weekly photo challenge

Converge

/ esteban / 3 Comments

The challenge this week at dailypost.wordpress.com is “converge” – exploring the ways lines and shapes can converge in interesting ways through photography. Continue reading →

Weekly Photo Challenge – Humanity in the Children of Guatemala

/ esteban / 2 Comments

 

My friend Maria, who blogs at Another Cup of Coffee, has been reminding of my tardiness in updating my blog.  Her recent post for the Weekly Photo Challenge over at dailypost.wordpress.com has spurred me to action with this week’s great topic:  Humanity Continue reading →

Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters

/ esteban / 8 Comments

SONY DSC

 

The challenge this week from dailypost.wordpress.com is to share a post with letters.  I knew what I wanted to capture, but it took a few days for the weather to cooperate.

For as long as I can remember, most likely my entire life, I’ve seen the Public Service Company power plant lit up at night, as you see above.  Perched alongside the Arkansas River  in the middle of the city, it’s hard to miss. Continue reading →

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold

/ esteban / 3 Comments

Stations-14

This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is “Threshold.”   The description they give is:

A threshold is a point of entering; that point just before a new beginning — that split-second moment in time, full of anticipation. All the hard work is over; relief is palpable.

I really didn’t know what to do with this challenge.  My current day-to-day routine doesn’t really lend itself to much photographic creativity, so I pondered it until Sunday evening when I attended Mass at my parish.  I sat in a different place than I usually do, so the procession to receive Holy Communion took me on a different path, past the Church’s hand carved Stations of the Cross, along the western wall of the Church.

It was a rare opportunity to see the Stations up close and to have a few seconds of contemplation with each.  The 14th station, depicted above, of Christ being laid in the Tomb really speaks to me.  It’s emotional and raw and in a way that I hope meets the definition of “threshold” given above.

An evangelical church that I pass each day on my drive to work currently has this on its marquee:

“What began with a tree ended with a tree.”

The phrase has bugged me all week because it is NOT the whole story.  It’s not even the end of the story.  The marquee recalls on one hand  the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, source of the “apple” which caused man’s descent into sin, and,  on the other hand, it brings forth the image of the tree from which Christ’s crucifix was made.

It over simplifies the enormity of Christ’s life and death and overlooks the critical need for His Resurrection.   Christ removed from the cross and laid in the Tomb, as recounted in the 14th Station, is in this instant of reflection, a threshold for what had to happen after the Crucifixion to finish Christ’s mission on earth – proving that death is not the end for Him or us.

I took photos of all the Stations after Mass that evening.  Not the best photos to be sure, but not bad for a little meditation.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection

/ esteban / 1 Comment

This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is “Reflection,” an interesting topic to be sure:

Reflect: to consider where we’ve been in life, where we are now, and where we’re going.

It was a busy week, so I don’t feel like I did this topic much credit, but here are a few shots that I’ve taken in the last 6 months or so.   I find them ‘reflective’ in the sense of an inner conversation that the bring to me, but that may not be obvious to you.

The most recent of the photos is this one:

madonna reflection

 

This caught my attention the other morning.  At Christmas I was collecting some pretty Christmas cards that I intend to frame someday.  This one of the Madonna and Child has been sitting on my breakfast table for months when I noticed it’s reflection in my camera’s display.  I thought it was interesting as a reflected image ON the camera, rather than one taken THROUGH the camera.    What do you think?

Here’s another one that I like.  It’s taken over the bay adjacent to St. Fidelis Seminary on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, where I taught.  I did my best to capture the beauty and mystery of the clouded full moon over the water, but I lacked a proper tripod to really do it justice.  Still, it’s an image that I can lose myself in, both with memories of the past  and questions of the future.

SONY DSC

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned

/ esteban

graffiti in rome

 

I’m getting this week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com in just under the wire, I think.

The challenge this week is to show “abandoned.”  I’ve been pondering it all week and though I knew I didn’t want to show something like an abandoned car or house or something like that, I couldn’t put my finger on something new to photo.

Instead, I decided to show you this photo that I took a couple of years ago.  I think it’s interesting for a number of reason.

First, this is graffiti that I photographed from the wall of a building just outside Vatican City in Rome.  I was there with Fr. Roderick Vonhogen for the Beatification of Pope John Paul II.  I saw this as we were walking along a side street and nearly didn’t stop to shoot it.

Second, it grabbed my attention, and I use it now, because it expresses a hopelessness of the future, an “abandonment,” if you will that seemed so out of place in Rome.

I often wonder about the person who sprayed this on the wall and hope that he or she found answers for their angst.  I think this feeling of abandonment, which we all feel from time to time, is a good thing to ponder during this season of Lent.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

/ esteban

I may have to try this one a couple of times.  It’s an intriguing assignment!  This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is called “Threes”.

“IN A NEW POST PUBLISHED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE ‘THREE.’

