May your troubles be less & your blessings be more
And nothing but happiness come through your door.
-Irish blessing

It’s no secret that I love all things Irish. So to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I’m giving away an Irish Blessing wallpaper & a free printable.

I’ve been a little bit obsessed with all things Irish for . . . well, pretty much always. But since I visited in 2016, it’s reached a whole new level of madness. I absolutely cannot wait until I’m able to go back to see more of the country, but until then I relive my visit through the many, many pictures I took while I was there. (And through all the Irish products I can find locally – Guinness, Jameson, Barry’s Tea, Bewley’s Coffee . Not to mention the Butler’s White Chocolate I order direct from Dublin. If you haven’t tried it, you must. It doesn’t really taste like white chocolate to me. It’s like Eagle Brand Condensed Milk in candy form.)

The beauty of the Irish countryside is simply breathtaking.

This photo was taken from the Ionad an Bhlascaoid Mhóir – The Great Blasket Centre, in Dingle, Co. Kerry, which is a fascinating history museum. I mean, seriously. Can you imagine having that view all the time? I think I spent about 75% of my trip with my camera glued to my face because everywhere I looked was just beautiful. For instance . . . 

This was our view when we stopped at a petrol station. Yep. A gas station. You know what my local gas station has a view of? A Rite Aid & another gas station.

The Irish have quite a way with words.

It’s no secret that kissing the Blarney Stone (which I did – my fear of heights & the ick factor did not stop me) is supposed to grant you the gift of gab. While I can’t say I’ve become much more loquacious, the Irish are certainly known for their way with words. They gave us Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Jonathon Swift, Bram Stoker, C.S. Lewis. The list goes on and on. Oh, and one of my favorite poets, W.B. Yeats. His The Second Coming is just chilling.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity…

And then there is the Irish blessing, which can admittedly be a bit of a mixed blessing.

Sure, there are the blessings like the one I chose for this post, but there’s also this . . .

May those who love us, love us;
And for those who don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping!

I like to think my slightly twisted sense of humor comes from my Irish ancestors.

So happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

Download your computer wallpaper & iPad wallpaper, then go have a pint of Guinness. Slainte!

Oh, & if printables are more your thing, visit this post to download my Irish blessing printable.

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Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea & a good book.
-Bill Watterson

Read any good books lately? Between homeschool & flu & dance classes it’s been pretty hectic around here. I’ve still managed to squeeze in a few books, though.

My Cup of Tea

We’ve certainly had our share of rainy days this month, perfect weather to curl up with tea & a book. Lately that tea has been Barry’s Gold Blend – which I think must be the official tea of Ireland. They had it everywhere we went on our visit, & I came home hooked. Even my kids love it. Luckily, it’s available on Amazon & at World Market, so I’ve been able to keep it on hand. And with it being March & all, Irish tea seems appropriate for chasing away the chill & damp.

On My Bookshelf

As for reading, I’ve been mostly reading writing craft books. Specifically, the How to Outline a Cozy Mystery: Workbook by Sara Rosett & Super Structure by James Scott Bell.

The cozy mystery workbook is designed to go along with Sara’s cozy mystery course, which I’m not taking (at least not yet), but it’s useful on its own as well. It’s a small workbook, so there’s plenty of white space, but I’ve found the questions helpful in straightening out some kinks in my story. Writing down answers to the questions she asks helped me solidify some points that I hadn’t thought to put in writing before. For example, what the suspects’ reactions to the sleuth’s questions will reveal about their character.

If you’re interested in writing a cozy mystery, this workbook is a handy tool to have. Since I want to use the questions for future books, I didn’t fill out the workbook. Instead, I made a template page of the questions in my Scrivener project. Now the questions will be there when I’m plotting the next book & my answers will be handy for me to consult while I’m writing.

I came across Super Structure thanks to this article on the DIY MFA blog. It’s only $3.99, & since plot is something I’m struggling with at the moment, I bought it and read it in one sitting. I love Bell’s Plot & Structure, & Super Structure is a really nice companion to that book. It’s short & goes over what he calls the 14 “signposts” of plot structure. I’ve read lots of books on plot structure, but he added some elements that I haven’t come across anywhere else & that really got me thinking. If you’re fighting with your plot, I definitely recommend it.

