lens-artists: flights of fancy

passing as I play

a swaying dandelion

on an autumn breeze

let’s take flight of fancy to where the fairies live …

Dearest Gwen,

I head a pigeon’s “coo coo” this morning. She was resting on the chimney. Her voice flew down the chimney, out of the fireplace, and up the stairs.

I can hear you say, “Grandma Brenda voices don’t have wings. They cannot fly.”

Yes, voices don’t have wings. But somehow they do travel from one place to another.

Let us imagine voices having tiny tiny butterfly wings.

Wings like the Western Blue Beauty or Monarch Butterfly. Other voices could be flying through the sky with miniature dragonfly wings.

Or maybe we could draw the “chirp chirp chirp” of the Robin’s song with majestic wings of gold that would glitter in the Spring’s morning sun.

I would like to see a voice’s wings knitted from spider silk. A silverly white that would carry the momentous sound of a distance crane in flight.

Oh our imagination opens us up to wonderful possibilities.

I love you.

Grandma Brenda

Thank you John (Journeys with JohnBo) for this invitation to play, to wander where fairies live, and yes imagine voices having wings.

Moody Monochrome with Fujifilm’s stimulation recipes

While wandering about WP, I was introduced to the world of Fujifilm simulation recipes. Thank you Ritchie (fujixweely.com) for the Fujifilm Moody Monochrome recipe. It was a great photo companion this morning.

Fujifilm X-T4 ,,, f4 1/3.2s 26mm 3200 ISO -0.3 Tweeted a bit in Capture One

Fujifilm X-T4 … f4 1/10s 54.5mm 3200 ISO -0.3 Tweeted a bit in Capture One

Fujifilm XT-4 … f4 1/15s 54.5 mm 3200 ISO -0.3 Tweeted a bit in Capture One

Fujifilm … f4 1/3.2 22.3mm 3200 ISO +1.3

Fujifilm … f4 1/3.4s 22.3mm 3200 ISO +1.3

Simulation Recipe: Moody Monochrome

Acros+Y
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpness: -2
Clarity: -3
Grain Effect: Strong, Large 
Color Chrome Effect: Off
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: Fluorescent 3, -4 Red & -9 Blue
ISO: 3200
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1 (typically)

Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday

wp anniversary … 11 years

The autumn moon

Shining so brightly

So I wrote this ~Sekkei

Upon reflection of the past 11 years with Word Press there have been virtual connections that inspire, moments of anticipation, exchanges of ideas; and most important, a sense of being heard through exchanges of posts.

These various connections feel similar to childhood exchanges with pen pals. As well as letters, sent and received, the umbilical cords that nourished the emotional connection with family and friends despite the separation of miles.

Pen to paper that silently reaffirmed “thinking of you.” The anticipation that accompanied opening the mail box, tossing the envelopes with business return address onto the kitchen table while sitting down with a cup of tea to open letters that were like gifts of validation … of love.

It is amazing to read statistics that tell of the global connections that have been formed through blogging and virtual meetings. The inherent joy that arises through people connecting through the internet.

The WP anniversary invites me to say: thank you for your challenges, positive and inspiring comments, sharing the tidbits of your life, and creative words and photographs. Also, I appreciate the lessening importance of the numbers of followers and “likes” in light of the continuation of shared interests and new acquaintances.

Yet, I’ve found that over the past eleven years and most notably over the past three there is an emptiness that is occurring with the sudden and unexplained absence of posts… Emptiness that becomes filled with grief and loss.

I miss: our exchanges of haiku, you…an amazing writer of life, jokes you posted that I shared with my grandchildren, the diary you shared after being diagnosed with cancer, your abstract sea landscapes, your reflections of aging, your travel photographs, your invitation to edit selected photographs … I miss the connection I formed with each of you over the years.

This journey with old and new friends…priceless.

WOW … words of wisdom, 5

‘… if you were in some prison the walls of which let none of the sounds of the world come to your senses—would you not then still have your childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that treasure-house of memories.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet. Pg. 17.

Fujifilm X-TR. f4. 1/120s. 120mm. 1600 ISO. .03 ev

Paula’s Words of Wisdom (Lost in Translation) challenge

lens-artists: flower favorites

Pale green night and flowers all melting into one 
    in the soft haze–
Everywhere the moon, glimmering in the Spring night. ~ The Sarashina Diary

Color of the flower

 Has already faded away,

While in idle thoughts

My life passes vainly by,

 As I watch the long rains fall. ~ Ono no Komachi

A fallen flower

Flew back to its perch

A butterfly ~Moritake

Since you went away

No flowers are left on earth ~ Sôseki

Within one memory is my mother sharing with me her favorite flower, Sweet Peas. Within another, is watching her caring for a Venus Flytrap.

This week Ann-Christine (Leya To See a World in a Grain of Sand) invites lens-artist to share their favorite flowers and plants and their silent stories.  

After I contemplated this week’s photo challenge, I find that I don’t have a favorite flower. I do though have private memories tuck away into blossoms. I also call upon flowers placed upon memorial stones to message grief that lives within the love that lives beyond time.

May all places be held sacred.
May all beings be cherished.

May all injustices of oppression and devaluation
be fully righted, remedied and healed.
May all wounds to forests, rivers, deserts, oceans,
all wounds to Mother Earth be lovingly restored to bountiful health.

May all beings everywhere delight in whale song, birdsong and blue sky.
May all beings abide in peace and well-being, awaken and be free.