"It's a gift" was this week's challenge.  We were to think beyond the traditional idea of a gift this time of year.  So I say,  it's a gift to live in Kansas where sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. 

Half and half was this week's challenge.  This is a PB & J sandwich before it is folded.  
 

 Our annual assignment of self portrait.  I tried to change it to a pencil drawing in photoshop.  Failed.  So I just submitted it as a B&W.   It was a warm 19 degrees but calm and sunny.

Shadow Play was this week's assignment.  It's been too overcast this week to get good shadows.  So outside was literally out.  Took this one on my sewing table. 
 

 Colors of November.  Yesterday, we had an unusual snow for Kansas.  There wasn't any wind and the snow stuck to everything.  We had 7".  I used this photo in my class because of the contrast. 

 The challenge was "purple please".  This is grape jello in a glass bowel over my light table.  I broke my good leaded cut glass bowl trying to mix the jello in it.  Apparently, it can't stand hot.  I mixed the jello and let it cool before I put it in this bowl.  

 The challenge this week was "Visual Tension".  Will it snap or will it hold???

 This week's challenge was happiness is....  Well, happiness is a warm fuzzy on your shoulder.  However, Rex wasn't too happy.

 This week's challenge was "What lies ahead".  I'd say its a very long, long road ahead. 

These are the photos from the final showcase at the photo summit in Laveta,Co. 2023

Old Paint

This is a picture for the item "On the fence"  It is cattle skulls on the fence posts.  

   This is my photo for "Minimalist".

  This is the photo for "Impressionist".  It's pond scum on Wahotoya Lake east of LaVeta, Co. 

This is a panorama photo.  It is one of the techniques we learned from Chuck Honeycutt at the summit. 

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The one above are star trails.  It was a cloudy night and the photo doesn't show the trails like it should.   It was a technique taught by Warren Lee in an evening.  I do need a cable shutter release to make it easier. 

The photo at right is "Perfect Stranger".  This man comes into LavVeta in the morning and sells long johns and cinnamon rolls on the corner.

 This is the photo for "Wonderful Woods.  It is a stand of aspens on the road up to Up Top,, the ghost town at the old LaVeta pass.  

Long road back into Laveta from Breakneck Hill.  Looking to the south.

Small herd of horses on the road to Breakneck Hill .

Tenacious sunflower in the rocks along the road. 

Interesting barn on the road up to Breackneck Hill  north of LaVeta, Co. 

Interesting yard art in LaVeta, Co. 
 

Above, petunias in Cuchara, Colorado

Right, Colorful line of mail boxes at Cuchara, Co
 

Interesting front gate on a home in LaVeta Colorado

Trail to a private home in Up Top, Colorado.  The old 

Laveta Pass. 

State Flower
 

 Profile was the challenge this week.  My usual model didn't want to participate, so I used this tough flower.  It has survived the 100+ degree weather of the past week.  So it deserves a moment in time. 

 Ansel Adams was the challenge this week.  Even though he is known for his pictures of towering mountains, there were a lot of cloud photos in the group.  This was the best cloud formation Kansas had to offer this week in Osage Co. 

 The challenge for this week was "hands".  A friend suggested a hand of cards.   This is aces and eights, the dead man's hand that Wild Bill Hickock was holding when he was shot in the head from behind in Deadwood, South Dakota. 

 The challenge was abstract auto.  All I got this week was the side of a grain truck.  Not very inventive but at over 100 degrees each day,  it was too hot to look for something more interesting.

 In the moment was the challenge.  We were to keep our camera handy.  What do Flamingo do on a hot summer day in July?  This is a yard in Overbrook. 

 The "year word" we decided on in January was to be revisited.  Mine was destress.  So this is me in the shade, destressing after push mowing some of the lawn. 

 This week's challenge was "on the fence".  This is my friend, Debbie Friesen,  on the fence as to which fabric to use in the border on her baby quilt. 

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 The challenge was to finish the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night".  I finished the sentence with "it was a dark and stormy night when a stranger entered our yard".  

 This week's theme was "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer".    This is our unmown hay field in the morning with the fog raising off it.... hazy.  

 The challenge last week was "free for all".  Or mostly a picture we wanted to take or had taken that didn't fit the themes.  This is our newly blooming yucca with the rain dripping.  I couldn't post this last week because we didn't have internet when it was needed to meet the deadline.  We drove into Overbrook and used the shop's internet.  

 The challenge was "perfect pairs" such as buttons and bow, etc.  I ran out of time and out of ideas, so I settled on milk and cookies. Then my photographer's assistant decided to check things out.  He wouldn't drink it but had to smell it. 

 Anticipation was the word.  I'm anticipating tomatoes later this summer from my seedlings. 

 Delicate Mirror Montage.  Fluffy clouds were about as delicate as I could get.  I tilted the camera approx. 45 degrees and snapped.  Then in Photoshop, I duplicated the layer and flipped the second layer horizontally.  Then layered them.  Kind of cool.  Most of the class did flowers and that's what I did a couple of years ago.  So I wanted to try something different. 

 The painting "The Scream" was the challenge this week.  My friends helped me recreate it while celebrating Cinco de Mayo.  What a great bunch of gals. 

 "Square in a Square" was the challenge this week.  This is a motif in a really old door.

"Past Prime"  was the week's challenge.  This is chocolate peanut butter pie.  It may be past it's prime but it was still yummy.  I ate the evidence.   

 The challenge was for something that started with FT.  This is a future, formidable, forming (you pick) Thunderstorm.  It did bring torrential rain and some hail.  

 Floating is this week's challenge.  These are floating clouds and it's good that they aren't storm clouds too. 

 The theme was nonsense.  I was going to take a picture of something upside down using the crystal ball.  But I noticed how hot the ball made my hand when carrying it in the sun.  So I laid it down and started a fire.  So this picture is really NO Nonsense..

 Free for All, any photo taken after the first of the year.  This is my Christmas cactus that is confused and blooming again.  

 The zodiac was the challenge.  Not necessarily your own but one of them.  I choose The Archer since finding a Crab in Kansas was a little daunting.  This is the Kansa Indian on the capital building.  Funny that a Kansa would have a Latin name, Ad Astra. 

 "Found Landscapes" was our challenge.  This mountainscape is really peeling paint on an old gutter. 

 This week's we were supposed to take a picture using our initials.  So this road is "Very Long".