Blue Mood

My own mood is just fine but I decided to dig deep (really it's quite shallow) into the archives to find some photos of blue-coloured subjects. My last post had a bit of a gold hue to it and I've always thought that blue and gold worked together quite nicely - much like a sapphire ring. This may well be a new series of monochromatic posts as suggested by Meeko Fabulous in my last set of comments.

So please sit back, listen to some music (the blues, perhaps) and enjoy a bit of a blue mood. Please remember to click on each of the images to enlarge them.

On a cool spring evening Benny sits at the edge of the dock, welcoming you to the blue waters of the cottage lake. He's hoping you'll notice him, and that you'll come along and throw that speedy-worm-on-a-string out into the water so that he can bark at it.

It looks like Frank came along in his blue jeans and took the bait. And tossed it. Benny stands alongside watching as he casts.

While we're revisiting the cottage, take a look at this blue caterpillar which was in a bit of a standoff with the green dragonfly seen out of focus in the background.

Last summer, we wandered around a nearby town which had these bright blue bleachers (say that three times fast) by their baseball diamond.

This was taken at our annual street party in the summer of '07. Our theme was Mardi Gras and for our craft table, the kidlets were making their own masks using feathers, pompoms and glitter. This is Brittany with her colourful, blue creation.

Early one summer morning, neighbours might have been scratching their heads to see the woman with the camera lying down on the park path beneath the level of a low-growing wild blue chicory in order to catch the sun's rays from behind it.

Nobody would have been surprised to see me snap photo after photo of this beautiful Great Blue Heron on the day he came to fish off of the dam at the end of the pond.

Back to winter and back to reality. The snow often appears to be blue at dusk.

I hope you enjoyed your visit through my archives and that it didn't leave you feeling blue. I'll be back soon with a different colour.

Golden Opportunities

“Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such” ~Henry Miller

For me, photography is a small series of golden opportunities.

I miss many of them. I can tell you of many instances when a moment presents itself and immediately vanishes - long before I can find my camera, much less get the setting right and snap a shot. Sometimes it's a sight seen from the car, too close to the road to capture a shot as we speed by - long passed before the thought fully registers. Other times, a bird lights quickly and perfectly in front of me but is gone before my hand can reach to adjust the lens.

Those are lost golden opportunities which will always remain as my mental snapshots. Below are just few that I didn't miss. Please remember to click on each image to enlarge it.

"Early morning hath gold in its mouth." ~Benjamin Franklin

Proof that not all of our squirrels in Ontario are black.

"Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble." ~Yiddish Proverb

A winter Goldfinch a few months before its body is as golden-yellow as its throat.

"Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness." ~Nicholas Boileau

Those giant burrs which Benny had on his back a couple of posts earlier.

"Night’s darkness is the bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn. ~Rabindranath Tagore

A couple of geese basking in the last of the golden sunlight.

“I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden.” ~ Helen Keller

A light snow covering helps to light the park path at night.

"Stories are like fairy gold, the more you give away, the more you have." ~Anonymous Snowman

A whimsical winter decoration adorned my neighbour's table top on New Year's Eve.

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." ~ Martin Luther

A bit of snow and nearby streetlamps help light up this tree. That blur in the foreground is Benny.

“And all is not golden that glitters, And not all that glitters is gold” ~Aloysius Charles Swinburne

Headlights, taillights and streetlights as seen through the back seat window on a rainy Christmas night.

"Water is best, but gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth." ~Pindar

On our way to Christmas dinner. The rain-soaked streets provided some vibrant reflections of the street lights.