Brilliance

“Drag me to the moon, to catch a star and seize its brilliance as I’m swept up in amorphous dust.”~B Chicho

I guess one of my primary personal goals in photography is to present something different.  That doesn’t always happen but when possible I most enjoy creating some kind of a dreamy type of feel, altering our normal perception of reality just a bit.  I prefer to do this mostly through color, depth of field and bokeh but will also do it through a composite (not the case here).

This particular image, I felt, was different enough, although I might have preferred a different focus involving the dragonfly. But when I saw the bokeh and dark/light contrasts, I thought of a dragonfly at night and how the bokeh reminded me of moons or starlight so I played with the white balance to make it a darker blue and added a bit of a texture to give it some depth.  I wanted to create a dreamy, nighttime scene that a dragonfly might look out to, as if it were about to take off into the night sky.

 

Mother

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.”~O Winfrey

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!

I have spent a big bulk of time with my grown son over the past few weeks.  And it’s been nice to be able to both spend time with him and nurture him a bit.  You are never too old to be nurtured!  And this morning, I was nurtured a bit and was treated to breakfast in bed by my son.  Very nice…….

Children or not, celebrate the nurturer in you today.

Violet

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”~M TWAIN

Violet Secret Garden

 

Cycle

“The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become fearless is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly – indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.”~A Huffington

It was a gorgeous day, all puffy clouds and not too hot for Phoenix (I’m back in the desert for a bit).  I got a facial today, went out and shot and on the way home was looking up at the clouds admiring them when in a split second, I saw this little ball-ish thing running into my tires.  I was doing about 40 mph and broke but heard and felt THE noise, the one you do not ever want to hear, and one I hadn’t in all my years of driving.  It was a baby bunny. :*(((  I’m not sure if I had been paying more attention if I would have avoided it but it made me feel terrible and I am vowing to try and devote all my faculties from here on in to just concentrating on driving.  Not admiring clouds.  Anyway, the poor little bunny’s life cycle was cut short and I guess I am to blame. I know….it happens. But still, it was not the end to the day that I had envisioned.

Split seconds are all it takes to change, end, better, worsen something. It’s profound to think about how a decision can impact many things, whether that be good or bad.  We all have more power than we think.  Little intricacies can weave a far-reaching web of events, some of which we have total control over, some which we have some, others which we have none.   And that is all part of the circle of life, too.  There’s a little circle and then the bigger one.  Just like this bike……

Destructive

“What you don’t do can be a destructive force.” E Roosevelt

Just when I think I have pretty much captured most of Prescott’s downtown architecturally in some way, shape or form, something new will emerge (or rather, I will stumble upon it).  I’m not quite as attracted to these abandoned scenes as I used to be but I still think it’s an interesting piece of human nature.  Why would a shop owner allow this?  Why does the graffiti say X and √ instead of say, X and O and what did the graffiti look like before it peeled away? Who would dare to sit there?  And the last question (and maybe the most important one), why do I even ponder theses things?? Visually, I liked the door color and all the different textures. But only as a spectator!

Trust

“Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.”~Goethe

Trust

I went to my “sad sack” stable here in Phoenix for a little visit and shoot.  Read on and you’ll see why I call it that.  The horses in this stable were the first horses that I ever shot so I have a certain soft spot for them and always like to see how they are doing when I am able.  While the horses seem pretty well fed, I can tell you that there is a difference between horses that are pets and those in a stable whose job in life is to pretty much make money for someone; work horses , so to speak.  At least that has been my observation.  Most of the latter seem standoffish.  Unless you have a carrot you can call them until you are blue in the face and the majority will not waste the energy to walk over.  Why?  I think it’s because humans predominately equate to work for them, not affection.

It was 100 degrees when I visited and I always feel for these poor guys.  Some of the pens do not even have shade, which I find abhorrent. Standing in the sun all day makes them lethargic and they seem to have only enough energy to try and keep the multitude of flies away. Horses are clever and what I noticed is that they pair up to keep the pesky bugs away.  They stand very close to one another, head to backside and swat flies away from their partner’s face with their tail.  It’s an ingenious, mutually beneficial behavior.  And I guess it requires a partner that they can trust, one for whom they have some kind of horsey affection. I suppose it’s like having a good friend you can rely on.  I watched one pair doing a circle dance while maintaining this behavior (It’s not in a horse’s nature to stay perfectly still for too long, hence the need to move). The horse here is one from the pair that I watched and I think you can see the comfortability in the horse’s expression.  Either that or she was just plain wiped out from the heat!

Design

“Color does not add a pleasant quality to design – it reinforces it.”~P Bonnard

Beautiful Blue Bel Air

I saw this parked outside a store and did a U-turn to take a look and shoot it.  Lucky for me the windows were open so I tried to capture what I could through the windows and at high Noon.  What a great car and it was baby blue to boot! I look at these cars and always say to myself, “Now that is design!”.  The cars of today can not even begin to compete with the individuality, beauty and design of these older, classic cars.

Blossom

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~A Nin

Shot during afternoon light so I need to go back and reshoot these.  It’s water lily time in the Phoenix area and it’s fairly short-lived as the temps climb quickly so I am trying to catch as many different ponds that I know of before I return back to Prescott.

Risk…….do you generally close up or open up?   I think our need for security sometimes overpowers the need to branch out.  As I have gotten older I find I am more open to taking chances. I’ll never be a throw all caution to the wind type of person but I do feel like life is too short to miss out on important things and for those  things to occur, you need to open up enough to let them in.

Pink Water Lily

Pillows

“There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.” ~ RW Emerson

I am spending some time down in the Phoenix area with my son and it’s already in the 90s.  Between the daytime temps and the glaring sun, I have not shot as much as I normally do.  I’m hoping for a few cloudy days (a girl can hope, right? and not such a strange wish if you live in a desert) so I can get over to the Desert Botanical Gardens and maybe to a few horse/ranch areas that I know of.  I do have some fun shots of a pretty big vintage market that a friend and I went to over the weekend which I have yet to finish up.  I spent a few hours in the sun on Sat. at the market and ended up with photographer’s tan (equivalent to the tee-shirt tan)….you know, the tell-tale white strap against the red neck and shoulders. Kind of like a striped version the pillows here.

Nature

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”~A Einstein

Happy Earth Day……love your Mother.