Where Water and Sky Meet - Charleston, South Carolina

Any time on a boat is a good time, and when a sunset cruise turns into a nighttime journey, it's an opportunity to capture the beauty of water meeting sky, all illuminated by moonlight. Thanks to all at the Carolina Girl of Charleston, SC.

Stars and Stripes by Moonlight, Charleston, SC, July 2013, Photo by Shannon Finney

The Moon will guide us, Charleston, DC, July 2013, Photo by Shannon Finney

In Celebration of Small Wonders

Photograph by Shannon Finney, December 2009, Alexandria, Virginia

One of my favorite childhood memories was Grandma hauling out the big box from the back of the closet with our family Nativity scene. The figurines were small and chipped from decades of wear and tear and Christmastime appearances. Grandma would let my sister and I set up the figurines on the coffee table in the living room, though I would wander in and out of the room throughout the holidays adjusting the figures, and treating them like Biblical action figures. My love of miniatures continues, but it reaches its zenith at Christmas. I photographed the above Nativity scene several years ago at a church in Old Town Alexandria, and it's one of my favorites. It feels like a three-dimensional, pastoral painting, set in rural Europe, rather than in the Middle East. The humans and the barnyard animals all have that calm, bemused expression on their faces, which makes this small wonder a visual treat.

 

Endless Summer - A Love Note

 

 

Now that we've experienced the first fifty-degree morning, there is no better time

than now to look back fondly at the summer that was. I took this photo on the

last day of my vacation. My husband and I awoke at dawn and headed down

to the beach at Spring Lake, New Jersey. The sand was dewy and cold,

and aside from the seagulls and a stray jogger, there was this lone surfer,

waiting for his wave. Sitting atop the water, he was absorbed into a

backdrop of blues and oranges and yellows - a visual last hurrah for summer:)