• quotes

    Love Everyone

    February 28, 2021

    “… as we learn to love ourselves for who we truly are, we cannot but love everyone else in the same manner.”

    Book of Secrets

    This mornings image is the full moon setting over Horsetooth Dam. The red/orange glow of the eastern sunrise adds to the image. The skies are clear and blue but it is still cold.

    I had a scare yesterday as my X-T3 would not see or format an SD card in slot one. I panicked thinking the camera had already failed me but it turned out to be the SD card. I then realized the cards I have are about 6 years old. Ordered four more cards this morning.

    As the quote says, my wish is that more people would learn to love themselves. Seems there would be less hatred in the world.

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  • John O'Donohue,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Morning’s Light

    February 16, 2021

    Light is the greatest unnoticed force of transfiguration in the world: it literally alters everything it touches and through colour dresses nature to delight, befriend, inspire and shelter us.

    John O’Donohue

    Another cold morning (-3 degrees) but braved the temperatures to watch and photograph the morning’s first light. Hope everyone stays warm and dry.

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  • landscape,  Mary Oliver,  mountains,  natural areas,  quotes

    Long Morning Shadows

    December 31, 2020

    Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth.

    Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

    I no longer celebrate the in coming New Year by partying and then suffering with a hangover in the morning. I am going way overboard this year and celebrating at home with some shrimp cocktail. Have a safe and enjoyable New Years Eve. If you do dance on the tables, please post a video. We can all use the laugh. 😁

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  • landscape,  Mary Oliver,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    Spiritual Side of the World

    December 24, 2020

    “I have begun to look past reason, past the provable, in other directions. Now I think there is only one subject worth my attention and that is the precognition of the spiritual side of the world and, within this recognition, the condition of my own spiritual state. I am not talking about having faith necessarily, although one hopes to. What I mean by spirituality is not theology, but attitude.”

    Mary Oliver, Upstream

    I’ve mentioned before how I am experiencing more nights and mornings of disturbed sleep. Here is an example from a week ago. I awoke at 2:00 am, wide awake. I finally got up around 3:30 am and journaled for a half hour. I quietly prayed, taking in deep breaths. I finally got up, dressed and had my quiet centering prayer. Grabbed coffee then drove to Pineridge Natural Area to watch the sun rise. It was dark when I pulled up in the parking lot. I counted eight magpies perched on the branches of a barren tree and silhouetted against the predawn sky while the faint light accented the frozen reservoir. As the sun began to rise above the horizon the magpies leave their perch in search of food. I take a dozen photos but mostly just watch it all happen. Everything around me begins to brighten as the sun brings forth this new day. I watch a flock of geese fly above the horizon then divide in two groups and circle in search of fields to graze in. Nature on display. A few minutes later the sun has fully risen. Its warm rays are extending out to everything. The warmth feels good to my cold hands and feet. I’m in agreement with Mary Oliver that time in the spiritual side of the world tweaks of my attitude.

    Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. 🎁

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  • clouds,  John O'Donohue,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    That is a Gift

    December 14, 2020

    “Only the blindness of habit convinces us that we continue to live in the same place, that we see the same landscape.”

    John O’Donohue

    Had an early meeting at Pineridge Natural Area with God, a few magpies, low clouds on the eastern horizon, silence and a cup of coffee to keep my hands warm. I watched nature put on a beautiful show of colors that helped keep me warm in the 15 degree cold. As O’Donohue suggests as long as I do not stay in a place of the blindness of my habits the landscape will provide something new for me to experience, and that is a gift. I stayed until the sun rose above the clouds and my hands and feet were cold. Have a great day and stay warm.

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  • Fujifilm X-T3,  landscape,  mountains,  natural areas,  quotes

    What else have I not seen?

    December 6, 2020

    “I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera. I look into the camera and take pictures. My photographs are the tiniest part of what I see that could be photographed. They are fragments of endless possibilities.”

    Saul Leiter

    Fort Collins Natural Areas have become the place for me to go. I started going primarily because the coffee shops were not allowing dining in due to state mandates. So in March of 2020 I began making coffee at home and going to Pineridge Natural Area to journal, read, connect with nature and get in a walk. My first explorations of Pineridge were made in 2014 but then lost touch with it until March. Then in June of 2020 I discovered Reservoir Ridge which is only about 4 miles away. When I look at my archives there are twice as many images at Reservoir Ridge than Pineridge while only exploring it in half the time. I seem to be drawn to it in a more photographic way.

    For the past 5 months I’m out to Reservoir Ridge at least once a week. Yet, this past week was the first time I saw this old water pump, I mean really saw it. It sits along an irrigation ditch and a row of trees so I’ve seen it many times, but never really saw it. As soon as I saw the pump this past week something in my mind kicked in, I really saw it and envisioned the above image. I walked out there to it and accepted the gift. So, I wonder what else I’ve not seen out there. I’ll keep you posted.

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