Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Statues, Carvings, Sculptures

Over the past year, we’ve been to Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) several times, partly because it’s the 150th anniversary of the battle there that probably settled the outcome of the Civil War, and partly because it’s a reasonably close place for short sightseeing trips. I’ve been meaning to put up a couple of posts about the park, and Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week gave me the nudge I needed to start. Cee’s topic this week is “Statues, Carvings, Sculptures”, and it’s almost impossible to go anywhere near Gettysburg Battlefield with a camera and not photograph some statues, carvings, and sculptures.

There are newish, stylized statues like the Louisiana Monument, dedicated in 1971…

…and dynamic statues like the North Carolina Monument, from 1929.

There are various kinds of symbolic carvings –

this monument to the First New York Light artillery, for example…

…or this one to the New York “Irish Brigade”.

Most of the statues are on tall pedestals or in hard-to-reach places.

For example, General Warren, the Chief Engineer of the Union Army, has stood on this boulder at the top of Little Round Top, binoculars in his right hand, considering the Confederate line in the distance ever since 1888.

But this bust of Colonel Patrick O’Rorke, killed early on the second day of the battle, is easy to reach, and you can see with one glance at his nose that thousands of children over the years have paid their respects.

There are very few places (other than art galleries and sculpture gardens) with more statues scattered everywhere than the Gettysburg Battlefield; what’s impressive about all this art is that most of it was put up twenty to fifty years afterwards by the survivors. This isn’t someone’s officially planned memorial. It’s how the soldiers themselves wanted to be remembered, and so remembered they are.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Brown and Sepia

Cee is challenging everyone to post color-themed pictures. Why brown and sepia? Well, why not? They’re warm and infinitely varied, and they’re everywhere. For example…

Wheelwright shop – Williamsburg, Virginia

Sailing in Maine

South Dakota: Standing on the uttermost edge of the normal world
staring down at the Badlands

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Rainbow Colors

Just what it says, basically – post pictures with four or more strong colors…

Docking in Bar Harbor, Maine – July 2008

Cookbooks in my dining room – ten minutes ago

Flowers in Williamsburg, Virginia – May 2007

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Red and White

Cee is planning a series of photo challenges based around colors – this week, she’s asking for pictures featuring either red or white or both.

And it just happens that my messing around with yarn has left me halfway through this very red and very white…well, kind of cream…piece of two-sided reversible knitting. (Pattern from the Winter 2012 issue of Knitty.)

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines

This time, Cee is challenging us to highlight the geometry of our photographs by showing pictures of “lines”. I have a few possibilities –

This stop on the Montreal Metro features tiles marked off by straight lines into rectangles, contained within lines that curve around into circles, on a background of more straight lines that define little hexagons. Ah, geometry.

This square-rigger ship that we visited at Jamestown, Virginia relies on many lines, and stays, and assorted other ropes each with its own specific and essential function in holding the rigging together and letting the crew maneuver the ship.

And finally, in the courtyard of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls on the southern edge of Rome, stonecutters centuries ago played with all sorts of variations on lines to make every column unique.

Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge – Colorful Monochrome

Cee’s at it again! This time, she wants us to stretch our photographic skills with color pictures that use various tones and shades of just one color. (It’s amazing how frustrating one little red flower can be when you’re trying to find shots that meet this requirement!)

Well, let’s see what I have. (Oddly, most of these photos were taken within a short time period in the same general part of the world.)

Tan: Caryatids, Acropolis, Athens

Blue: Adriatic Sea and sky

Brown: Wild donkeys at Custer State Park, South Dakota

Green: Krka Falls, Croatia

Travel Themes and Cee’s Fun Fotos – Bright Orange

I was going through my old photos looking for something that fit one of the weekly photo challenges, when I came across this fellow –

– with his bright feathers and beautiful orange head and neck. And I said to myself, “It’s a twofer! Cee wants pictures featuring orange, and Ailsa asked for something bright. And this fellow definitely counts as both. Yay – I’ve got today’s post!”

Be sure to check out all the other pictures at Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge and Ailsa’s Travel Themes!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water

This time, Cee’s asking for three or four photos illustrating “water”.

So, here’s a set featuring various colors –

RedFallen maple leaves in the rain

GreenCovered bridge in Sturbridge, Connecticut

BlueThe Delaware River looking south from the Ben Franklin Bridge

And finally, in full color black and white,
a form of water I’d rather not see this winter –Crystallized!

Cee’s Foto Challenge: One Flower

And over at Cee’s Life Photography, Cee’s enjoying the spring flowers. So she’s encouraging us to share up to three pictures, each featuring just one flower. For preference, she urges us to go out right now and take some pictures. (Thanks to Jo Bryant for making me aware of Cee’s blog.)

Well. Um. October, you know? So, my first two flowers bloomed back in the first half of 2005 – other than that, they’re very different:

This orchid from the Philadelphia Flower Show is a pampered darling.

This little desert wildflower from Chaco Canyon has to be tough to survive.

And, last of all, I did go outside, about twenty minutes ago, and found this little burst of pink, blooming away in my front yard. We’ve already had frost a time or two; dianthus are determined.