View allAll Photos Tagged COMPELLING
I haven’t yet seen another image of this particular u-shaped bend of the Colorado River. But based on the beauty of the place, someone else must surely have been compelled to capture it. Right?! Across the canyon lies the Navajo Nation, where Points Hansbrough and Tatahatso are frequently visited and spectacularly photographed. I recently set out to try just that. I acquired a Navajo backcountry permit at the office in Cameron for two days at Point Hansbrough. I plotted the course on my gps and headed down a long bumpy dirt road toward the edge of Marble Canyon. A few miles from the canyon edge, the narrow road was blocked by two large vehicles. The occupants, locals, told me they wouldn’t allow access without booking and paying for a guided tour with their company. I argued and waved my permit. One gentleman made sure that I saw his rifle. So…after being escorted all the way back down the long bumpy dirt road, I needed a plan b. Google Earth to the rescue. I saw many other twists and turns of Marble Canyon, and access on the west side is across National Forest land. No permit or payment or booking or other hassle required. And so a new course was plotted and new ground was found. I hiked out onto a promontory overlooking this bend. There was a quiet, contemplative quality to the place. It was lonesome. If this viewpoint isn’t already named, it could aptly be called Lonesome Lookout.
If you’ve photographed this area, or have been to this spot or recognize it, let me know! Thanks so much.
I have written about the experience of driving around the Faroe Islands in a previous post, but I really need to write about the experience of hiking in the Faroe Islands. However, I feel I have way more to say than is short enough for a single post here. So I am going to break it up a bit over a few images.
If pressed I am not sure which is the better method to see the Faroe Islands: driving or hiking. There are very compelling points for both. Certainly hiking around the Faroes seems like the obvious answer and honestly it is an amazing way to see the land. If driving the Faroe Islands comes with a surprising sense of solitude, hiking then can often leave you completely isolated and to your own thoughts while traversing one incredible landscape after another.
Hiking here is an adventure. There are a few things to be aware of. The first is that no two trails in the Faroes are the same. The conditions you find at one will likely be quite different from the next. By this I am thinking specifically of the logistics of finding and following the trail itself. During my stay in the Faroe Islands I hiked trails that were composed in parts of gravel spread down clearly and easily. Then there were trails of wide packed dirt. These were also easy to follow. I hiked single track dirt trails too that meandered here and there. There were also several trails that were barely discernible boot tracks. And finally there were hikes with no trails at all. This latter category generally had markers of some type or another. One trail had posts with green tips. Another had stones. A third had cairns. In these cases you always had to be on the lookout for the next marker and mentally map out how you were going to get to it. These trails were often climbing or descending hills. Sometimes there were small marshes of soggy ground to squelch through. Almost all the time slippery muddiness was involved. I came back caked in mud up to my knees almost every day and slipped on more than one occasion. One hike I got lost in a field in thick fog on this very mountain (but not this particular hiking of it). I wandered around for ten minutes up a slope before retracing my steps and eventually picking the trail markers back up. The logistics of navigating the trails in the Faroes can range wildly from very simple and straightforward to complicate and requiring careful attention. In addition to that many of the trails involve lots of elevation and I soon discovered that the Faroese system of rating trail difficulty took for granted a certain amount of effort that I did not. There "moderate" trails were often what I would have called difficult and their "difficult" were extremely strenuous. There was a class above that even but I did not attempt any of those. Those trails are highly recommended to be left alone unless accompanied by a local guide.
In general I averaged about 10 miles a day with thousands of feet of elevation change spread out over those miles while I was in the Faroes. Of the hikes I did, all stood out but some of my favorites included Drangarnir (more on that in a later post), Hvíthamar (the best hike for the least effort), Trælanípa and then Klakkur, from which this image is made.
