aware and alert

aware and alert, originally uploaded by Still Pond Photography.

"Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come."
— Bruce Lee (Tao of Jeet Kune Do)

time in dreams is frozen

time in dreams is frozen, originally uploaded by Still Pond Photography.

Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been.
— Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)

~~~~~~




This shot was taken yesterday while I was home for a snow day. Luckily, I headed out on Wednesday well in enough time to miss the horrible traffic jams around the Baltimore beltway. The snow fall overnight made this place look like a winter wonderland for about half the day, and then, thankfully, it started to melt.

The shape of this piece of ice reminded me of the jewel on a tear drop necklace or earring - with the bottom portion so perfectly shaped.

With regard to this quote, I have started and never finished The Blind Assassin about three times. I liked the book and plan to finish it at some point - I think I am about 3/4 the way through. Why can we finish some books in a night and others take us years?

Uploaded by Still Pond Photography on 28 Jan 11, 6.31AM EST.


Compose your blog entry

< wild geese <

< wild geese , originally uploaded by Still Pond Photography.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

~ Mary Oliver, Dream Work

swing*snow*swing

swing*snow*swing, originally uploaded by Still Pond Photography.

stay this way

stay this way, originally uploaded by Still Pond Photography.

"Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone."
— J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)

Calling a Distant Animal

Calling a Distant Animal, originally uploaded by poketypatch ~ Still Pond Photography.

Here it is once again this one note
from a string of longing

tightened suddenly from both ends
and held for plucking

tone torn out of one birdsong
though that bird

by now may be
where a call cannot

follow it
the same note goes on calling

across space and is heard now
in the old night and known there

a silence recognized
by the silence it calls to

~W.S. Merwin

The photograph above was taken during an outing I made alone to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland.  Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, located 12 miles south of Cambridge, Maryland, was established in 1933 as a refuge for migratory waterfowl. The refuge includes more than 27,000 acres, composed mainly of rich tidal marsh characterized by fluctuating water levels and variable salinity. Other habitat types include freshwater ponds, mixed evergreen and deciduous forests, and small amounts of cropland and managed impoundments that are seasonally flooded for waterfowl use. The Refuge has walking and driving trails.  I was lucky enough to capture this blue heron, as well as some ospreys.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Birdhouse - Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - Still Pond Photography

Marsh - Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - Still Pond Photography

The photos have been sitting on my hard drive for several months.  I don't have a telephoto lens and this makes getting good photos of wildlife very difficult.  I used my 55-250mm lens for these photos; however, it still doesn't capture the details very well.  For the blue heron at the top, I played around with layers in photoshop adding a little motion blur at the edges and throwing on a couple of textures.  I feel that it gives the photo a painterly effect - which makes it a more "artsy" type of photo rather than a good wildlife shot.  

Osprey feeding baby - Still Pond Photography

I have been reading The Shadow of Sirius by the Library of Congress's seventeenth Poet Laureate, W. S. Merwin.  It is a wonderful collection of a multitude of poems which explore the mysteries of light, darkness, temporality and eternity.  The words are so meaningful and thought provoking. I enjoy thinking about the

words when paired with my photography.  I have always been a "challenged" writer, so to have these remarkable words coupled with image is another form of interpretation.

    

Hearing the Light

hearing the light, originally uploaded by poketypatch ~ Still Pond Photography.

"Hearing the light" is a phenomenon that occurs on an intuitive level when you feel that the photographic image is right and that the moment has come to record it... Invariably, a moment arrives when everything feels right; when the image sings. I hear the light and then proceed to record the image."
~Wayne Rowe (Zen and the Magic of Photography)

I am enjoying reading and contemplating on Wayne Rowe's book, Zen and the Magic of Photography.  Mr. Rowe has put into words the way that I feel about photography.  The first part of the book discusses experiencing Zen through photography and photography through Zen.  Mr. Rowe believes that if one is drawn into the light, one will then focus better and become more open and aware to one's surroundings.

"Open yourself to the light, images and reality around you."

"Experiencing real moments will lead you to a culminating moment of satori - a moment when you hear the light; the image sings ; and form, content, and feeling are one."

"looking with the capacity to feel"

Rainy Day Pleasures

Rainy     days            
are                     for
                                                   reading

           art

                                reflection

              knitting

                             

                                cooking             joy    

    eating

                         drinking

                                              playing

renewal

 
and finding pretty new things to look at...

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

the view from here

the view from here, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

I was driving along our country roads and the tops of these silos popped out at me as they were reflecting the bright sunlight in a sea of green. The silos are several stories high and are used to story grain. The green is actually corn which is about 7 feet tall. I actually had to drive a ways until I got to a spot along the road where you could actually get a good view of the tops of the silos. The corn is so tall this year that it was hard to find the right spot. I took this photo with my 55-250mm lens whilst parked on the side of the road.... otherwise known as a "drive-by shot"!

"Invisible threads are the strongest ties"

"Invisible threads are the strongest ties", originally uploaded by poketypatch ~ away....

— Friedrich Nietzsche