painnted home
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: #Daylight in Black and White

In the US last weekend, we (reluctantly) turned the clocks forward for daylight saving time for most of the states. What happened to the choice voters made a few years ago to end this madness? I enjoy more evening daylight, but the morning is dark again. And my inner clock will be fouled up for weeks.

In any case, today, March 20, is the first day of spring in the Northern hemisphere and marks the first day of Autumn in the Southern hemisphere. Referred to as the Vernal Equinox, this day marks an equal number of hours of both daylight and nighttime. Hooray! After a long, snow-covered winter (for me), I welcome spring with open arms, still wearing a sweater of course.

This week’s Sunday Stills theme is to depict daylight, daytime, anything related to “day,” in black and white where possible. In this post, I have a mix of color and black and white images. You can make your main photo of daylight in black and white and show other images in color for contrast if you wish.

“I remember being on a black-and-white set all day and then going out into daylight and being amazed by the color.” ~ Jeff Bridges

A Daylight Encounter on Pi Day

daylight path through forest
Daylight Path

On March 14, 2022(3-14)—aka Pi Day, I walked the dogs in a nearby park that borders the elementary school in which I substitute teach 2-3 times a month.

Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

Fun Fact: Pi Day falls on March 14, which is German genius’ Albert Einstein’s birthday.

A few weeks ago, I subbed for a 5th-grade class that was studying the solar system. Their amazing teacher put a long-term project together that involved gathering large rocks and painting them like the sun and its corresponding planets. Then the painted rocks were placed along the park’s walking trail in relation to the sun.

Of course, math was involved, and beginning with the placement of the rock sun, from here, each planet is “in orbit” along the trail aligned in ratio to its real-life distance from the sun. I left this picture in color so you could see the details the students painted.

Sun-painted Rock

In other words, Pluto is about 2 miles away further down the trail. I must assume that the students used pi to create the formulas to gauge the ratio of the circumference of the solar system for their project. Students painted each rock the colors they interpreted from each planet.

Is the Earth more than a rock in space?

As we walked, my dog Brodie always stops for you-know-what and I shouted, “Don’t you dare pee on Mars!” He missed the rock by mere inches!

Does One Year a Home Make?

In counting days, 365 of them later, I fondly remember moving into our new home.

porch light

On March 22, 2021, we got the keys to our brand-new home and moved in the next day. What has been one year feels alternately like 6 months or several years, depending on what I’m doing, and what I’m thinking about.

Getting the Keys!

What a difference a year makes:

Back view of house
Back of house March 2021
House and Shop
Summer 2021, awaiting the shop doors
Painnted Version of House March 15, 2022

How We Measure the Days

There are many symbols we use to measure the days and the night, the most recognizable is the clock.

black and white thermometer
Outdoor temps in black and white

Before there were clocks, ancient civilizations used a variety of items to measure time. Some were found in nature, the cosmos, or in monoliths and artifacts made by human hands. Most of the ancients relied on the sun, moon, and stars to indicate the passage of time.

“How lovely are the portals of the night, when stars come out to watch the daylight die.” ~Thomas Cole

Jacqui Murray, Author of The Crossroads Trilogy, explains that even Homo Erectus who lived 850,000 years ago, had ways of measuring the passage of time. In Against All Odds, the first book of the trilogy, Murray describes time as “a hand of sun’s travel, or the amount of time it takes Sun to travel the distance of a hand held up to the sky.” Four fingers or a hand-width measured an hour of time.

shadow of the sun
Shadows of the Sun
A daylight moon

Since the beginning of humankind, we have relied on nature and the seasons to mark the passage of time. In the northern hemisphere, spring is the time to plant flowers. Ancient nomadic man relied on seasonal plants to make plans in which to travel since particular plants provided food for a journey and indicated the weather patterns.

We know it is summer when sunflowers begin to bloom.

Sunflower Detailed in Black and White

A desaturated sunflower begins to open in July.

Black and White Sunflower Bud
Sunflower

“To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul.” ~ Andri Cauldwell

Photo Challenges this Week

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

Sunday Stills weekly challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • 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.

This Week’s Featured Bloggers

Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their wonderful B&W daylight photos. I edit these all week as new links are added.

Although St Patrick’s Day has come and gone, I will leave you with this Irish blessing. I AM Irish after all…so why not celebrate green all year long?

Irish Blessing Graphic

I look forward to your photos and other creative ideas as you interpret “daylight in black and white.” Have a wonderful week ahead!