I did the Klakkur hike twice, two days in a row. The mountain sits above the city of Klaksvík, so it was very accessible while I was staying on the eastern side of the archipelago. The locals often walk up it all the way from the beginning, but it is possible to drive to an upper trailhead to shave off a couple miles (and a couple thousand feet of climbing). The hike is known for taking you out to a mountainous point that grants a stunning panoramic view of the surrounding inlets and islands but in truth the whole trek is characterized by stunning views, like this one looking back down toward the trailhead that I made on my return during the second day of hiking up here. This is a trail that also had it all in terms of conditions. Some parts were packed dirt, some gravel, some were no trail at all and cairn stones to mark the way. There was grassy meadows to cross and muddy hillsides and even snow. It is almost constant climbing the whole way until you reach the top of the ridge that runs to the viewpoint. It was exposed to the constant Faroese wind as well. But the views... I still think I preferred the view from Hvíthamar but Klakkur was a very close second.
Pentax 67
Kodak Portra 160
I was blown away by the sheer beauty of this amazing National Park while driving down to Clifden in Galway. The clouds were simply fantastic and I felt compelled to head off the main road and down a dirt track to a gate where I spent a glorious hour shooting eleven images to be stitched together in Photoshop CC to create this panorama.
Ireland was amazing although I need to spend far longer than a week discovering the many locations that offer the landscape photographer more wonderful images than they could shake a stick at.
I cannot wait to return in September. Now time to go ahead and spend the next couple of days creating two, four-day workshops for this September and March next year. More details to follow shortly.
I hope you all like it. Have a great evening whatever you happen to have planned and feel FREE to share it if you wish.
Canon 5D MK4
Canon 24-70mm f4 @ 24mm
f14
1/60 secs
ISO100
Eleven images stitched in Photoshop CC
LEE 0.6 Medium ND Grad filter
Gitzo GT3542XLS carbon fibre tripod
Gitzo GS3121LVL low profile levelling base
Manfrotto 410 tripod geared head
Mindshift Backlight 26L Bag
UK & Iceland Landscape Photography Workshops, 1-2-1 Private Tuition, print sales and camera club lectures available
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Continuing with the tree obsession... the well-known tunnel of Cypress trees at Point Reyes California is beautiful in any light, but I think at its best when shrouded in the fog that is so common on the headlands in late summer. Again, a subject I've photographed many times but never caught quite the right fog for my liking. I think this was my 5th or 6th time trying here, most of the previous times having either no fog at all or fog so dense I couldn't see more than 20 feet.
I've always loved the magnificent building at the end of the tunnel road, and I've long thought it was an old coast guard station, but that isn't quite right. It is in fact an old radio listening station (www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/kph_treetunnel.htm), and is open to visiting public with its world war II era equipment on display. These Monterey Cypress trees are of course a staple of the northern pacific coast, but this tree tunnel is a unique opportunity to see so many mature trees.
I always enjoy the drive up to Point Reyes from San Francisco, and had a few hours to kill in the morning before a flight back home. Since there was a lot of fog in the area I decided I'd head for the Marin Headlands at sunrise, hoping for the elusive shot of the Golden Gate poking through the fog. However, the fog layer on this day was too high up and too thick so the bridge was not visible, and so my backup plan was to keep on motoring up to Point Reyes and hope for the fog to be doing its thing around the cypress tunnel. Luckily I was rewarded this time! I'm a little bummed though because now I have less reason to do the drive, and I really do love this area. I'm guessing this won't be my last visit up here.
I have to add my personal thanks to Kevin Benedict for his (always) helpful suggestions on composition. I often let myself get distracted by small touches in a scene that I like and lose sight of what makes the image compelling for someone else, and having another set of eyes to set me straight is extremely valuable.
Bringing the maiden safely to the shore, he gazed into her eyes for but a moment. He did not know why he was compelled to save her. Walking up on the beach as the waves lapped at his lower legs he placed her upon the sand....
They say that you shouldn't lead with your best, but I feel compelled to share my favorite image from the four day chase I just did. There are a lot of other pictures that come close, but by and large this is my favorite.
The lightning strike just happened to happen as I put my finger down to the shutter release button.
