Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is reflections and shadows.
CFFC: Reflections and Shadows
Geological formations
CFFC: Reminder of Nature’s Beauty
Share Your Desktop: Sedona
Clare’s Cosmos invites us to share our desktop photos. I change my wallpaper every so often, but I always come back with my favorite: Sedona! This is Cathedral Rock, quite well known these days. I took this photo in June 2018 from the campus of my high school, Verde Valley School, a weekend celebrating the 75th anniversary of the school.
CFFC: The Ground We Travel
Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge this week is: Ground: sand, dirt, paths, walks, trails, roads, etc.
Bridges, paths & walkways, desert and mountain terrains, and national parks – these are some of the places to find interesting “ground.” Sometimes there is an added bonus: a lizard, a flower, or a butterfly, or something ugly, like trash. This challenge is a way to showcase the photos I don’t usually publish in other posts!
Chicago Botanic Gardens: bridges, paths, and walkways
Cuba Marsh Wildlife Preserve (Illinois): walkways and grassland
The Middle East (Egypt and Israel): Desert landscapes, markets and farms
Mountain and Southwest (USA) terrain: ground above & below the tree line and rocks at Rocky Mountain National Park; trails and paths at Bryce Canyon National Park
CFFC/CMMC: Oranges & Holes
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week has the topic of hole/whole. And for her newest challenge, Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge, the topic is orange.
Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah is a wonder of geological formations called “hoodoos.” These orangish sandstone shapes were carved over millions of years through water and wind erosion. Besides being orange, look carefully to see the holes!
Another beautiful national park in Utah is Arches National Park, named for the many arches carved by nature into the orange rocks. The first picture below is an iconic image, which many people have seen on calendars or posters. I had to use my telephoto lens to get a good shot of this beautiful arch, because without an arduous climb we could not get very close to it! The second photo is another of the park’s arches, which form a type of hole due to erosion, out of the whole rock!
Pumpkins, when they carved, become jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. At night you can see the light of the candle glowing through the holes!
Chihuly piece at Museum of Glass in Tacoma
Orange foliage with “holes” between the leaves!
I keep this (whole) water bottle next to my bed.
It has a hole in the top where the straw goes in!
CFFC & Square Up: Stacked or Piled Up
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week has the topic Stacked or Piled Up, so it can also be used for Becky’s Square Up January challenge!
CFFC: Nature’s Patterns
Patterns are everywhere in nature. Indeed, humans have imitated nature in creating patterns. Patterns in Nature is the wonderful topic for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week.
Flowers make many patterns.
I love photographing mushrooms, which appear in many shapes and sizes.
These resemble flowers. 
Golf ball shaped! 
Cluster
Tree branches, leaves and trunks make their own complex patterns.
It is always worthwhile to stop and admire small leaves and plants – often they surprise you!
Some animals have patterns on their skin, tail, or feathers.
Layers painted rock formations over millions of years. In Arizona, there are many examples of this, at the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert and in Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona.
A Special CFFC: Bryce Canyon NP
I already participated in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge with the theme orange and green. But later I remembered this beautiful national park we visited two years ago, so I wanted to share some of the beautiful vistas we saw there! Here is a gallery of orange and green at Bryce Canyon National Park! Click on the photos to enlarge. (I had intended to include more photos but the new “Block” system on WordPress deleted all but these when I tried to change the format from “Gallery” to “Tiled Gallery.” Since I had already spent quite a bit of time downloading the photos, I decided to give up at that point!)
Kinda Square #5: Close Encounters
This photo invokes memories of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so although no aliens greeted us, I’m submitting it for Becky’s October Kinda Square challenge:
Oops, I lied! We did encounter an alien – in the souvenir store! (He didn’t greet us but I did have my husband take a photo of me with him!)
In fact, I don’t think I ever heard of Devil’s Tower until I saw that movie. I suspect it’s the same for a lot of people. I wonder if after the movie was released the number of tourists increased substantially? Probably! We had not intended to or thought of going there on this trip we took to the Dakotas in 2017, but when we saw the advertising and realized how close it was, we decided to take a side trip! I’m glad we did!
2020 Photo Challenge: Shot From Above
Travel Words’ 2020 Photo Challenge theme for September is “point of view” and for this final week, the subject is shoot from above.
Wanderlust & Wonderment 