Deadly Doses

I also found a fun book at the library – Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart. I’m a sucker for a good book of poisons, & I’m particularly interested in poison plants that can be found growing in my area. (If anyone around me dies under suspicious circumstances, my internet search history may cause me some trouble. It’s for my next book, I swear.)

Stewart’s book has details & anecdotes about poison plants ranging from Deadly Nightshade (atropa belladonna) to chrysanthemums, & includes deadly plants as well as some that only cause minor allergic reactions. It’s interesting & useful enough that I may have to buy a copy to go on my shelf with A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie.

And just for fun, here’s a picture from the Blarney Castle Poison garden. This is Bittersweet Nightshade. Not quite as potent as Deadly Nightshade, but I wouldn’t recommend putting it in your tea.

Now it’s back to rewrites for me as I work through the next draft of the first Fox Sinclair mystery.

How about you? Have you read any good books lately? 

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Growing up in the South, I assumed everybody in the US spoke the same language we did.

Well, with slightly different accents. Our neighbors did have some Yankee grandkids, after all. Imagine my surprise when people I met in college looked at me like I’d lost my mind when I said I was fixin’ to go to the library.

A few years later, my brother married a California girl, & we’ve had lots of fun translating for her as she adjusts to life in the South.

It turns out, the South has not only its own accents (yes, there’s more than one & that tortured Southern twang Hollywood is so fond of gets old real quick), but also its own language. And just as accents can vary from state to state, or even county to county (I’m looking at you, Marshall County, Kentucky), colorful expressions common in one area of the South might be unheard of in another. I grew up in western & southern Kentucky, with a little dash of Tennessee thrown in via my grandparents, so those are the regional colloquialisms I’m most familiar with.

In my Fox Sinclair mystery series, set in a small town in Tennessee, most of the characters are fluent in Southern-isms, but none moreso than Maudie. The grandmother of Fox’s best friend, Maudie gets her love of quirky sayings from my own grandmother, Momae, who definitely had her own way with words.

Since Maudie uses so many colorful expressions, I thought I’d share the meanings of some of the ones I’ve grown up hearing. Now if you come across them in the books, you’ll know where to come for a translation.

How to Speak Southern: Part 1

If the good Lord’s willin’ & the creek don’t rise

Southerners know better than to get cocky about their control over the future. Inviting someone to your wedding? They might tell you this to indicate that they intend to be there, barring an act of God or nature.

I have family in the hills of eastern Kentucky, & at least as late as the 1970s, one of the ‘roads’ in that community was actually a dry creek bed. Until it wasn’t. So while it might sound strange to city folk, a rising creek could literally keep people stuck at home until the water went down. And we all know that sometimes the good Lord just has other plans for us, so this is a Southerner’s way of letting you know that if they don’t show up, it wasn’t by choice.

Cold as a wedge

This one usually refers to food, at least in my experience. If your hands are cold, they’re probably cold as a frog. But, feel free to use it for whatever you like. What’s a wedge & why is it so cold? No idea. But let me heat that biscuit up for you. It’s cold as a wedge. Actually, never mind. Cold biscuits left on top of the stove all day are manna from heaven.

Fixin’ to

This is the one that confounded my college friends. And utterly confused me. I sincerely thought everyone said fixin’ to. And understood what it meant. I’ve seen it defined as “about to” or “getting ready to,” but I think it has a little more subtlety than that. Someone who’s fixin’ to do something probably shows no sign at all of getting started. The preparation is all mental, but make no mistake, it’s there.

Which may explain why “I’m fixin’ to” is often said with at least trace of annoyance.

In mixed company

To be fair, I don’t think people say this as much as they used to. As a teenager, I once horrified my mom by recounting some conversation that had taken place at school. I’ll never forget her saying that whatever the topic was, it shouldn’t be discussed in mixed company. That is, with both boys & girls at the same time.

While it may seem quaint & old fashioned (I certainly thought so at the time), these days I can see that there’s something to be said for leaving certain things to the imagination. Maybe it’s just my age showing. Then again, have you ever watched an episode of Game of Thrones in the same room with your dad? Yeah. That whole mixed company thing is starting to make a lot more sense now, isn’t it?

Is Ned Dead?

