I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: My iPhone’s camera and I were made for each other. That’s because it was designed for technologically-challenged people such as I. Aim the camera in the correct direction, tap the phone’s screen to tighten the camera’s focus and to adjust the brightness level, and then press the big button. Easy f*cking peasy. And in most situations I’m pleased as punch with the images that result.
And I use the camera quite a lot. That point was brought home to me for the umpteenth time when I recently scrolled through the photos I snapped last year. I haven’t totaled the number, but four or five hundred feels about right. That’s a good deal of snapping. And a pretty high percentage of the pictures were taken with Yeah, Another Blogger in mind, because I like to jazz up most of my essays with a selection of pix.
Well, upon examining 2020’s photographic output I came to the conclusion that I should turn some aspect of it into an entry for this publication. Display twelve photos, one from each of last year’s months, perhaps? Or select a bunch of pictures with oddly-angled components? Okay, why not? But in the end I decided to go with photos that feature, and not always prominently, the color red. I’m not exactly sure why, but after a while red was sort of jumping out at me from the photos, even though only a relative handful of them have any red elements in them. Maybe that’s why I gave red the green light. By which I mean that I don’t show red some love often enough, and the time had arrived to begin rectifying that. Which was fitting in a way, of course, as red is the color associated with love.
And when I say red, I’m talking about bold reds. Not necessarily fire truck red, but not too far from that vicinity. I looked online at color charts a little while ago and was surprised to see colors listed as shades of red that I don’t consider to be reds at all. Pinks, for example, and salmon, and hues that I think of as being in the brown family. Whatever. Nice bright reds are what I’m sticking with for this essay.
You have to love those varieties of red, right? I mean, they’re truly eye-catching. Yet they are anything but ubiquitous in nature. You see bright reds in some flowers and produce and on some birds, yes, but almost nowhere else in the natural world that I can think of. I suppose you could say the same for bright yellows, oranges and purples too, but that’s outside the purview of this little story. (Yellows, oranges and purples, sue me for ignoring you! See how far that will get you.) Yeah, greens, blues, greys, whites, browns and tans rule when it comes to nature. That’s just the way it is.
What’s more, you don’t come across a startling amount of traditional reds in the man-made world either. STOP signs, certain traffic lights, Coca-Cola vending machines and a smattering of motor vehicles are red, and red is used pretty often as a decorative touch on other objects. Bold red lipstick isn’t uncommon, and a modest number of people dress in red now and then. But, it seems to me, the use of red doesn’t go much beyond all of that.
Shit, I’m starting to feel sorry for red. Excuse me for the next few hours . . . I’m going to paint both sides of every door of my house bright frigging red!
Okay, I’m back. And I chickened out. My doors remain as they were. Neutral colors, you dig?
I’m now going to turn my attention to the sunset photo above. It comes from a series of pictures of a sunset and of Christmas lights that I snapped one day last month in my neighborhood (if you click here, my story about those sights will appear). The sunset that late afternoon was glorious, its colors spreading from the west to cover a large portion of the sky. I was facing north, looking at the sweeping colors, when I took this picture. And I took it because, as spectacular as the skies were, the red STOP sign commanded attention and admiration too. I applauded and acknowledged the sign by including it in the scene. I showed red some love.
Is it clichéd of me to stretch a theme wildly by saying that showing love is where it’s at in all aspects of life? For we know that there can’t be too much love in a world where darkness and hate always have been powerful realities. Yes, it is clichéd, but no matter. Concluding this essay in such a manner seems like an appropriate thing to do. Thanks for reading, girls and boys. If you have any comments, please don’t be shy about adding them. Adios till next time.
(My many photos from 2020 include about 40 that have red in them. I chose six of those for this story.)
Yeah, Another Blogger 
‘gave red the green light’ — love that; love your ruminations on red, Neil. I associate red with speed as red cars seem to be the main culprits — or it just might be I notice them more because red is a bold colour. I love the flower photo most, Neil: — the reds are plump and beautiful 🙂
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Those are azalea bushes. In a few months, azaleas will be blooming around here again. But spring is a ways off — today we’re having a big snowstorm.
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those azaleas won’t be impressed, Neil 🙂 stay safe and warm, snuggled up 🙂
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I love red. It’s my favourite colour. And like you, I mean RED. I agree that brown, salmon and pink aren’t red. Great red post. 🙂 🌺
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Hi, Lynette, and thanks. I appreciate your input a lot.
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Red is a good colour for February.
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Valentine’s Day is around the corner!
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❤️
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I like the way you use the last picture to draw the two strands together, human with nature… not harmony, but certainly complementary on this level. As always, an interesting journey, Neil. Thank you, for your thoughts and my trip through time and geography. Keep ‘snapping’!
