Tag Archives: Judy Dykstra-Brown Photos

Flight of Fortune

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DSCF1303Flight of Fortune

Aisle seat in the third row–
a next door neighbor I do not know.
I put my seat belt on and then
look up to her all-knowing grin.
“May I tell your fortune?” is her request,
though it is not made at my behest.

A pastime really not my choosing,
still, with nothing more amusing
to pass the time, I give consent
and this is how our time is spent
in those first minutes of our flight,
until the ground is out of sight.

My fortune told, I sit and think,
ordering another drink,
pleased by some of her predictions
but finding others contradictions
to how I’ve planned my life to be.
I worry my fingers upon my knee.

Does she concoct or does she see
the lines that she relates to me?
Some things she mentions have happened, still,
I hope that others never will.
Yet I fear if I reject
the things she says, I might deflect
the good things so they’ll never be.
This is the choice that faces me.

Can the good that she foretold––
of feats accomplished and love and gold––
be accepted without the rest?
I want the warmly-feathered nest,
the stranger tall and dark and rich,
but I do not want all of her pitch.
The illness, sadness, loss of friends?
I don’t like how my fortune ends.

I press a coin into her hand,
take off my seat belt and quickly stand.
Perhaps if I just change my seat
and find a seatmate more discreet,
I’ll change my life as easily–
and react less queasily
to conversation that is not rife
with details of my future life!

 

Life Line:You’re on a long flight, and a palm reader sitting next to you insists she reads your palm. You hesitate, but agree. What does she tell you? https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/life-line/

Fresh Crop: Flower of the Day Dec. 10, 2015

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Fresh Crop

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Most of these photos are severe recroppings of photos I’ve posted before. I love going back and playing with images, trying to improve on past sins!!!

More flowers? Look here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/10/flower-of-the-day-december-10-2015-daffodil/

Time’s Fool

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Time’s Fool

I’ve labored now for many years trying to make time stop,
thinking if it just would pause, that I could cross its top
and go into the future or go into the past––
passing back and forwards over timelines that are vast.

For years I used up all my time thinking about this.
I never had a child or even a first kiss.
I thought if I made time my slave, then I’d have time to do
all those wished for “one day” things I’d added to the queue:

dating, travel, games of chance, gardening and cooking––
all the things that others do while I have just been looking
for the perfect formula to take me back in time.
(Or traveling to the future would be equally sublime.)

But, for my whole life, you see,  I’ve been no place but here,
fiddling with gadgets and sitting on my rear.
In trying to trick time I fear that I’ve tricked only me,
for life itself is time travel, and the cost is free!

I do not mind the cash I’ve spent.  I don’t regret the cost.
The only thing that I regret is all the time I’ve lost!

Pick Your Gadget: time machines, anywhere doors, and invisibility helmets. You can only have one. Which of these do you choose, and why? https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pick-your-gadget/

Metal/Wood

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                                                              Metal/Wood
This prompt reminds me of the old game paper/scissors/stone.  Scissors cut paper, paper covers stone, stone breaks Scissors.

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I inadvertently left the above  picture out of my Thanksgiving post, and now I’m glad I did.  I love the movement and texture in the potatoes, and the spoon–with the stainless bowl and stem and the wooden handle––is my favorite.  It belongs to a set Bob brought into our marriage.  Most of the pieces have been broken or lost, but these big serving spoons come in handy every time company comes!

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IMG_8118This large wooden heart shown in the Maestros del Arte Feria is covered in metal milagros.

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This life-sized hand also covered in milagros came home with me!

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The wooden barn is to protect the buffalo in a park in Sheridan, Wyoming from harsh Wyoming winters. The metal mesh fence is to protect park visitors from the buffalo!

Version 2IMG_6742IMG_6577The wood married to metal of the scaffold is echoed in the wooden handle and iron head of the hammer.

 

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/08/cees-fun-foto-challenge-metal-and-wood/

Worth its Salt

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Since opposites attract, I’m linking my Salt posting to this Sugary prompt as well!

Worth its Salt

One of the first sights we saw when we drove into Cuyutlan for our writers’ retreat was a sign that said, “Salt Museum.”  I determined then and there that I had to see it before we left, and we did so on the way out of town three days later. Here are some pictures I took.

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The bones are of a whale that washed ashore some years ago.  The lovely edifice is, of course, the exotic museum itself. The little creatures are carved from coconuts by locals.  I resisted purchasing one.

Other pictures are of various steps in the salt collection process.  The building is probably one of the weathered wooden storage sheds that warehoused the salt waiting to be shipped via rail. Cuyutlan was one of the major salt suppliers for the Guanajuato silver mines and I have read that the area is still a major producer of sea salt.

HERE is a link to Maria Holm’s photos and stories of the Mariager Salt Center, that prompted me to make this posting.

Here’s the Sugar prompt as well.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pour-some-sugar-on-me/

At the Crossroads

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IMG_0310At the Crossroads

I am drawn
toward a horizon
not as flat as the others.
Palm trees stir
in the ocean’s breath.
A yellow dog
churns down this road,
but I do not follow.

