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Advent III

I haven’t had much time this week, preparing for the holiday, to either do photography or pull together an Advent 3 post.

This week’s squares, somewhat late, except that I decided to light my fourth candle early, on the solstice instead of waiting for Sunday. It just seemed like the right time to add some light.

Maybe next week I’ll be more pulled together…maybe.

Becky’s Time Squares

A wall that connected

One thing that fascinated me when I researched about the Great Wall of China is that it was used more for communication than for separation. In the days before cell phones, messages could be sent quickly over long distances along the wall using smoke, flares and flags.

These are photos from the reconstructed area called Mutianyu. It is less crowded than Badaling, which is more easily accessed from Beijing. As I mentioned we had a private driver to our hotel as part of Wild Great Wall’s self-guided tour so we did not have to figure out how to get back to the city.

Comparing from the photos I posted last week, Which Way. You can see that the reconstruction and maintenance are a monumental endeavor. The wall is along the crest of the hills and the area is not accessed by roads, the materials are heavy and there is a lot of territory to cover.

Traveling this section there are a lot of stairs, steep and uneven in many places.

For Son of a Beach’s Which Way Photo Challenge

Streets of Downtown Seattle

I used to go downtown pretty often. Of late I take the whopping 20 minute bus ride two or three times a year. This past weekend I attended a conference downtown so went in twice. That takes me to above my annual average this year.

Son of a Beach’s Which Way Photo Challenge

Soft Light Magic

For a while now I have been really enjoying the beauty of photographs posted by Bren at Ryan Photography. In her November 5th Flower of the Day post she describes how she post processes images using radial and graduated filters in Adobe Lightroom, which I actually have and know, more or less, how to use. So many of the techniques require photoshop or other fancy things I haven’t learned yet. Last week I had an afternoon free from other worries and while the chili cooked I took a few photos from a fall walk around my neighborhood and gave her techniques a try.

I found it to be relaxing, almost like meditation, to play with the light and shadows. A big thank you to Bren for sharing her techniques.

Lens Artists Weekly Photo Challenge: Magical Light