elrhiarhodan | Entries tagged with meme: 30 days of photographs

Day 30 - A Photo Of Something Big

March, 2008
Mount Diablo, California

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Mount Diablo, near Concord, California, east of San Francisco, is one of those weird isolated mountains that's not part of a greater range. It’s not a particularly high mountain (only about 3557 feet above sea level), but its unique geography give those who get to the top a spectacular vista, all the way to the Sierra Nevadas to the east and the Cascades to the north. It has one of the largest viewsheds in the world (the area that one can see unobstructed). The day I was there was hazy and a little overcast, so I didn’t get to see the Cascades or the Sierra Nevadas, but I could see all the way to San Francisco (or maybe Oakland?).

And this is it for Round Two of the Thirty Day photo meme. Come September, start looking for photos from the crowdsourced meme you contributed to last month. Thank you for being my friends..

Day 29 - A Photo Of Something Small

March, 2003
Seattle, Washington

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Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.

Day 28 - A Photo Of Something/One Special To You

March, 2013
East Northport, New York

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Maybe my favorite room in House Wonderful – the kitchen. It’s truly the heart of my home, with its open plan and warm colors, it welcomes me every night and every morning. It’s calm and clean and even though I’ve been living in HW for less than two years, it’s already filled with the echoes of the happiness of my friends’ and family’s laughter. It is a place of great grace and will always be special to me and to those who visit.

Day 27 - A Photo (Or Photos) That Tells A Story

March, 2014
New York, New York

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Normally, I wouldn’t use two photos from the same event on back-to-back days, but this one – also taken at the Dendur Pavilion. It’s not a great photo, and on first glance, it really doesn’t seem to tell much of a story. What it does do is illustrate a story. The first story I ever wrote for White Collar (it was anon in the Kink Meme, and predates my official first story by a week or so)

Neal loved the airy, glass enclosed pavilion that housed the ancient stone temple. He also loved that the building was a gift from the Egyptian government – preserved for everyone when it otherwise would have been lost to the new gods of progress. He loved that this was something he couldn’t steal or forge or con someone out of. He loved the ancientness of it, the permanence, and the odd perfection of the modern glass enclosure and the great green park just outside.

( Read more of New York, New York – It’s a Helluva Town, Part II – In the Dendur Pavilion )

Day 26 - A Photo Of Something Old

March, 2014
New York, New York

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The Temple of Dendur, built around 15 BCE, and gifted by the Egyptian Government to the United States in 1963 after its original location was to be flooded by the opening of the Aswan High Dam.

The Sphinx, though in close proximity to the Temple, was not part of the Temple, and is almost 1500 years older than the temple, dating from 1470 BCE. It is called the Sphinx of Hatshepsut, representing the reign of the only female pharaoh of Egypt.

I took this photo on a wonderful trip through the museum (and in a way, through the history of the world), with my dearest friend, theatregirl7299 when she visited with my last March.

Day 25 - A Photo That Represents An Emotion

September, 2009
Dix Hills, New York

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Dad. I miss him so very much. He never stopped smiling.
(And he would have appreciated the GFSP jokes)

Day 24 - A Photo Taken Indoors

October, 2009
Jumeirah, Dubai

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Okay, a little bit of a cheat. I took this photo from inside my hotel room. Well, technically, from the balcony on my hotel room. So, a big cheat. The hotel room was nice, but not exactly interesting.

It’s a pity that I didn’t get a picture of the fat guy in the thong bathing suit on the camel. Because, seriously, how revolting would that be.

Day 23 - A Photo Looking Up

May, 2009
Joshua Tree State Park, Utah

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This is one of the most desolate places I’ve ever been to. A long straight road between two nowhere points. I got bored and did a little off-roading (and completely violating the terms of my rental contract).

Joshua trees are strange plants – not quite palms (though they might be, genetically), not quite cacti. Frankly, they give me the creeps.

Day 22 - A Photo Looking Down

March, 2004
Pacific Coast Highway, South of Big Sur, California

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I’d been staying in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, and deciding to take a drive down US-1 (or US-101), as far as I could go and then get back before dark. This stretch of US-1 is one of the most famous drives in the world, and is instantly recognizable in car commercials. It’s also nerve racking and dangerous.

But the road is equipped with many turn-outs and I think I took advantage of most of them. Not only to calm my nerves and catch my breath, but to lose my breath over the incredible scenery. On this particular turn-out, I was convinced that there was an incredible party happening on the beach, several hundred yards below. I took a deep breath and leaned over, expecting to see dozens of teenagers.

But no, not teenagers. Sea lions. Noisy, breeding sea lions. I overcame my fear of falling to lean out a little further and snapped this picture.

Day 21 - A Photo Of A Special Moment For Yourself, Your Family Or A Friend

May, 2010
New York, New York

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The New York Paley Center event was the very first time I met Tim DeKay. He was so delightfully sweet and accessible, and astonished at how many people wanted his autograph and wanted to meet him. This will always be the defining moment for me for White Collar fandom. Realizing just how lovely a human being Tim was.

Day 20 - A Photo Taken Within Half A Mile Of Your Home

January, 2003
Dix Hills, New York

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A snowy day at my old house. Sadly, all the little bunnies who lived in the woods are hibernating

Day 19 - A Photo Of Something You See Most Days

February, 2011
Long Island, New York

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Okay, so I took a picture of the two rolls of toilet paper that are ALWAYS in the corner of the stall in the ladies room at my office. It’s still interesting and it’s still something I see every working day.

Day 18 - A Photo With A Road/Street Sign In It

October, 2013
Locust Valley, New York

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Last October, when my dearest sinfulslasher was visiting, we drove past "Bread and Cheese Hollow Road", and she commented on the unusual name. I laughed and said, "Oh, that's nothing. I went to day camp near Skunk's Misery Road." She didn't believe that such a road existed.

I needed to prove that to her. And I did.

Day 17 - A Photo Of Your Feet

August, 2008
Asharoken, New York

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Okay, not precisely my feet, but my shoes. It wasn’t a really good outing. I wore closed sandals to walk on the sand. Then I got semi-soaked by the tide. And to add insult to injury (or maybe injury to insult), I fell and scraped the hell out of my knee.

But I got at least one good picture!

Day 16 - A Photo Taken At Dusk Or Dawn

July 2006 and October, 2010
Sun Mountain Lodge, Winthrop, Washington
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The view from my hotel room on two different trips. It’s sad, but I haven’t been back to this place in almost four years. I miss it. Maybe next year?

Day 15 - A Photo Of Something You Drink

October, 2008
Sun Mountain Lodge, Winthrop, Washington

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Coffee and water and pancakes. Breakfast of (fat) champions.

Day 14 - A Photo Of Something You Eat

August, 2011
Farm Stand, Peconic Bay, Long Island, New York

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Japanese Eggplant. Very pretty and very delicious.

Day 13 - A Photo That You're Not Proud Of

October, 2008
Baker Range, Near Alkalai Lake, Washington

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As any photographer with a modicum of experience and common sense will tell you, shooting into the sun, even with polarizing filters, isn’t going to make for a good capture.

Day 12 - A Photo That You're Proud Of

August, 2009
Dix Hills, New York

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My sister and I (she’s the real photographer in the family) spent much of the morning taking pictures at the Pilgrim State facility (see Day 4), but when we came back, we took a look around the house and discovered all sorts of interesting things to photograph. Like the bushes in front of the house, which were filled with cobwebs that trapped the water from the sprinklers. I’m kind of proud of this picture – I love macro photography but don’t seem to have the skills to match my ambitions.

Day 11 - A Photo Representing Country Living

October, 2009
Winthrop, Washington

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And we’re back in the Pacific Northwest, on the eastern side of the Cascades. A working farm, but no sign of any animals.

Day 10 - A Photo Representing Urban Living

February, 2002
Paris, France
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On the second tier of the Eiffel Tower, looking out towards the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. The Champs-Élysées is the grandest boulevard in one of the most ancient cities in Europe. You can’t get more urban than that.

Day 9 - A Photo Of A Vehicle

March, 2008
Mount Diablo, California

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A few years ago, I had to make a quick trip out to the Bay area, and brought my camera with me. I had a few hours free on the last afternoon and drove to the summit of Mount Diablo. It’s one of those weird mountains that really isn’t part of a range of peaks, and as such, provides for some spectacular views (more about this on Day 30). For some reason, on the drive up, I stopped at a very uninspiring spot, got out and took about about 16 photos in a 360-degree range, which included the equally uninspiring rental car.

Day 8 - A Photo Of Something Artistic

Personal Collection
September, 2010
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For almost twenty-five years, I’ve been collecting a type of porcelain often referred to as “Noritake”. It was manufactured by a Japanese firm in the early part of the twentieth century (I could recite chapter and verse, but I’ll spare you). You might recognize the name as a brand of dinnerware (there’s a lot of Noritake given as wedding china), I collected “fancyware” – pieces that were either decorative or served a function unrelated to dining, like these humidors. I consider them artwork. Not museum-quality, but artistic nonetheless.

What is interesting (at least to me) is that I purchased one as part of a set and the other as a stand-alone piece, thinking that they were identical, planning on reselling one (it has a little chip on the inside of the lid), but to my surprise, when I put them side by side, I realized that they were not identical at all!

What is also interesting (and probably only to me and fellow collectors), is that the backstamps (the origin marks) are different – one is from an older series, but which is which? I don’t have the slightest clue from the photograph.

Day 7 - A Photo Of The Sky

May, 2009
The Vermilion Cliffs
Lake Powell, Utah
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Another picture from that infamous road trip through the American Southwest. I had stopped on the road to take some photographs of the lake, and a state trooper pull up. I thought he was going to give me a ticket or chastise me for stopping on the highway, but he just wanted to let me know that about a quarter-mile ahead was a lookout point where I could get some really great shots. He was right!

I met a lovely young man from Italy at the top of the mesa and we chatted for a while. He told me how bored he’d gotten with photographing all the lush greenness of the Italian countryside and was taking three months (!) to travel through the American Southwest. We looked out over the Vermilion Cliffs and he said that this was better than anything the Old World had to offer. I thought he was a little crazy.

Day 6 - A Photo Representing A Colour That You Like

July, 2008
Planting Fields Arboretum, Brookville, New York

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Okay, who doesn’t like pink?

Day 5 - A Photo That Makes You Smile

May, 2010
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After the “White Collar Comes Clean” event at the New York Paley Center, they gave out packages of these cookies. I actually couldn’t bring myself to eat them (silly, I know), but I saved the tag. Guests at HW know where it is, now.

Day 4 - A Photo Of A Historic Building

August, 2009
Building 27, Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital
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For sixteen years, I lived about a quarter-mile from the back entrance to what was once the world’s largest psychiatric facility - Pilgrim State. When we first looked at what would be the condo that my folks purchased after selling the house I grew up it, my eldest sister and I drove around the grounds - it wasn’t open to the public, but it wasn’t closed off, either. My sister wanted to see (for some unutterably creepy reason), the cemetery, but we didn’t find it. Instead, we looked at the hundreds of abandoned buildings. Many were small, cottage like structures and some even had swings and children’s playground equipment. We thought that maybe these were houses for the resident staff, but it was only when we stopped and really looked that we noticed the heavy iron bars on the windows and the doors were solid steel.

But the time I took this photograph, all of those cottages and many of the very large buildings had been torn down. Pilgrim State is still an operational psychiatric facility, but approximately 90% of the original facility has been abandoned and the clients are served in much newer facilities.

Day 3 - A Photo Of An Animal

October, 2010
Seattle, Washington
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Not quite Shelob. But the garden where I photographed this was filled with spiders about this size. Good thing I don’t have arachnophobia!

Day 2 - A Photo With Flowers In It

August, 2009
Bayard Cutting Arboretum
Oakdale, New York
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So I like dahlias. Shoot me.

As promised, I'm starting another round of the Thirty-Day Photo Meme. I've been missing your feedback and interaction and I hope you enjoy these photos and the commentary enough to let me know.

Day 1 - A Photo With Water In It

Canon Beach, Oregon
February, 2003
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My dear friend, David, is one of the most gregarious people I know and one of the great joys in his life is introducing one set of friends to another set. At the time this picture was taken, I had known David for about a decade and had been a frequent visitor to his home in Seattle. On this particular trip, he took me down to coastal Oregon to introduce me to two of his oldest friends, Connie and Mike, who he’d known for close to forty years. Despite our age difference, he thought we’d have a lot in common.

He was right. Mike was a linguistic anthropologist and his wife, Connie, was an artist who loved to feed people. The weekend was magical. And of course, the setting didn’t hurt. David got me up a little after dawn for a walk along the beach, which was when I took this photograph.

Day 30 - A Photo Of Something Big

The Empire State Building, View from Bryant Park
New York, New York
December, 2010
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A few days after my dad passed away and my family left for their own homes, but before I went back to work, friends dragged me out to the holiday fair in Bryant Park. I wasn't feeling terribly festive but the day was nice and I knew I needed to get out of the house. My friends recognized that I needed time and space, and left me alone to veg while they shopped. So I sat on a bench in Bryant Park and took this picture.

And for a bonus - since you made it all the way through the thirty days of this meme, in this photograph Matt and Willie were sitting on the same bench I was sitting on.

I did not take THIS picture

Day 29 - A Photo Of Something Small

Beaded Bracelet
March, 2012
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The bracelet itself isn’t all that small (in fact, it was too big and I ended up taking it apart), but the beads that made up this project were very tiny – many of them were the size of grains of sand.

Day 28 - A Photo Of Something/One Special To You

House Wonderful, East Northport, New York
September, 2012
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Just a couch, you say? It’s not just a couch. It was the couch that was in my parents’ living room in the house I grew up in. We were never allowed to sit on it, but on occasion, the dog would sleep there. Many years later, after we’d moved out of that house, my mother wanted to have it reupholstered – we had a lot of fun shopping for fabric. The process took months and she died about a week before it was finished and delivered.

