The Sea of Abaco in a tranquil moment, as seen from our sailboat Windsong II.
Tranquility…
Quotations
Water abstracts…
The abstract nature of reality is the source of beauty.
William DeRaymond
The sun was going down and the light was beautiful in the marina. I had just finished shooting some pics of Charles and Chica (a dog on a neighbouring boat) and as I was walking down the dock, I caught sight of the most amazing reflections in the water.
I doubt I would have noticed them before starting to take the wonderful online course, Going Abstract, with Kim Manley Ort. My eyes are now so much more attuned to light and colour and pattern that I would have just walked past before. And that means so much more beauty is mine to delight in.
A wonderful gift…
It’s astounding just how much the eye/brain wants to find something recognizable in an abstract. I created quite a number of these water abstracts and I keep seeing animal/fish/bird shapes in them. And with their rounded shapes, they also remind me of abstract Inuit art.
Then I remember they are fundamentally water, light, reflection, pattern and colour. But when you think about the complex processes involved in getting that moment in the marina into our eyes and then into our brain to make meaning — through the medium of the camera — it all becomes rather miraculous.
“I understand abstract art as an attempt to feed imagination with a world built through the basic sensations of the eyes.”
Jean Helion
Share this:
Through the window…
A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.
Anais Nin
When I saw this vignette, it immediately captivated me and transported me to another time and place…maybe one that I had read about in a novel or had travelled to in my imagination.
This was a place I knew…
Share this:
An invisible cloak…
Today, I’m thinking of all those — known to me and unknown to me — facing grief, loss, health challenges and worries, or any other form of pain and suffering…
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’Donohue
from Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Share this:
Go to sleep, darlings…
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says
“Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
Lewis Carroll
Share this:
But the scene is grey…
When the prophet, a complacent fat man,
Arrived at the mountain-top
He cried: “Woe to my knowledge!
I intended to see good white lands
And bad black lands—
But the scene is grey.
Stephen Crane
Share this:
Grateful for peaceful people everywhere…
Share this:
The pyrotechnics of a new autumn…
Everything was resplendent with the pyrotechnics of a new autumn.
Thomas Ligotti
Bokeh leaf
ICM abstract
Gold leaf
ICM energy
Looking up
Still reflections
Dreamlike walk in the woods
How many ways are there to capture autumn? Double exposures, ICM, reflections, macros, film, polaroids…I don’t know but as many as there are photographers, I guess.
What I am sure about is that for me the joy is in trying to express my abiding love for this season through my images. And to interpret its many moods — its energy, its stillness, its melancholy, its whimsy. I’m crazy for all of it.
When I want to feast on the lovely and unique visions of others, I delight in the images of my sister photographers in the Focusing on Life Flickr pool.
I know I am in the company of kindred spirits when I soak up the beauty of their photographs and gasp at their oh-so-particular ways of seeing their world.
One of the FOL collective, Leigh Love, shares a glorious Ode to October in words and images that you won’t want to miss. While you’re there, why not enter their giveaway? It’s on until October 4.
If you’re an autumn enthusiast like me, do you have a favorite fall feeling or activity? Or do you just love it all?
Share this:
Crisp and golden…
Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple…
JK Rowling
And so it begins — my favorite time of year. Crisp, sunny, mellow weather. New shots of colour in our surrounding trees. The freshest of fruit and vegetables. And time to enjoy my favorite of all apples, the honey crisp.
I didn’t know about the honey crisp until a few years ago. I think I first found it in a grocery store. Always on the lookout for something new and different in the produce section, I tried it. And was an immediate convert. Then I found a nearby orchard that grows it. Hallelujah!
The honey crisp is the quintessential eating apple. It has an unbelievably crisp and juicy texture. Its flesh is cream coloured and coarse. It is so hard to describe the flavour, but trust me, if you love apples, there is nothing like it.
Sharing with Kim Klassen’s Friday Finds.
Share this:
Midday…
In those years before mobile phones, email and Skype, travelers depended on the rudimentary communications system known as the postcard.
Julian Barnes
Sherrygaley.com 