Welcome to the Sunday Stills monthly color challenge! This month’s theme is gray. I chose gray, because, a) I’m running out of interesting colors, and b) I recall years of gray days during the month of May growing up in my home town of San Diego. Marine fog typically rolls in between May and July during the evening and morning hours, burning off by mid-day.
Southern Californians dubbed May as “May Gray,” hence the name of my post. But I’m featuring a variety of gray images so please be as creative as you wish for the color challenge.
“Gray is the queen of colors because she makes everyone else look good.”
Helen Van Wyk, artist and writer
This quote is inspired by Marsha’s Writers Quote Wednesdays, and helps define how we appreciate beauty. As the color gray is often found in nature, haven’t you noticed how much more colors pop against a backdrop of gray clouds? Or in the above image, the light gray snake cotton weed brings out the best of the purple lupine.
Grays Made by Humans
Various shades of gray offer pleasing neutral tones and a popular choice for home interior paint colors.
The gray walls in my new home take on varying shades depending on the light. The new wall decorations reflect gray and wood tones. Even our pole barn/garage currently under construction shows varying shades of gray in the evening sunlight!
Window architecture in shades of gray 
Wall hanging 
Shades of gray in construction
Other architecture like bridges lend themselves to shades of gray.
“Floating” dock on Sacramento River
Grays Made by Nature
Mother Nature works closely with time to create granite monoliths that can be found in National Parks and other preservation areas of the world.
Half Dome View from Glacier Point 
Devils Postpile National Monument in Mammoth Lakes, CA 
Yosemite’s El Capitan peeking through the trees
Then there are the small things…
Dried Sunflower seeds 
Hail 
San Dollar Art Sculpture at San Diego’s Palomar Hotel
Grays Combined
Sometimes, nature and made-made materials combine to make beautiful pairs to highlight the gray and the subject matter. This graceful Snake Cotton weed grows within the stark, man-made dark-gray gravel surrounding areas of our property. These delicate weeds create a light gray patina amongst the variety of weeds and wildflowers.
Another favorite photo is this one of the “twin” dandelion, taken at my former home.
A misty spring sunset looks particularly idyllic as colors pop against the gray mist and wet asphalt.
Florals submitted for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Where can you find gray this time of year? Show us in your images, stories, music, poetry and other creative ideas. And don’t be fooled by the post title, gray does not have to occur in May to be shared for this color challenge.
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
- Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
- Title your blog post a little differently than mine.
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post. I also recommend adding your post’s URL into the comments.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Use hashtag #SundayStills for sharing on social media.
Blogger Links for Weather
Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Each week I will share the links from the previous post so you can continue to meet and support each other. And with that…enjoy the weather from their perspectives!
- Always Write
- Away We Go
- Beautiful Photographs
- Cee’s Photo Challenges
- Deb’s World
- Denyse Whelan
- Easin’ Along Image in comments
- Equipoise Life
- Geriatrix Fotogallerie
- Graham’s Island
- Hugh’s View and News Image in Comments
- Joanna’s Crafts and Adventures
- Kamerapromenader
- Light Words
- Light Write Life
- Musin With Susan
- Stevie Turner
- The Day After
- Travel with Me
- Woolley Muses
Next week we look at your favorite vacations spots! There will be no challenge on May 30 during Memorial Day weekend as I enjoy my daughter’s visit for the first time! Have a wonderful week!
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