I’ve never tried to take pictures of flowers at night before!!! I took a flashlight and popped out the flash as well. Kind of nippy out there in my nightgown, but it was so much fun!!!! I always thought hibiscus closed up at night, but here is proof they don’t! Tomorrow, I’ll show the color shots, but for some reason I preferred the black and whites. Ghostlier, I guess.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/19/flower-of-the-day-october-19-2015-rhododendron/
EXTRAORDINARY THINGS!!!!!
I made the beads and the bracelet and this extraordinary woman offered to model it!
I ran into these jaws on the beach and not in the water. Extraordinarily lucky!!!
Have you ever seen a sunset that wasn’t extraordinary? So many combinations of beautiful!
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/extraordinary/
Plumeria (Mixed Messages)
How to honor the last three frangipani (plumeria) blooms on a tree doomed to the axe? This tree has grown to block the view, and for 14 years I’ve suffered from its scent that others find intoxicating. Finally, weeks ago, I told Pasiano it must go. He hasn’t been swift in following requests. I haven’t been swift in asking why.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/16/flower-of-the-day-october-16-2015-day-lily-in-black-and-white/
I Love how the characters in the murals below seem to be reacting to the dancers in front of them. Such fun!
This studious-looking dancer seems aware of the disapproval of the Huichol woman behind her. 
Dancer and mural observer seem equally petulant. 
I asked Isidro to translate “In Mexico There is Always Music”–the name of a piece I had written–into Spanish. Instead, he wrote a brief poem on that subject in Spanish which I then translated into English! So this is a see-saw bit of poetry that I then had him paint on my wall.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/13/cees-fun-foto-challenge-graffiti-murals/
Mexican Autumn
No, i haven’t augmented the color of the sky. It was this fantastic tonight.
You know it is autumn in Mexico when it is time to make sugar skulls to decorate for Dia de los Muertos! We made 101 today for the kids in the village to decorate. I’ll post pictures later.
http://jennifernicholewells.com/2015/10/13/one-word-photo-challenge-autumn/
Pagans in a Modern Age
A few years ago, three friends and I went on a scouting party to find new artists for the Maestros del Arte Feria. Somewhere near Puebla, we took a back road and chanced upon this strange sight. We never did figure out what to make of it.
It was in farm country–no rare commodity in Mexico, where rural is the norm. This farm looked modern in most respects.
But as we zeroed in on the details, it felt as though we were going back in time to some pagan rite.
Was it a joke? Some local custom? A random coincidence of someone finding the doll’s head and sticking it on the stick in the middle of the crop rows? We’ll never know, but as you can see, I couldn’t resist pulling over to take a few shots. Not the weirdest thing that happened on our trip, but certainly the weirdest sight.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/11/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-41/
Zeroing In
The Prompt: Show us a couple examples of your work where you have a strong, easily identifiable subject.
I like lots of detail in pictures of rooms and people because those details tell a story.We can tell by the nacimientos on the buffet that it is Christmas time. That little two-necked clay cup on the table will create an entirely different story soon after this picture was taken. You can see that story HERE.
But I think this is a better picture composition-wise. There are still a number of details, but they are more unified as they are all grouped together on the table.
I like this portrait of my friend a lot.
Yet when I crop the portrait down to the eyes, they seem to tell a complete story of their own.
I took many pictures of my friend Audrey the day this photo was taken, but this was by far my favorite. It shows her good nature, reveals her camera and in my estimation, is more intriguing due to the limb she is behind.
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Okay, now on to the second challenge. For the Gold Star Award, Find examples of your work that illustrate these three emotions: something that is beautiful or inspiring, something that makes you laugh, and another that makes you feel sad or melancholy.
Here is another portrait that I love because they are both so happy. It is inspiring to me that they are obviously good friends who know how to enjoy themselves. I cropped this picture to make it more intimate and I think the cropping turned out right.
These two shots of the same subject make me feel melancholy. Which do you prefer? In this case, I like the one with more detail because it is within those details that the story resides.
I took this picture at carnival (mardi gras) Iin Ajjic. It is a raucous, flour-throwing, rowdy time. And of course, these fellows made me laugh.
Cee’s Oddball Challenge
The first picture is the actual color of the wigs, but for some reason I prefer the second version, where I unsaturated the colors.
For more oddball color see: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/04/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-40/
Hibiscus: Faded Glory
Part of maintaining an interest in life is finding beauty in all of its stages–not just the budding and full bloom, but also in its slow relaxation towards the finish.
The interior of this lush hibiscus, long past its prime, reminds me of a messy bed with it’s bent and tumbled stamens and pollen spilled out over rumpled and twisted sheets. I can imagine the almost drunken pleasure of bees and other pollinators as they burrowed into the flower, creating this disorder!
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/05/flower-of-the-day-october-5-2015-small-daisy/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 