Perspective

March 8, 2014 / Rebecca Barray / 3 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Perspective

Progress

January 2, 2014January 2, 2014 / Rebecca Barray / 13 Comments

Daily Prompt: Progress

Jeff Goins is hosting a challenge for writers: to write at least 500 words every day for the month of January. There are many reasons I love Scrivener for writing, and one is the session target. These little progress bars start red and gradually fade more and more until you reach your goal and the bar turns green. The above photo is my progress bar at the end of the day yesterday. I put a little sticker on my calendar and I’m thrilled that I’m off to a great start. I know it’s only one day, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

Anyone that wants to join me, feel free to leave a comment below and we can cheer each other on.

Becca ;)

Making Love in the Library

May 10, 2013January 24, 2014 / Rebecca Barray / 47 Comments

“Please?”

“No, Alex. Absolutely not.” Mary slammed the book, and returned it to the shelf.

He pressed his body against hers, breathing heavily in her ear.

“Well… maybe,” she sighed. “Just this once.”

This 33-word flash fiction story was inspired by Trifextra 67: Onomatopoeia.

This photo was inspired by two photo prompts:

the Wordsmith Studio Weekly Photo Prompt: Books

and the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

Happy Writing and Photo Fun!

Becca ♥ (extreme multi-tasker)

A Photo-Chapbook!

April 23, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / Leave a comment

Hello!

In February, a dear friend of mine and fellow Wordsmith, Khara House, hosted a Chapbook Challenge. I don’t write poetry (much) and gathering my flash fiction was a little intimidating, so I decided to to make a photo-chapbook. It was a great motivator for me! And came with a fantastic result! I hope you’ll check it out.

Becca ♥

Nature: Reflections of Our Lives, Photography by Rebecca Barray

Artist’s Statement

“Nature: Reflections of Our Lives” is a collection of nature photographs depicting the milestones of our lives. This work contains photographs of nature, symbolizing events from our lives, such as birth, love, betrayal, passion, and old age. It opens with a landscape of the sunrise and a seed sprouting from the soil. It closes with a fall forest scene and the night sky. The middle contains images of the world around us that represent common life events.

About the Artist

Rebecca Barray is a mommy, writer, reader, photographer, and perpetual student. She spends most of her time chasing toddlers, but her precious free time is spent writing, photographing, and learning as much as she can about anything. She has three energetic children, a fun-loving husband, a messy cat, a lazy dog, and some very resilient fish.

Color

April 7, 2013April 7, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / 20 Comments

For the Weekly Photo Challenge at DailyPost.WordPress.com.

Happy Writing and Photo Fun,

Becca ♥

Check out more colorful photos:

Spring has Sprung… I guess

March 22, 2013March 22, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / 6 Comments

What? This isn’t what you think of when you hear “Spring”? Just let me say, “Me neither.”

Alas, it is officially Spring here in WV and this is the weather. It actually makes me tear up a bit. *Sniff, sniff*

Well, I guess I’ll just have to look at the photos of others’ Spring over on WordsmithStudio.org for the prompt this week, and dream of warmer days…

Happy Writing and Photo Fun,

Becca ♥

Lunchtime!

March 18, 2013April 5, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / 14 Comments

Okay, this is not what I actually had for lunch. It was dessert.♥

I’m a little short on time this week; I’m taking the kids to visit my dad for Spring Break. So I’m reusing this photo from a post I did a while back.

Happy Writing and Photo Fun!!

Becca ♥

This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge for WordPress this week: Lunchtime. Check out what some others had to eat:

Crossroads

March 13, 2013March 14, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / 8 Comments

“About time…” Christy rolled her eyes with a huff.

“Don’t start.” Sam slammed the door of Christy’s old beater and buckled in as she pulled away from his house. “I’ve had enough this morning from my mom.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“We’re gonna be late for school again.” Christy lifted one hand in response to Sam’s glare. “Just saying,” she whispered, knowing Sam’s mom rode him hard to be prepared for college. “Hey,” she smiled with a sideways glance as she stopped at the crossroads. “Let’s go bowling.”

Sam laughed, “Yeah, right.”

“Come on, you’ve got straight A’s; I don’t think one absence is gonna matter.” Sam hesitated, torn between desire and duty. “At least you won’t get another tardy.” Christy’s lopsided grin broke him.

“Ugh,” Sam groaned. “Why not?”

“Sweet.” Christy turned left, away from the high school and toward the bowling alley with a smile. “Excellent decision.”

This 154 word piece was written in response to an awesome weekly writing prompt I just discovered over at TrifectaWritingChallenge.com. Every week they choose a word that must be used in your writing between 33 and 333 words. And you must use the word according to the third definition.

This week’s word is:

TIME (noun)

1a : the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : duration
b : a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
c : leisure <time for reading>
2: the point or period when something occurs : occasion
3 a : an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end <arrived ahead of time>
b : an opportune or suitable moment <decided it was time to retire> —often used in the phrase about time <about time for a change>

Check it out and join up. Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know what you think about “Crossroads”.

Happy Writing and Photo Fun,

Becca ♥

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique

February 4, 2013February 26, 2013 / Rebecca Barray / 11 Comments

Unique

I like to think I’m quite unique.

I used to do scientific research. I was thinking and coming up with ideas that, possibly, no one else had thought of. I felt like I was making a contribution to the world that no one else could duplicate, because no one thought exactly the same way as I did or looked at problems in exactly the same way. That made me fairly unique.

Now, I’m a stay at home mom. I spend my days with two toddlers that I brought into this world. With their specific combination of DNA, some from me and some from my husband, they are definitely one of a kind. And I’m the only one in the world that could make them exactly what they are. That makes me especially unique.

And a photographer. I like to think that I can take my camera and capture a perfectly unique image. I can look through my viewfinder and see things in a way that, maybe, no one else would think to choose. Or maybe I can pick up my camera and capture a moment in time that no one else in the world could possibly have seen it if I hadn’t snapped a photo. That makes me somewhat unique.

And a writer. When I sit down and write, which is not as often as I’d like, I put words together in a way that is uniquely my own. A million people in the world could sit down and write about the exact same topic and not use the exact combination of words that I can. That certainly makes me rather unique.

But it’s all these things together (biologist, mother, photographer, and writer) that make me the absolutely unique person sitting at my computer, typing these words right now.

How do you define yourself? What makes you unique? I’d love to know. ;)

Love and Photo Fun,

Becca ♥

This was written for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique. If you’d like, check out others’ contributions to this week’s challenge: