This week’s challenge by Soffia of Photographias, “may look at first a hard one but, in reality, symmetry is everywhere. It’s also not as static a concept as it may seem. Why is symmetry important as a composition tool in photography? It creates strong and balanced images, affecting the way we feel the subject. Our eyes find symmetry harmonious and pleasing.”
After I retired from teaching/librarianship I focused on my photography, and enrolled in many community college classes. There, the role of symmetry was not encouraged. During photo critiques, if a subject was “dead” center, it was pretty much dismissed. I know that there are exceptions to every rule, but I must have taken this one to heart. I had to take a hard look at my collection of photographs to come up with these.
Architecture
Looking Up @ the California Capital in Sacramento
Looking Up @ the Woodland Opera House
Parking Garage at the Phoenix Airport
Green Doors
West Palm BeachLas VegasOld SacramentoOld Sacramento, Ca.
Looking Up
Landscape
Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park
Beautiful Sedona @ River Rock Crossing
Donner Lake
Animals
Turtles along the edge at UC Davis Arboretum
Reflections
Kitchen Symmetry
Taken at Black Miner Bar on the American River
Empire Mine in Grass Valley
Abstracts & Decorations
Symmetrical Pareidolia
Ornamental Parts
I hope you like my photo selections that may have received some critique in my photography classes. I’ll await your decision.
Maybe, it’s good to look at some symmetry as the world spins in its chaos! Stay safe, and take time to breathe!
This week Tina from Travels and Trifles creates a Lens-Artists challenge focused on Spiritual Places. While many associate spirituality with religion, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as “relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things”, a much wider interpretation.
While photographing buildings, I inevitably find myself in front of a religious site. It may be a church, temple, or synagogue. There is a quietness to these places. Some may call this respectfulness.
One place that gives me a sense of peacefulness is located in Grass Valley. Ananda Village and Crystal Hermitage Garden exude calm.
Many visitors enjoy the tulips in the spring.
Looking over the Sierras.
Churches
Rio Linda, CaSacramento, CaJackson, Ca.
Churches that started as a different building, and churches that have been repurposed.
Saw this in Lincoln, Ca.
On the main street in Zionsville, Indiana this Methodist Church transformed into an art gallery. It sits vacant and is looking for a new purpose.
Congregation Beth Shalom in Marysville, California. This building was once a boarding house. It is now making another change.
Donner PartyGround Zero 911Rosie the RiveterRosie the RiveterMemorial sites let us remember
Cemetery
Walking through a cemetery, looking at the gravestones, imagining the history, and taking in the flowers provides me with some quiet reflective spiritualness.
I end at the gravesite of my parents. They both are Holocaust Survivors.
My brother pays respect to my parents. There are no markers for my family from Poland for at least 3 generations due to World War II.
Many ask why stones and not flowers are left at Jewish graves. Upon researching this I found that there are many plausible explanations for this tradition. I would like to think of the remembrance of those who come before me.
Anne challenges me, to find fascinating structures that capture my attention, tell a story, or are just beautiful.
This gives me the opportunity to look at photographs from my New York City trip. I am originally from New York. Born in Manhattan but lived in Queens, and after the age of ten, I lived a suburban life on Long Island. Plainview to be specific. There is a vast difference between those 2 views. In 1978 the family left Queens, New York, and moved to Southern California. This was fortuitous since my husband worked on the 82nd floor of the World Trade Tower 2. Two years later we relocated to Northern California and settled in Sacramento. Did I know that my apartment in Northridge would be flattened in an earthquake? I now live in Fair Oaks part of Sacramento County for over 5 years.
In March 2020 we had tickets to New York City. At the very last minute we canceled, and New York City closed down. I don’t know why I don’t buy lottery tickets!
Leaving Kennedy Airport in Queens for Manhattan.
The architecture of the old TWA building.
But I still feel like a New Yorker, and when we visit we stay in New York City at The Lucerne.
This is a landmark building on the upper west side
The Lucerne on 79th Street
A condo was built in the space between
We made sure to visit different parts of the city each time.
Skyscrapers
The Empire State Building
On this very foggy day, we were told that there would be nothing to view from above. We came back another day for the view.
One World Trade Center
2014 was too soon to visit the site. There were still a lot of memories and a lot of construction.
One World Trade Center in 2014. Lots of construction in the area
2023
2023 we visit One World Trade Center
World Trade Center Memorial
Bird’s eye look at Manhattan
Going up to the One World Trade Observatory. Look at the view.
Amazing architecture
Inside the Guggenheim Museum
Madison Square Garden
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Met”
This full facade was moved to The Met from Wall Street
Macy’s on 34th Street. Just think of the Thanksgiving Parade.
So much remains, and so much changes. A couple of weeks after we visited The American Museum of Natural History an addition opened up. I visited this museum often when I was growing up. My Aunt Li, Uncle Henry, and Cousin Ricky lived about 10 blocks away. And as it happened my mother selected an orthodontist around the corner. So trips to the city were frequent. Without the new addition, I was still in awe of the changes made to this museum and the Hayden Planetarium located there.
Walking up to the museumSurrounding buildingsHayden PlanetariumHayden PlanetariumNew Gem & Mineral exhibit in The American Museum of Natural History
Transportation
Grand Central Terminal – outside and inside
The Oculus
2014 The Oculus under construction
The Oculus
So many memories, and so many new places to see.I hope you liked this whirlwind tour of New York City.
Patti invites me to join her this week as I explore diagonals as a way to add visual interest and depth to my photos, and a sense of action. What diagonals can you find? A line of trees or stones, a series of lights or signs, tree branches or a row of hedges, or cupcakes in a bakery window?
Looking at my library of photographs, I see that “Leading Lines” pretty much tops my composition style. So with over 400 images classified as diagonals and leading lines, I decided to first process photographs I took recently in Indianapolis where we visited family.
Trip to Indianapolis
With no direct flight from Sacramento, I had time to photographically explore the Phoenix Airport
Waiting to take off on the second leg of our trip
Looking Up
We stayed in Plainfield, Indiana at the Courtyard by Marriott. This large building crane next door helped us locate our hotel.
Building another hotel next door
Firepit outside our hotel
For me, Newfields is the best of both worlds. “A Place for Nature & the Arts.” Walking through the museum the display of colors caught my attention.
This is a wonderful little museum that engages both the young and old to really see and understand concepts of art. With the use of fun activities (puzzles to recreate paintings, beading activities) it engages the viewer.
My first image is from a day trip to Lake Berryessa, Ca. This is the largest man-made lake in California. The “Glory Hole” attracts many photographers. I wonder if it will make its appearance this year. We have been experiencing some rain lately. California certainly needs it!
I hope this post gives you a new slant on viewing the world around you.
A Photo's Worth 