Getting this shot was the product of dedication, determination and hope. My team of Mike Olbinski, Andy Hoeland, and myself chased this cell for a long, long ways through a mountainous desert region, and even had to core punch. We got lucky that the hail remained aloft for our time getting to the other side where this was waiting to be seen.
Thanks also to the many who joined us on the chase on TVN's stream. It was a fantastic time.
Well, not really, but I need to go with the words here. Feeling OK actually, trying to get more active and shed some of the extra beer and my-daughters-wont-stop-baking-stuff-and-I-cant-stop-eating-it lockdown pounds. Some serious grooving of a different kind happening here in this stretch of the "Narrows" of the Virgin River canyon in Zion National Park. One can certainly see why it is called the Narrows. And these lined walls provide pretty compelling evidence of the power of some serious water force driving rocks down the river bed. One shutters to think about getting caught in a flash flood here... and then one yells at one's brain to think of something else right quick!!
In fitter times I hiked for hours through the freezing cold water of the Narrows with fellow photogs Kevin Benedict and Josh Krasner last fall. Then we got up and did it again two days later! Had an absolute blast and loved the ever-changing light conditions especially when the reflected light would dance across different canyon walls.
I especially wanted to thank everyone who left such kind comments on my previous post, I really appreciate the tremendous support and feedback y'all keep giving. I really enjoy the writing aspect of posting my photos perhaps almost as much as the photography itself.
The view of the Vatican from this vantage point is very compelling. Getting here meant an elevator to the roof level and then climbing several hundred steps to the top of the dome. St. Peter's Square is nicely shown here with the curved colonnade with an Egyptian obelisk in the center. The partial brown roof on the front left belongs to the Sistine Chapel. In the distance the round dome of the Pantheon is seen and also the large white (It looks quite blue here.) Victor Emmanuel Monument that in an earlier photo was where I took a photo of St. Peter's Basilica.
Following the lines of the street from the square, there is a large round stone building. This is the Castel Sant' Angelo that contains the Mausoleum of Hadrian (Emperor 117-138). Photos from my visit to this site will be eventually up loaded.
This photo can be viewed large by clicking on it a couple of times.
A shot I feel compelled to try, every year. Walking up through Newton Woods there are thousands of Bluebells but the view, as they spill out at the top, is incredible. An ocean of Bluebells beneath the summit of Roseberry Topping!
Por favor, no use esta imagen en su web, blogs u otros medios sin mi permiso explícito.
© Todos los derechos reservados.
“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.”
quote
Christopher Eric Hitchens was a British-American author, journalist, orator and columnist. He wrote, co-wrote, edited or co-edited over 30 books, including five of essays on culture, politics and literature.
I felt compelled to take self-portraits yesterday when the electricity went out. I opened up my bedroom window and the light moved me.
This is my room as is. Typically I'd arrange the scene for a self-portrait like this in order to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible, or crop the photo afterwards to reduce visual clutter. But I have decided to leave this one as-is. To let it be a preservation of a period in time.
My life in my early twenties. A different bedroom than the one I grew up in, but with the same art-emblazoned walls and cluttered floor. The same instruments, record player, and paper moon looking over me, of course.
Stalks of corn left behind, and this one lone tree made a compelling subject on this cool Autumn evening
Stillness and Structure
There’s something compelling about symmetry—especially when it shows up in places most people overlook. This view under the Pitt River Bridge caught my attention. The repeating lines, reflections, and graffiti in contrast to the flow of the river. Shot on my Hasselblad 500cm using Flic Film Ultrapan 400. The film handled the deep shadows beautifully and still kept the fine detail in the concrete. I’ve always been drawn to these in-between places—where the built environment and nature edge up against each other.