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130 comments

  4. Beautiful recollections of your amazing move. Imagine what the next 12 months will bring. As I write this I see all the destruction in Ukraine and can only imagine the heartbreak of losing all that work – even if no lives were lost. We put ourselves into our work and destroying it destroys a little part of us. It is so wonderful to watch the growth and changes around your house, Terri, since you got those first two keys. Thanks again for linking. Have a wonderful Sunday. 🙂

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  5. I always mosey my way through your Sunday post–the one day of the week I allow myself to move slowly. I loved your discussion of Pi, of telling time by daylight and night sky–and then you mentioned me! That was so much fun. It’s interesting the finger measurement–between Sun’s position and the horizon–is widely used by primitive tribes (I use that word denotatively, not connotatively). It is way cool, innit?

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    • Thank you so much, Jacqui, for taking time to mosey through my posts! That means a lot! I’m sure I got the pi calculation wrong, but I’m pleased I could use it in a sentence! I was very happy to mention you and your wonderful books. Measuring daylight with our own hands is a useful tool even today. Thank you again!

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  7. I always love black-and-white, and I love that quote about color vs. black-and-white.
    I was interested to read about the solar system the 5th-grade class built. Medicine Wheel Park in Valley City, North Dakota includes a similar solar system constructed in a project through Valley City State University. A while back I did a post about the park and some of its astronomical features. https://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/medicine-wheel-park/

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  9. Well every time we turn the clocks there is more discussion about stopping the change but it seems no one can agree on which way to go! I for one am all for DST and sunnier evenings but then I don’t have to get up at 5:00 to milk the cows or feed the sheep!! Congrats on your results with the new home, which I’m hoping (and assuming) is truly feeling like a home instead of a house by now! Looks great!

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    • Thank you, Tina! It is definitely a home now and always was. I guess I referred to it being a house along with the ones we sold for some reason–maybe my journalism sensibilities 🙂 The weather-guy explained that if we stayed at standard time it would be very dark in the a.m. With DST it was even worse with the sun rising here at 3am! Can you imagine?

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    • Thanks, Graham! We are grateful for every year we will be here. Had we waited even 6 months to make our move we would probably been priced out of the Spokane housing market, and hugely delayed for building mfg homes. I have had so much fun subbing (once a week is fine) and to see what students are learning and how these projects are educating the community as well 🙂

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  14. Congratulations, Terri! It is hard to believe that you have been in your new home for one year already. DST has had an interesting path, for sure and it looks like it isn’t done yet. I found this article that explains its history best. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-happened-the-last-time-the-us-tried-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent-180979742/ Personally, I hope we never ‘fall back’ again. I like having more sunlight in the evenings. With standard time, our daylight ends at 6:00 pm during the winter months – this is Florida for Pete’s sake. The land of sunshine…

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    • Thank you so much, Suzanne! Time sure flies! Right now it’s light at 6:30am and getting dark at 7:45–of course we are very far north and west from you, but these hours work fine for me. I’ll have a look at your link! Enjoy that sunshine!

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    • I just read that article, thanks again for sharing the link. I was in middle school when the clocks went forward during that failed experiment. I had to walk a mile to school in the dark for a few weeks. Luckily, some moms formed a car pool. The article states “we have saved nothing,” LOL. Let’s hope something passes and agree on a time frame that is more natural for our bodies. After this pandemic the world has changed how we do business. Who the heck goes shopping after work while it is daylight out? That worked in 1918, but now? Ridiculous and such an old-fashioned notion on which to base the ultimate health risks associated with changing clocks every 6 months. What’s more, it was a few years ago that the clocks were changed a month earlier in spring and in the fall, causing more havoc. Even just going back to the April and October switches would be better than what it is now.

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  17. “Don’t you dare pee on Mars!” That cracked me up. I can’t stand it that we have to change our clocks, Terri. Like you, I’m messed up for weeks. I heard they might finally do something about it. I can’t wait. And congrats to almost a year in the house. That’s a milestone. I love your b&w photos and how they bring out texture and contrast. Just beautiful. Enjoy the beginning of spring!

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    • Thank you so much, Natalie. It’s funny how a post will morph into more (I’m sure you know), so of course I had to add the color photos to help explain the solar system assignment. Isn’t that what makes blogging creative? Have a great week!

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  25. We were supposed to end time change here, but our premier decided it had to wait until Washington, Oregon, and California passed the law first- ugh!
    Beautiful photos and a wonderful shoutout to Jacqui and her amazing prehistoric series.

