• landscape,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    O’Dark Thirty

    November 1, 2023
    Predawn colors and reflection at Dixon Reservoir

    What a wonderful way to start this day, any day for that matter. This image as taken at O’Dark thirty (6:49 am) and the show was absolutely gorgeous. Almost no wind and a pleasant 28 degrees. After experiencing a sunrise like this and I head back into the chaos of the city, I can feel as if I needed to stay longer. I’m not sure whether the feeling arises from within me or if nature itself is whispering, please don’t leave yet. Maybe both. I believe these moments have a way of transforming me at some deep level. I am just never the same man. This morning was one of those mornings. Curious if any of you experience such feelings after time with nature, not wanting to leave? Anyway, I am so thankful for all the gifts so graciously given and my desire to receive each one of them. I met Mark for breakfast and conversation where we talked and wept over the tragedies happening in our world, a list that seems would have no end.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    A Better Start

    October 3, 2023

    “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

    George Bernard Shaw

    Well today is starting out much better, no flat tire to change. Arrived early at Pineridge Natural Area. Looks like that same heron fishing along the water’s edge and in the same spot. The light wind stirred the water’s surface with tiny ripples. A flock of magpies were making quite the fuss in a group of trees. Took 7 photos before heading to Mugs where Jess made me an Old Town Mocha. There was no interest in watching the sunrise for me. Met up with my friend Duane today. He and Jan are in town for a few days before heading south of Tucson for the winter. Hope you had a great day and be sure to do something!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    Website Issues

    September 30, 2023
    Predawn colors at Pineridge Natural Area

    I have been struggling with my website off and on for three weeks. It finally came to a halt on Wednesday when all I could do was go to the homepage and my dashboard. All other links seemed to be broken. I have already had two people contact me through email asking if there was anything wrong. I’ve had four chat sessions with Bluehost and no resolution. This morning in my fifth chat session they finally seem to have solved the error. Seems the permalinks were messed up. I just never go to that place on my dashboard so I have no idea how it was changed or if it became confused. All I know is I’m confused with this stuff but it is back up and seems to be working.

    In the meantime I’ve have been playing with Squarespace for three days with their 14 day unlimited free trials. The cost is about the same. I will continue to look into it and play with it. I know Joe uses Squarespace and seems satisfied. Like him I only want to post blogs, show my images, and stay connected with fellow bloggers. I am not selling anything so none of that interests me. Who knows I may be on a new platform next week.

    I also had my cars hood insulation repaired on the 21st when the raccoons tore it up last April. Well they did it again four days after I had it replaced, for the third time now in four years. However I did make it up to Pineridge NA yesterday morning for the predawn colors and quiet. The water was smooth as glass. A couple of ducks floated along and one blue heron stood fishing along the waters edge. It was a good way to end the week on a Friday. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  Mary Oliver,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes

    …honor the world

    September 18, 2023

    Photography by nature is spiritual considering, it comes from the darkness to show the light.

    Kevin Russo

    I was told the other day by someone that they no longer look my sunrise images. However, I’ve come to know that the beginning of a new day offers a unique sunrise, there is no other like it, and if I’m present to it then it’s another opportunity to live one more day. So for me a sunrise is a sacred moment, where we move from darkness to light. In a Mary Oliver poem called The Swan she writes, Of course the path to heaven doesn’t lie in flat miles. It’s in the imagination with which you perceive this world, and the gestures with which you honor it. My presence and the photographs I capture is my act of receiving this morning’s predawn sky and is my gesture to honor the world. I will probably keep doing that to my last breath.

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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    I was not disappointed

    September 14, 2023

    When I started my adventure in photography, I was suddenly introduced to the world around me. I can’t believe I have been so blind for too many years.

    Laura Tate Sutton

    I so relate to her quote. Anyway, the weather forecast is for rain beginning mid morning and continuing through the day. So with that forecast in mind I rose early and headed to Pineridge Natural Area. I sat on that same rock, the hard one, hoping nature would offer bright colors among clouds. I was not disappointed. I think of that old adage, Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning. Hope you have a wonderful day.

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  • clouds,  fountain pens,  grass,  horizons,  journal,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  quotes,  writing/reading

    Who I’m Becoming

    September 7, 2023

    … the truth is that we simply don’t know — we don’t know where life ultimately leads, we don’t know what we want or what to want, and we don’t really know ourselves. 

    Maria Popova

    I’ve mentioned before my belief of how little I think I think I know. Yet there are times when some sense of knowing does rise within me. This knowing is not about having an answer or solution to a problem. It’s a knowing that somehow changes my perspective on life, this world, people, and myself. I find this knowing to be one of the adventures in life, a place of growth. I am slowly learning small bits of who I’m not and who I’m becoming.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  panorama,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises,  Thomas Berry

    It’s Happening Now

    September 4, 2023

    The greatest of human discoveries in the future will be the discovery of human intimacy with all those other modes of being that live with us on this planet, inspire our art and literature, reveal that numinous world whence all things come into being, and with which we exchange the very substance of life.

    Thomas Berry

    A host of thoughts can run through my head while standing before this pre-dawn scene as I worked at capturing the image. This image is a panorama of 7 images using Lightroom Classic. I wanted the whole cloud bank in the image and my 16mm lens wasn’t wide enough so I decided to try a panorama. It works on this blog but not for printing purposes. When I came home and saw this panoramic image on my monitor my thoughts shifted from the craft of the image to the scene itself. It’s easy to look at this open field, even to the distant horizon, and see it as something separate from me. I’m here, it’s there. But that’s just not true. There is a multitude of ecosystems comprising this image and the world. Maybe that’s what makes this scene so appealing and beautiful to me. Because as Berry suggests there are other modes of being: birds of all sorts, insects, animals, the plants and of course, humans. For me the future of discovery Berry is talking about is happening now.

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