Website: www.sollows.ca
Contact and links: www.linktr.ee/jsollows
Scenes like this sadden me, yet I feel compelled to document them. This old cemetery lies in the heart of a proud little village. A place that reveres its past. Yet every time I visit here all I see is an ever increasing level of destruction. The grave markers are toppling and shattering, and literally dissolving from exposure to the elements. It's inevitable I suppose. They are only stones and some are quite fragile. They were not intended to last forever. Still it's sad to witness the end phase, and realize it's being hastened by neglect. Eventually these stones and their inscriptions fade completely from view and memories and photos are all that remain.
This is one hell of a sunset I've had the pleasure to witness on September 27th 2012, from the summit of Mount Rocciamelone (3.538 m), Italy.
All the afternoon was rather gloomy, but, as you can see, the sunset was anything but dull! :-)) A massive array of high clouds - perfectly aligned as I had never seen - was crossing the sky until the Écrins National Park.
In due time I'll post other shots, also to show the progressive formation of this impressive bank of clouds... this is just out of the camera and I've thought to show it.
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©Roberto Bertero, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
Hallway wall inside the Operataket, Oslo's iconic opera house.
See other images from a 2025 trip to Norway, Svalbard, and Iceland here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCiG8a.
I am not so sure that it is compelling composition but my eyes liked the play of light and the resulting veining.
IMG_4875.jpgt.jpge
A long exposure sunset from my Helventinjärvi overnight hike.
Since I had the ND1000 filter with me I felt a compelling need to use it in some shots. So here's the mandatory long exposure photo with smooth water.
I shot a few variations of this sunset and like this one the most. Here the trees frame the sunset nicely and there's also some detail in the foreground.
The wind was strong enough to clear the skies for the night so soon after this shot I got some great star shots!
This compelling early portrait most likely depicts Anna Yoshida, the daughter of Manzo Yoshida, a Japanese merchant and proprietor of two Montreal shops selling fashionable trade goods from Japan. Her unflappable composure suggests the precedent of the nineteenth-century French artist Jean-Dominique-Auguste Ingres, whose distinctive portraits in turn reprise those of Renaissance artists.
The sky was just so compelling on a recent morning walk ...
I decided to process colour, B&W and desaturated versions of the frame with a creative vignette.
Whenever I see a Spiderweb I am compelled to take a photo and hope that it is a compelling composition. :)
IMG_4841.jpgo
Catching the light at sunset on Mesquite Sand Dunes of Death Valley National Park.
I was with two of my friends out at Death Valley on Mesquite Sand Dunes. We spied this beautiful S curve in the ridge of a sand dune from far off and made our way to see what we could do with it. We found a spot we wanted to shoot from, but there was limited space to capture the image without getting each other in the image as well or spoiling the scene with foot prints, so after shooting I stepped back to let one of my buddies up to the ridge line and thought the image of them shooting was just as compelling.
A compelling read, Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan, is a look at how nature's desires and human desires are often intertwined for the mutual good of each other. We have domesticated plants to satisfy our needs, and these plants have adapted so they can reproduce. Woven into this is how animals capitalize on these desires to make the world more advantageous to their own needs.
Plants, people, animals ... in some miraculous natural balance. Cooperation without agreeing to cooperate.
If you have some time, a library near you likely carries the title. :)
Actually a different image.
I have limited post-processing options now and they are less than satisfactory. Still, I'm compelled to post.
*Working Towards a Better World
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. -
Voltaire
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship. - Amelia Earhart
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - Saint Augustine
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Mary Ritter Beard
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. - Lao Tzu
I've always enjoyed traveling and having experience with different cultures and different people. But it's also a wonderful thing to be able to benefit and enable research, not only in our country but around the world. -
Laurel Clark
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. - St. Augustine
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. - Samuel Johnson
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. - Jawaharial Nehru
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. -
Maya Angelou
Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white. - Mark Jenkins
Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! xo❤️
Ornate building interiors, a cacophony of visual noise. Almost an Escher picture
Who hasn’t been compelled to peer down dark alleyways, what do they expect to find?
Why isn’t the cacophony of the city enough to keep people on the main street? Is it a search driven by desire or fear?
How much of a struggle it must be for some, not to take that first tentative step into the arduous journey, destination unknown?.
