20 March 2015

Yellow/Moon

 

This month the ROY G BIV photo challenge brings us to the "Y": yellow. If orange symbolizes joy for me, I would say yellow is the color of celebration and sunshine-filled hope. And what perfect timing... We began the day with a new moon and, just before midnight, spring will arrive in Italy. The solar eclipse, which I followed online in the company of scientists whose enthusiasm was as entertaining as it was contagious, brought yet another celebratory note to the day. In Florence the morning merely dimmed for an odd spell, but Svalbard & the Faroe Islands both experienced a total eclipse (though the latter had to contend with clouds for mcuh of it).

When trying to put together a random collection of photos highlighting a single color, I always find it surprising just how many different shades there are. Everything from subtle to strong and, in the case of yellow, from warm and golden to chilly or verging-on-chartreuse-y.

The squash blossoms above (which we like to quickly dip into a simple batter of flour & water before frying in olive oil) are a shade of the yellow that I gravitate toward. I'm also drawn to the pale (and sometimes bold) yellows that characterize the majority of Florence's buildings. The image below shows a glimpse through our living room window yesterday morning. While I seem to be having problems getting Blogger to portray the intensity of contrast & color of my photos yet again this month, that shadow of the streetlamp against the yellow wall always gives me a moment of delight.


These next two images are from a recent excursion to the rose garden. The rose bushes had all been sharply pruned, and the garden was at its most stark & bare before growth will resume——with the exception of these small yellow blossoms that couldn't seem to hold themselves back (first image), and the mimosas that always bloom in time for La Festa della Donna/International Women's Day on 8 March (second set of images).




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And here are——surprise!——some obsequious yellow: lemons... I had been hanging on to the yellow string bag that held the lemons in case it inspired me for this month's ROY, and found I quite liked the threads caught between the light and the darkness, and the shadows cast by the net.



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And next, the Wallace Stegner book whose orange spine featured in my last ROY post, remains relevant again this month when the cover is revealed. The daisies on the bookmark my daughter made for me years ago are a bit difficult to make out, but each time I would sit down with the book I noticed how their yellow centers echoed the wildflowers "growing" on the cover. (Despite the sadness/cynicism of the story/narrator, I very much enjoyed reading All the Little Live Things, and have just moved onto The Spectator Bird, a sort of sequel in that it continues protagonist Joe Allston's journey——this time literally as well as figuratively.)


After examining & photographing the lemon slices, I realized I much prefer lemon-rind yellow to that of its cool/paler/shinier/juicy insides...which led to these photos of a short stack of lemon slices (which, alas, do not display as warmly golden in Blogger as they do in Photoshop)...
 

 

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And now, to conclude this post, is the inspiration for its title, Yellow Moon, a song from Pearl Jam's latest album (Lightening Bolt).

 


 

Wishing you all a sunshiny weekend, wherever in the world you may find yourself. And I'd love to hear what yellow symbolizes for you if you'd like to share it in the comments section below...

 

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A few details for those of you not already familiar with the ROY G BIV
photo challenge... Artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen & Julie Booth started
it a few years ago. Each month is devoted  to a different color of the
rainbow, and once we explore each of these we will move on to other colors
later in the year. Everyone is welcome to join in the search. Please visit
Jennifer & Julie's blogs for links to each month's participants.
 Guidelines are here.


18 comments:

  1. superbe choix...acide!

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    1. Thank you x2, Elfi! I'm looking forward to seeing if you've included some yellow among your latest beautiful photos...
      - Lisa

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  2. What joy to read your post Lisa and as always, sublime photographs. Not sure which I love most though the sliced lemon is competing against the first delightful image with the shadow on the wall. It made my 'feel' Florence sitting here in front of my computer. I may give some thought to a post on yellow though I have it none of it around me I have lots of our natural earth yellow in my photos I could share. What ever shade of yellow - it does seem to spread that feel of warmth and sunbright joyfulness.

