• journaling,  musings,  nature,  Plants,  pond,  quotes,  reflections,  water

    This Galaxy of Stars

    January 30, 2024

    “Tomorrow is never ours until it becomes today.”

    It was 62 degrees yesterday afternoon as I sat in my yard soaking up the sun and journaled. Had lots on my mind so the words flowed. I was joined by three squirrels who were also enjoying the sunshine while chasing one another, seemingly in a game of tag. Mallards and geese floating on the open water were making quite a racket as they enjoyed the water. And as I watched, listened and wrote my mind settled down. Then a thought came that I should take my camera for a walk around the pond, stretching my legs and flexing my shutter finger. Before I knew it this short jaunt became a lovely gift as I came across this galaxy of stars.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  quotes,  reflections,  trees

    More questions…

    April 23, 2022
    Sunset over Riverbend Ponds Natural Area

    Walt Whitman wrote over 150 years ago in his book Leaves of Grass that the United States: is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations. It seems like a good question to ask ourselves: How well does each of us hold to the idea we are a nation of nations? It’s also interesting that the first word in our Constitution is we. Which leads to another question: how and who defines “we”? Yes, I’m a thinkin and asking questions again this morning. Hoping you have a wonderful weekend!

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  • Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  storm clouds

    The Beauty

    December 22, 2021
    Riverbend Ponds about 3 weeks ago

    All that we are looking for in life—all the happiness, contentment, and peace of mind—is right here in the present moment. Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good. The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don’t take the time to pause and notice what we already have.

    Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

    One of the first things I do when I awake is pray three simple little prayers, if you even want to call them prayers. It sets the tone for my day. Then throughout the day I find times to pause and notice the world around me, the clouds, the changing colors, the beauty of it all! Maybe that pause and awareness is as much a prayer as anything.

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  quotes,  sunsets

    The Process of Photography

    November 27, 2021
    [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”82″ display=”basic_slideshow”]

    Some of my photographs have always been a mystery to me in terms of how I arrived at them. Even with the technical ability to produce fine prints, I am hard put to know how it happens, yet unless technique and materials are seriously investigated and experienced, I see that moving statements are seldom made. The process of photography ever invites me. I hope never to lose this feeling. At times I make photographs for the sheer magic of its process, and the good feeling about the very stuff needed: light, chemical combinations, some imperceptible forces at work behind the scene. I am part of the drama which takes the guise of photography.

    Paul Caponigro

    I shoot very few vertical images, but with all these wide open spaces, shooting horizontal may be the preferred format. Maybe I need to look at that, take more time before pressing the shutter. Anyway, here’s a slideshow of a few vertical images over the past 18 years, all cropped to 8 x 10.

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  • natural areas,  Photography,  Plants,  quotes,  reflections,  trees

    My Companion

    October 25, 2021
    Morning moon over Prospect Ponds Natural Area

    The camera became my companion.

    Edward Weston

    There are times when I can be calm much like the water of this pond and at other times, well not so much. The challenges of living life can act like a fierce wind that creates internal waves. I’ve discovered tools to return to the calm and one of them is time in the silence of nature with a camera, taking deep breaths.

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