If I’m perfectly honest, I’ve only ever heard this one from my own family, but since I foresee Maudie using it, I thought it should make the list. It was one of Momae’s favorite expressions, & most of us picked it up from her. The correct response, by the way, is “I didn’t even know he was sick.”

Want to drop this one into conversation? I know you do, so let me offer a little usage instruction. Is Ned dead? is kind of another way to say Duh. But less rudely. When someone asks, “Do you want a piece of pie?”, for example, “Is Ned dead?” is a perfectly reasonable response. To which they can reply, as they go to get your pie, “I didn’t even know he was sick.”

It makes no sense, so don’t worry if you don’t understand it.

Not too long ago, I decided to scour the internet to see if my grandmother had invented this phrase out of whole cloth (it’s been known to happen), or if other people actually said it. It turns out, Is Ned dead? comes from an old, & fairly obscure, Johnny Cash song called Foolish Questions. So I’m guessing that there are probably other people out there who use this one, too.

Y’all come back now.

That’s all she wrote for this installment of How to Speak Southern. I’ve only scratched the surface, though, so expect more lessons in the future. You’ll be fluent before you know it. 

Want to know even more about the South? Check out S is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco. I’ve got it from the library & haven’t worked my way through the whole thing yet, but with entries like Allman Brothers & kudzu, how can you go wrong?

Do you, or someone you know, say “Is Ned dead?” Let me know in the comments. I’d love to find another family as crazy as mine.

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To visualize an image (in whole or in part) is to see it clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print.” – Ansel Adams, The Camera

Do you feel like you suffer from creative ADD, & that you’d make more progress on your writing if you dropped your other creative pursuits? Here are 5 reasons you might want to hold off on that…

Have you ever noticed that creative people are often creative in more than one area? While I’ve heard this trait described as multi-passionate, I usually think of my own tendencies as something more like creative hoarding. I’m the queen of unfinished projects. Scrapbooking, jewelry making, & hand-lettering are just a few of the passing interests that spring to mind. My passions for writing & photography have both waxed and waned over the years. Some days I’d be excited about a new photography idea, sometimes it was a story idea that I couldn’t wait to get down on paper.

Where Photography & Writing Overlap

For a long time, I thought that I was supposed to choose one area of creativity and stick with it, letting the others go, if I wanted to be able to truly call myself a photographer or a writer. And while it’s true that I can’t master all the forms of art that catch my interest, at least not right now, I’ve come to realize that there are benefits to being “multi-passionate.”

Photography & writing might seem like two very distinct skill sets, but in fact I’ve noticed that some photography skills have spilled over into my writing. After all, good photography is simply a visual form of storytelling.

#1 Close Attention To Detail

In photography, the devil is definitely in the details. Yes, it’s possible, especially now, to snap photos without thinking. However, if you want to produce a photograph that is true to what you visualize when you press the shutter button, you have to slow down and pay attention to detail. You have to learn to see light and to use it intentionally. You also have to consider your exposure settings – ISO, shutter speed, and aperture – as different combinations lead to very different looks in photographs.

The same is true in writing. It’s certainly possible to sit down and write without planning or having a specific end result in mind, and sometimes that kind of writing can be useful, even therapeutic, but if you have specific results in mind for your writing, you have to pay attention to the details. One thing I find myself guilty of is moving through scenes too quickly, without adding the details that draw a reader in. Without those details, the end result is the written equivalent of a snapshot, unplanned and not really what I intended.

#2 Framing the Image

One of the biggest mistakes new photographers make is not considering what they want to include in the image and what they want to leave out. A novice photographer might intend to make a portrait of their child playing in the fall leaves, but end up with a snapshot of their entire backyard – the trash bins against the fence, toys scattered across the frame, the front end of the car peeking into the edge of the photo, and the child very small in the middle of all these distractions. The viewers eye doesn’t know where to go, because the photographer hasn’t been intentional about what to include in the frame.

Mentors sometimes tell new photographers to compose the photo, then take one step forward before pressing the shutter button. That is good advice in writing as well. The writer needs to be intentional in framing the story. Step in close and scan the frame. What details will draw the reader in? What details are just clutter and might break the reader’s immersion in the story? Consider what angle to approach the scene from. Is it a wide-angle shot, an overview of the scene? Or is it telephoto, an intimate, up-close scene, bringing the reader into the character’s private thoughts.

