Photo Challenges

Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

/ Janna Hill / 6 Comments

My New Year’s resolution for the last 40 years has been NOT to make resolutions. What I was doing ten years prior to that I have no idea; I had to be in bed by 9 PM. I do however seem to recall a span of about three decades where my resolve was to be drunk at midnight and to kiss every good-looking male within lips reach. Now THAT was a  resolution I could keep! It’s also probably the reason for my chronic mononucleosis.

I was looking back through some old photographs and you know what? Not all of the men were that good-looking. Those were probably the safe ones. It is a scientifically proven fact that handsome men carry diseases and ugly men make good husbands. Okay maybe it’s not scientifically proven but don’t burst my bubble. To have caught mono from an ugly dude might be more than my fragile psyche can stand.

On a more serious note I suppose I did make a resolution in 2012 when I decided to become an independent author. I just didn’t think of it in terms as a ‘resolution’ at the time. I opened an official website, started blogging, face booking and tweeting. Not really into the tweeting but by golly I have a twitter account.

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to make a 2013 resolution in regards to photography. I would like to become more adept at taking decent great pictures but I’m not sure how it is going to work out. Would you believe this morning I caught my Nikon snapping at the keyboard and strangling the mouse? Yeah, that that sounds crazy but it really happened! I think my resolution will be to make them best friends.

Things fight when you're not looking.

Things fight when you’re not looking. I resolve to make them allies.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 In Pictures

/ Janna Hill / 8 Comments

Here is the official submission for last week’s challenge: My 2012 In Pictures. Hey, I made an effort AND I had a note! If you hurried to get your shots in on time you will be pissed happy to know this: Sara extended the challenge. 😀

The first few months of 2012 were spent writing and choosing book covers. And occasionally dressing to check the mail.
I don’t really think this was April but isn’t that a pretty red spider?!
Sneaking up on dead insects- that’s what I do best.
And I thought I was busy…
The grass was starting to grow so I got a couple of goats.
Greedy horn-worm. (His insides were a bright chartreuse)
I went to the mud bogs and broke in a new Nikon. (That was such a bad idea)
Playground on a September day. Oh the ruckus a puppy can cause…
Goodbye dragonfly… So long summertime.
A proud little pumpkin carver 🙂
Golf, a groom and no more balls 😦
A hazy December sunrise and another year closing.
My how time flies on the back of a turtle.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 In Pictures

/ Janna Hill / 7 Comments

This weeks photo challenge is titled My 2012 in Pictures but what I offer is not really mine.

Have you ever ran by the deli and grabbed something for a potluck dinner, plopped it into a bowl, squished it around and hoped people might believe that you made it yourself? Well, me neither but this feels like that scenario might IF I had a clue about such things.  I want to offer up something for such a feast but I am still on holiday [aka away from my satchel of jump drives] so in lieu of my 2012 pictures I am posting a link to the Dallas Morning News  2012 Year in Review by Michael Hamtil/Photo Editor. This may seem like a cheat but I have a written excuse.

Please excuse me Janna Hill for her semi-lame participation in this weeks photo challenge. She is away on holiday.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise

/ Janna Hill / 9 Comments

Surprise surprise surprise! The infamous words of Gomer Pyle  echo in my memory but to my own surprise they don’t annoy me like they did some forty years ago.  That is probably because I have matured just a little. I am no longer burdened with the need to be cool and now find myself longing for a simpler time, an era where trust and naivety could walk freely among crowds, if there ever was such a time. Maybe there was and it rests on a reel of black and white film stored somewhere in sunny California?

Or in a box of old photographs in Texas…

Or under a live oak tree with a tire swing…

Or maybe, just maybe in a little dog’s dreams of Christmas.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the above are true.

Amazed at old photographs. Even when you’ve seen them a hundred times.
Little girls are always full of surprises.
I’m surprised she let me put the cap on her head.

This weeks photo challenge is (you guessed it) SURPRISE.