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Hey there, Cath. That STOP sign couldn’t be ignored!
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I don’t know, Neil, sometimes I see a red door and I want it painted black.
No, just kidding. I love red! I like your first shot a lot, very patriotic vending machines, and I’ve never seen an ATM like that, it kinda looks like an old British telephone booth, nice!
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Hi, Robert. That photo is from Cape May, New Jersey. My wife and I vacationed there with friends for a few days in October. I’m glad we were able to have a normal type of experience like that during the pandemic. It gave us a needed boost.
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My love is like a red, red… door! Way to show it, Neil.
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Reminder: Don’t forget to buy roses or other red flowers for your better half on the 14th.
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I love when red spices up the scene.
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I know what you mean. Overall, the colors in the world tend to be muted. I think that some cultures, though, are into bright colors more than other cultures are. Maybe in Peru, for example.
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You put me to thinking of red in Irish wildflowers and I couldn’t think of one so I went to the shelf and took down a book which organised wildflowers by colour as an aid to identification. There is a red section but, to be accurate, there wasn’t one red flower shown. All were various shades of pink or purple but none had that fire truck red you speak of. As an aside, we would say “pillar-box red” – referring to the old-style postboxes which, just to be Irish, were painted green years ago…but the phrase continues in use.
Of course, we have a fair sprinkle of red-heads here in Ireland! And we “see red” on occasion! Red hot!
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They should have kept the postboxes just as they were!
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As a toddler I had a large red train which I adored and – to this day – resent it being passed on to younger cousins as I grew up. Perhaps that gave me a taste for red – from flags to fire engines, pillar boxes and ‘phone boxes….
As to your conclusion, well, amor vincit omnia and we ought to try it more often rather than punching each others lights out.
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Get in touch with your cousins and demand that they return the red train set to you!
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I love the colour red. Lipstick, clothes, shoes. irresistible. But when I was a just about to be a teenager all I wanted was a red trouser suit. My mother promised to buy me one if I read a very difficult Polish Classic. iIt took me six years and the trouser suit did not materialise. In the meantime however I pined for other red clothes. tThis time it was my grandmother who disapproved and told me that red was the colour of communism and prostitutes . And that, unfortunately, was that. So much for the swinging sixties! I did wear a red dress when I got married,, though!
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Red is truly your color. Your wedding dress proves that. Hi, Basia. Thanks for adding your thoughts. See ya.
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Choosing a colour as a theme for a post is always a good idea, and your choices for red really jump out here. “Pink Clouds” and “January Blue” were my most recent. As for love, our world can always use more of that!
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Hi. Some day, maybe love will prevail. Up to now though, love vs, hate has been an ongoing battle.
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Sad but true.
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Enjoy the focus. Reminded me of : Decades ago I was doing a photo course at the Maine Photographic Workshop in Rockport. I chose Blue for a project that week.
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Good morning, and many thanks for stopping by. Blue was a good choice. It’s a dominant color, because of the skies, and a beautiful one too. Blue is the most popular color in the world, or so I’ve read.
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Great repackaging of red, Neil. Such a power color. And yes, showing love is always where it’s at!! xox
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Morning, Pam. You know, I like to hang on to the photos in my phone. Several times I’ve turned to them to try and come up with story ideas. Enjoy the week!
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Enjoy the snow ❄️ Neil. Don’t be too aggressive with the shoveling for your back’s sake!
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Lovely post! My husband loves red…as in red-heads! HA. I love red as well except I cannot wear the color red in clothing nor in lipstick because…well, I am a red-head. Still, red geraniums and red poppies are among my favorite flowers, cardinals my favorite bird and I’ve got plenty of red accents in my home. Oh…and in my living-in-Europe days I so adored my spiffy red Alfa Romeo. Red indeed is the color of love.
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Hey, Cristina. Thanks for stopping by. A red Alfa Romeo — that’s a hot car!
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Oh it was so very cool! Sadly, I could not bring it back to the states as it did not adhere to U.S. specs back then (some 34 years ago.) but I do cherish that lovely memory of driving it around for a couple of years. After that I never wanted to go back to automatic transmission; it was only just a few years ago after my third knee surgery, that I had to give up my love of driving a manual transmission car.
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What a good post! Red is one of my favorite colors, and I have a lot of red clothes. We even drive a snappy little red Honda Fit. And our house is red. The last paragraph is absolutely perfect, and as far as I’m concerned, that sentiment can’t be expressed too much. It might seem like a cliche, but how hard it is to love in the face of such hate and vitriol. One of the hardest things in the world.
