Category Archives: Photography

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weight and Gravity

by

Things that are not weighty can be significant nevertheless.  What is greater than a seed on the wind for the future of a plant?

weightless 2

What is more important than light that lifts the soul in the dark of winter?

weightless 5

And something as weightless as a feather is essential for a bird to soar.

weightless 4

We are wise to take the ethereal seriously: the death of the canary in the mine, the evaporation of a pond, the butterfly that will not migrate. They tell us vital things.

Vivid

At the same time, we must examine the gravity we feel about death.  Is it really such an enormous thing? It is altogether common and expected.

weight

And even mountains move – eventually.

Battleship Rock NM

The cosmos is forever dancing with the forces of gravity.  The stars are light on their feet; they twirl and twinkle, smiling their whole lives long.  We are made of star stuff.  Let’s lighten up!  After all, what could be more meaningful?

Photo credit: Carol Toepke

Remember this post when you feel like you’re doing too much heavy lifting. 041

Weight(less)

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Circle of Life

by

I see life in the miracle of the spherical –arboretum in winter

  of the cycle, the whole, balanced circumference – eye 1

of endings that beget beginnings, the disappearance that creates an opening that begs a new adventure –

natural bridges state park

of gestating generations.

may apple

Life encircles all around.  Literally.

appleMay this year bring you the peace and joy of Life – wherever you may see yourself in the circle.  And thank you for including me in the embrace of your life by your visit!

Circle

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Present Moment – Now

by

Beneath all the superimposed hype of culture, politics, economics, religion and whatever else may be influencing your perception of reality, there is a simple place called Now. It is unique and bravely wild each time you visit. There may be familiar elements, but they are new every moment, like water that may be solid, liquid or gas and may change at any time. To enter fully into this Now, bring no expectations, no ‘shoulds’ or ‘ought to be’. Be open and aware of what is around you. Your attention, appreciation, and gratitude are welcome. You may notice a profound joy arising within you the more time you spend in this Now. This is the Present, a free gift.

Now

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gathering My Group Shots

by

I do notice some predominant elements at gatherings with my nearest and dearest: big smiles, big hugs, goofiness and a glass of something.  Looking forward to having more of these…in this year and in the next.

Gathering

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Oops! Fun Fails

by

Walking along the Ice Age Trail in June can take you along the tops of glacial formations like kames and eskers and drumlins.  It can also take you through kettles and boggy meadows.  Wisconsin in June is often wet.  We are blessed with abundant fresh water in the Great Lakes region. It’s a glorious thing to watch the greening of the landscape each year because of all that water. Things certainly bust out all over here. The tendency to misjudge the depth of water on the path is probably a pretty common “oops” for many hikers. But what a delight to pull off your soggy boots and socks and run barefoot in the new grass!

oops
Oops!

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eye Spy the Green Fire

by

Headlines today are full of accounts of killing.  Too many people are spying through cross-hairs; that’s very scary to me.  Looking into the eye of life – seeing living, sentient beings for what they are – is a sacred experience, I believe.  Here is an amazing written account of that, by Aldo Leopold as told in “Killing the Wolf” from A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There:

We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock.

In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy; how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable side-rocks.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

May all beings be respected. May the green fire be rekindled in our time.

 


Eye Spy

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Transition, part 2

by

intricate 2Dawn in the Whisker Lake Wilderness

The “fringe” areas of the wild, where forest meets water, where sun meets horizon, are the most dynamic, teeming with diverse life and activity.  In the solid middle of the night, or noon-day, it is quieter.  The excitement of these transitional spaces is palpable.  I rise at dawn to greet the sun with the birds and the frogs and the porcupine, rummaging in the leaves.  I am thrilled by the feeling of life and change and movement. My eyes and ears and heart are open to what is happening. NOW is a transition, a flowing joy.

Transition

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: …and Baby Makes Three

by

I had only just bought myself my first digital camera for my 50th birthday 8 days before I went hiking at Lapham Peak State Park and this family of sandhill cranes flew directly overhead.  I knew it would be a long shot that I had all the settings on it correctly programmed, but I snapped away in hope.  There they are…

cranes

…and there they go….

and babyOf course, three is a magic number.  We all learned that from Schoolhouse Rock, didn’t we?


Trio

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory

by

“Victory” is a word that makes me rather uncomfortable.  It brings to mind a dualism that causes suffering.  In other words, if there’s a victor, there must be a loser.  I feel sad when someone is put in that role.  I do not like competition.  I do not like war.  I do not like capitalism.  And I do not like losing or feeling “less than”.  So often, winners are unkind, insensitive and arrogant.  I was the fourth daughter in my family of origin, and I probably felt like “the loser” in lots of ways as a child: redundant, younger, dumber, less skilled.  It doesn’t feel good to be on that side of the scale.  I prefer to imagine a way that everyone can win, that we can all share and get what we need regardless of how much or how little we are able to contribute.  I used to tell my own 4 children, “Fair doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing.  Fair means everyone gets what they need.”  May all beings be happy.  May we all feel that we can get what we need.  I am hoping for a kinder Victory for my country, for my children, for myself.

victory 2 victory
Victory

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Naturally Ornate

by

My first association with the theme word is the Ornate Box Turtle.  I was just listening to a herpetologist on NPR using that word to describe a different species of turtle; apparently, there are a few that have earned the description in their common name.  I met Boxy when I was volunteering at the Wehr Nature Center.  Boxy is of an endangered species that inhabits the sandy areas of southwestern Wisconsin.  She (I know because her eyes are brown, not red) has a cleverly hinged carapace that allows her to draw her head and limbs in and seal up almost completely when threatened.  This is a picture taken through the not-quite-clean glass of her holding tank.  It doesn’t do her coloring justice.  She appears grumpy because she had just had her beak and nails trimmed at the vet.  When it is grown out longer, the corners of her mouth don’t appear so down-turned. 

boxyHere is another example of the naturally ornate: wild turkey feathers.  These are on a stuffed bird at the Madison Arboretum.  The structural iridescence of  feathers is a fascinating thing.  They are not pigmented.  They are prismed (if that’s a word).  And each branch of the hair-like parts is barbed so that it will knit back together with its neighbor to form a more solid surface.  When birds preen, they are re-knitting their feather edges. 

turkey feathersOf course, Nature is often showing off in flowers.  Ornate, breathtaking, in color and detail that is microscopically fine, often symmetrical, and elaborately patterned.  Here are a few examples: a lily and Queen Anne’s lace.

lily Queen Annes laceNature is extravagant, abundant, opulent, and rich in so many ways.  Oh, and it is free.  Just appears without us having to do anything.  In fact, it becomes even more fantastic when we leave it alone.  What a wonderful world!

Ornate