My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
One eye of the photographer looks wide open through the viewfinder, the other, the closed looks into his own soul.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Looking into our souls is the practice of mystics, monastics, poets, and sunflowers but also includes the photographer. I’m off to meet Mark for breakfast! Happy Wednesday!
No landscape images this morning. Instead I’m going to post a couple of images of Tom and Kathy Dills from the short visit we had. Pretty impressive smiles from both of them considering the road miles they have put in. Driving from North Carolina to the northwest coast and back is not the same as a jaunt to the grocery store. And, include a pandemic and the fact most of the west coast seems to be on fire and you can understand the task they took on. This was yesterday morning at the newly opened Chicken Coop, a American Mexican restaurant nearby.
They arrived Sunday afternoon. After connecting up we drove to the Pineridge Natural Area and then to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area where we took a short walk to the rock. This is a location I enjoy because of the quiet and solitude I can experience. At the present time it’s not as quiet because they’re using the open field south of the natural area as a staging area for the helicopters battling the Cameron Peak fire. Kathy tried sitting on the uncomfortable rock and agreed it’s purpose is not long term sitting. They left yesterday morning and expect to arrive in Charlotte on Thursday. It was a short visit but hopefully there will be more opportunities.
“The camera’s not a camera, really. It’s an open door we need to walk through. It’s up to us to keep moving our feet.” Joe McNally
Joe McNally’s post about photographers being “strange” is true. He pins me to the wall when he talks about photographers “staring at strange stuff”. I plead guilty to that and probably hits a chord with anyone reading his blog or even this blog. Case in point is the wall outside of a restaurant/bar called the Boathouse in Myrtle Beach. I had gone over for lunch before we flew out later in the afternoon. After devouring a shrimp BLT sandwich and fries, something I’d never had before, I walked out the door and noticed the painted wall of the building. It looked like a fresh paint job and I had to have a photo. I took a half dozen shots, adjusting my position by moving forward and backwards, stepping to the side, trying different crops until I felt I got what I wanted. Probably took no more than 1-2 minutes of time. Turning around I found myself staring at a car wanting to park right where I was doing my photographers dance routine. I can hear it now, “I don’t know Martha, looks like he’s shooting a wall. Strange!” I gave them a sheepish smile, waved, put the lens cap back on and got out of their way.
Whether we’re strange or not, we must keep moving our feet. 🙂