My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Nature at work creating beauty for us. A walk to the Prospect Ponds area just east of Fort Collins provided me the chance for this image. I have so often in the past missed seeing natures art because I was caught up in my thoughts rather than staying present to where I am at. This world is so beautiful when we live in it.
Some people are morning people and some are not. I’m a morning person so I like to be up early and see the sun rise while the world around me awakes.
A friend of mine travels with his work and was venting some frustration due to mechanical and weather related delays on his trip home. I can relate to his feelings of frustration as I work as a flight attendant and face those situations on a regular basis. Wouldn’t it be nice to conduct our business on a local scale and not have to commute great distances. Think about this: Get up in the morning, take camera out and shoot a few frames, come back to the house, download the images while I take a shower. After shower make a latte then sip on my latte while I sort through my morning shoot. Do it again the next day.
I had the opportunity to do that for a while and loved it. Just outside the front door of my condo in Colorado is a pond where geese and ducks hang out, they’re always chattering about something. While a couple blocks away is a paved path I like to walk and winds through the city following a small creek. I would use these two locations for photo opportunities. That’s where I got the shot of this mallard. It’s an easy commute to either one of them. Since I’m walking there’s not going to be any mechanical delays, well maybe a few creaky bones and an ache or two from aging. If the weather is bad I can dress warmer, take an umbrella or, in the most severe cases, just stay home. That’s a delay I can easily live with and the delay occurred at home.
There is no major travel in that scenario, nor delays, nor much income. 🙂 Just some thoughts. Hope everyone has a good day!
I made a trip this passed Saturday to Inniswood Gardens for some much needed exercise and just to get out of the house. I have been doing a lot of study for my recurrent testing that’s coming up the end of month and into next month. I’m glad I did. It was cloudy and overcast which provided for wonderful light for photography. The trees are still naked of leaves so the wooded areas feel of winter. But let your eyes wander to the forest floor and and you will be greeted with the site of new life.
Even though it was a Saturday not many people were out allowing me to enjoy the quiet as well as the beauty of the new growth surrounding me. The new plant life is making its beauty known by sending green spouts skyward and showing brightly colored flowers. They call out to our eyes asking for us to enjoy there beauty. And, that I did!
“As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.”
Sam Abell
To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”
Ansel Adams
I’ve heard it said that breakfast is one of our most important meals of the day and if it includes a business meeting that may be even truer. Mentors have shown me how quiet meditation in the morning will be the most important meeting of my day. When I miss that meeting or fail to be awake for it, my choices and thoughts throughout the day do not have as positive effect on the world around me. Hope you had a good meeting this morning.
Photographers will over time acquire a photographers eye to see the normal everyday things with a different lens. I believe that has happened in my life. In this image a simple fire hydrant will be overlooked by many people as they pass by. Yet for me the colors and the shadows all make for an interesting image. Wonder how many dogs will be attracted to the colors and shadows or attracted because of the scent?
Wild turkeys inside the city is one of the pluses the Metro Parks provide in the Columbus area. I have seen several of them while walking the trails in one of my favorite parks in the system called Blendon Woods Park. I’m not sure my intentions for being in the park that day but came across 23 of them and took a few images. The wild turkeys of North America have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence. Female feathers are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. It is an interesting bird and leery of people as evidenced in this stare.
Our world of advertising sure knows how to entice and call our attention to their products. This image was taken as I walked out of my hotel for a walk. The delivery truck was parked in front so all I could see was the red color, which they say is a power color, and the sign. Since my camera just happened to be hanging around my neck I took this image.