The Sunday Challenge ~ Featuring Shanyn Silinski

Hello, Toads and welcome to this weekend's photo challenge, featuring Shanyn Silinski.  Shanyn has been a faithful follower of Real Toads for a while now, and I have long been a great admirer of the photography displayed on her blogs, Sunflower Shan and Mystic Mom.

Portrait of the Artist

Shanyn has been taking photos since she was a child with her first manual Pentax camera. She has lived and worked across the Canadian prairies and lives in SE Manitoba on a small ranch with her husband and son. Shanyn has published one book of poetry, Rainbows of my Heart, and is working on her second, along with a novel in progress. She blogs, spends time doing photography and other creative endeavors like scrapbooking. She has been an advocate speaking out against abuse of all kinds including human, animal and environmental. Her faith and her family keep her grounded.

© Shanyn Silinski

Windows
                   by Shanyn Silinski


She burnt up right there in the field.
Tires down to the steel belts.
Glass melted into brittle waves.
Seat springs finally as bare
as they’d felt on our behinds.
Cranks burnt off, windows
finally rolled all the way down.
Remains of wire and posts,
my new fencing pliers too!
Damn that truck for burning.
Almost got the tractor stuck
saving the fields from going up.
Wasn’t worth much before,
no, its not worth towing out.
Be a good spider web hanger,
empty window frames,
or maybe a cow scratcher
That old Ford paid her dues
even in burning she added
something to the farm.
My little boy loves to visit
he yells and hoots about
the truck that burnt up
and the windows still
frame the prairie sky.


Shanyn has graciously agreed to share her images with us on Real Toads today.  If you upload an image to your own blog, please acknowledge the name of the artist.

© Shanyn Silinski

My sweet husband got me a D90 for Christmas and finally, after too many years, I have a camera I won’t over shoot the capabilities of and it feels GREAT! I love macro photography as well as anything that is different.

© Shanyn Silinski

I love finding angles, light and perspective, often with the same subject, to get one amazing shot. It doesn’t matter if I’m setting up the tripod in a blizzard or madly chasing northern lights, I love having a chance to capture God’s wonderful creation. A slow day is less than ten photos, a great day is 200!

© Shanyn Silinski

When I have a camera in my hands I have a second pair of eyes, ones that can record what I see but also more importantly, they can record the mood, the light, and help me remember what my thoughts were when I was taking the photos.



The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the creative process, so please do not link up old work which kind of fits the image. Members will only respond to poetry written specifically for this prompt: this is in the spirit of our Real Toads project to create opportunities for poets to be newly inspired.

I would like to add my apologies for the last minute postponement of Shanyn's feature, but you know of my internet woes.  My heartfelt thanks to Ella for stepping in at the 11th hour and providing us with a most inspiring Mini-Challenge last Sunday ~Kerry~