Before I started photography, I took nature for granted. While I liked pretty flowers, I never noticed their delicate intricacies. However, becoming a photographer changed all that. I now I look at the light shinning through the petals and the stamens holding pollen for the bees.

Guest host I. J. Khanewala‘s challenge is for us to discover the ordinary around us and cherish it. I do cherish nature.

It might be an eagle, hawk or deer.

Or maybe a landscape in the country, an ocean scene or a well known tourist spot.

  • Windsor, California
  • Fort Ross, California
  • Pacific Grove, California

But what happens when nature itself provides challenges like the wind storm we had last winter. It blew most of the almond blossoms off the trees in the orchards, devastating the almond crop. Ordinarily these trees would be full of blossoms.

But sometimes humankind provides the igniting spark that destroys what nature has taken so long to create.

In one fire season we went from a scene like this.

To a scene like this, taken yesterday. The results from the Caldor fire.

Let’s not take our extraordinary nature for granted any longer. Be careful to leave areas you visit just as you found it–beautiful!

30 thoughts on “Lens Artists Challenge #169: The Ordinary”

  2. Cheers for the nature appreciation and caring for it awareness plug
    And great photos – the blanket of pink in pacific grove photo reminds me how stunning it can be to see flowers wild like that

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  4. Beautiful photos. Nature is a great inspiration. I love that carpet of pink. And that fall cplpur is beautiful of course, but so is your photo of the ash and cinders after the fire. That’s a great illustration of how your attention can change the way the world looks.

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  8. What you say about being a photographer changing how you look at things really resonated with me. Even when I don’t have my camera with me and I’m not really thinking about taking photos, I still find myself seeing certain things in a frame, or wondering how they would look through a zoom lens!

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