If you want to try a three-picture story, great! If not, try three images of the same subject taken from different perspectives, three images of the same thing at different times, […]”

For this post, I’ve chosen one of Tulsa’s most iconic symbols, “The Golden Driller”, a large statue at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds (aka Expo Square) which recounts the city’s storied past as the “Oil Capital of the World.”  The three photos above show the Driller from different perspectives.  It doesn’t exactly tell a story, but he’s pretty stoic and taciturn, so you get what you get.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Selfie

/ esteban / 5 Comments

 

sepia-selfie

This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is all about the “selfie.”

I’m really not sure what I think about this photo or “selfie’s” in general.  It’s too easy to fall into the trap of rampant vanity, I think, if you become enamored with taking photos of just yourself.

I took this shot with my iphone 4, backlit from a stark winter view outside.  Not very imaginative, I know, but I really dislike photos of myself.

All this winter weather has me grumpy.   I’ll keep thinking about this and see if I can come up with something more interesting.

Got any ideas?  Maybe a different take on what “self” means.  Hmm…

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: One

/ esteban / 4 Comments
A lone tree on the banks of the Arkansas River at sunset.

A lone tree on the banks of the Arkansas River at sunset.

The holidays have really put a damper on my blogging activities, but I’m back with this week’s photo challenge from the folks at dailypost.wordpress.com.  Here’s this week’s assignment:

This week, we want to see photos that focus on one thing. Maybe you’ve got a stark photo of a single tree silhouetted against the setting sun, […]

OK, we’ll stop right there …  single tree, setting sun, right up my alley.  I’ll throw in a river and a hill too for this shot.

A lone tree on the banks of the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Turkey Mountain in the background.   I think it’s an OK shot, not bad for a cold afternoon as winter sinks its claws into the midst of America.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

/ esteban / 4 Comments

 

wall of cameras

I’m back with another entry in the Weekly Photo Challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com .  This week it’s all about the “unexpected” things that we encounter as we’re out and about in the world.

The photo above was taken in the small vestibule of Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant, a new place on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.  The small entry to the restaurant, a transition zone between the outer and inner doors of the restaurant, was decorated with hundreds of old cameras.  Mostly Kodak Instamatic cameras from the 70’s, it was completely unexpected, not to mention just a little bit spooky.

Stepping inside from the frigid air of a cold November morning, I’m suddenly faced by all these silent witnesses of times past.  I thought it a fitting entry for this week’s challenge.

Moreover, it gave me pause.  Like the abandoned toys from a “Toy Story” movie, these old gadgets could certainly tell stories of their former lives as recorders of events from decades ago.

Alas, there’s no way to recover the glory or the usefulness of their former time, relegated now to curious decorations, hardly noticed except by one caught in the lens of the unexpected.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie

/ esteban / 2 Comments

This week’s photo challenge from The Daily Post @ WordPress.com is all about being “eerie.”    Obviously, this is in keeping with the now-passed Halloween holiday.

This weekend I was visiting the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina for a wedding.  The railroad crossing from which this photo was taken is very close to the hotel in which I was staying. North Carolina is resplendent in its fall colors, but this shot converted to black and white, becomes particularly eerie.

What I  like is that the far distance of the shot leaves a lot to the imagination.  Just what is it that is seemingly coming towards you from the shadows?

I’ll give you a hint – it’s not the Waffle House restaurant that is just to my left as I take this shot!

 

Eerie tracks in the middle of Durham, NC

Eerie tracks in the middle of Durham, NC

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

/ esteban / 3 Comments

This week’s photo challenge is right in my bailiwick.  I just love to take photos of the sky, especially when you can see all the way to the horizon.

In keeping with my goal to shoot new photos for the current challenge, rather than use something that I took previously, I was happy to take this shot today.

This is an over-the-wing view of the cloud deck, somewhere over the US between DFW and RDU airports.

An infinite world of possibilities. (And I’m a bit proud that I actually found a way to use the word bailiwick.)

 

DFW - RDU

DFW – RDU

Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinite – Under A Western Sky

/ esteban / 3 Comments

The latest photo challenge from the folks at dailypost.wordpress.com is right up my alley.

You see, I have a problem.  There’s not much else that will cause me to stop whatever I’m doing and pull out my camera than an awesome sky.  I’ve spent most of my life somewhere on the Central Plains of the US and if I spent too much time away, I feel claustrophobic.  Views like this one take me away from the daily grind to the contemplation of infinite possibilities.

There a peacefulness I find in the infinite vistas of the open prairie.  A freedom that comes from seeing to the horizon in every direction.

When I was living on the coast of Papua New Guinea, there were times when I had to flee to from the school grounds where I worked, surrounded by the immense beauty of the tropics, to a place where I could see the open sea – just so I could see enough of the open sky.

I recently spent a week in New Mexico, north of Santa Fe, where I took this shot of this open, cloud-filled sky, keeping company with one lonely tree.   When I saw this, I had to pull my car over on a muddy forest road.  Tramping up an incline to clear a power line, it was worth the mess I made of my floor mats to capture it.

 

New Mexico Sky

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns

/ esteban / 2 Comments

I’m back with another try at the Weekly Photo Challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com.  This week the challenge is “From Lines to Patterns.”