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For many people, love isn’t a big part of their makeup or outlook on life. The results of that never have been good.
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A fun post of a celebration of the colour red! I particularly like the red British style phone box which is a cash point machine (ATM)! 😀
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Afternoon, Annika. I like that ATM a lot too. It really caught my eye. And there are other red objects right next to it.
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Love all your photos! Keep taking them!
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Thanks, Joyce. Taking pictures has become one of my favorite things to do.
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Marvelous photos, Neil! Red is such a strong color, I think that’s why nature uses it sparingly, and always in perfect ways.
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Thanks for your observations, Leah. Personally, I’d like to see a bit more red in nature than there is. But nature has yet to consult with me!
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I bet this is one of your best “red” articles.Love IS great, especially when it is like a red, red rose…
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Debra, you’re the best punster I know!
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We just replaced our front door with a red one last year. It has three panes of opaque glass in it to let in light, and it’s gorgeous. We’ve lived in our home for 18 years, about time we changed from the old ill-fitting brown boring wood door to a new one.
😀
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You did the right thing!
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Funny how one can assign colours personalities. I somehow think of red as boastful, rather than the first colour we see because of its wavelengths.
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Hi. I don’t think of red as boastful, but for sure it is hard to ignore. Thanks a lot for adding to the conversation. I appreciate it.
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Now is a great time to be seeing red!
Drab winter colors of white, black and grey are livened up with bold reds.
Aside from Valentines, it’s also the color of Chinese New Year which is just around the corner.
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Afternoon, Sandy. I walked through the indoor mall in my town a few days ago. Plenty of red there, mostly in the various signs and posters in the store windows.
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Red does have a way of grabbing attention, especially red flowers. We’ve got a beautiful red rosebush that brightens our summer days. Opportunities to wear my red hat and matching scarf are limited these days 🙂
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Hi. Here’s another thing about red: It would be great if at least a few of the red states became blue ones over the next few years.
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Red definitely adds a pop to a picture. I also like pops of canary yellow!
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Me too. Bright yellow has got what it takes.
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I thought you might include a photo of a fully-loaded apple tree or maybe a halved watermelon. Interesting how red shows up in fruits (and vegetables), but overall not so much in nature. Enjoyed this post, and nice to see the color get some deserved positive press.
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Hey Dave. Yeah, red is limited in nature. Someone out there undoubtedly has a scientific explanation for that!
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Hey there Neil, I survived a war and marriage to a red head. I know what you’re thinking – what is the difference? good question. I don’t know the answer. Have a good day. Jerry
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Jerry, as always, your thoughts are top notch. Take care. See ya!
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I red, red, red your story…I mean I love, love, love your story. And yes, I read it too. Thanks, Neil! You are the best!
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Hi, and thank you very much. I really appreciate what you say.
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RED is my favorite color! My Jeep is red. My phone cover is red. My camera is red!
Nice photos ❤
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A red Jeep! That’s a knockout.
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I love red. Our front door is red. What I am wearing right now has a lot of red in it. It’s so vibrant!
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You and red were made for each other!
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That red is quite attractive everywhere you photographed it. I was appalled when my tech guru selected red for my new website (as the other is dying–it was in blues). I asked if he was serious–he was. I’m used to it now and can see–thanks to your photos–the appeal.
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Evening, Jacqui. Red attracts attention, and probably that was a big part of his reasoning.
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i think it exists on a subconscious level – the color of red… because its associates often with courage and sacrifice… ah, and love 🙂
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Right. Red is a strong color, and it affects us in various ways.
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Besides, what kind of a book could you make out of Little Green Riding Hood? Or One Fish Two Fish Orange Fish Blue Fish? Red on.
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Good point!
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“Somewhere, inside the rainbow, Neil’s hues bloom…”
Always enjoy your colour posts and pictures!
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Hey there, and thanks. I appreciate the thumbs- up. Have a great week.
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Love the red theme… but I’m not ready for Rita’s till it gets warmer! 🙂 – Marty
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Yeah, winter’s fully with us. My town got a foot of snow over the last 3 days.
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It’s not cliched at all….love is what makes the world a good place, and the more we have, the better. Love your “red” photos! And I also have a quick question: I have an I-phone, but didn’t know that tapping the screen before I took a photo made the focus and color better. Is that because mine’s so old (It’s a 7) or just that I missed the obvious?
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If you want a tighter focus on a certain part of the scene, then tap that part. This will also bring up a box on the screen — that box has a slider that you can slide up to increase brightness, and down to decrease brightness.
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Thank you so much! I’m embarrassed to say I did not know that. Not surprised, but embarrassed!