#3 Editing Isn’t Optional

While a casual snapshot might not need any further attention, a photograph intended as a piece of art is rarely finished when the photographer presses the shutter button.  It will require at least some editing before it fulfills the photographer’s vision. RAW image files always need tweaking because they are’t meant to be the final product. Even in the film days, true master photographers didn’t snap away and send their photos off to a commercial lab. Ansel Adams spent hours in the darkroom, carefully manipulating light, chemicals, and paper to create the print that he envisioned from the negative he had already produced.

In the same way, typing The End doesn’t mean the story is finished. It needs to be put aside, then reread after some time away. Even just a day can give a writer enough distance to see errors and places where the story has gone astray. Beta readers & editors offer even more opportunity for catching the mistakes that the author can’t see.

#4 Focusing the Viewer’s Attention

One of the first things I learned about photography was how to focus the viewer’s attention where I wanted it. Incorporating leading lines to draw the viewer’s eye across the image; framing the subject with other elements in the photo, such as a doorway; choosing depth of field to create a plane of focus where it is needed; using light intentionally to highlight the subject . . . these are all techniques photographers can use to say to the viewer, “Hey! Look at this!”

Writers need to master this skill as well. Mystery writers in particular need to focus the reader’s attention on certain elements of a scene, while drawing their attention away from others. Agatha Christie was a master of this technique. She planted red herrings and legitimate clues in the same scene, while highlighting the red herring and causing the real clue to fade into the background. In any kind of writing, however, the author needs to be deliberate about focusing the reader’s attention. Details that later turns out to be inconsequential are frustrating and pull the reader out of the narrative.

#5 Don’t Rush the Process

This is a tough one for me. Patience is not a virtue I have in abundance. Possibly not even in trace amounts. I get frustrated when I can’t do justice to the story in my head, which is most of the time. But I try to remind myself that there was a time when I felt the same way about my photography. For a long time, I was frustrated because I couldn’t recreate the images in my head.

Over the years, though, I gradually got better at getting those images out of my head and onto paper. It didn’t happen as quickly I wanted it to (that patience problem again), but it did happen because I kept working at it and seeing small improvements along the way. So I keep plugging away at my writing in the same way. The results will be gradual, but they will be there.

How about you? Do you find that your other creative pursuits work their way into your writing? Is that an advantage or a disadvantage?

The post 5 Photography Skills That Can Improve Your Writing appeared first on Quill & Glass.

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Our gloomy January weather here in Kentucky has left me feeling completely unmotivated to pick up my camera. Or to do much of anything, really. (Except bake & consume cookies. Seriously, last week I baked iced oatmeal cookies, & I’m pretty sure I ate the entire batch myself.) 

So, today I’m sharing one of my favorite shots from our trip to Ireland last year, when I couldn’t seem to put my camera down. We were somewhere along the Wild Atlantic Way, in County Kerry near Dingle. The brilliant turquoise of the water took my breath away. It was nothing at all like the iron grey I’d always expected of the North Atlantic.

We stopped at an overlook to get a better view of the beautiful waves crashing below, & the sight of my two babies, an ocean away from home & all they’d ever known, seeing the world for the first time, stopped me in my tracks. They looked so very small there at the edge of that big sea. Of all the blessings on our trip, I think the one I’m most grateful for was being able to see it through their eyes. This picture brings all those feelings back every time I see it. I think it may have to go on the wall.

I can’t wait until we get swept away again.

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Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you’re spending today relaxing by a twinkling tree, sipping hot cocoa while admiring your beautifully wrapped gifts & clean house, as your perfectly dressed children play quietly on the hearth. Because that’s totally what I’m doing – in some alternate universe. In reality, I’ll be doing some last-minute baking, cleaning, & gift wrapping. Oh, except for that one gift that still. hasn’t. shipped.

There’s always one. Either I waited too long to order it (not me! never!), or the gift that I ordered weeks ago in spite of a sketchy shipping projection is still sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust. This year that gift is for my dad, & my brother & I have been anxiously waiting for a shipping notification that never came. Best case scenario now looks like a December 27 arrival. Perfect.

