This week, Ritva poses a fascinating challenge. She writes, “That is the challenge. Taking the mundane and shining a different light on it. Highlighting an object or scene that we normally pass by without notice, and making it something special. This process allows us to appreciate the beauty and significance of everyday things that often go overlooked. By giving attention to these ordinary elements, we can find inspiration and joy in the simple moments of life.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

Ritva inspired me to capture a few images just for this challenge; however, I will save those for later. Reflections on an everyday object often bring back memories that don’t trigger any unique thoughts for anyone else. Such is the case with my opening photo. At Manzanillo, Mexico, vendor tables offered typical souvenirs for cruise passengers leaving the ship for explorations. I thought the display was colorful and attractive, and the background featured a view of the Pacific Ocean.

High on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in Bismarck, North Dakota, the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District manages the Chief Looking’s Village location. The site also overlooks a larger park called Pioneer Park. Turning off Burnt Boat Drive, a short uphill drive to a small parking area will bring you to a garden created in the memory of Sonali Seth.

I never met Sonali, but her mother contacted me when I shared a story about my trip to the park. We became Facebook friends, and on subsequent visits to the park, Lynn and I met her parents. The ordinary objects in this photo are the benches donated in Sonali’s memory. Sonali’s Garden is a beautiful place to enjoy sunset over the Missouri River.

Railroads are special to me, even the so-called toy trains that are the stuff of model railroader’s dreams. This model railroad display is in Bismarck. A visitor looks on as the freight train with identical cars winds through the display.

A few years ago, I created a low-light experiment for my then-new Samsung S20U. I’d read that the phone has superb low-light performance, so I set up the display and lit the scene with only two LED candles, placed left and right of the scene. One effect I hadn’t envisioned was that the water glasses created a shimmering effect on the background.

I used manual exposure, and the image was captured at f/1.8, with 1-second exposure at ISO 1,000. At f/1.8, the depth-of-field was narrow, the focus was sharp at the lower corner of the book bindings, and the water glasses were not entirely in focus.

In 2015, I purchased a 2004 Mustang Convertible while we wintered in Arizona. In 2022, we sold our Arizona home, and as we don’t have room in Fargo to store the Mustang, we also sold it. When he learned I sold the car, a friend gifted me a model Mustang of the same vintage. From my perspective, it sits on our fireplace mantle, a pleasant reminder of our fun in Arizona.

When we moved into our condo in Fargo, the previous owners offered to include the handmade stained glass privacy screens they used as window shades. The two living room windows are each covered with a separate pair of folding screens that allow light through while still maintaining our privacy.

My final image features a simple bunch of bananas. We bought them the day before the photo was taken, so they were still bright yellow with overtones of green. I set them on our kitchen scale and used 1/100 sec., F/7.1, and 1600 ISO to provide a slightly wider depth of field to be sure the entire bunch was in focus.

That’s all I have for this week’s challenge. Thanks to Ritva for stretching the ability of my creativity to create unique photos with everyday objects as a subject. You can view the entire gallery with exposure and camera details for each image on my Flickr site here.

Next week, Egidio shares a challenge topic that I am excited about. I’m afraid that I might go overboard and share too many examples. If you’d like to join in with your challenge response but aren’t sure how to get started, check here.

John Steiner