Seeing Red

The Color Red.

Red has a way of standing out.

Boldy proclaiming its presence.

For the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week, Patti (Pilotfishblog.com) has challenged us to a scavenger hunt, visiting places and seeking out the color red.

We also have the option to “visit” our archives, which is the route I’ve chosen this week.

Telephone Boxes of Scotland.

You can’t help but admire the telephone boxes (or booths, as I call them) as you travel throughout the United Kingdom.

This particular box is along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

In my post archives, I shared more photos as well as the history surrounding these iconic phone booths. If you’re curious, here’s the post: Telephone Boxes in Scotland.

Red Doors.

I love a good red door! In fact, the door to my current home is red.

The photo above captures the red door of the Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh. Not only did the red capture my eye, but also the world “Bedlam” since that word is part of my blog’s name.

Also there is red captured in the “do not walk” light. There is also the red of the information box on the right of the photo and a red coat on the outer edge of the left.

I shared this door in the post, Doors of Edinburgh, along with some other fabulous doors. Some of which are also red. I have a series of door posts and quite often there will be a red one found inside.

Soccer.

This is a photo of Miss Sunshine’s middle school soccer team. It was taken when she was in 7th grade (if you are new here, she’s now in 10th grade).

I love this shot.

The critical side of me that now knows (a little bit) more about photography than I did at the time would change some things, but, still, this photo makes me smile.

It was taken as a coach’s gift. The longtime girl’s middle school soccer coach was retiring. We took a team photo but this photo was to represent all his years of coaching, hence the reason for no faces.

I amsterdam.

My very first overseas trip, in 2017, first took us to Amsterdam.

It was spring and the tulips were everywhere!

The iconic I amsterdam sign is no longer in front of the Rijksmuseum, having been removed in 2018.

In my archives, I share a few more shots of this area in a post titled: In A Sea of Faces.

Amsterdam Love Locks.

Love Locks seem to appear in many cities and Amsterdam was no exception.

A colorful palette that includes some pops of red.

Mr. D.

Mr. D. is my middle child, my second son.

I know that some of you know this already, but just in case you don’t.

He shies away from social media and rarely lets me take his photo. While I have talked about him and his siblings in various posts over the years, I’ve written posts exclusively about him in the past: The Second Blessing & 18 Years old…round 2.

Mr. D graduated from high school in 2019 and turned eighteen in August. This photo is from my archives. Here, he is fourteen. If he were to turn around, there would still be braces on his teeth. And you would see his piercing green eyes that hold deep wisdom.

Not only is there the red of the skimboard and of the band in the swim trunks, but what you may not be able to tell with the wetness, is that Mr. D is a redhead. When he was a toddler, the women who lived near my grandmother would ooh and ahh and say they wish they could package his hair color and show their hairdresser.

From the age of around fourteen, Mr. D began to grow his hair. If you’ve been around the blog awhile, you may have seen that. It grew into glorious red curls that hung to his shoulders. I shared a photo of those curls in the post where I set the anonymity for my children: What’s in a (nick)name. Just this past October, he cut all those curls away…as if announcing a new phase.

While I am typically drawn to the blues and greens found around me, sometimes we need a little fire to spice up life.

And as far as my son goes, he checks those boxes. Middle child: Check. Zodiac Sign of Leo: Check. Red Head: Check.

Obviously I’m being cheeky (kind of).

Interestingly, after I spent much of the afternoon digging through my archives hunting for red, when I watched a movie in the evening, the scenes that had an overwhelming set of color (an Irish bar filled with greens and a train carriage filled with royal blue) popped out to me.

Tell me, what colors pop out to you in a day?

Do you stop, really stop, to notice colors?

Do you notice red?

I bet that today you will.

And there’s even a name for that. It’s called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon or Frequency Illusion.

Let your light shine!

Amy