THE CITY

Mr. L. and two friends look out from a hillside high above the city. They can see Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds, clear across the Ohio River and into Kentucky.

The girls are visiting from a neighboring state to work on their 4-H Photography projects. It's been fun to see them going from taking snapshots to photos that many of us would be proud to claim. The youngest especially. She listens to an instruction and I can see her putting it into action with her next shot. she can name the parts of the camera and is using "Auto" less each day.

SEASIDE

I'm sad to say this is as close to seaside as I'm likely to get this summer.

FEMININE (one of many themes I missed over the months!)

Our daughter has a quiet moment to reflect in the midst of the engagement celebration. The wedding day will be a celebration of both our family's Catholic Christian traditions and her fiance's Hindu traditions. For this Hindu engagement blessing she is honoring her future husband's traditions by wearing a bindi (a small jewel that doesn't really show well in the photo) in the center of her forehead. The red marking is a powder (sometimes a paste is used but our girl has sensitive skin!) and is, I think, called "tilak."

PASSAGE OF TIME

Our daughter receives a welcoming hug from her fiance's grandmother following their engagement blessing ceremony, a Hindu tradition. I liked the behind the scenes perspective and the way the passage of time is measured in generations in this shot.

VEHICLE

He didn't seem to mind the off and on mist of rain. I liked the texture the misty rain added to the shot.

DROPLETS

A visit to our garden after an early day rain.

PAIR

A pair of swans glide past a pair of boaters.

DISTANT

The ground is a distant speck when you're perched on top of a water tower while painting.

COMPLEX

Our middle daughter is engaged to a young man of the Hindu faith. His family hosted an engagement blessing for the couple. This is a close up of the detail work in the mehndi done on her hands the evening before the event. It is done with henna and lasts a few weeks. The darkness of the final ink is determined by one's own body temperature.