by Erin Nicole
I took this picture at the Dallas Arboretum a few years ago and it’s always been one of my favorites. It’s with this photograph, of a journey and a destination, that I welcome all of our readers to August.
Every 4th of July, the neighborhood is full of flags. This is one of my favorites.
Every July 1st, these ribbons appear on the street signs in my neighborhood. I always look forward to their arrival. With this picture, the clouds were kind enough to assist me by being almost as striking as the ribbon. Have a great July!
This little fellow, or maybe his relatives since I took this picture two years ago, shows up in our backyard a lot, usually in the middle of the night. On this day, I happened to catch him out in the afternoon and he was so surprised to see me and my camera that he almost fell off of his branch. I’m not going to say that this is a great work of art or that it’s even the best picture that I’ve ever taken but I’ve still always liked it and I felt our neighborhood devourer of tics deserved a chance to welcome all of you to the month of June.
Possums may look fierce and they may hiss but they’re actually harmless and good to have around. They eat tics, do not get rabies, and are not aggressive. Everything you’ve heard about possums playing dead to get out of confrontation is totally true. Don’t try to make a possum into a pet, though. Just let them do their thing.
Hanging Around is probably not the most original name that I could have come up with for this picture but I don’t think the possum would mind.
There’s a church nearby that, every Memorial Day and 4th of July, plants little American flags all over the neighborhood. These four flags were placed a few blocks away from my house. On the day that I took the original photograph, the grass was actually very green but, for this picture, I wanted to emphasize the red, white, and blue.
Welcome to May!
by Erin Nicole
I don’t know if I’ve shared this one before or not. I probably have. Though I call this one “Faith,” this picture is not necessarily meant to be about religious faith. Instead, it’s about what you believe in, whatever that may be. It’s about having faith in anything, whether it’s God or science or your ideology or your country or your family or your friends or anything. It’s about celebrating what you believe in your heat and mind and never giving up that faith.
As for the building in this picture, it’s actually the back of an old Albertson’s store. The building was torn down a few months after I took the picture.
by Erin Nicole
I took this photograph many years ago, while watching the sun set in May. It was a very peaceful moment and I think this pictures that. One reason why I love this picture is that I didn’t even realized that I had also taken a picture of a bird flying across the sky until I looked at this image many months later. That’s one of the thing that I love about photography. You not only capture what you’re seeing but often, you discover what you previously missed.
by Erin Nicole
Always be ready and prepared. I just happened to be outside when our neighbor brought out his red couch and left on the curb and so I was able to get this picture of a discarded piece of someone’s life. I’m not sure why he threw out the couch. It was old but it still looked like it was in perfectly good condition. Of course, I didn’t sit on it or anything like that. I’m not that brave.
The next morning, the couch was gone. Someone came and got it and since I wasn’t woken up by the sound of municipal trucks rumbling down the street that morning, I can be sure that it was saved from going to a landfill. It’s probably sitting in someone else’s house now.
Whatever happened to it, I’m glad I was able to get this picture before it went away.
by Erin Nicole
I took this picture a week and a half ago, at the tail end of the winter storm. The power had just come back on after being off for for several hours. I stepped outside and stood in the backyard, surrounded by snow and feeling frustrated and angry. Then I looked up and I saw the sun reflecting off of these icicles that were hanging from our roof. After getting my camera, I snapped this picture.
To me, this picture is a reminder that there’s beauty to be found during even the darkest of times. Sometimes, it’s right above you.
The day after I took this picture, the temperature finally rose above freezing, the snow started to disappear, and these icicles fell from the roof, landed in the grass, and quickly melted.
