My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
Setting sun at the Arapaho Bend Natural Area. I took this image back in 2013. Since then this old barn/shed has been taken down. I’m glad I have this image so I can remember it’s presence.
For Presence
Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
I spent time at one of the natural areas this morning. Peaceful, serene and for me a great way to start my day. Driving home a young man in a large black CJ7 Jeep come up beside me rather fast, speakers blasting. When he pulled up beside me at the stoplight my car began to vibrate and my bones began to vibrate due to the volume. It was at that moment all serenity and peace evaporated. I quickly began to fantasize for a twitching nose like Samantha from the Bewitched television show and twitch my nose to blow those speakers. I’d show him! Yes, I go there once in a while. Have a great weekend! 😠
Loss is a part of life. We experience loss through declining health, jobs, marriages, and children who move off to school. There is a sadness within as I look at this image taken back in June of 2006. I made visits to this older barn and it’s open view of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It is is gone now and a large executive housing complex is going up. 🙁
Windy Morning sunrise with Venus in the upper right corner
I have several images of this farm at sunrise. It is a place I enjoy going to and is not that far from home. Here is a link to one of my favorite images of it.
I decided last night to drive out there in the morning and prepared everything before going to bed. I woke before the alarm to the sound of blowing wind. Discovered later those winds were gusting up to 30 mph. I made a mocha latte, put it in my mug and headed out.
Needless to say, way too many images were not usable as it was difficult to keep the camera and tripod steady. For the image of fence below I parked the car on the west side of me as a wind block and then placed my tripod low to the ground to reduce as much shake as possible. I’m down low in the snow, in a bar ditch where most landscape photographers hang out.
Drifting Snow and Fence
Even with nylon wind pants, the wind found ways to penetrate and, as usual, it did not take long for my hands to get cold. I shot everything prior to sunrise and then headed home to warm up, shower and download images. These are the two images I think best represented the morning.
I also seem to have a rather large dust spot on my Fujifilm 18-55mm lens. It’s not a drastic spot and is almost impossible to see it. Only noticeable on light open skies and when you look for it. It has shown up that last few times I’ve used it and gone through the process of cleaning it. This morning I spent more time trying to make sure I have it cleaned. If not I may have to take it in. Stay warm and hang on to your hat.
At one time we had barns rather than garages. We opened the door manually rather than with a remote. We had a horse or two, maybe a cow parked in it. There were no oil spots on the concrete floor but we did have other stuff on the floor. Along the walls were hanging the gear we needed to ride our horse or maybe a buggy. Anyway here is an image from a barn at the Superstition Mountains Museum near Apache Junction, AZ.
This is an image of the T.A. Moulton Barn just outside of Grand Teton National Park. The T.A. Moulton Barn is all that remains of the homestead built by Thomas Alma Moulton and his sons between about 1912 and 1945. It sits west of the road known as Mormon Row, in an area called Antelope Flats, between the towns of Kelly and Moose.
I took a workshop back in the fall of 2003. One project we did was with light painting. We setup our tripods and cameras for some long exposures. When we would press our shutters on instructor would run in front of the barn with two lights and paint away. Needless to say he was pretty winded by the time we had taken a dozen or so images.
We awoke to a light rain this morning. Refreshing rain. If we could just have one morning a week where it would rain lightly in the morning for a couple of hours then bring out the sunshine for the remainder of the day. Now that would work for me. This image is one of the abandoned buildings at the Arapahoe Bend Nature area and is an HDR image composed of three images. A little too much but we must try different things.
