Weekly Photo Challenge: Face

This week WordPress’ photo challenge involves faces.

“Share a photo of a face. It could be your own face; the face of a loved one, whose lines and creases you know well; or even a face out in the wild, where you least expect to see one.“

We either like them or we don’t. Me, I’m a bit on the fence — mine is certainly not an oil painting, but I guess others might think otherwise. But I’m not putting that to the test in this instance.  🙂

So I thought about what I might offer up to the theme. There are so many I could go for — I’ve been taking photos for a lot of years, so the choices are endless.  However I decided to show two photos I took recently. Every weekend I drive 90 km to visit my Mum who is in a nursing home in Toowoomba, the city in which I was born and raised.  This particular time I caught up with some friends and we went on a mini-tour of the city.  I was amazed at how many changes have and are in the process of happening, especially in the CBD.  I guess that’s pretty common in the life-cycle of a city.

One spot that we stopped at was where I used to hang around as a kid. It was close to where the public library was, and I would always park my bicycle there.  At that time the car park was for a fruit handling business I think.  But now, 45 years later, it seems to be abandoned, perhaps waiting for a developer to come along and replace it with something new. There is a fabulous piece of graffiti on part of the wall. I’ve always loved the creativity of graffitists  and disagree with the notion that everyone who paints on buildings is a vandal and should be punished. Of course there are some that ruin it for the majority, but in this case, the painting is brilliant! I have no inkling of the background to this piece, but all the same I think it is awesome.

My second shot is a painting on the building where the public library was located when I was that young boy all those years ago. This one was commissioned by the Toowoomba City Council, and it shows faces of the multicultural makeup of the area. The Toowoomba region has representatives of many countries of the world, all of whom have enriched the lives of all who make their home in the area.

I hope you have enjoyed my faces.  If you’d like to see some more posts for this theme, click here.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge…Half-Life

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is to:

Share a photo inspired by a poem, verse, song lyric or story.  Bonus points if you share why the particular text resonates with you. (Though you certainly don’t have to!)

I thought about this theme for a while. A few popped into my head, but the one I want to share with you relates to my dear Mum. My memories of childhood are many and varied. One that I always remember is that Mum loved music. She never played an instrument, but she did love to sing along to whatever she was playing on the stereo.

One song that she played and sang to often was Bing Crosby’s “Sunflower”. It was a happy bright sounding song and I just found a version on YouTube if you’re interested in listening.

The opening verse is:
Sunflower, good morning
You sure do make it like a sunny day
Sunflower, fair warning
I’m gonna love you if you come my way

On weekends, during the early summer, my parents would take my siblings and I for drives out to the agricultural fields west of my hometown (Toowoomba), to marvel at the beautiful colours of the sunflowers that were grown commercially.  I usually make the annual pilgrimage there myself and memories of Mum singing along with Bing always come to mind.  🙂

 

Sunflowers pick me up…

I made the weekly trip to my hometown of Toowoomba (Australia) yesterday.  It was a public holiday for the observation of Australia Day, so took advantage of the opportunity to go and spend some time with my ageing Mum.  While there I visited Toowoomba’s Queen’s Park, a large tract of land close to the inner city, that was transformed many decades ago into a beautiful location full of many varieties of advanced age trees and shrubs.  Annually in September, the city hosts its world-renowned Carnival of Flowers, which sees an amazing assortment of flowering plants on show. Even now, 5 months later, the gardens are still blazing with colour.

I took a number of photos, and this sunflower is one of my favourites. Sadly, just as I took the shot, the wind blew and the top was missed, but I still love it. The variations in colour of its leaves reminded me again of the versatility of sunflowers.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  🙂

Transitioning from shade to sun…

This week’s WordPress photo challenge could be depicted in so many ways…

For this week’s challenge, share an image that depicts transition. Let life itself be your muse.

I could have  chosen from sunrises, sunsets, storms…you name it there are plenty to use.  However, I have chosen to show the transition of shade to full sun, on a house I photographed in my hometown (Toowoomba, Australia).