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Use your arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate to the next picture.
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One of many ongoing approaches, where I move through the world as a harvester of images stumbling, strolling, lurching, equal parts accidental, and intentional. My concerns circumnavigate around questions that resist easy answers: time as texture, presence as performance, possibility as glitch. I trace the contours of decay and growth, hope and entropy, searching for the quiet collisions where meaning might emerge. Each image is less a document than a provocation an invitation to reconsider what we 'see', and what we ignore.
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Yes, this is another bell tower I felt compelled to climb, if only to see the gorgeous views... You might notice right off the bat that the "town square" in Piran's Old Town is actually oval in shape - the only such one I've been to. The water in the distance is of the Gulf of Trieste in this northern portion of the Adriatic Sea. Finally, when the world is ready to start traveling again, I highly recommend Slovenia as a destination!
It was the final port of call on our first full day around the southernmost point of the mainland. Some time earlier in the day we’d already walked halfway across the black sands of Reynisfjara, to a point from where we’d pointed the cameras in both directions. It really is a location where the two obvious subjects, rooted at either end of the beach, are equally compelling. Look to the west and you’re faced with the dramatic sea arch at the edge of Dyrhólaey, a promontory that rises up from the ground, with a cluster of sea stacks spreading out into the sea. Turn one hundred and eighty degrees on your heels, and you’ll be staring at the most famous sea stacks in Iceland, just a hefty stone’s throw from the edge of its most famous beach. Its most infamous beach too, come to that. Paddling in the ocean is in no way recommended here, although people do sometimes like to try their luck - and it doesn’t always end well. We kept our distance.
On each of the visits here that day, I divided my attention equally between these two quite wonderful and iconic landmarks, as if they were equally loved children where it was important not to be giving favour one way or the other. Yes, I was dealing with adolescent rock collections rather than sensitive human beings, but dividing the love straight down the middle seemed the right thing to do. Even though this one didn't get the attention it deserved as I initially rushed the edit and had to return later on with a virtual garden rake to tidy up the set of footprints marching over the sand that I’d somehow not spotted the first time around. And you might be forgiven for wondering at the fact that the evening shot was the one I took with the camera pointing to the east. But when I asked Ali whether she liked this one, or the edit of the Reynisdrangar shot I’d taken earlier, her one word answer was “Stonybridge.” And unless you’re among the few who might remember a Channel Four sketch show called “Absolutely” from the late 1980’s, only the patchwork of pebbles on the sand is going to give you a clue as to which one she meant. I think I preferred this one too, with the cool blue hour tones, textured sky and the surprisingly ordered foreground chaos. But I'll probably post the other one at some point. You never know.
Just to give you a sense of scale if you haven’t been here, I’ve left the few remaining beachgoers in the scene, a straggle of yellow raincoats bracing themselves for the change in the weather that would have made this shot impossible to take the following day. And Iceland being Iceland, there just had to be a handful of white dots grazing the lower slopes of Reynisfjall. If your zoom tool is misbehaving, the tallest of the stacks climbs from the ocean surface to a height of sixty-six metres, and in summer, all of them are covered from top to bottom in seabirds. It’s quite a sight, and one I hadn’t photographed from this position at all when we’d been here three years earlier. We’d shot the scene from the secret beach, and we’d shot it from Víkurfjara on the opposite site of the muscled headland. We’d even walked to the top, where I lay on my belly as close to the edge as I dared and took a long exposure that reduced them to a miniature kingdom of the sea. Various legends abound, most of them suggesting that the stacks were trolls, turned to stone by the gods. But I’d seen lots of trolls on sale in the duty free store at Vík, and none of them looked like this, so I’m not convinced. Of course Icelanders are famous for handing down stories from one generation to the next. The Sagas are deeply woven into Iceland’s relatively short human story. But I can’t help wondering whether a couple of crates of single malt washed up on the beach around here somewhere back in the annals of time, and during the course of one particularly long winter’s night when the storms shook the foundations of the mountains, a few of those ancient tales had some colourful new chapters added to them after the contents had begun to take effect. And I don’t suppose anyone back then imagined that people would come from all over the world to stand on this beach a few generations later. Serendipity right there in a drunken ramble.
