This week, Tina Schell challenges us to feature images that demonstrate the characteristic of softness. She writes, “Is it something as simple as a puppy’s fur, or as personal as your favorite quilt or sweater? Maybe it’s the soft light of dawn or the whisper of a soft breeze through the trees. Let us know in your response what SOFT means to you.“ You can read her entire challenge post here. As you can see by my opening photo, the small gallery of images included here features the soft structure of the petals of a flower.

At dusk, the entire atmosphere loses the harsh light of day and the skies and fading light imparts a softness to even the hardest of landscapes as in this view of the mountains that are located in the southwestern Phoenix area.

Fog, low clouds and poor visibility also lend an air of softness to the hardest of landscapes. The image above is from Glacier Bay in Alaska. The fog shrouded landscape and the reflection of the landmass in the bay give a much softer appearance to the normally harsh contrast of a sunny day.

What could be softer than a butterfly’s wings? But be careful, that thistle it’s resting upon isn’t the epitome of softness. The gallery of images below features images that fit my interpretation of “soft.” In most browsers, you can click on an image in the gallery to view it enlarged and to scroll through the remaining images.

Blossom in a soft rain.

A rose by any other name is just as soft.

A foggy morning in Fargo.

Allium blossom.

Butterfly on a thistle.

Glacer Bay.

Phoenix at dusk.

A desert poppy blossom.

John Steiner