weekly photo challenge: geometry

  I love details. When we visited Asheville, NC some time ago and we walked by the old S&W Building on Patton Ave, I was taken with the beautiful art deco style of the facade…and I wanted to remember the blues and the shapes of it, so I took this shot. I don’t believe the building was occupied at the time we were there.  I hope it is now, though; it’s so beautiful, and deserves to be the home of some amazing restaurant or a funky cool shop or pub. I’ll definitely check and see the next time I find myself in Asheville…

loffredos, o’bryans and leubners <3

my brother and me

today is my brother’s birthday…my plan was to try to find some hilarious picture from our childhood to post on his facebook page as a “happy birthday” message (shhhh…don’t tell…it’s early yet and I still may get to that 🙂 )…but then i came across this…it’s the most recent picture of the two of us, taken when he visited orlando with his family at the holidays this past december…i hadn’t seen him in awhile…he’s a busy man with a big beautiful family and a demanding new job that has him relocating to a new state, so he’s in the midst of a huge transition…he’s used to a certain amount of chaos, and he handles it well…even on vacation, i don’t think i saw him skip a beat…he works hard and plays hard, too…my brother is a happy guy, and fun seems to follow him wherever he goes…at the end of our time together on this day, we posed for the obligatory family pictures…usually i weasel out of being in the pictures because i am taking them…but my husband snapped this picture of my brother and me…i’m glad he did, because i don’t have many pictures of the two of us and this one is nice…it was good to be able to see him after so long, and hopefully i’ll be able to visit him in his new home one of these days…love you, brother…happy birthday xo xo xo

asheville nc

Artist painting Second Falls at Graveyard Falls, #2–Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina

we fell in love with western north carolina this past summer, when the boy spent a week at a summer camp there…while he was exploring the mountains and discovering nature at camp, tom and i were exploring the mountains and discovering nature on our own (with a few detours into the amazing city of asheville, nc…i could go on and on and on…) one of the most awesome things that we stumbled upon while driving the blue ridge parkway was a place called graveyard falls…an easy hike from the parkway, when we got to the falls, there were people wading in the falls, and a couple of artists were perched on the rocks painting the scene…the boy really wants to go back to camp this year…he doesn’t have to do too much persuading, because we’d really love to go back to the mountains, too…so beautiful…

random awesome things

reflections in the shades

my sister gave my son a pair of sunglasses when she was visiting us in florida last month…they are a little big for him, but he thinks they’re extremely cool, and wears them all the time…of course, with the mirrored lenses he’s sporting, and with my fascination for reflections in my photography, he’s discovered that there is a far greater chance that I will be trying to take his picture these days…to try to capture what he sees through the reflection of his supercool shades…

waterlilies @ mckee

blue dragonfly on a lily stem

i always thought a dragonfly was just a dragonfly…until i started photographing them, and realized that there are many kinds of dragonflies…on the day i saw this blue fellow at mckee botanical gardens in vero beach, i also saw a red dragonfly (who eluded me…no pictures of a red one that day ;( ) and a black one…now i know they probably have ‘proper names’ that i should use when referring to them, but the book that i have for that purpose is just out of reach…and my boy is looking for his dinner and i’m rushing this post, so for now, this is just the blue one…

fauna

swimming, swimming…turtle @ gleason park, indian harbour beach,fl

i have a hard time envisioning my nature images in black and white…maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that i live in sunny florida, where most of the time everything i see is so vivid and bright…but there’s something about this sweet turtle swimming in the lake at gleason park…i like seeing him here in b&w…what do you think?

florida sandhill cranes

i have a ton of work to do, catching up with all of the images i took in the midst of holiday preparations…i sort of uploaded them to lightroom and left them there until i had time to deal with them properly…this will be my focus in the next several weeks…in amongst these images are a bunch of my sandhill crane friends, who pass through my backyard on an almost daily basis…sometimes they do a little dance for me, as this one did…sometimes i’m lucky enough to have the camera handy, and all i need to do is open the back slider to catch the show…

disney

it’s hard to give an autograph with a gun in your hand 🙂 stormtrooper autograph session during star wars weekend @ disney’s hollywood studios

the holiday break is almost over, and the kids go back to school on monday…my boy is currently in the midst of a full-on ‘star wars’ kick, and we have been watching marathons of the whole series for the past two-and-a-half weeks…acting it out with star wars legos, too…the boy is even working on his own little ‘movie’, his own creation that has to do with discovering jedi secrets…so as episode III is playing in the background (which i keep referring to as the “6th one” despite having been corrected on this fact numerous times 🙂 ) i couldn’t help but post this image of a stormtrooper signing autographs for young fans at last year’s star wars weekend…

random awesome things

the most amazing burger–@ the burger place, downtown melbourne, fl

this is my boy’s idea of what meals in heaven must be like…at the burger place in downtown melbourne, everything is hand-made and cooked to order…the buns are freshly-baked and oh-so-light and fluffy, with a beautiful shiny egg wash and the lightest sprinkling of sesame seeds…the fries are fresh-cut and skinny, perfectly salted…the burgers are hand-formed and cooked just right, with your choice of cheese and ‘extras’…served up in a cute little place with ’50’s decor and music playing…they only do one order at a time, but it’s absolutely worth the wait…we save this for ‘special occasions’, and this burger was had on my husband’s birthday after a run across the causeway…deliciousness!

loffredos, o’bryans and leubners <3

blue eyes, blue cotton candy

i had a chat on the phone with my little man max today…i guess he’s liking the crocheted beanie hat i made him for christmas (his momma says he’s been wearing it a lot the past few days…) i told him that if he liked it so much, i’d crochet him another, and asked him what color he’d like me to make it…he answered, “i dunno, you tell me what color”…so to be silly, i said, “how about purple? i’ll make you a purple one”…he giggled and said, “sure, i like purple, make it purple” (it’s nice when a little one thinks you’re funny…) when his momma got back on the phone with me, she said, “why don’t you make it blue, to match his eyes”…and you know, i think that’s an excellent idea…blue it shall be…cotton candy blue ❤