Mind you, if you ever managed to make it through “Noah” with Russell Crowe, this is where he, his family and a bad tempered Ray Winstone washed up when the rains retreated. The only thing I really remember about that film is him sitting in the cave at the foot of the cliff, staring out at the trolls. That’s the sea stacks rather than the two he brought with him. Rather impressive considering he supposedly started his voyage somewhere in the Middle East. But maybe a few more of those crates of whisky had taken a long voyage of their own and landed on the Pacific Coast just outside the Hollywood Hills. Even more artistic licence than I used when I airbrushed away those footprints in the sand.
Up at the north of Kenya are several lakes, the largest being Lake Naivasha. However, the biggest attractions are at three other smaller lakes, Elementaita, Bogoria and Nakuru.
At the time of our travel, the largest flamingo colony was at Lake Bogoria. I took several hundreds of photos, which is very easy to do with the 1DX in the machine gun mode.
Here is a selection that includes both big picture and close up shots. Some of them look repetitive, of course, but I've tried to pick images with different shapes, colors and textures.
No need to feel compelled to comment on them all – I hope you just enjoy seeing them!
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This pair of interacting galaxies appears in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by astronomer Halton Arp in 1966, giving the pair its name “Arp 86.”
The peculiarity? The small companion galaxy, NGC 7752, almost seems attached to the large spiral galaxy dominating this image, NGC 7753.
The gravitational dance between the two galaxies, which are roughly 220 million light-years from Earth, will eventually result in NGC 7752 being tossed out into intergalactic space or entirely engulfed by its much larger neighbor.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey, J. Dalcanton
Learn more about the observation of these galaxies here: go.nasa.gov/3jrgMHI
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Not the most compelling photo of a Green Salamander, but from an interesting location on the very periphery of their range in central Tennessee. Photo was shot in-situ.
Not the most compelling image, but I was messing around with Lightroom CC on my iPhone XS yesterday and took this is HDR. I was able to clone out his dog tag, adjust lighting and lighten the shadows a bit all on the phone. Nice sharp results I think
In August 1985, the scorching heat of Pakistan compelled me to embark on a journey northward. The Karakoram mountains unveiled a world of their own. Following visits to Gilgit and the enchanting Hunza Valley, I undertook a brief trek over the Babusar Pass into the Kaghan Valley, heading back southward. In the first village of Gittidas where I spent a night, I encountered a warm and hospitable tribal community (depicted in the photo).
I am uncertain if Gittidas is still inhabited today, but life must have drastically changed after a paved road was built over the Babusar Pass.
The image was originally captured on Fujichrome slide film using my Nikon FE2 camera with a 50mm lens. I later digitized the slide by bracketing it with a Nikon D850 camera and refined the picture in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Topaz.
Everytime I go to Wheelers, I feel compelled to take a photo of these maple syrup pails, but I don't think i've taken this exact shot before.
Now that Danica is choosing to port my 7D around, she seems to be drawn to the similar shot (see below). I think I like her POV (in Comments) better than mine. As we wander about, I am sometimes surprised that she sees similar shots to what I take. But since she's lower to the ground, her perspective is often better.
She had been using my old Digital Rebel, but that conked out, so it's the 7D for her now, which is quite a jump in equipment.
For the sake of my Down Under Flickr Friends, I am also posting, below, the map that shows visitors from the Land of Oz. How weird and wonderful that visitors from Australia find this little, rural, out-the-way place.
Especially dedicated to Aussies Red Stiletto, Jennifer, and Gerald (all with clickable links).
© Anvilcloud Photography
Like many of my fellow Legographers I felt compelled to take a LEGO photo commemorating the 2nd, and AMAZING teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Here we have (presumably) Luke with his ever-trusty, and apparently rusty astromech droid R2-D2.
