For this week’s Sunday Stills challenge, we’re exploring groups of three or more. Almost anything can be grouped, so let your imagination run wild—the sky’s the limit!
How is your summer going so far (or Winter)? We planted flowers and veggies in the garden and we’re already harvesting the cherry tomatoes.
The marigolds are growing nicely!
I’m still waiting for the sunflowers to make their official appearance. Here in Northeastern Washington, we’ll see them in abundance in mid-August! These beauties were from my garden in Sacramento.
I captured this trio in three stages of growth: bud, full bloom, and spent.
“Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there’s always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.” — Marcelene Cox
Groups on the Water
I can’t ignore the water calling my name to get out there! It’s always best to enjoy water activities in groups.
“You guys pair up in groups of three, then line up in a circle.” – Bill Peterson
Surfs up in the Arizona desert! This group of teens catching waves on their boogie-boards.
You never know what else you might see in Arizona. When we visited my stepmom in Green Valley, we had to stop for THIS! Three javelinas meandering across the street!
Groups of Birds
We know that groups of birds may be known as gaggles, flocks, charms, unkindnesses, and coveys, to name a few.
This season’s second brood of Say’s Phoebes fledged last week. 12 days have gone by and they should be feeding on their own. Soon they will migrate south to Arizona and Mexico for the winter.
When we visit Arizona, we enjoy hiking around the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. There are always beautiful birds to see there. I spied four Short-Billed Dowitchers (of the sandpiper family) diligently plunging their bills into the sand looking for tasty treats. A group is known as a “fling.”
I am also sharing images re-edited and re-imagined for Kate’s One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge.
I diligently watched the babies being fed by Mom and Pop Phoebe. The featured image was a lucky catch with my camera.
Here is a post-edit used by Google images AI-generator on my Phone: I like the softness of the watercolor feature here. You can see the baby bird’s slightly annoyed expression on the left.
Even the best camera can’t always capture the best image. There is so much texture and much of the same color that the birds disappear. As a stand-alone image, it isn’t horrible.
I edited this through the watercolor filter using Google Image AI. The effect is artsy and whimsical.
I also played with a few other images using black and white edits.
Sharing the birds for IJ’s Bird of the Week and the activity for Pepper’s One Step at a Time.
A Children’s Book Series in the Making
I’m having fun experimenting with different filters and editing techniques as I work on my first picture book about the delightful Say’s Phoebe family that has returned to build nests under our backyard patio cover for the past three years. Since the book is intended for very young children, I’m giving the photos a gentle, illustrated look to help tell the story.
The second book will be written for older children and will use my original photographs to share more about the lives and behaviors of these charming birds. Please stay tuned!
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is simple to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives. Your original images reimagined with AI tools in post-editing are also welcome.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
- 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 to the comments.
If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.
Join me next week as we explore animals and/or birds found on a farm or in a zoo.
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir
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