before us fought and died, lived and dreamed, for the same things we are fighting, dying, living, and dreaming for today. And the generations after us will do the same.
I, for one, am taking a moment to remember that we do have a brighter side.
For this one moment, as bittersweet tears softly track the history of my life in the wrinkles on my face, I’ll remember how they got there. This facial road map of my life’s joys and sorrows distinguish me from anyone else, just as our country’s road map is like no other. And as I look at her wrinkles, I’ll remember how they got there too.
I love my country, wrinkles and all, and invite anyone needing a reminder of what that feels like, to read about and listen to others who felt the same.
The history of a special song, written for a special place, sung by a special woman, needed by a hurting people…
Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing “God Bless America” on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.
Here are the facts… At the bottom of this post, you’ll see the link to the video showing the very first public singing of “GOD BLESS AMERICA“. But before you watch it, you should also know the story behind the first public showing of the song.
The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.
Kate was also large; plus size, as we now say, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.
Kate was also patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring . She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote “White Christmas”) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country. When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her.
He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before – way back in 1917. He gave it to her and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America. Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.
This video starts out with the news, then Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, “You’re In The Army Now.” At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; it’s Ronald Reagan, the future 40th president of the United States, and at 69, the oldest president ever elected.
To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry… and for many generations of Americans to follow.
Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you’ll enjoy it and treasure it even more. Many people don’t know there’s a lead in to the song since it usually starts with “God Bless America …” So here’s the entire song as originally sung… ENJOY!
Today, I exercise my right to remove the flag from underneath the flag-stomper du jour and wave it proudly in the air.
Headed to one of my favorite places so Mom can spend time with the ‘girls’…friends of a certain age who haven’t ‘laughed like they used to’ for more than 20 years…think they’ll have fun?
Yeah…me too.
Hopefully I’ll come back with stories to tell and photos to share…along with a sunburn.
Outer Banks…the Mother Duck’rs are coming…you ready?
I bought a bird feeder…I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed.
What a beauty of a bird feeder it was I thought…as I filled it lovingly with seed.
Within a week, there were hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table ……everywhere!
Then some of the birds turned mean.
They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket.
And others birds were boisterous and loud.
They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it and refill it, then refill it some more.
After a while, sadly, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore.
So I took down the bird feeder and in three days, the birds were gone.
I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be …quiet, serene…and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.
The analogy?
Well, let’s see…our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Programs apparently so important to some running our government, that they hide them or piggy-back them on the shoulders of other programs that are paramount to our country’s health and well-being, so that we, the voters, don’t know about them and don’t have a say in their passing.
Illegals (notice I said “ILLEGALS”) came by the tens of thousands.
Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child’s second grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English.
Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to ‘press one ‘ to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than “ours” are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
As I said…just my opinion…but maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder.
If you agree, speak up. Help make it less necessary for the government to step in by stepping in yourself. Donate to your local food banks, volunteer in your communities, donate your time or money helping the homeless, vote to reform immigration, or write your congressmen to stop ignoring the illegal immigration problem by making it less attractive to be illegal.
If not, just continue cleaning up the poop!
A personal note:
I am a huge proponent of immigration.
Just as, I am as huge an opponent of illegal immigration being ignored or treated as though it’s a legitimate path to citizenship based on the number of years you’ve been here (illegally)!
We, like every country in the world, have immigration laws.
We, UNLIKE every country in the world, have forgotten to enforce our immigration laws.
Instead, we make excuses and allowances for those who break the law, for as long as these choices promote one political ideology as humane and the other as intolerant, it will remain so.
I am Pro-America!
That fact alone seems to paint me as racist, bigoted, and anti-immigration.
I am none of those things.
I am Pro-Immigration!
If you want to come here to live in freedom, then do it LEGALLY and I’ll welcome you with open arms!
I am Pro-I don’t give two shits where you came from, but you’re in America now, so be a proud American!
Not African-American, Asian-American, Mexican-American, Russian-American, Somali-American…you are American of “African, Asian, Mexican, Russian, Somalian…” decent. Like all of us. EVERY ONE of us came from somewhere…what we now have in common is being American!
I am Pro-Keep your culture as long as you understand you are adding to America’s, not removing ours to make room for yours.
Add to our Land of the Free and Home of the Brave instead of trying to remake us into your Land of the Oppressed and Home of the Voiceless.
You came here.
I did not go there
You want to re-create your culture here at the expense of MINE by believing I must accept YOURS while you do not have to ACCEPT mine?
Why did you come here?
You want to live and breathe the country and culture you left behind, without embracing the one that took you in?
Why did you come here?
Many say Americans are arrogant and full of themselves.
Maybe we are, but how many Americans would you suppose, relocate or repatriate to other countries and make it their MISSION to change that culture to one that mirrors what they left behind?
The beauty of an immigrant rich society is what is added to our melting pot, not what is taken out.
!["I see ya Tone! Hey Tone, can ya hear me? I sees ya there on da roof Tone." [JeZus, don't he ever shadup?"]](https://50-shades-of-gray-hair.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/img_3856.jpg)
![[WTF?]](https://50-shades-of-gray-hair.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/img_3830.jpg)
One of my favorite changes is the coat of brilliant color that adorns it today when, just yesterday, that coat was green and brown…
The once empty horizon now filled with the winds of change in the form of wind powered turbines. All in the name of progress and, for some, the sacrifice of beauty…a change some do not like.
50 Shades of Gray Hair 
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