I really tried hard to capture this shot as closely to the original as possible. Not just in content and pose, but composition, lighting, background, atmosphere, and the final color grade. There is a very distinct look to this. Aside from the obvious orange and blue, there is a lot of greens and yellows to incorporate. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Please let me know what you guys think! And boy! What a teaser! Huh?!??!!?!?!
There are painters who must,
having found the place, must,
repaint it, compelled to repeat it,
each a variant, yet always the same,
always different
I awake to a perspective that is wide,
always differentiated from the prior,
always almost similar, but never with
the same exactitude, differing attitude,
same longitude, identical latitude,
always different
horizon distanced, in all ways a view
encompassing, duality near, far distant,
harmoniously, eyes open, magnetized
to wake before 6am by the suns modesty,
first light, first clarity, a curtain risen, yet,
always different
am I so blessed or thus cursed, for the urge
to disclaim and ode, compose and thus self-
decompose, analyze, reflect, slice apart, needing
the comprehensive understanding this me/place
scripts the raw appreciation, daily differentiated
always the same
this peaceful venue seizures, chest calmly
pounding at the insistence it commands,
the price I must pay for the prize to praise,
to sing, weep, reward restful sleep with lyrics
eked out, pouring, unsustainable yet finished,
always different
a single May Iris, returns, born from a torrential,
thunder, lightning, sky mayhem, rises by a sundial
greets midst a planted clump, upright rises, lavender,
in a majestic solitary, absent but a day prior, yet mine eyes
failed to witness its discernible emerging birthing creation,
always different,
always the same
here, I am Iris too, always the same, a day aged,
but the differences minute but stolid actualized,
this overnight sensation, my body’s restoration,
what I visualize, indivisible, now visible, realized,
miracle of continuity, unchanging chained change,
always different ,
always the same
wonder, am I more blessed, or a s~lightly cursed being,
my breath restored, wet eyes full brimming, changed,
revived but always modified, a newer old man, whose
sum total always a different number, but in sequential,
compelled to confess, no understanding of this miracle,
always the same,
always different,
this daily visionary miracle
-Nat Lipstadt via hellopoetry
I felt compelled to capture this pose for a number of reasons.
First of all, the Blackbird is one of the few examples where the female of the species is as striking as the male in my opinion. The mottled browns and prominent highlights contrast with the straight jet black of the male, much like the female's turquoise wing-bar in Mallards.
Secondly, there's an awkwardness to the way a Blackbird carries their wings in the standing position that I'm particularly fond of. It's as though they're a bit of an afterthought, hanging down like a soldier's arms. In the head-on position, it's especially apparent.
Last of all, look at those feet! perhaps it's the long toes which although stand them in good stead on large perches, may offer hindrance on smaller surface areas.
Thanks for stopping by.
This wonderful painting was created by my lovely and amply talented Auntie Judy. She painted it for Mum soon after Dad passed away a year ago. I love the artistry of her colourful strokes so cleverly put together. The look of oil painted in acrylic.
When I asked Judy for permission to share her work here she said "Of course …..It was such a fabulous pic of your Dad I felt compelled to do it".
Humbled I am as I took the original photo on the beach before we went to Kapiti Island for the day in 2007. We chose it for Dad's funeral service sheet as we thought it captured his spirit well, his cheeky grin, dimple and a twinkle in his eyes. So cool that Judy captured these in her painting too.
It's hard to believe a year has passed already. I miss him a lot and hold his memory close to my heart. Rest in peace my lovely Dad xxx
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Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts. It's so nice to know there are so many lovely folks out there. Thanks heaps for your visits and comments and please know they're always very much appreciated. Apologies I haven't been visiting much recently, my new job is taking over. Hopefully when training is over I will have more time. (Chance is a fine thing!).
Have a fabulous weekend everyone, mine is just about to end! Not that I'm complaining, I will enjoy Monday being Wednesday. (How very Irish of me :)