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    1. I would love to see a post focusing on your natural, earthy yellows, Susan! And it's true - the warmth that even just a touch of yellow can bring is quite wonderful. I think that's one of the amazing things about "neutrals"...they all have a hint of some other color, whether warm or cool, gray or cream...or rose or lavender or sage... But the presence of yellow has an instantly warming effect.
      - Lisa

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  3. forget that ..... upon relooking at the photographs, the first of those squash blossoms has to be my winner :-)

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    1. Thanks for your "updated" impression of the squash blossoms, Susan! Funny to think that they are flowers too - i.e. in the same category as the tiny yellow blooms from the rose garden - that shade of yellow is a "big" as they are!
      - Lisa

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  4. Love all of these Lisa..but am partial to the mimosas (so jubilant!) and the lemon slices. Thanks for playing this month!

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    1. So you're more of a "cool" yellow gal then, Julie? Jubilant is a perfect word for the mimosas! Thank you for stopping by - and for the inspiration to look for yellow this month...love the timing of it...
      - Lisa

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  5. The contrast of these yellow lemons against the black background is strong and beautiful.
    I'm drawn to a yellow of sorts ... actually more of an ochre...which shows up in my work as often as a turquoise...?

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    1. Thank you for sharing your preference, Mary Ann...I, too, like ochre-"slanted" yellows (my Grandmother always says she & I like "dirty" colors!). One enjoyable part of this ROY "exercise" is the reminder of just how many different shades can fall into each one of those seven colors of the rainbow. Everyone has such a different way of drawing out the same color...
      - Lisa

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  6. As always great quality of your photos. I am attracted to the photo with the shadow of the streetlamp. it shows nicely how the time passes.


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    1. Thanks, Eric! And yes, it's true about the shadow & how it marks the passing of time. The little street where the streelamp's shadow falls is very narrow, so the movement of the sun is fairly brief & very noticeable in the morning...
      - Lisa

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  7. Love the squash blossoms! Love your masterful use of very strong light..... :-)

    I hate when blogger "helpfully" "enhances" my pics!

    My brother found this for me: http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/07/turn-off-auto-enhance-in-blogger-photos.html

    I have been avoiding having a profile at Google, but maybe I need to bite the bullet and make a profile, so I can turn OFF their #$(*&*^ "help"...................

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    1. Thank you for your lovely comment about the light (which is an artist in its own right)! And I really appreciate the link you've passed on - I will explore some more. A few months ago I had thought that saving the images as PNG files had fixed the problem, but it hasn't worked this time! It is very frustrating when photos look so very different (and always worse, I have found) once they're uploaded to Blogger... Hoping the link will reveal a fix!
      - Lisa

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  8. We've been away for a bit, but I finally found my way back...I love the simplicity of the lemon slices - calm and peaceful to me. The yellow bag is great and I love the opening flowers - they sing warmth and goodness and happiness - I wish you them all.

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    1. Welcome back, Fiona! And thank you for making your way here for my "yellows." I, too, loved the opening flowers - though perhaps even more so the deep red of the buds before opening. (Funny how flowers can change so much from bud to "mature" blossom - last week I bought a bouquet of orange tulips that have deepened to red, and a clutch of purple freesia that paled to pink!)
      Thanks also for the lovely wishes...
      - Lisa

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  9. HI Lisa - I haven't been ignoring your beautiful photos. I think Blogger has been playing silly games. as I visited last week and I'm sure I left a comment. In case I dreamt this, I'll say again what a wonderful selection of yellows. I especially enjoyed the wonderful photo of the street lamp shadow taken from your window - such a fantastic angle!

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    1. No worries, Margaret, and I appreciate your generous comment! It is frustrating that such things happen with Blogger at times - I have experienced the same thing.
      For future reference... I don't moderate comments, so you should be able to double-check that your comment has been published immediately...theoretically this should be confirmation - though I suppose you just never know what might happen when you send things out into cyberspace...
      Thank you for making the effort to check/re-comment!
      - Lisa

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