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I was handed a red polo shirt (actually pretty cool) a while back by a favorite cousin. It was her dads (my uncle). He would always wear a red shirt at family get togethers. I dig some rituals. So I’m the guy in the “red” shirt now. I’m very cool with that. Great piece as usual fella.
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CB in red!
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Original as always, Neil – your cliches are better than most people’s laboured original thoughts by the way! My mother, who was a redhead, always convinced herself she couldn’t wear red. On her birthday now we wear something red to remember her by.
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That’s a wonderful tribute to your mother.
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Funny – today I had put on my one and only red piece – a hoodie. I’m not a fan of red, unless it happens to be cranberry red. Not a fan of green, either, unless it’s lime. Come to think of it, I don’t much care for yellow or white, either . . . or purple, or pink . . . oh my!
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I’m guessing that blue is your favorite color.
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Yes indeed. I know why you chose red. It’s my favourite colour! I look great in red… Chuckle.
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You’re a vision in red!
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A vision? Ha, ha….
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If it’s a cliche, it’s the best cliche possible. It works. It’s what we need.
I remember seeing once, instead of the usual nasty graffiti people spray paint or scribble on signs and buildings, some graffiti on a traffic sign that said: You are beautiful.
It was a surprise, and I was filled with good feelings.
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Afternoon, Stacey. You know, I’d guess that a bunch of people felt good about that sign. Little things like that can make a pretty big difference.
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I’m late to the red party. Love that the atm is between the vending machines so you can get change if you need it. lol sneaky. I am curious as to how superman is supposed to change into his Red jockeys & cape if the phone booth is now an atm. Have a happy weekend.
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The day that I took that atm photo was a red letter day. See ya!
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Love the composition as well as the colors in the azalea photo. Greens and tans are good setups for the punchline: a purplish version of red. While I’d use [magenta] if I wanted a single word more specific than just [red], I am content with the short word. As U noted, people often do say “red” when something is just a tad reddish.
Congrats on getting a fine wide image with a zillion blossoms. It’s harder than it looks. Whenever I try for something like that, I end up liking my closeups so much better that I just delete the wide views.
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Thanks for visiting. The azaleas on that property really are beautiful. I’ll try and remember to look at them again this coming spring.
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I like your show of love Neil! Love is red, and a brewing, boiling hot-spill of life!
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AOC, you’ve got what it takes!
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What a great concept, and a unique way to organize your photos. I love red, so I could have looked at 100 photos showcasing that most elaborate and fiery of colours.
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Hi, and thanks. Has red always been a favorite color of yours?
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Oh yes! I remember being 6 years old and hearing the Smarties song “do you eat the red ones last?” That song was written for me 🙂 I never liked pink, it was always red. How about you? A fan of red?
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I like just about every color. Blue is my favorite.
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As you know I wrote a post about red pictures recently – A colour that really leaps out at you in the outdoors as doesn’t really occur naturally nearly as often as blue or green and not as much of a contrast with yellow. I do like a red door and we have both a red front door and red garage door. (The red car was recently disposed of sadly.)
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You and your husband show red lots of love!
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Wow, wish I had an iPhone camera. My android is pretty basic. I love the color red and thought that was a creative way to organize your post. Also, had to laugh when you said you feel sorry for red. I work at the library and we have colored library cards people can choose from. No one ever picks orange. I feel sorry for orange.
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Now I’m starting to feel sorry for orange too!
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Hey Neil, Thanks for the iPhone photography tips. I just got a new phone for Christmas, and am still trying to figure it out. Yeah, I am tech challenged. I dig your portfolio and essay on the color red. After your latest gargantuan snow storm, I hope you got some snaps of the godforsaken color white.
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More snow is predicted for today. I’ve been getting exercise from snow shoveling this month. Hi, Joe. Enjoy the upcoming week!
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Was getting wanderlust over your great photos! Just gave me an idea… Maybe my husband and I will make a date night out of going through our travel pictures from years past! I always take thousands and never ever go back to view/enjoy them after!!
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Hi there. Yeah, photos can accumulate like crazy. But it’s fun to look at them once in a while. Thanks for stopping by. Appreciated.
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I don’t think it’s cliched at all-i have a red phone and I love it. Today my nieces and I made red heart shaped ravioli for Valentine’s Day. It made us happy! Happy is good! Ciao, Cristina
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Absolutely. The more happiness we have in our lives, the better. I appreciate your stopping by, Cristina. Thanks for adding your thoughts.
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I sure am happy you chose to share some of the beautiful reds, Neil. And I don’t think it’s a bit cliche. We could all do with some more kindness and love in every part of life.
Have a great week!
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Hey there. Many thanks for adding your thoughts. Much appreciated.
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