Tower and Tree

Once again, unable to take a picture, so another old one from my trip to France. This particular photo was taken outside the chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire. We arrived there in the misty drizzle of a grey February morning, only to find that our tour guide had gotten hours mixed up or something, and there would be no one at the gate to allow us into the castle for about an hour. We all went our separate ways then, wandering around the vicinity, and for me, that meant a really beautiful long, solitary walk in the first greenery I'd seen since getting to France. So I'm not complaining!

It's Friday, so this picture is the obligatory nature piece, but it's also Friday the 13th (so glad I got my teeth out yesterday and not today, eh? ;) ) and so I wanted to go with something that had kind of a creepy look to it. Beautiful as this castle and estate were, I think the castle tower with a lonely, barren black tree are also pretty Friday the 13th-ish!

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Screaming Gargoyle

Sorry this is so far after the fact, but I had an unexpected emergency extraction of all four of my wisdom teeth, two of which were impacted. Not exactly fun times, and I wasn't quite capable of getting a photo up here. I was also incapable of taking photos, so you're getting another old one for today.

This gargoyle graces the courtyard of one of the chateaux in the Loire Valley, which contains over 300 such castles. We saw several in a matter of days on my trip, so forgive me if I'm not one hundred percent certain which one this was from! I'm pretty sure it's Chambord, as I believe that was the first we went to, but either way, they all have a certain similarity. The expression on this mossy-backed fellow's face is about how I feel now the Vicodin's wearing off...

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Notre-Dame Interior

Exactly one year ago, I was in Paris, beginning the three most adventure-packed, interesting, memorable and life-changing months of my life. To be fair, that would have been true had I been spending three months studying pretty much anywhere outside of my own country, but the fact that it was Paris, this beautiful, incredible, historical city, just made it that much better. I miss the city, the cultural differences that made me feel so out of place at first, the food (ohhh how I miss the food), the fashion, my apartment in the 5th arr., and of course the beautiful, mesmerizing, awe-inspiring pieces of history like the cathedral of Notre-Dame, less than a minute from my apartment. I lived right next to it for three months. Now, all I have is pictures like this... That is, until I get the chance to go back!

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Millenium

I took this picture in Chicago's Millenium Park, under the giant...I don't even know what it is, a giant silver jelly bean that curves fantastically. There were all these kids (and plenty of adults) running around and beneath it, mesmerized by the way it warped their reflections. I didn't use any effect on this picture at all - that's what it looked like.

The girl in the corner is my sister Rose.

--The Internet is a wonderful thing. So this giant quicksilver bean is actually called the Cloud Gate, and it was unveiled in 2004, a bit late for the millenium but still pretty cool. It was the winning result of a design competition, and the idea behind it is that it's a gateway between earth and sky.


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The Winding Stair :: [full of firsts]

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This is a day full of firsts. It's the first of the month, it's the first day that my little sister is an adult, and it's the first post of this new blog, Photolumination, a daily photo blog... in progress.

I'm still toying with the idea of this, so we'll just have to see how this goes, but for now I like the idea of having some themed days -- say, Friday is pictures of/to do with nature, Saturday is portraits/people, and Sunday is photos inspired by a song lyric, poem, nursery rhyme, book passage, etc., that I feel like using. And firsts of the month may get a theme of their own. Today would have to be the theme of 'first'... And it's a Sunday to boot, so we get a 'first'-themed photo, and one inspired by the poem "The Winding Stair," by W.B. Yeats--

"My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
'Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;
Fix every wandering thought upon
That quarter where all thought is done:
Who can distinguish darkness from the soul."

The 'first' theme comes because this picture was taken in my first week staying in Paris last spring, at the lovely Musee Cluny, the national museum of the middle ages, a couple of streets away from my apartment in the Latin Quarter.

See you tomorrow!