Photography

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Photography: Washington Part 1-Chinook and Astoria

Last week I took a much-anticipated trip to visit my mother, connect with a dear poetry friend, and show the city of Seattle to my daughter. It was a feast for the photographic eye. Please join me for a series of posts (6 total) exploring the Pacific Northwest and let me know if you have a favorite photo.

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: Worm Moon

As I carefully walk toward the rippling water my shoes sink in the soft mud. You tell me to listen to what the frogs are saying. I try, but I don’t know how to be still enough. A small patch of yellow flowers grows near the shore and I struggle to get closer to them. What are they saying? The Worm Moon bursts out from behind the clouds shining a spotlight across the water. Everything seems to be calling out. I swallow my words and listen harder.

“The gold tree is blue,
The singer has pulled his cloak over his head.
The moon is in the folds of the cloak.”
—Wallace Stevens

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For my third attempt at full moon photography, I visited Folsom Lake at sunset. It felt magical and different. My daughter drew a moth in the sand. Spring is here.

Let me know if you like these and if you have a favorite. These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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Photography: Spring

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

I’ve been sick for two weeks with a terrible virus. It started with a fever and ended with a horrible nonstop cough. I stayed in bed, minus a trip to the doctor, but barely got any rest. It was one miserable day after the next. It made me appreciate my health and fully understand the word surrender.

To celebrate returning to the land of the living (maybe a bit dramatic), I dusted off my camera and visited the local plant nursery this morning. The bees, the colors, and the sunshine all did wonders for my mood. I hope you enjoy these photos and please let me know if you have a favorite.

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: Snow Moon/Hunger Moon

You aren’t here with me in these blue woods. I’m alone. Hands hanging loosely at my sides, I track the full moon until it peeks through the dark silhouetted branches. The sky morphs from cold white to warm gold and back again. A breeze blows gently and my skirt dances around my knees. It feels like butterflies and Spring, but it’s still February. Still winter. Snow falls softly in the nearby mountains.

My mind forgets and remembers things as I walk, a circle of thought looping and playing. Soon a song cuts through and clears out everything else. “All this joy, all this sorrow.” Maybe I hummed it then, alone in the woods on the night of the Hunger Moon. The night I was missing you. Maybe you did too.

“We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We’re connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me.”—Haruki Murakami 

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This was my second attempt at photographing the full moon this year and it was nearly as frustrating. There were a lot of clouds and I found myself more interested in the trees than the moon. I wonder if I’ll tire of this project or stretch my photography skills further. Time will tell.

Let me know if you like these and if you have a favorite. As is usual, these photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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Photography: River Walk

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”—Heraclitus

Our bodies hold onto pain and memory. We can feel it take root within our bones and we can either address or ignore it. I’ve spent the last five years ignoring it, but recently I’ve taken up swimming daily. This practice is slowly returning me to my body. No longer a stranger, we are becoming one again. Pain and all.

I share this and these photos as part of the journey of rediscovery. Look closer. Look again. You might see something different.

I’d love to know if you have a favorite image. I secretly have my favorite. Can you guess?

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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poetry: radical

it can look selfish
this way I’m living
looking for love
through a camera lens
through the way my thighs move when I dance 
through the way my chest rises when I sing
but it’s survival
like the lone daffodil blooming in January
a waning moon at dawn
the first dandelion puff
the cluster of fuzzy buds on the bare peach tree
we are all looking

  • These photos were taken this morning in my yard with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: Wolf Moon

You’ve walked this trail a hundred times before. Usually, you have a hand to hold or a baby strapped to your chest. Tonight, you are alone. It’s not until you see milky clouds streaking across the sky you realize how weird the woods have become. A rabbit darts across the trail and the word “mad” comes to mind. We are all mad here.

Shifting your weight and shaking your head, you decide it’s the light causing everything to look wrong. Despite it being winter you feel warm and take off your jacket. A wolf howls nearby, but you aren’t scared. You listen as the sound echoes off the black skeletal trees. The branches reach toward the full moon. You feel yourself doing the same. You sway in place, moving with the wind. The moonlight feels good when it enters. Vast.

“As if you were on fire from within.
The moon lives in the lining of your skin.”
—Pablo Neruda

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When you fail to capture the full moon properly with your camera, you create something different. I hope you enjoyed these moody shots and let me know if you have a favorite. Although I promised myself no challenges this year, I’m going to photograph every full moon. Maybe I’ll get better.

These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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Photography: Hit the Road

“How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination.”
—Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

I’ve not been posting much. I’ve not been reading much. I’ve started rewriting my middle-grade novel, a fictional adventure story of Thor’s daughter. This means I will be less active here for a bit, but I’m not going away. I’m still around. I’m still moving.

These photos are from a brief trip I took yesterday to pick up my son in Chico. The sky showed me all the ways blue can be and how many clouds it can hold. I only found one spot to pull over as many of the sideroads were flooded from the recent storm, but I like these photos. They tell a story. Which one speaks to you?

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  • Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
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52 Photo Challenge: Week 52-Portfolio

“And did I pass?” The face of the old woman on my right was unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, “You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.”—Neil Gaiman

We’ve reached the end of the 52 photo challenge—one year of taking photos weekly and sharing them here. The final assignment was to create a portfolio of our favorite images from the year, which I’ve done below.

The year included more than 520 photos (more if you count photography posts outside the challenges), 2,907 comments, and 6,612 likes. Beyond the numbers, I’ve learned a lot more about what my camera can do and my editing skills are getting stronger.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along. Your likes and comments keep me going. Every artist desires an audience and you’ve been a loyal and loving one. Thank you.

So, what’s in store for 2024? That’s something I’ll write about later in the week, but for now, let’s take a look at my favorite images of 2023. Happy New Year!

  • Photos were taken with Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
  • If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com

52 Photo Challenge
Week 1: Bokeh
Week 2: Silhouette
Week 3: Black and White
Week 4: Motion Blur
Week 5: Texture
Week 6: Framing
Week 7: Leading Lines
Week 8: Negative Space
Week 9: Patterns
Week 10: Symmetry
Week 11: Green
Week 12: Sidelight
Week 13: Sense of Scale
Week 14: One Lens
Week 15: Series
Week 16: Flat Lay
Week 17: Behind the Scenes
Week 18: Water
Week 19: Blurry Foreground
Week 20: Unique Perspective
Week 21: Shadow
Week 22: Food
Week 23: Abstract
Week 24: Reflection
Week 25: Contrast Color
Week 26: Think in Threes
Week 27: Starburst
Week 28: Low Perspective
Week 29: Macro
Week 30: Backlight
Week 31: Big Sky
Week 32: Dominant Color
Week 33: Fill the Frame
Week 34: Spot Metering
Week 35: Handheld Long Exposure
Week 36: S Curve
Week 37: Shoot Through
Week 38: Faces
Week 39: Blossom
Week 40: Environmental Portrait
Week 41: Texture Overlay
Week 42: Details
Week 43: Season
Week 44: Fog & Steam
Week 45: Nighttime
Week 46: Analog
Week 47: Sunrise/Sunset
Week 48: Lens Flare
Week 49: Panorama
Week 50: Street
Week 51: A Thousand Years