Miscellaneous MONDAY

Mondays are tough enough just having to rise and shine and head off into the confines of four walls in order to do a job of making sure every one else's needs are met so to be able to find some creativity in your form of art whether it be cooking, writing, photographing, entertaining the family, art of any kind can sometimes be very difficult...especially if you live in some of the more colder regions of the world which can keep you even more confined during the 'your time' of the days and nights.  Finding the energy just to come up with what you want to create can almost be an endless attempt.

It was snowing beautifully today...the biggest snow levels we have had yet this winter.  Still kind of light - not a good snowman snow and not quite the kind that just sticks to everything but it came down so heavy that it just sprinkled the world with magic.  I so wanted to come home and grab my camera and go for a walk and capture something magical but instead I arrived with six inches of snow that I  needed to shovel in order to insure I would be able to get out to go to work in the morning. An hour and half later...I was exhausted and hungry and brain drained and wet and cold with yet a pup that needed a bit more attention....and the sun was setting...clothes waited to be folded with another load that needed to be washed and hung.

Needless to say...the world apparently had other plans for me today.  So instead, I decided that Mondays will need to be miscellaneous days when I just dig through my archives as I go back through my backups...starting all over again in cleaning things out and creating multiple backups...and share a photo that I captured on another day or time.

Although it has been a tough, long, cold winter...with not many photo outings...I find that sometimes all you have to do is look within your neighborhood to find something that touches your senses and makes you smile and be happy that you are where you are...or glad that you have neighbors yards that can greet you during any season with awesomeness.

And again...my neighbors back porch makes me envious and longing for a home with a porch that I can decorate in fun ways for every season and holiday...a true number one requirement for the new home I now shop for.

So..remember sometimes all you have to do is meander a short distance to find some inspiration.

Do you have a neighbor or local spot that inspires you?

Finding My Eye

So often when reading photography blogs, taking on line courses, trying to find inspiration and creativity with this creative passion of photographing, people want to know 'What is your style'.  It is a question I ask myself quite often.  Trying to pinpoint one thing...or multiple  is not easily answered. I am now off on a project to 'Find My Eye'.  What inspires me.  Finding a 'theme, a rhyme or reason behind what I photograph...how I create.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it isn't just one thing that inspires me...unless I can gather it all up and categorize it all as...nature.  Even when 'the hand of man' enters the scene..it really is the simplicity of the natural surroundings that blow me away...tugging at my heart and soul.  I just want to jump up and down and scream at the top of my lungs to get every one's attention  and shout...'Stop!'  Look at the simple beauty that surrounds you...each and every day...in the simplest manner possible.

I wish this bench were in my yard, surrounded by what really is surrounding it (okay, maybe with a bit more warmth included) because it beckons me...to sit...and enjoy...the peaceful solitude of it all.  Taking away with the sound of the waves, all the stress and commotion that life throws at me.

I just want to sit and take a deep breathe in, let it out slowly....and smile!

This is the original picture of the bench overlooking the cold tundra of Lake Michigan in upper Wisconsin.  If it were warmer...it would have taken Superman to remove me from that spot!!