Weekly Photo Challenge : Delicate

/ Janna Hill / 7 Comments
The dainty weaves of a dream-catcher
The frail skin around the eye
The tender glistening taste buds
The sensitive hairs of the nares
The delicate traces of dust and webs

Thank you dear husband for allowing me to photograph your delicate sensory organs while you slept. I was so excited when you yawned, exposing your pretty little tongue to the camera. I must admit I worried you were going to wake up when I pulled at your eyelid but you were such a trooper and went right back to snoring. I’m sorry about waving the dusty faux rose in your face but it was part of the ceremony. Oh, and you were right sweetie, you do need to trim your nose hairs.

This week’s photo challenge is titled Delicate

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

/ Janna Hill / 11 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

The winter solstice is due to hit Texas on December 21st and the last of the golden Hickory leafs are falling. Another season will soon have passed leaving only the evergreens to stand watch while nature sleeps.

As the days are shortened it seems patience is lengthened (if only for a short time) and hearts give way to kinder notions. Colorful festivities dot the dulling landscape and religious traditions are celebrated all over the world. What a sight that must be to behold from the heavens.

The garden tools are stored away and replaced with the red, gold and greens of Christmas. These things [along with a good bonfire] make the change much more bearable.

The last of the Autumn leaves
The red, gold and greens of Christmas
A flame to ward off Old Man Winter

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

/ Janna Hill / 13 Comments

Reflections. One could go in so many (deeper) directions with this week’s photo challenge. I chose a few simple mirrored images.
You know I have become somewhat of a procrastinator and [once again] goofed off all weekend. So now it is Monday and everyone has gone back to their weekly grind leaving me without a proven assistant, someone to inspire me and offer suggestions. Oh sure I have plenty of insects and dying foliage but they don’t seem to speak to me at the moment. Was it something I said? I don’t know. Nevertheless I found a new assistant. He is young and inexperienced, a bit awkward and doesn’t take directions well but he works really cheap. I mean really, really cheap. After a few belly rubs and a dog biscuit I had him eating out of my hand, literally. And now without further ado I present to you the reflections of Mr. Clyde Kadiddlehopper.

"Calm down Clyde or you'll break the mirror."

“Calm down Clyde or you’ll break the mirror.”

"Now you both have a biscuit. Good boy."

“Now you both have a biscuit. Good boy.”

"I know you're a little apprehensive but..."

“I know you’re a little apprehensive but…”

"Ponder Clyde... what does 'reflection' mean to you?"

“Ponder Clyde… what does ‘reflection’ mean to you?”

"It's okay you cracked the mirror. Cheer up -dogs aren't supposed to be superstitious."

“It’s okay you cracked the mirror. Cheer up -dogs aren’t supposed to be superstitious.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful

/ Janna Hill / 10 Comments

I’m a little late in getting this post out but still I am pleased to be able to participate in this week’s photo challenge Thankful.

There are so many things I have to be thankful for… to be grateful for. So many family members, friends and fans – you know who you are and I love you. I am thankful for you!

The photographs I chose have less to do with the colorful umbrella and more to do with the conversations held beneath it…

Nothing to do with the roof but the souls that have been sheltered under it…

And the door, well it’s just the gateway to another world. So many comings and goings and so many to be thankful for.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal

/ Janna Hill / 19 Comments

Renewal… replenish, regenerate, rejuvenate or restore…
This week’s photo challenge was indeed a mental test, for me anyway. I considered a photograph of me in a warm tub of bubbles recharging my chakra with a glass of champagne but no such photo exits. I know that to be true because I rarely bathe and my chakra eloped with a bottle of Brut one dead winter night many Decembers’ ago.
There are a few photos of hubby napping in his recliner that seemed fitting but he wasn’t too fond of the idea. It’s not that I caught him drooling and snores can’t be heard in a snapshot. I think he’s concerned people will think he is Salman Rushdie and send a rocket into our living room. That or ask him for an autograph. He would prefer the rocket.
So with the first two options off of the table I mulled over the theme again.
Renewal… replenish, regenerate, rejuvenate or restore…
My thoughts continually returned to Spring, the natural season of renewal. To new blooms and young butterflies, abandoned cocoons and Cicada’s emerging. So I rummaged through my jump drives, blew off the digital dust and here you have it. My take on this week’s photo challenge: renewal.