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  34. I was determined to do this week’s challenge Terri, because I am generally unsure about what works well as a black and white photo and I wanted to experiment with a few. Your shots are all great and your forest track could be a sister to my photo despite being half a world away! I do like the contrast and texture that B&W brings to a photo so it was a good theme for the week’s ‘challenge’. Congrats on being in your house a year now and may you enjoy many more years of happiness there! Not sure how my mathematician missed Pi day!
    Here’s my post although I know you’ve already included it! Thanks so much for the information and inspiration you bring each week. https://debs-world.com/2022/03/20/into-the-forest-i-go-for-sundaystills/

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    • Thank you. I still can’t believe a year went by, Debbie! B&W photography is a whole science unto itself, right? It is fun to dabble and experiment, especially with filters and apps. And how did your hubby miss Pi day? Maybe its a millennial thing–my aerospace engineer daughter makes a big deal out of it every year! 🙂

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  35. I’m always so happy to change the clocks to daylight savings time that I don’t even mind the “lost” hour. Happy dances here. And, yes, we Californians voted a few years ago to keep DST year-round but, apparently, it has to be okayed by the Federal government or some such. Anyway, I heard that the senate voted yes for a country-wide change so we’ll see… maybe they can actually agree on something.

    I love the painted rocks and your B&W photos, especially the sunflower.

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    • Thank you, Kirstin! We have so far to go but every day we do something to our home. Poor hubby is killing himself laying out all the free sod we got. I’m glad you can adjust to the hour change. My dogs still think dinner time is at 5pm.

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  41. Has it already been a year since you moved into your new house? Wow!
    I really enjoyed reading, and seeing the 5th graders project with the planets. Maybe I’ll borrow that idea 🙂 We do paint rocks frequently, usually Trolls (goblins).

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  44. A beautiful and interesting post, I didn’t know about PI day! Your sunflowers are stunningly special in B&W and desaturated. Great detail. I too can hardly believe it was a whole years since you moved – you have done a great job, and I read you are already landscping and have planted trees. The best!

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  48. OH my has it really been a year since you moved in? It’s been less than 5 months for me and already I wonder if I’ve lived anywhere else, I am so at home. Congratulations! I particularly love the “solar system” on the trail, what a wonderful, imaginative teacher. 🙂

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  49. Happy 1st anniversary in your new home! And I adore your sunflowers! 🙂 No one seems to like switching back and forth between DST and Standard time. In Washington we voted to stay on DST year-round, but it takes an act of Congress to approve. Apparently, that happened recently when the Senate voted for the whole country to stay on DST, though the House still has to take up the measure. Honestly, I think it makes more sense to stay on Standard year-round, but nobody asked me. 🙂

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  52. It’s great to see how the surroundings around your new home have changed since you moved in, Terri. Now you’ve lived there through all four seasons, do you have a favourite?

    I, too, dislike the darker mornings. I much prefer lighter mornings and darker evenings. I wish they had left the clocks as they were before they go forward for us in the UK this Sunday morning. I can’t believe it will be after 7 am before the sun comes up again! Just when I didn’t have to turn on lights when getting up in the mornings.

    Black and white photography can make so much difference to a photo, can’t it? It can make the mood in a picture change, and what was a lovely photo can suddenly look scary.

    Here’s my entry this week.

    Have a great week.

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    • Thanks, Hugh! We’ve done so much to our property–Hans works tirelessly, let me tell you. In the UK and where I live, since it’s further north we do get a little more daylight, it certainly makes it hard in the morning to get up in the dark again. I think Fall is still my favorite season. We had an extended one last year, then I discovered the larches (yellow-needled pines) so I will be on the lookout for them later this year. I’m ready for spring, but we don’t see flowers tree blooms for a few more weeks. I love that black and white image you shared. The gates show great texture against the promise of a visit to the sea! Have a wonderful week!

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  55. Terri,
    Count me among the “happy to mosey” crowd. Great pictures as usual, and how fast does time fly. I remember an illustration of the size of our universe from my physics professor in college. Based on the size of the globe he used for the lesson, he told us that Jupiter would be as far away as Hawaii from Tennessee. Blew my mind! My contribution is from a hike in our mountains earlier this week. I actually took a black and white image, something I rarely do. Good timing for this week’s Stills! Joe

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  56. Happy Home anniversary. It certainly is coming along nicely. Can’t believe all you have done. The garage space is a dream…

    Fantastic that you still sub after your brilliant career. They are lucky to have you. The astronomy/math assignment was so interesting. And with it out on the path, others can learn from it, including the kid’s parents. Very cool.

    Lovely photos. Black and white does change things up, and the subliminal message with the change in daylight, night, made it even more special. Love it. Donna

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