34. Patterns

I’ve been debating doing something quite silly for this theme. For those who don’t know, one of my hobbies is sewing. My absurd idea was to strew all my many dress patterns on the floor, snap a photo, and call another theme “done”. However, on Monday morning, while taking photos of flowers, I stood under a palm tree and gazed up, my eyes settling on the fronds and the patterns they created. Needless to say, “Patterns” was one of those themes that I unexpectedly stumbled upon. My challenge was choosing only a couple of shots (more was easier than less) and then deciding whether or not to present them in black and white or leave them in colour.

 

 

 

 

 

41. Single Colour On Black & White

For this theme, I chose to play with flowers and backgrounds. Although there are technically more colours in my photos than a single one on black and white, I had fun. In my humble opinion, the point of the theme challenge is to enjoy playing with a camera. Mission accomplished.

23. Lamp Posts

At this point in the theme challenge game, I’m rapidly running out of time and need to use what I have in my photo archives from the past 11 months whether I like it or not. On the relatively new bridge which spans the surging Caldera River in the small mountain town of Boquete, the lamp posts stand against a background of tree-covered mountains, dotted with houses. I suppose this could have fit “It’s A Mystery” theme, because those lamps were lit during daylight hours, but “Lamp Posts” works as well.

47. Summer Fun

While visiting Sarasota recently, a friend and I drove out to Venice Beach to play with our cameras. A teenage girl was fishing from the pier as we stopped along the way, photographing the waves, a few children playing on the shore, and several birds prancing along the railings. I tried to candidly photograph the girl as she cast her line into the water, but in the end, she knew she was my subject, finally turning to face me with a grin on her face. We both enjoyed some summer fun on what turned out to be an intermittently rainy afternoon.

 

 

11. Favorite Room

My current favorite room is our bedroom which is upstairs with a small balcony. The beautiful views we are happily subjected to is the reason for loving this room. From each window, whether lying in bed, drinking tea on the balcony or doing chores, we delight in the ever-changing views of Panama’s sleeping Volcan Baru and the mountains around us through the wet season and the dry, windy season. The clouds are usually pretty dramatic, dark stormy clouds, clouds that reflect the colors of spectacular sunsets, soft wispy clouds scattered by the wind, puffs of white building over the mountain tops…always different, always changing, always beautiful.

49. Two of Us

Encouraged by a friend, I walked through the Boquete Coffee and Flower Fair with my camera on my hip and took several, what I hoped were, surreptitiously candid shots. When I had the opportunity to look through what I had managed to capture, some of the photos were hilarious, embarrassing, cute, absurd, and blurred due to shooting from the hip. A few of the photos showed two people and these I decided would fit the theme “Two of Us”. I also copied and cropped one of the photos to better fit the theme. The images may not be very well focused, but I had fun anyway.