Saturday, March 17, 2012

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~

28 comments:

Ella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maude Lynn said...

Holy cow, these are good! What flawless composition!

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Beautiful photos, Shanyn, and your poem is wonderful. Oh, that prairie sky! I love the sunlight in the bottom photo - that is my favorite kind of sunlight. Bless you for your activism, too!

Ella said...

Wonderful Shanyn! I am so inspired by your photos and poems~ This was worth waiting for! Thank you Kerry~
I see so many wonderful ideas bubbling just looking at your photos~
Shanyn, I am so happy your have a new camera! It gives you further insight and allows you to share your remarkable gift! Off to collect and pick words...yes, they are like flowers to me~ ;D I love what you are passionate about, speaking out is so important~

Marian said...

wow, beautiful photos. and i love that poem, very very nice!

Scarlet said...

Beautiful pictures. I will try to post by sunday or monday ~

(aka Grace)

Marian said...

what has happened to me?! responding to photo prompts two weeks in a row? maybe i have finally figured it out! thank you for the inspiration, Shanyn.

Fireblossom said...

Shanyn, your pictures are awesome.

Mine is short, but I hope it pleases. I will be around to read everyone's stuff tomorrow.

Lolamouse said...

Gorgeous photos! Will definitely try to compose something for this!

Laurie Kolp said...

These are really beautiful pictures!

Mary B. Mansfield said...

Once again we are blessed with such lovely photos! I really enjoyed this again, looking forward to reading everyone's offerings.

enthusiastically, dawn said...

What an interesting place. I did not know that you published a book of poetry, Shanyn! Where is it? I want to see!Wonderful. The photos are so beautiful Love the Sunflower, and the road at the end. Well they all are very good but love the light play...
I am not sure where the prompt is, will look for it. I enjoyed the poem as well.

Susie Clevenger said...

Gorgeous shots! Thank you so much for letting us use them for inspiration.

Maia said...

beautiful flower silhouette.

Zoe said...

Your poetry and photos are *always* well worth the visit, and these are no exception. I love the poem, I can almost see the story right in front of me! But the photography is some of the best I have every seen - truly and honestly. You HAVE to come and visit, take photos of where I live and then teach me how to do the same!!

Scarlet said...

I just want you girls to know that though #2 links up with us, he doesn't visit other blogs, not here nor at D'verse where he also links up his writing. I don't mind non-members linking up their work, but I think in the spirit of community, if you are here, you should be gracious enough to return the visits of those who visited you. I wish you all a good day and happy week ~

Mystic_Mom said...

You all have awed and humbled me with your contributions and comments here. I will strive to get to each of your blogs today and tomorrow to read and leave comments individually! You rock...thanks for coming to play with my photos as inspiration. And thanks to the Admins of With Real Toads for making us a community like this!

Margaret said...

Truly inspiring works of art! Welcome to toads Shanyn Silinski! I am very excited by checking out your work. Will be posting late late tonight - we are on a "theatre weekend (daughter is in the musical "Snow White"...

hedgewitch said...

Beautiful pics that are wonderfully easy to write to--thanks Shanyn for the gift of your talent to inspire.

Anonymous said...

gorgeous photos, Shanyn - that abandoned truck brought back memories...

Kenia Santos said...

I started thinking the poem posted today for the 'Perspective' challenge. Couldn't put words together then, but here I am today.

Shanyn, your photos are amazing. Where can we see more of your work?

Kissing the cheeks of all toads. <3

Mystic_Mom said...

You all have done some wonderful poetry here, I'm so humbled that my photos could inspire. I have quite a few on my two listed blogs and on my FB pages (personal and Photos by Shanyn). I have, hopefully, commented on all the poems so far, if I do miss someone please let me know! :-) Thank you all...

Scarlet said...

I will be posting mine tomorrow ~

Also in time for OLN ~

Anonymous said...

Shanyn, I also LOVE macro shots. I used to get the best closeups of my babies, as well as outside things. But since my third was born, my photography dreams fell apart. :(

~Shawna
rosemarymint.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

For clarity, is this a members-only group? If so, I hadn't realized it.

~Shawna
rosemarymint.wordpress.com

Margaret said...

Thank you! I finally squeezed in time this morning - I just love your photography - it captures "moments" so well and I hope we get to do this again with your photography!

Margaret said...

Thank you! I finally squeezed in time this morning - I just love your photography - it captures "moments" so well and I hope we get to do this again with your photography!

Anonymous said...

Lovely to see your photos too, Shanyn! I knew you are an amazing poet, but I didn't know about the photography!!! Sorry to drop by - again - at the 11th hour, but...