Until we know for sure what the theme is, let me entertain you

[Mira]

with a shot I will not use in what may end up being a contest of "Beautiful Decay".

Join me as you look through your files, and show me YOUR rejects.

[JeffR]

1. That's an interesting challenge. Have to see what I've got.

I love the expression you caught here. Right away you know that this would be a fascinating and entertaining person to talk with.

[Mira]

3. She was a greeter at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota

and you are so right. She was hysterically funny, and full of life.

[JeffR]

5. Seems like a good fit jobwise.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think her beauty is much more prominent than her decay. It's impossible to look at this photo without smiling.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. Great idea for that theme!

here's one- he was quite dead!

[Mira]

4. OH MY!

sad and dead looking for sure.
Not a bad entry, because the background looks kind of "weepy", sad and decaying as well.
But you know how it is, we start poking around in our files, and it get interesting.
Other than really going on a shooting spree poking in the files is my favorite thing to do when I have a theme to chase. My old photos suddenly find new purpose and stuff I have seen but ignored finds new use.

I found a photo of a decaying squirrel so far, happened a month ago, I might use it. The tail is quite beautiful.
And one downtown area of buildings I'll go re-shoot if the time permits, I had completely forgotten about that.
And dead rotting fish on a fence at the ocean.

Anyway, this is the exciting time in a contest for me.

[JeffR]

6. Found this:

The "India Centre" opened as the Eastwood in 1927. These lights haven't been lit by anything but the afternoon sun for years. The ground floor storefronts are mostly full, but the old cinema above is empty and dark.

[Mira]

7. Yeah, I like the obvious age on it and the fact it seems to just hold on

for old times sake.
When I first came to this country and decided to stay I would get on the train (YES, WE HAD A FEW THEN, but I kid you not they had bullet holes in the walls sometimes, this is 1964-5) and go to NYCity for the weekend.
I was too young to know about the dangers, but not too young to see things like your photo.
Makes me feel really old for a minute. So that makes it a winner for the theme.

[JeffR]

8. I took the Silver Meteor from Savannah to NYC in '67

and thinking about it, I feel really old too.

:)

[Mira]

9. When I was 11

I was spending a year with my grandparents in Vienna.
My parents did not come for me when the year was up. I locked myself into the bathroom, after supplying it with everything I needed for an extended wait (like a pillow for the tub, and food under the sink), and told them I would not come out til I heard a parent's voice in the hallway.

Three days later my mother arrived.

On the Orient Express.

Do you still feel old?

:rofl:

[JeffR]

10. That's a great reminiscence! Wonderful.

Yeah, I still feel old, but almost content.

And the obvious question: did your mother take any pictures on the Orient Express?

[Mira]

14. It was my Dad who was the photographer!

Other than being about age, this story shows an 11 year old with serious chutzpah, locking my grandparents out of the only bathroom for 3 days and forcing her way home.
:eyes:

[JeffR]

20. It was a principled stance.

You might consider running for Congressional office. If I may be so bold, the Georgia 12th could really use you as opposed to the pseudo-Dem in place now.

[Mira]

21. Yeah, how about the NC 5th?

Photo I took of my congress critter Virginia Foxx. She voted against lunches for poor kids last week.
The ones where Rush, flush a movement Limbaugh says: Why don't their lazy parents go to the grocery store.

I'm not cut out to be a politician.
I'm way too outspoken, un-flowery, for the South, to be electable.
Foul mouthed, too.
Plus I'm a foreigner (though I only have a very very tiny accent, few ever catch it)

I'm cleaning up a corner of my shop to set up an easel to paint a photo RichardD took.
That's more important in my life. And I'm selfish.

I know this is way too much verbiage, and you did not really mean it.
I go to bed now!

[JeffR]

22. Good lord! I forgot you were "represented" by the cretinous Foxx.

Now I feel bad for griping about John Barrow, much as I don't like him.x(

[Elfin Yeti]

11. How fun!

I look at her and wonder if she ever mourns the loss of her youthful looks or if she is so busy living life that it never crosses her mind. What a great character -- I wish we were friends!

[Elfin Yeti]

12. some beautiful decay...

I apologize if I posted any of these before...

[Mira]

15. Now is the time for all spectacular photos (like this) to come

to the contest to be shown.
Any of these of course are phenomenal contenders. I'm partial to the hands, because I'm more human than animal.
But really, my friend, it's time you entered something again.

[Mz Pip]

13. I've got a couple

I don't think I'll use either of these.






Mz Pip

[Mira]

16. Very nice. Unusual - the second one. It could be bark?

Are you itching to get going, after having to sit out the last one (not twiddling your thumbs)?

[Mz Pip]

17. I've been going through folders

looking for the right shot to enter. I've narrowed it down, I think, to about 7 shots. Or I might crawl though my neighbor's jungle and see if that deer skeleton is still there. That might make for an interesting entry if I can capture some beauty in it though there already is a winner IMHO in that catagory already posted in this thread.

[HarveyDarkey]

18. If that's a reject, I'm looking forward to what you're considering

What a wonderful photo. There is so much beauty in that lady.

[Mira]

19. Well, HarveyDarkey, I thank you for adding a voice to what the feedback seems to say:.

This lady has potential.
Being an old lady myself, I just thought it was funny, more than a serious consideration.
She, just like me, is 30 or so inside most of the time.

I might, time permitting, run a poll amongst ourselves with my few potential others soon after we have our host's official declaration of theme, the closing of the poll, and he gives us the time line for entering the submissions.