When I first saw what would become House Wonderful, I envisioned this couch in that living room. And this photo was taken right after the movers took the wrapping off the couch and put it in place. My heart sang and broke at the same time.

I really wish my parents could have seen it.

Day 27 - A Photo (Or Photos) That Tells A Story

Grosvenor Square, London, England
March, 2002
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Well, it’s not every day that you find rats with wings publically copulating at your feet, is it?

And while sinfulslasher may not prompt me for Pigeon!Peter and Pigeon!Neal, I might just add this to my list of stories to write...

Day 26 - A Photo Of Something Old

Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris, France
January, 2002
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Not even the hordes of tourists and importuning beggars can diminish the majesty of Notre-Dame. Hard to imagine that it was used to house cattle during the French Revolution.

Day 25 - A Photo That Represents An Emotion

East Northport, New York
June, 2012
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House Wonderful, the day after I went into contract. My emotions: utter terror surpassed by utter joy.

Day 24 - A Photo Taken Indoors

Taken from my home office window, as Hurricane Sandy Hits
October, 2012
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There’s something about moving into a new house, less than a month later, getting buffeted by the storm of the century, and having no damage (other than 11 days without power). My neighbors didn't fare quite so well.

Day 23 - A Photo Looking Up

Baker Range, Near Lake Ross
Northern Cascades Highway, Washington State
October, 2010
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Another mountain view on that fantastic drive.

Day 22 - A Photo Looking Down

Bryce Amphitheater - Yovipma Point,
Bryce Canyon, Utah
May, 2009
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It’s hard to believe, but I took this picture with my iPhone!

Day 21 - A Photo Of A Special Moment For Yourself, Your Family Or A Friend

My home office, photograph of Tim DeKay at the May 2010 Paleyfest Event
September, 2012
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This is the very first thing I hung up in House Wonderful. And of course, the picture is of a picture I took – the first time I met Tim DeKay.

Day 20 - A Photo Taken Within Half A Mile Of Your Home

My Front Yard, East Northport, NY
May, 2013
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One of the porch kitties, looking all cat-like and inscrutable. Except that he's something of an attention whore and actually comes over to play when humans go “miaow”.

So much for typical cat-like aloofness.

Day 19 - A Photo Of Something You See Most Days

Bush outside my office, next to my parking spot
Long Island, New York
May, 2013
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Don’t know why, but the butterflies really love this bush. But sadly, this year, no butterflies have visited. Perhaps the extended winter disrupted their journey.

*Iz sad*

Day 18 - A Photo With A Road/Street Sign In It

Great George Street, London, England
March, 2002
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Apparently in London, you can be arrested for taking pictures of street signs now.

Day 17 - A Photo Of Your Feet

Purple Betsy Johnson Boots
February, 2014
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You’ve seen these before. They make me happy.

Day 16 - A Photo Taken At Dusk Or Dawn

Mesa Near Lake Powell, Utah
May, 2009
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Another photograph from that epic trip through the Southwest, this time on the journey back from Phoenix. It was an amazing evening, the light was perfect and I spent so much time stopping at all the beauty spots, I lost track of time.

Do you know that the roads through National Parks and Navajo Country are completely un-illuminated at night? And there's no cellphone service? And there's no road services for seventy miles between Lake Powell and Kanab?

Day 15 - A Photo Of Something You Drink

Coffee, Sun Mountain Lodge - Winthrop, Washington
July, 2006
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One of the best accidental photographs I’ve ever taken. Was just testing the batteries and got a perfect shot!

Day 14 - A Photo Of Something You Eat

Cattle on the Road, Winthrop, Washington
October, 2010
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Well, they do get eaten … eventually

Day 13 - A Photo That You're Not Proud Of

Statute of Abraham Lincoln
Grosvenor Square, London
March, 2002
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Horribly exposure, bad angle, the worst possible time of day to be out with the completely craptastic camera. (Okay, I need to stop blaming the equipment for my poor photography skills.)

Day 12 - A Photo That You're Proud Of

Early Morning Spires, Cascade Range,
Northern Cascades Highway, Washington State
July, 2006
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This is, I think, one of my favorite places in the world (at least that I’ve visited). It also says a lot about me and what I like to photograph – mountains and sky. Rarely people.

Day 11 - A Photo Representing Country Living

Friends’ House, Summit, New York
June, 1998
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The newly built home of friends from college. The place is so rural that when their insurance agent came to do the appraisal, he stood on the roof of his truck, looked around and when he spotted another roofline in the distance, he said “Yup, you can qualify for suburban discount.”