Dragonfly wings ... shining silken garments. Now my heart is aching. Who will give it rest? Young Dragonfly wings ... rich embroidered garments. Now my heart is aching. Who will give it peace? Dragonfly bursting its cocoon ... plain white linen garments. Now my hearts aching. Who will give it love? ~The Book of Songs (cited: Anonymous,The Jade Flute. Project Gutenberg
I have seen a road that wanders in green shade, that runs through sweet fields of flowers. My eyes have traveled there, and journeyed far along that cool fine road. But I will never really walk that road; it does not really lead to where she lives. When she was born, they bound her little feet with leather bands; my beloved never walks the road of shade and flowers. When she was born, they bound her little heart with leather bands; my beloved never listens to my song. ~Anonymous (cited: Various Authors, The Jade Flute Chinese Poems in Prose. The Project Gutenberg
This week Patti’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is to focus on images that feature a subject that begins with the letter S.
Let’s begin with Symmetry:
Keep warm, be safe, be well, be sage.
This weeks lens-artists photo challenge is hosted by Sheetal who invites us to “show us the things you love that makes your world spin or things about your world that make you delirious with joy.”
An afternoon drive through Poudre Canyon for a lunch in Walden, Colorado. Or better yet, having lunch in Walden while on a camping trip through the Rocky Mountains.
The Poudre Canyon is a narrow verdant canyon, approximately 40 miles long, on the upper Cache la Poudre River in Larimer County, Colorado in the United States. The canyon is a glacier-formed valley through the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains northwest of Fort Collins.
watching the river
through a window of trees…
spring rain falls ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)
Driving west through the canyon, one will be enticed to pull off the road to view the clouds traveling across Cameron Peak. Cameron Peak is within the Medicine Bow Mountains which are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend for 100-mile from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming.
a glimpse of moon
over my home village…
then clouds ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)
A westerly Sunday drive through Poudre Canyon will invite you to stop for lunch in the small town of Walden, Colorado. Walden is located in Jackson County, an amazing sub-alpine valley in Northern Colorado.
evening’s fall colors–
the rainbow in the valley
fades away ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)
As of the 2010 census, the population of Walden was 1,394; the fourth least populated in the state of Colorado.
white clouds of mist
blow away…
the village’s mountain ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)
The county contains the Never Summer Wilderness, the 71,000-acre Colorado State Forest, and the Arapapho National Wildlife Refuge.
this mountain rain
and the deer’s tears
must be mingling ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)
During the summer of 2020, the Cameron Peak fire began about 25 miles east of Walden and 15 miles southwest of Red Feather Lakes near Cameron Pass. It is reported that this fire burnt 208,663 acres (326 sq mi.) through the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Larimer and Jackson Counties and Rocky Mountain National Park. The fire became the largest wildfire in Colorado history.
This week’s lens-artists photo challenge (Travels and Trifles) invites us to share our photo editing process that aids in the realization of our artistic interpretations.
The side-by-side images below (Nikon D750) were part of a nature walk that began with an intention to create in-camera double exposure photographs. As you will notice only one of the photographs below was created in camera.
After the initial adjustment and cropping edits within Capture One 21, the final images were created using the Analog Efex Pro 2 software.
f/8 1/250s 38mm 100 ISO
f/8 1/320s 38mm 100 ISO
f/8 1/125s 38mm 100 ISO
Often when I walk away from the editing process with a bit of frustration, I call to mind a mantra introduced to me by the photographer, Bruce Percey, “you can’t make a bad photograph good, but you can make a good photograph bad.
I have often found that what is “forgettable” and that which is “favorite” often times is grounded in the subjective experiences of the photographer and the viewers.
Be safe, be well, be sage.
Two Sonys, one Ricoh, one Lumix, one Leica, two Nikons, and one iPhone have been my photography companions over the past 10 years. Our wanderings has had its ups and downs … losing files, grieving of Aperture, diving into various software editing programs, a self-learning photography project, breaking rules, being obsessed with various subjects, experimenting various techniques, and being awed by multiple photographers, world wide.
It has been a journey! Let’s begin with one of my first macros with a Ricoh.
…and there were the obsessions with…
and during this pandemic…
and the list goes on and on. Thank you Amy for the invitation pause for a bit to reflect on where I’ve been and to share a bit of my photo journey.
Looking backward ... I cannot see the ancients of days. Looking forward ... I cannot see ages yet to come. Only heaven and earth have remained, And will remain forever ... I am alone, I grieve, I drop tears into the dust ~Chen Tzu-ang
(cited: Trans: Anonymous, The Jade Flute Chinese Poems in Prose. The Project Gutenberg
red pedal tractor…
sun-lit hair…freckled-face smile
fading breath of time
In remembrance of Christopher Ernest Broyles, December 10, 1954 ~ January 27, 2014
Snow has fallen
And you cannot have
Even the unusual sight of men
Along the precipitous path of the Peak of Yoshino. ~The Sarashina Diary (Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)
Once upon a time A tiny striped caterpillar Burst from the egg Which had been home For so long. "Hello world," he said. "It sure is bright out here in the sun." (excerpt from Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers)
Fun striped and checked findings for Leya’s lens-artists photo challenge!
This week, Patti gives us the opportunity to focus on emotions…to share portraits or street photography that captures people’s feelings, such as happiness, anger, sadness, curiosity, or fear.
Okay…this weeks lens-artist challenge, emotions, opens the door to one of my secret struggles…it is one of many that remain in a mud puddle of confusion.
I am not sure if I understand the difference between a feeling and an emotion.
So far this ongoing search for clarity has me understand an awareness of a feeling, like sadness, arises from my awareness of … tears/heart pain. I am able to acknowledge “anger” from a awareness of variations of speech and thoughts. Fear…the gut punch feeling in my stomach. I have experienced a lot of gut punch feelings since the latest events in Washington D.C.
I continue to ask myself, what is an emotion? I’ve looked at the word, emotion, and came to an awareness of “motion.” So, I’ve asked myself is emotion a feeling that motivates me to action? Today, at this moment in time, I’m going to go with yes…well…a tentative yes because within the word heroin is hero. There clearly is a mismatch there.
I do know for certain that to be driven by the emotional system often times is action that is separated from thinking. It can be action that is blocked from an awareness of moral shame, both internal shame or external shame. Now, I find myself questioning is shame a feeling, an emotion, or is it a mental formation that arises after a period of reflection?
Then I wonder…do feelings of anxiety (is anxiety a feeling or an emotion?) fog up a clear reflection of self with protective mechanisms of denial, rationalization, displacement, projection, and/or sublimation
Now…I ask myself are these defense mechanisms emotions…driven by feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, confusion.
I am certain that most of our communication with others is drawn from nonverbal communication. That is, the feelings/emotions that we interpret by another’s body language. Problems arise from this channel of communication when these interpretations are not clarified by the other.
I also believe that feelings are contagious; that is, a smile awakens a smile, a tear awakens a tear and fear awakens fear and anger awakens anger. I find that I just half smiled at this moment with an internal notation – we are impacted by a contagious virus as well as infectious feelings/emotions.
How are you feeling right now? I’m feeling a bit confused.
Czech photographer, Josef Sudek (1896-1976), known as the ‘Poet of Prague’, was drawn to desolate landscapes, simple, solitary objects and the quiet, unpopulated street scenes of Prague, a city to which he dedicated his whole life. He was the first photographer to be honoured by the Republic with the title of ‘Artist of Merit’ and in his 70th year, his life’s work was recognised by the ‘Order of Labour’. (cited: Huxley-Parlour Gallery)
Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday
a meditative journey 
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