Gallery of the Week by Sharon (shairationgco)

I was surprised to get a PM from Baz requesting me to do the Gallery of the week. And as told him, I am so honored to do it but I hope he didn’t expect me to post the next day! And so when he said it’s anytime within the week, I agreed.

A little while later I felt like backing out…. What am I doing agreeing to this when Great Photographers/Artists like Mitch, Nico and Katya are just waiting to post or worse view my work!!! Shheeeezzz… I must be out of my mind!... But as I said also, I am new to this and still has a long way to go but I’m always thirsty for knowledge and this can be just that… part of the learning process…

Anyways, I thought that was the only pressure… but then as both Luxy and Dave who came before me stated… finding 5 pictures to post was difficult… well I didn’t know how difficult until yesterday when I tried my own choosing… It was infact a nightmare!! LOL… I wanted to post something from the Philippines .. or from my City but alas… I can’t possibly do that in five photos… like Luxy I wished it was a gallery of 45 instead of 5… so I needed another theme to narrow down my choices… then Lo and behold… my cousin Patrick called up… and I knew before we even finished the overseas call where I would get my five photos…

I lovingly present to you this weeks gallery with the theme most artworks are based on... LOVE down the

Interstate 80: Fulfillment Highway

After years of On again Off again relationship with the love of his life Apple, my cousin decided to drop everything in North Carolina to go live with her in California. But it was too expensive for him to ship his car and other belongings so he decided to drive the whole stretch… but stopping by at Chicago because our aunt who is my father’s and his mother’s eldest sister demanded that she wants to have both of us for thanksgiving! So the day after thanksgiving I accompanied him to be his reliever driver on his road to fulfilling his dream….

Long and Endless

I chose this picture to start the gallery because it speaks of the road to Love and Life and that most of the time it looks not only long and endless but also flat and uneventful! lol… hours and hours of driving and most of the time you’ll see only the mountains, desserts, meadows and prairies… and always there’s still this long road ahead… seemingly endless… but with the beauty of some cloud formations, sunrise or sunsets that brighten you up or dampen your thoughts but always keeping you from sleeping while driving… oh… and his is anywhere between Nebraska and Wyoming by the way… lol..

Woofing Surprises

This one is a lovely surprise somewhere in Wyoming… I was out of the sun roof of his car while he was driving and shooting like crazy and I saw this living creature… LOL… I don’t know what it is really, a wolf or a dog… all I know is that it’s the first living thing I saw on the road side and its howling… again so much like Love and Life… you’ll never know when surprises come and in what form…. They delight, they enliven but they can also be dangerous and deterrent… but most of the time they are just there to keep you company in your long road of traveling… and to notice them is sometimes life giving…

Metaphor

Metaphor -- a symbol, an image, o simply a fable or a story… amidst the vast salt flats of Utah rise this structure hat is quite abstract bordering on ugly LOL… well I didn’t really know or understand it just by looking but with nothing but salt flats surrounding you for hours, it is indeed a welcome site! Then when I went near it and saw what inscription it had it’s like vey unifying and romantic.. This is called the Metaphor: Tree of Utah or Tree of Life… that along the vastness, flatness and I dare say saltiness of the universe, there’s a symbol that stands… a story that attracts … a love that unifies… and oh yeah… this is an emergency stop only area… LOL… and there were no patrol cars in sight but then again we thought we had a flat tire… hahahahahaah!!!

Melancholic Rest

On the whole drive… I look forward to stopping at rest areas... not only to go freshen up and visit the washrooms but to photograph the rest areas itself… each of them have different character, different flavor… I particularly chose this one because his is the last rest area before entering Nevada which means the last state before California! I can remember very well what my cousin said… he said I don’t know… hahaha… it was really a confusing emotion he was feeling... there we were a state away from his dream… and he was saying I was longing for this my whole life and now its about to come true but I also have some hesitations some questions… would this really turn out to be a fulfillment or end up a disaster… there was so much unrest brewing in him in that lovely rest area in the famous salt flats of Bonneville.. but after being somber for a while, we moved on with more faith in love… after all it’s a place where speed records are broken… and men strive to achieve what used to be unachievable…

Grandeur and Beauty

Among all the picture in the collection this is the only one not in the Interstate highway itself… It is infact in the heart of San Francisco already, the interstate had broken down into three highways 880, 680 and something… see after the long seemingly endless road there’s forks of roads yet again... LOL… where choices are made once again… but once you decide on love then there is nothing less Than beauty and grandeur attached to it… much like this Palace of Fine Arts.. housing the history, the greatness, the beauty, the time scarred edifice and even the rubbles of Life…

PS: Going back to my cousin Patrick’s overseas call, he rang just to let me know that the risk he took, paid off big time!!! Almost 2 years after our Interstate Adventure… he and the love of his life Apple, will be exchanging “I Dos” this August and everybody is excited to welcome the newest addition to our family from them this December…

Interstate 80… ‘twas indeed fulfilling!!!

for more pictures of this drive
I have an album on it in my multiply
you can get there with this link:
Driving Interstate 80