My dad is impossible to surprise. The man can pick up any package under the tree that has his name on it, look at it for a second, then tell you exactly what’s in it. It’s infuriating. This year, we were sure we had him. He would never guess this one. But as the 25th got closer & closer, we started to suspect we needed a plan B.

While debating on whether or not to wrap a picture of the soon-to-be-here-I-promise gift, and thereby ruin the surprise, I decided that what we really needed was a rain check. Or a reindeer check. Because really, it’s the reindeer delivery system that’s at fault here.

Free Christmas Printable

So I came up with something to print out for those times when Santa’s elves are hopelessly behind, & that gift just isn’t going to make it under the tree. Just in case you ever find yourself in the same predicament (but you won’t, because you are always organized & on top of these things, right?), here’s a free download for you.

Click here to download

If you want, you could even include a hint about what the gift might be. But not us. This year we are going to surprise you, Dad! Well, beyond the fact that your Christmas gift is, in fact, not going to be here on Christmas. Surprise!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year full of only the best kind of surprises!

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Is it just me, or has this winter seemed like THE WINTER THAT WOULD NEVER END?

I’m excited to see March for lots of reasons, but these are my top 5:

Daylight Savings Time

Because even though I’m going to lose an hour of sleep (oh the humanity!), I’ll finally be able to walk again in the evenings when my husband gets home from work. I can’t overstate how much I need that hour of solitude after a long day of homeschool togetherness.

Shamrock Shakes

I feel like I should preface this with I don’t normally eat at McDonalds. I haven’t enjoyed their food since I was a small child and thought that Chicken McNuggets were the best. thing. ever. But y’all – Shamrock Shakes? They are the best. thing. ever. I break our McDonalds ban every year in March so we can have them at least once.

January & February are over, baby!

I’ve always struggled with a little bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which means that January & February have always been varying degrees of miserable, but I’ve found since we started homeschooling, these two months are our darkest. Nobody wants to do anything – not me, not the kids. I have a surprisingly strong hibernation instinct for a human – I must have been a bear in a previous life. But that March sunshine makes us all a little brighter.

Homeschool Conference Time

Last year a friend talked me into going with her to Teach Them Diligently – a Christian homeschool conference in Nashville. I was a little gun-shy about attending a conference after some of the experiences I’d had in online homeschooling forums. Like all online forums, they can be a little…contentious. I was worried that I was about to be subjected to the same thing, but in person. The conference was a pleasant surprise – there were speakers on every aspect of homeschooling you could think of (LOTS of speakers – there were so many topics we wanted to hear about that we split up & took notes for each other so we could cover more ground). I had been struggling through my yearly battle with January & February (see above), and was really doubting our decision to homeschool (or at least my ability to carry it out). The conference was just what I needed – there was such an atmosphere of support that I left feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of our school year.

In addition to the speakers, there was also a curriculum hall where you could browse through books from different companies & talk to representatives who know their curriculum inside and out. That was a huge plus for me – I was able to go from trying to pull together a plan based on other people’s recommendations to finding a complete curriculum that we love! This year has gone much more smoothly – in large part due to what I learned at the conference.

If you’re needing a little refreshment & encouragement in your homeschool journey, TTD has yearly conferences in Nashville, Atlanta, & Sandusky, OH. The Nashville event is coming up in just a couple of weeks & I can’t wait!

St. Patrick’s Day

I all things Irish. I have Irish roots on both sides of my family, but WAY back. Like 18th century way back. So I’ve always had a little fascination with the Emerald Isle & it’s been #1 on my Places I Want To See Someday list for as long as I can remember. This year, my brother & his fiancée will be getting married there, so our whole family will be going! It’s equal parts exciting & terrifying. I don’t love to fly & I’ve never been out of the country, but I finally get to visit Ireland! I can. not. wait. And what an amazing adventure for the kids! I’ll be spending a lot of time on one of my favorite blogs to prepare for the trip. If you haven’t checked out the Irish American Mom blog, do yourself a favor and hop over there today. She’s an Irish-born Kentuckian who blogs about all things Ireland, including recipes! Try her roasties – I promise you’ll thank me!

Free Printable

In honor of our upcoming trip & St. Patrick’s Day, I’m sharing a free printable of one my favorite Irish blessings.

