22 September 2012

Surrounded by blue



Blue is September's color for the photo challenge that artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen & Julie Booth have inspired these last several months. For many years I have thought of blue as my least favorite color, yet I do like many shades of blue. My first pair of starter earrings, chosen at age nine, were set with sapphires, and I remember consciously switching my favorite color to blue while watching fireworks on the Fourth of July the summer I was thirteen. Since college I have been partial to tubes of Prussian Blue oil paint, and the depth of blue at twilight still takes my breath away...

As with 'ORANGE', 'YELLOW' & 'GREEN', this month's selection of photos also features Venice. At the top of the page is an all-time favorite view of the lagoon...I just love all of the sparkles that appear when the sun is behind the water. Next are a few sets gathered from past visits, and they are followed by several more from our beach stay on the island of Lido last month...this is actually the first chance I've had to look through them properly. Some were shot with an eye toward this month's color, but out there on the eastern edge of the island, with a direct view of the sea, you can hardly escape all of the blue! (And, coincidentally, the public beach where we rented umbrellas/chaise lounges was called Blue Moon...)

It was a truly wonderful, restorative trip. On the chaise lounge next to me, my daughter read literature assigned as summer reading & guitar magazines, reviewed drumming rhythms and listened to hours and hours of music. But I found that following the coming and going of the gentle waves held my attention much of the time.

I've been very behind with my blog-following and blog-writing in the last month or so, and am happy that the latest photo challenge has given me a little push to put together a new entry (the followup to GREEN that I had mentioned last time has been hovering at 'almost-ready', but then BLUE snuck up on me). I hope to begin catching up again soon...autumn tends to have that effect—of getting things back on track again—I think.
















And below is one last image, this time of the Arno (which is not blue as often as one might think a river should be!).


Happy autumn to those of you above the equator (and lucky those of you enjoying spring!)...
{Please see the guidelines here if you'd like to participate in the color-themed photo challenge in future. October's color will be 'INDIGO'.}

12 comments:

  1. Hi Lisa- So happy to see all those blues! I love that blue can be a shadow or a reflection. I am right there at the beach with you hearing the sound of the waves on the sand and stones...that ever present rush of water and then that wonderful shooshing sound as the water retreats. I'm transported to my summer times at Cape Cod and Maine. I am holding my breath about the green follow up!
    Thanks for sharing.--Julie

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    1. Thanks for stopping by for a look, Julie. ROY G BIV has been a lot of fun each month, and keeping 'BLUE' in mind while staying on the Lido made me pay closer attention to how the color of the sea and the sky changed from when we first arrived at the beach early in the morning until we left after sunset.
      I have never been to Cape Cod, but I'm glad the images of the water brought back memories for you...
      So yes, back to 'GREEN' shortly, and then on to 'INDIGO' - should be a challenge!
      - Lisa

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  2. Beautiful blues! And beautiful Venice.

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  3. Thank you! I really enjoy the chance to 'revisit' Venice via photos...it's such a photogenic city. Have you been?
    - Lisa

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  4. Lisa, I've visited your blues several times and am just now able to comment...having been left speachless by your stunning shots each time before. Once again your photos make me yearn to visit Venice and take in the splendor of the city. But your water shots...well, I'm ready to pull up a beach chair and not move for a bit. That would be amazing. Alas, Connecticut is a bit too far away so I'll content myself with coming back to visit often and waiting to see your indigos in October. Enjoy!

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    1. Hi Jennifer -
      It's funny - when my daughter saw this entry her first comment was a slightly reserved, "Wow...a LOT of photos!", and I wondered if I had overdone it by posting so many images of the sea (which of course we have all seen/photographed before). But the water is such a big part of the Venetian experience (probably 75% of my Venetian photos are of the canals, the lagoon or the sea), and a 'personality' so rich and varied seems to merit the attention! I'm glad you enjoyed these shots too...
      - Lisa

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  5. Lisa,
    I always look at your website and all the pictures about different colors.
    I find your " blue pictures " even more expressive.
    Venice is a city that I particularly like, so it is very interesting to see what you had captured !
    Thank you,
    Céline

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    1. You're welcome, Céline! And thank you for commenting about these latest color-themed photos. I have to wonder if getting to know Venice over the last five years has made me appreciate the color blue more?
      I hope you are able to return to Venice again some time soon!
      - Lisa

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  6. It's been some time since my last visit to Venice and now I feel transported there through your blog. Wonderful, beautiful blues, it would be hard for me to pick a favourite. Your 'photographer's eye' is very sensitive to colour and composition.

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    1. Thank you for visiting the blog, Ersi Marina - and for your kind comments. The power of images to recall a place you've been before is quite an amazing thing...it's so enjoyable to get 'lost' among photos once you're back home (though in this case I am longing to be next to the water again).
      Good luck with 'INDIGO' next month!
      - Lisa

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  7. We're curling up now to lose ourselves, blissfully, in the blue series. I've been eagerly awaiting your latest offering and keen eye. bisoux

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  8. How lucky you are with summer ahead of you - I hope you enjoyed this taste of what you have to look forward to down under!
    - Lisa

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Thank you for joining in on the dialogue; I appreciate your comments!
{Sorry about enabling word recognition, but I'm hoping it will alleviate the spam.}

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