From lines to patterns. We see lines and patterns in the world around us, in nature and things man-made. Sometimes we don’t realize they’re there: on the street, across the walls, up in the sky, and along the ground on which we walk.

Today’s challenge is inspired by Evan Zelermyer‘s stunning urban, abstract, and architectural images from his “Shape, Line, Texture, Pattern” post published earlier this week. I’d love to see your interpretations of these elements, so grab your camera, get outside, and snap a great shot of shapes or lines that you stumble upon, or a cool texture or pattern that catches your eye.

 

The photo you see above, attached to this post, was taken at last weekend’s Redman Triathlon, held in Oklahoma City. What you see is part of the corridor that lead from the biking transition area onto the marathon course.  I thought the shadows through the plastic fencing, as the setting sun cast shadows through it, was an interesting pattern.

I was in OKC with my friend Mark Steichen to encourage my godson Jon Mills as he competed in his first “iron-distance” (I hope I used the term correctly) triathlon, a crazy 2.4 mile swim, SONY DSCfollowed by a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a full 26.2 mile marathon.  It was terrific to be there with Jon’s family and friends to cheer him on, on a beautiful late summer day.

Jon has been such an inspiration to me.  I met him during my first years as a campus minister at the University of Tulsa, where he was a student.  Over the years it’s been my privilege to see Jon grow in so many ways, including tackling the rigors of medical school, getting married and starting a wonderful family.   Jon was my volunteer swim coach for a few years as I tried to improve my skills (i.e. not drown), and he allowed me the honor of being his sponsor when he joined the Church.

So even though the photo of the shadow lines is really nothing special, it symbolizes for me how the lines and lives of people crisscross over time.

Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual POV

/ esteban / 5 Comments

I’ve been vacationing in New Mexico this week, in the areas of Santa Fe, Taos, and Abiquiu.  I was born in New Mexico and next to Oklahoma, it’s my favorite state.

This was the perfect place to try this week’s photo challenge from the folks over at The Daily Post @ WordPress.com.  This week the challenge is “An Unusual POV“, (point of view, that is):

Challenge yourself to rethink your ideas about what subjects are appropriate, and then challenge yourself again to find an unusual perspective on your subject.

Go out and take photos and share a shot that reveals a new and different POV.

 

Part of my time was spent in Santa Fe, thanks to a free place to stay courtesy of my good friends Matthew and Tracy Pepper.  A free place here is not an insignificant thing, especially since my visit coincided with Las Fiestas, a 300+ year old annual event that celebrates the peaceful return of the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.   I’ll write about that in another post, but let’s just say that it added to the iconic opportunities to take photos for this challenge.

I also spent a few days at Christ in the Desert Monastery, deep in a canyon near Abiquiu.  The area, famous as the home of painter Georgia O’Keefe, is absolutely stunning in its natural beauty, solitude, and spirituality.

I took a lot of photos during my week here, trying to keep an eye out for “unusual points of view.”  The photos you’ll see on this post are the best that I could come up with.  I have to say that this really did challenge me.  What I saw in my head was in many cases not realized by the photo.  I still have much to learn.

The one that I think is the best is the one at the top of this post.  I gave it the title “Take My Hand.”  You can also see it in the gallery below.  It is the statue of St. Francis of Assisi that stands just outside the Cathedral Basilica, just off the main plaza in Santa Fe.

Vote for the Runner-up!

The shots in the gallery below are some of my other attempts at unusual points of view.  I encourage you to pick your favorite as the “runner up” by leaving a comment on this post.  Be sure to let me know what in particular you like about it.  I think it will help me improve my technique for these types of shots.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

/ esteban / 5 Comments

I’m a newbie to the Weekly Photo Challenge, thanks to my friend Maria who clued me into the idea.  You can see her posts here. This week’s challenge:

Sea. What kind of emotions does the sea or ocean make you feel? Do you remember the first time you went in the water? Had a wave crash on you? Felt the sand burn your feet? Do you feel more peaceful around water? Do you hate the beach? What’s the most interesting thing about the sea for you?

I took this theme as a challenge to go out and shoot some new shots that reflect “sea”.  Being far from the ocean here in Oklahoma, our “seas” are the wide open plains and grasslands.  I call this shot “Haybergs,” hopefully suggesting a little bit of the feeling of openness and solitude one feels when standing on a secluded beach.  

Yeah, that’s a bit of stretch for any real ocean/beach lovers who might be reading this.  Work with me folks!

As you may know, I just returned from eight months of living/teaching on the north coast of Papua New Guinea.  The ocean was literally less than 75 yards from my room at the school.  However, I have to confess that the ocean has never touched me the way it does others.  It’s too lonely for me, although there are times when a sense of solitude and oblivion can only be had when standing on a beach with the waves rolling in.

I much prefer the mountains which always seem full of life, full of potential, and the awesome touch of God.   I like being able to totally immerse myself in it.  Without always getting wet, that is! I do like taking photos of the ocean, though.  

Here’s a montage of some of my shots from Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.