Lines, Shapes, and Learning to See

by Kelly

Lines and Shapes.

Although we attach meaning to them, at their most basic level, the letters of our alphabet are really just combinations of lines and shapes.  And since line and shape are cornerstones of strong composition, I decided to take this month's challenge to find 'letters' in my surrounding.  

This past Sunday I set out down the street to my neighborhood park.  And I'll be honest...these kinds of things are difficult for me and I had some trouble at first.  One of the keys for me was to stop looking for an 'A' but rather look for a triangle with a line through it.  Or find a half moon shape.  Or a curlicue with a line attached.  For me it was an exercise in not thinking about things so literally....it's actually more figurative, imaginative, or abstract.  

But it's just like anything else.  Once you start paying closer attention to something, the more you start to noticing them everywhere.  And in the course of my 30 minute stroll, I had "found" all 26 letters of the alphabet.

These kinds of challenges can be really fun.  But I also think that they are great practice in learning to 'see'.  A great workout for our 'vision' muscles if you will.  Which we all know is the just as important (maybe more so?) than the actual process of holding the camera up to our faces and pressing the shutter button.

If you haven't had a chance yet to get take on the letter challenge for yourself, I highly recommend it. Maybe take your kiddos (or grandkiddos!) and go exploring.  They would love it and would probably be way better at it we are! 

If you do, be sure to share what you find in our Flickr pool!  We love seeing what you're shooting!

Until next time,

Kelly

Focus On You

by Judy

This week's Focus on You photo is from our loyal follower, Susan Bolton.  Susan captured our monthly theme, "the alphabet" perfectly in this shot.  Susan's got a two for one shot here.  Not only do the words 'railroad crossing' fulfill the alphabet theme, but the large X shape of the sign does as well!  And boy does it all pop against that gorgeous blue sky!

Thank you for playing along Susan!  You can see more of Susan's photography here.  

A B C, it's easy as 1 2 3

by Judy

This month we're going to have some fun, while improving our photographic eye. May's theme is the alphabet, and there's several ways you can interpret this.  

You can do what I've done, above, and photograph subjects that start with each letter.  This is an easy way to interpret the theme, and will have you searching for items to complete your alphabet. Do you have a subject for each letter?

Another obvious way to interpret this theme is to search for the letters themselves.  This sounds easy, but can get a little tricky when you're searching for all 26 letters. You can find the letter P on a parking sign, and the letter M in the McDonald's famous french fry sign. Can you find the whole alphabet before the end of the month?  Here I've found the letter L on a Teddy Bear's Varsity jacket.  

A slightly more difficult interpretation is to search your surroundings for things that look like letters. One of my assignments in photography school (years ago)  was to find the letters of the alphabet without photographing actual letters.  It really trains your eye to look for those hidden gems we miss everyday.

Here's the letter "G."

And, the letter "O."

I can't wait to see all of your letters this month! Kick your creative juices into high gear, and let's try to fill our Focusing on Life flickr stream with the entire alphabet!  Be sure to label or tag your photos with the letter you've found, or #FOL alphabet, so when we choose photos for our weekly Focus on You post, we'll know who is playing with us this month!  Enjoy!

Love, Judy