Click here to download your freebie!

How about you – what are your favorite things about March?

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The post Hello March! appeared first on Quill & Glass.

Every year I throw in something new for us to try – last year it was Mocha Valencia Cupcakes (look for those coming up next month for Valentine’s Day!), but we also have some old standards that I have to make to avoid an uprising. Chex Mix & sausage balls, for example. And this cheese ball dip.

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe years ago, and it has been one of our favorites ever since. It makes a lot of dip, so unless you are having a big party, be prepared for leftovers. But that’s okay, because cheese & crackers is a legit lunch option, right?

Don’t forget to check out what the rest of the On Our Plates ladies have cooking this month. Next up is Kathy with Super Bowl goodies!

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Two years ago, I had a great gift idea for my mom. She worked in a school cafeteria for years & had mentioned several times since she retired how much she loved the commercial grade KitchenAid mixer she used at work. So I rounded up my dad & brother to go in on it with us, & we got her her very own KitchenAid mixer for Christmas. Little did I know, she had already had the same idea – for me! My dad was the only one who was in on both plans. Pretty sneaky, Dad.

These Iced Oatmeal Cookies from Mother Thyme were the first thing I made with my shiny new mixer. (It’s still pretty shiny – it’s my other baby & gets a lot of TLC!) You know those iced oatmeal cookies you can buy at the grocery? We bought the Walmart brand for years (shhh!). These cookies look just like those, but they are so. much. better.

The key to these cookies is not to grind the oats up too much. We have made these several times now, & they’ve always turned out perfectly. But wouldn’t you know, the one time I make them to photograph, I grind the oats too fine & the cookies don’t spread like they should. So don’t be like me – follow the directions and only pulse the oats a couple of times! My assistant doesn’t seem to mind – she thinks they look pretty tasty anyway.

I think she loves the KitchenAid almost as much as I do. The splatter shield makes it easier for her to use without slinging ingredients everywhere, which is a big plus! Here she is demonstrating how to add the eggs & vanilla to the butter & sugar.

But she is pretty fond of hand mixing, too, especially when wooden spoons or whisks are involved.

She was careful to get all the dry ingredients (oats, flour, salt, soda, baking powder, & cinnamon) all mixed together. She takes her cookie baking very seriously.

When all mixed up, the batter should be nice and thick –

My assistant uses her own test to make sure the batter is up to her high personal standards –

This recipe should give you a solid 4 dozen cookies, using a 1/8 cup cookie scoop. I pay a cookie dough tax to my assistant, so I ended up with 47 cookies.

After baking, cool the cookies completely on a wire rack before dipping in the glaze.

The glaze will be nice & thick – drop the cookie in upside down, mush it down into the glaze a little, & pull it out, letting the excess drizzle off before flipping the cookies over & putting them back on the rack to let the glaze dry. If you want to add sprinkles, now is the time to do it, while the glaze is still tacky. The glaze should dry hard enough that you can stack the cookies for storage.

If they last that long…

My assistant also charges a fresh cookie tax.

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do! I have plans for a version that includes ground up raisins, if I can talk the assistant into it. She wrinkles up her nose at the very thought, but if I can convince her, I’ll let you know how they turn out!

For more Christmas cookie fun, follow the blog circle over to Jennifer Carr’s blog to see what she is whipping up for the holidays.

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I grew up near Metropolis, IL, which proudly claims to be the Metropolis. You know, of Superman fame. And every year this {tiny} Metropolis holds the Superman festival. It’s kind of like a mini Comic-Con. And these people are serious about their Superman fetish. There’s a big street fair & all kinds of costume awards. It is actually really fun. This shot is from a couple of years ago when we crossed the river to mingle with the superheroes.

I loved how they were all posing for the crowd full of photographers. I think there might have been a newspaper photographer setting this shot up, but they got the full-on paparazzi treatment, so I focused on the crowd instead of the . . . Justice League?

Sidenote: Do you see that guy on the back row that is black & white? I swear I didn’t do that & it’s kind of freaking me out. Was he wearing makeup to look like that? I wish I remembered!

Next on the blog circle this week is Michele. Go check out her street photography & leave her some love! Thanks for stopping by!

The post P52:16 | Street Photography appeared first on Quill & Glass.