That other road?
Spires of a city
pulse with light
and an imagined music
blows in on the wings of notes
that swim through heat currents in the air.
Not that road, at least not yet,
the music tells me.

What the third road leads to is invisible
behind a denser curtain of air
blistering with possibility.
Like fingers motioning me forward,
flapping like drapes in the sky––
beckoning.
Come here. Here. Here.

Spinning to look behind me,
then in a circle to see where I am,
“Is this place enough?” I wonder.
It is a place known and comfortable.
It has the right chair and a fridge well stocked with food––
familiar objects of my choosing.
Can “here” be a course chosen?
Can we draw new roads through where we are?
Everything is present everywhere, I once said,
and a trusted friend agreed;
but truths of the past are not always complete truths.

We add on to truth like sand castles,
building new towers,
crumbling others in our haste
to make bigger, better.
Truth changes like the sea.
In its entirety, it is the truth;
in each part, part of the truth.
It is a creative endeavor,
this life of each of us––
choosing the parts of truth
to call our own.

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sorry-im-busy/

 

Art Fusion: Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge, Week 49

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Art Fusion

The funky Gecko Gallery in Ajijic, Mexico, has a perfect solution to an overloaded electrical circuit and it only cost ten pesos (two five pesos coins) to solve the problem!  I hated to ask to photograph the art, but I had no compunction about photographing their fuse box! Art is everywhere.  I enjoyed my friend Mario’s two shows opening on the same night in Ajijic, and enjoyed other spontaneous photography “finds” as well.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/06/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-49/

To the Point!!!! Flower of the Day 12/2/15

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To the Point!!!
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IMG_8522 (3) They are not yet flowers, but they are going to be––and aren’t they intriguing?  The ants just seem to be rolling in whatever delicious elixir this cactus is secreting!

For flowers the opposite of these and beautiful as well, see: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/02/flower-of-the-day-december-2-2015-dahlia/

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Diagonal Lines

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                                                                       Diagonal Lines

Okay, I’m going to invite you over for a playdate. After everyone left on Thanksgiving evening, as I was cleaning up/clearing up, I got to looking on the diagonal, thanks to Cee.  I snapped a few pictures of what was available and then later started nudging and seeing what happened.  Want to come along to see what I discovered?

IMG_8774I quickly found out that almost everything is more interesting and artistic if there is a diagonal slant to it.  Intuitively, I think this is usually how I set up my shots.

IMG_8775 (1)In shots where there wasn’t a distinctive enough diagonal element, I started just spinning the picture a bit, but I quickly spotted a problem.
Version 2Version 3As I did this, any vertical elements started to look as though they were about to topple over!  Version 4A solution was to just crop to get rid of that vertical element.

I then decided to try to set up some vertical shots.  I lined up the liquor bottles I’d brought in from the bar set up on the terrace, but you can see how poorly that turned out in this shot:IMG_8795Yech!  Just too terrible.  Too contrived.  Makes my teeth itch!!!!IMG_8800And this one is even worse!!!  Cancel this image in your mind!!!!

Version 2The original was better.  The table edge accounted for the diagonal and there were some natural if somewhat haphazard other diagonal lines, but about that ugly pile of used napkins, not to mention the fuzzy ghostlike area over the desk to the back right.  I think it was caused by smoke from the candle.

IMG_8755Sharpening and brightening and boosting the color still didn’t help that unsightly item to the front of the picture, so––
IMG_8754I cropped a bit more.  Better, but still no cigar.

Version 2Then I started to get silly, using my very limited cloning tool to cover up the lump of napkins and give the illusion of a bigger  crowd or at the very least a thirstier one.  An interesting effect, but waaay too much going on in the picture!
Version 2 So, once again, cropping to the rescue.
Version 2This wonderful sculptural vase made by my friend Julie Mackie seems to be getting a good deal of pleasure out of all my nudging and clicking.  Julie was my sidekick when I set up shows at the art center in CA, so I can imagine her getting a kick out of my late night adventures in placement.  IMG_8769I think we need another angle on Julie’s wonderful piece as well.  But, as you can see, nudgin’ ain’t gettin’ the dishes done!!! Better angle on the picture though, don’t you think?IMG_8775And look at how nice and straight that bottle is.  And a diagonal to boot!  IMG_8762And–more Julie guy, slightly out of focus. He looks a bit drunk, or sleepy, as I am.  I also need a swim before I sleep so I guess the photo shoot is over!  If you didn’t learn anything, I hope at least you were amused.  If not amused, then what are you still doing here?  I’m off to the night pool–crickets and frogs call.  Happy Diagonal!!!

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/11/25/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-8-diagonal-lines/

Midnight Magnolia: Flower of the Day 11-27-15

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Midnight Magnolia

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http://ceenphotography.com/2015/11/27/flower-of-the-day-november-20-2015-how-does-your-garden-grow/