Week 4 - Leading Lines

This is been a busy week.  Every night of Week 4 I have had a commitment to do something after work, a class, a play, a board or committee meeting.  It is bad enough that during this time of year I leave home to go to work just after dawn and I rarely do I make it home before dark.  So my shooting opportunities are limited with natural light.  Usually I'm too tired to shoot after a 12 hour day.  Because of my fatigue at the end of a day, I have not tried my hand at night photography.  That is for the weeks to come.

This week's theme is 'Leading Lines'.  I like those.  As you can see, for me, leading lines tend toward patterns.  This week I used my iPhone to take this one.  The only places I was this week was work, meeting rooms and classrooms, which for me are all the same.  So, when I was able to run an errand on Saturday morning I saw these as I grabbed my cart.  The red caught my attention and I saw the lines.  I whipped out my iPhone and snapped the shot.  My camera was in my purse, but that would have taken time.  You know what it is like, take it off your shoulder, find the camera, take it out of the case, put the case back...  Because I snapped it when I did, I caught the happer shopper at the end of the leading lines.

My old iPhone 3G doesn't have the large mega pixel that the new one has.   My first photography teacher always said, "It's not the equipment.  The photography is always taken six inches behind the lens."  I have always remembered that.  The shot is in your mind.  The photographer has to bring it out through the tools he or she has.  Thanks Mr. Jones, who I believe is still teaching at SMC.

Week 46 of 52

I love the colors of fall.  In Southern California we don't get to see the changes of the seasons as clearly as other parts of the country.  Southern California is in a Mediterranean Biome, named so for it's similarity to the climate around the Mediterranean.  Our weather is fairly constant.  If it were not for temperature changes, rain and the calendar, you may not know a season has changed.

This shot was taken on one street, in the span of one block as you drive through a quite West Los Angeles neighborhood.  You turn the corner to see the full colors of fall.  If it weren't for the Pumpkin Patches with pumpkins, bales of hay, pony rides and petting zoos to mark the change, we might not know.  This is Hollywood after all, and we see the faux fall in every window dressing, mall and convence store, to remind California Transplants of home.  Us natives some times forget that these colors are naturally occurring.  Seeing the fall colors appear a few miles from the beach is wonderful and over the top.

Over the Top, is the theme for Week 46 of the MCP 52 Project.  Because this is such a rare sighting I just take it all in.  I surveyed the range of colors and shades provided by the leaves, grass, and trees.  I felt the cold crisp air on my skin and smelled of moisture that hung in the air.  In my mind, I heard the lyrics from the Van Morrison song, Moon Dance, "the leaves on the trees are falling to the sound of the breezes that blow".  It makes this shot and the others I took of this Autumn Apparition a fantasy of colors and a reminder of places far from this little block.  The Structure, which is the theme I chose for this years 52 Project, is the structure of the seasons.  The cycle of "Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall", another lyric, from the song writing by Carole King and made popular by James Taylor, You Got a Friend, is what the seasons are about, even if the changes are subtile.  I hope you like my photos. And I hope you enjoy the Fall season as much as I do.