Category Archives: Uncategorized

One-Four Challenge: March, 2015

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Here’s my first variation from the original. All I did was increase the saturation one hundred percent…

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This is my original shot.

The prompt was to take one photograph and to alter it in four ways, posting one per week for the four weeks in March.  Here is my first attempt.

I’ve often noted that the vivid colors of a beach sunset come out incredibly dulled. No doubt a “real” photographer would know why.  Perhaps it is because I am shooting into the sun.  I’ve tried focusing elsewhere, and only occasionally have good results.  The fourth version of this picture will be the closest to what this sunset really looked like.  The second photograph above is my first, unaltered shot.  My editing choices are not too broad, so my alterations will be limited to saturation, definition, sharpness, exposure, contrast, shadow and highlight control.  I believe I often over-sharpen and over-define, so I am trying to hold myself back in that regard.  So, immediately above (second picture) is  the girl without her makeup on!

For other examples in response to this four-way challenge, go HERE.

A Word A Week Photograph Challenge: Intricate

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https://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/a-word-a-week-photograph-challenge-intricate/#like-13410

One Word Photo Challenge: Teal

      Teal

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Rain

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Rain

Gives an excuse
for that bright orange umbrella
and yellow overshoes
toppled over in the hall closet,
yet it is nighttime and I am old.
I lie under blankets on the sofa,
content with its comforting
rat-a-tat
on the plastic skylight
overhead.

It is a friend knocking
insistently,
calling me out to play.

Six years old,
Imprisoned by summer,
we were given occasionally
the refreshing release
of a hard summer rain.
Bare feet splashing,
we raced dry leaf boats
manned by our imaginations
through the caves of culverts,
down to those ultimate puddles
magnificent in their magnitude.

Sixty years later,
I am caught up in the currents
of that sudden rush downwards
and backwards to
a plastic umbrella
abandoned on the sidewalk
as we opened like  flowers.

Rain
hides tears.
Forces growth.
Cleans up our messes
and provides glorious new ones.
Washes away today
and grows tomorrow.

Five Shadormas

The Prompt: For this week, write a shadorma (a non-rhyming six-line poem consisting of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllables.)  Instead of following the WordPress prompt, My Circle of 5 will be 5 Shadormas. Thanks, Sam, for the prompt.

Used

 This paper
very slightly used–
erasures
and a stab.
This morning’s poem now dead–
unsung, unmourned.


Chinese Takeout

That rice grain
and the plastic fork–
evidence
against me
of another food court sin.
Yes, I ate it all.


Misanthrope

Walk away
lest you find reason
to stay here,
fouling up
your determination to
have a fucked-up life.


Signing the Papers

You prompt me
to mind my timing.
Five o’clock
on the dot.
I come early anyway.
Her scent signs the air.


Salt Water Taffy

Sweet toffee
cannot hide the tang–
bitter salt
on my tongue–
of all the tears I swallowed,
waiting for your touch.

To see more shadormas, go HERE.

Saturation: Photo a Week

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https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/a-photo-a-week-challenge-saturation/

Clone Wars Redux

The Prompt:  If you could clone yourself, how would you split up your responsibilities between them?

Since I already wrote a poem that answers this prompt a year ago, I will simply furnish a link to it HERE. I am driving back to San Juan Cosala today and will have time for reflection, so I’ll hopefully do a different post when I get home.

By the way, last night’s talk by Gloria Steinem was incredible, as was the salsa party afterwards.  Yes, the rumors are true.  I did drink four margaritas and do a solo dance center ring on the dance floor, but I was pulled out to do so and solo dancers preceded and followed me, so I was one of a string of spectacles… I shall return to my formerly sedate life as I drive westward today… Or I shall alter my life and dance center ring more frequently in the future.  Wonderful conference.  I’d highly recommend it if you are prone to such things.

San Miguel Images

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Posada de las Monjas, the former convent converted into a hotel, where I always stay when I’m in San Miguel.

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Blankets and pillows spread on the grass for relaxation between sessions at the conference. Nice.

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Plaza Principal in the early evening

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Greatest Things

The Prompt: Most of us have heard the saying, ‘That’s the best thing since sliced bread.”  What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

Priorities

One thought swirls around my head.
What’s so great about sliced bread?
Its fame is just a piece of bunk.
I’d rather just tear off a chunk.
There are other things about
that are much harder to do without.
Toilet paper is number one.
Life gets quite grim when there is none.
Without ketchup, fries taste bland,
and lest we all get over-tanned,
best keep sunscreen close at hand.
A shot of rum is just a joke
unless submerged in Diet Coke!
So let’s get our priorities right.
Just grab a loaf and take a bite!!!!

Finally, a bit of time to post.  I’ve missed it.  Tomorrow I have nothing scheduled in the morning, so hopefully I’ll be able to post then as well.  Richard Blanco gave a wonderful reading yesterday..Gloria Steinem speaks Sunday.  So many good workshops and readings and speakers here at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference.  If you can, give it a try next year.

First Light

Write a post about the first thought you had this morning.

First Light

I’m in San Miguel de Allende for a writers’ conference.  For the past few weeks it has been rush rush with a number of deadlines and obligations, then a day to pack and attend to a number of duties before I left and then a six and a half hour drive, alone, using a route I was not too sure of.  Luckily, I only got lost once and enroute was able to listen to the entire book, Revolution from Within by Gloria Steinem, one of the conference presenters.

So, when I woke up this morning, my first thought was to glance at the alarm clock, set for 7 a.m.  The room was still dark, thanks to the opaque shades, but the 6:44 glowed out in brilliant red large numbers from my bedside.  No chance to write to the prompt today and not even any time to post at all.  I turned off the alarm, showered, discovered I’d forgotten to pack my toothbrush, climbed the two flights of stairs to the cold dining room and ordered oatmeal and papaya, then drove across town to the conference site.

Since then it has been rush rush rush all day, carrying a too-heavy computer (I’ll leave it home tomorrow) and a big box of books for the book tent that I couldn’t find time to take in…Finally, I’m rid of them and any obligation for the next half hour or so, so I’m lying on a blanket on the grass behind the hotel, actually writing electronically for the first time today.  Too far away from the first thoughts of the day to remember what they were.  Too tired to try to fabricate them.

Alice Walker will be speaking in half an hour.  A few hours ago, Tracy Chevalier, the author of “The Girl With the Pearl Earring,” gave a wonderful talk on historical fiction. Hard to go away from these conferences with any faith in your own writing at all after hearing the words of such iconic writers.  So I turn back to the comfort of my blog, and you who read me, feeling snug in this safe world.  Thanks for being a part of it.

Pictures to follow later….

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/first-light/