November already- starting the holiday/end of the year rush. We will be busy as usuall with 4-H, school events, basketball, dune trips and holidays.

On another note...Competition was tough on that last challenge I entered! I didn't make it to the top 10 but was on quite a few peoples favorites & top ten lists.
I jumped in again to this recent challenge-theme is massive or miniscule. Didn't have a thought on what to enter until I was at the rodeo Craig was judging last weekend and I overheard someone say a couple of the bulls for the bull riding were massive!! Well there it was- now I just needed to separate the bull riding competition bulls to get a great picture. If you don't know rodeo I can honestly tell you, one doesn't separate and place rodeo stock bulls they sit and wait to see if they place themselves and you make sure you sit to wait on the other side of a very strong fence!!

Ended up with way to many photos but one that I thought I could enter~

This one was just for fun!!

Spent last Sunday out enjoying the fall weather with a short hike in Sabino Canyon with my daughter and sister. Perfect amount of water running from day before mountain rains. Little cold for me but alot of people out wading and playing. Saw some deer off the road on the way back down.

We rounded a spot on the road and looked up- to my surprise the plant- can't remember his name Simon, Sid, ??? from Lil Shop of Horrors is alive and well living in the sonoran desert!! Instantly FEED ME rang through my thoughts.

Competition #10 interpret how you wish~

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deemThat my days have been a dream;Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roarOf a surf-tormented shore,And I hold within my handGrains of the golden sand--How few! yet how they creepThrough my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!O God! can I not graspThem with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not saveOne from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seemBut a dream within a dream?

These are competitions I frequently enter to learn and expand my photography skills. The above was truly a challenge ~ interpret the poem and come up with an image. I decided to go with the dark side of Edgar Allan Poe and have an idea about lost time in ones life. I took my baby picture of the wall, set up lights and set up the background but soon realize I have to be the model. After "aging" myself a little (would like to say alot, but probably not the case) I start setting timer on camera, running back and forth, trying to focus on something - ended up being a hat on a stand placed where I thought I would be!
Shot a ton of pictures for the one. After a little tweaking with the help of fellow DGrin forum members the above image is my take on the poem~

Will let you know how I do ~