Month: September 2018

Nature’s magnificence…

and coming back.

DSC_0446-Edit-2-Edit-3I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of the place could be photographed.

Annie Leibovitz

This week has been a reminder of and an eye-opener to the scars that we bear.

This stand of trees still soars majestically skyward but bore not the brightly colored leaves of autumn, only blackened trunks and open wounds from the Kenow fire that swept through last year.

I find myself listening more and looking beyond the outer shells.

I find myself more willing to speak openly and wonder if that energy is being felt.

I find myself coming back.

Autumn…

equinox, is winter upon us?DSC_3037-Edit-2There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The autumn equinox is upon us; the days will become shorter, and soon, if not already, the snow will begin to fall.

Today there will be equal hours of day and night and rituals abound for marking that sense of balance.

One of my favorite stories comes from Greek mythology and Persephone who was abducted from her mother,  harvest Goddess Demeter, and taken to the underworld to become the wife of Hades. She eventually got her back only to lose her to Hades for three months of every year. During this time Demeter would refuse to grow plants resulting in “winter”.

I don’t share Demeter’s sense of loss when winter comes calling. For me it’s a time of stark, clean landscapes and crystalline structures.

Enjoy every moment, not just the ones that are perfect…that’s what is important.

Just…

be.

DSC_1848Dream, struggle, create, prevail. Be daring. Be brave. Be loving. Be compassionate. Be strong. Be brilliant. Be beautiful.

Caterina Fake

It’s been a long time since I sat at this desk and it feels really good.

I’m taking time to be.

To enjoy the colors of fall. To inhale the scent of leaves as they change from green to bright red, yellow, and orange.To gaze upon the sunlit waters where the salmon spawn.

But most of all. I’m taking time to just breathe.

 

A luminous…

halo.
 Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi- transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.

Virginia Woolf

Sometimes the image finds the quote while other times the quote finds the image, either way I’m happy when I can find words that expand on what I’m feeling when I photograph.

I remember the first time that I saw a halo and the geek in me rushed home to find out what created it. 

That was the beginning of my occasional e-mail chats with Les Cowley of atoptics, a man very generous with his knowledge, and the start of my passion for studying ice crystals in the atmosphere.

These words today though, a semi transparent envelope, as it refers to life deeply resonate with me.

The 22 degree halo in this image appeared fleetingly as we drank from the waters where two glacial brooks converged.

Don’t forget to look up, day or night, and let the luminous beauty of nature envelop you.

You won’t be sorry you did…

Another lesson…

learned in nature.

DSC_9254

If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.

Carl Perkins

I think it’s possible to see too much beauty in one day.

I remember studying geology in school and being fascinated by all of the terminology describing the structure of earth and its formation.

This beautiful area of carved rocks and turquoise colored glacial water couldn’t be seen from the road but lay just down a steep path that began a short distance from an otherwise bland roadside pull-off.

I could have spent days here studying and photographing the rock formations but with my propensity for attracting bears it didn’t seem like the best idea to camp here even if it had been permissible.

Learned a new term on this stretch of our travels…rock flour. Finely ground sediment created by the grinding of bedrock by glacier erosion.

This leg of the trip was a great reminder that new paths are carved slowly over time.

Some obstacles are washed away in an instant while others are carved away one layer at a time.

Although the scars that are left behind never completely fade, they do soften and create a new beauty built by strength and endurance.

It’s almost always about the water…