Saturday, February 07, 2009

Round Robin Challenge: Joy: What Makes Your Heart Happy

"Joy is the feeling of grinning inside."

-Melba Colgrove

RRC: Joy: What Makes Your Heart Happy?
Suggested by Wammy author of the blog, "The Ellis Family Cincinnati."

Joy, happiness, the heart. Those very subjects have been on my mind a lot recently. Partly because of the Go Red For Women movement, and yesterday was, Wear Red Day, but also Valentine's Day is just a week away, and the TV is absolutely saturated with sappy romantic movies, but also because one or two old loves have crossed my mind lately, one in a dream, the other was mentioned to me by a mutual acquaintance. Men! Sheesh. LOL.

But lets stay focused... shall we? What fills my heart with joy? Oh my, well, that's easy, because, you see, I love a variety of sights, sounds and experiences. My camera and I find adventure in photography. The camera can zoom in so close that I can see the tiny hairs on a bumble bee without disturbing it, or take me to the very top of the Golden Gate bridge, so I can see that funny little warning light that alerts the low flying aircraft, up close. It gives me little moments that last forever. Sounds great, right? It is, but sometimes I get a bit obsessive when I am on a roll with my photography, and sometimes I forget to step back into the real world.

The other day, someone mentioned that they hadn't seen me around for a while, and I realized it had been just about 2 years since I had visited my favorite book store. Can you believe it? I had been to book stores mind you, even bought a book or two, but it had been that long since I visited my favorite independent book seller. I hadn't even realized how long it had been, I was just moving on in life. You know? There is a strange disconnect in that I think. But you see, photography fills my heart, every single day, and sometimes there isn't much time for other activities. I am hoping to change that somewhat, by looking for more balance in life. Time for reading, time for photography, time for working out, time for playing with the new babies, and so on.

So, what has had me so busy the last couple years...

Egrets In Autumn...


Summer Days By The Pacific...

Sleeping Cats...


Public Art...
Butterflies Hitching A Ride On My Wrist...

Cold Stormy Days By The Golden Gate...

Night Photography At The Vista In Marin County...


Cats With Attitude...
Amazing Sunsets...

French Onion Soup On A Cold Night...

Homemade Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies...

Actually, Any Old Autumn Day Will Do...

All the things that fill my heart with joy!

:)

Any old autumn day can fill my heart with joy, but especially one that contains pumpkins! LOL. I actually still have 2 pumpkins in my living room right now, left over from last October. Still in good shape, still reminding me of how sensuous autumn is. Autumn makes fills my heart with joy, but so do lots of things, like old friends, and good books, my kittens and my husband. You know... photography has the ability to heal me like nothing else can!

;) How about you? What fills your heart with joy?

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up for this challenge.

Come Blog Jog With Me...

Linking List

Wammy... The Ellis Family Cincinnati
Posted!

Karen... Outpost Mavarin
Posted!

Monica... Click Shots
Posted!

Gwenlyn... Greenchair
Posted!

Carly... Ellipsis
Posted!

Suzanne R... SuzyQ421's Photo Blog
Posted!

Kathy... Through The Viewfinder
Posted!

Gattina... Keyhole Pictures
Posted!

Yecap... Camera Obscura
Posted!

Sherrie... Sherrie's Stuff
Posted!

MavisMolly... Holly On The Run
**Welcome New Member** Posted!

Mojo... Why? What Have You Heard?
**Welcome New Member** Posted!

Marina... Milepebbles
Posted!

Valerie... Rosemary's Other Baby
Posted!

Dawn... Dawn's Drivel
Posted!

Jama... Sweet Memories


maryt/theteach... Work of the Poet
Posted!

Tj... Tj's Photo Expressions
Posted!

Teena... It's all about Me!
Posted!

Ourhomeschool... Through The Eye Of My Camera
Posted!

Saffron... CV Photographs... Do You See What I See?
Posted!

Be sure to visit the official Round Robin blog on Sunday, to learn the subject of our next challenge!

Oh, and about the main photo above. You may have read on my blog about how I am hopelessly addicted to Starbuck's, yes, it's true. My favorite drink is the Shaken Ice Tea Lemonade (passion tea) and my favorite snack is the Fruit & Cheese platter. YUM!


Thank you Wammy, this was an amazing challenge, and I learned a lot from it.

-Carly

17 comments:

Sherrie said...

Hi!
That's some great happiness you have! I really like the photo of the kitty sleeping, that is so adorable! Have a great day!!

Sherrie

TJ said...

You always have some amazing photos! Always...I am happy to be back to see everyones shots.
Inspirations...Love TJ

Nature's Sound said...

you certainly do have so many things for which to be joyful .. especially those darn cute kitties! Loooking forward to more kitty pictures soon.

(hint, hint)

:D Glenda

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your JOY. You have such an eye for photography.

Autumn is my favourite season as well. Can't get enough of the foliage.

I'll certainly visit your Blog and be a regular. Great work!!

Do drop by mine..have you met HOLLY yet?

Teena in Toronto said...

Nice array of pix! The kitties are so cute :)

I played too :)

Jan AKA Wammy said...

Wow...the many levels of Carly. Love all the shots and the reasonings.

Mojo said...

I can completely relate to the disconnect that comes from getting on a roll (not quite as literally now that I'm digital, but you know what I mean).

Any opportunity I get, you'll find me and Tonka out with the camera. As long as I've got that going, I'm content. Beyond that things start getting complicated and who needs it?

You've got some truly great material here! I'll have to come back when I've got a bit more time. But just now I have many many people to visit. See you soon!

maryt/theteach said...

Thanks for sharing so much joy and happiness Carley! :)

Karen Funk Blocher said...

As always, your photos are breathtaking - literally! I love reading about what photography means to you. Keep going! I want a published book of your photos. I really do.

Suzanne R said...

Such a neat overview of the things that bring you joy. You have a good variety of them. I do, too, but not the pictures to illustrate all the things that bring me joy (or that I haven't posted at some point before). Love your shots, as always!

Yecap said...

Nice photos all round but ny fave would have to be the cheese platter. I must say that food brings me lots of Joy too.

PS thanks for commenting on my entry.

gwenlyn said...

That was fun! Fin my joy here: http://gtsgreenchair.blogspot.com/2009/02/joy-in-my-world.html

Krista Meyer said...

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Love the photo's! As for you comment about needing to balance things out... I was thinking you could always photograph people reading, people working out, and taking pictures of babies is alway soo much fun! ;o} The picture of the fruit looks like you can reach out and grab a piece.... if only! Now that I'm even hungrier than before... I need to find something to eat!

gwenlyn said...

Thanks for sharing your joy and encouraging ours! Your photos are wonderful!

Anonymous said...

your kittens are lovely. :)

thank you for visiting my site and i'm looking forward to being active in roundrobin. :)

have a good weekend!

Monica said...

What a JOYOUS entry, each photo made me smile and it seemed the smile just kept getting bigger as I looked at each photograph.

Monica

Anonymous said...

beautiful, beautiful photos!!!