View allAll Photos Tagged LifeAfterDeath
Pest destroying Portugal’s palms:
One of the deadliest plagues “Red Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus” have died thousands of palm trees across the country and In neighbouring Spain and already has caused millions of euros in damage.
Thank you for your visits comments and favs! :-)
The last rays of sunlight stream through narrow canyon walls, lighting up an autumn meadow in golden warmth, before the cold night comes.
*Repost for new group invite. Thank you!
A majestic twisted Coastal Oak branch against a surprisingly colorful landscape in the California foothills.
An Uinta Chipmunk sits perched in his tree watching me take photos at Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. Such a cute and curious little fellow.
A beautiful wild corn flower, or Batchelor's Button blossom in a vivid and Heavenly blue. One of the prettiest wildflowers I have seen to date.
Beautiful wildflowers on a perfect afternoon. Managed to capture some wonderful wild Sierra Nevada Mountain wildflower super-blooms. Have a beautiful afternoon!
The Desert Larkspur is the belle of the Mojave Spring Bloom. Such delicate grace and demure beauty in one small, lonely flower. She stands out in royal hues amongst the sands and warm colored rocks. (Delphinium Parishii)
Beautiful pastels, warm pinks and sherbet colors grace the layered cliffs of Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. Such warm colors and tranquil shadows, stretching long in the last of the evening sunlight.
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Contemplating the thoughts of great master photographers like Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell, etc. I started to think about what they said about growing in skill and soul. It is very true: the camera does not make the photographer, the photograph makes the photographer.
I look back at my early photos. Even with such great equipment as my Canon EOS, I can tell the quality of the compositions have improved, mostly by gaining inspiration from other great photographers like you on Flickr. What an awesome journey! :)
"You don’t take a photograph, you make it." - Ansel Adams
"A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy." - Galen Rowell
"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." - Ansel Adams
"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph." - Matt Hardy
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators." - Ansel Adams
Life After Death Studios' new location is almost complete and unpacked! We'll be back online very soon! :) We have a trip abroad scheduled shortly, and afterward we expect to be in full swing again with new and wondrous photos, etc. Stay tuned to what comes in February! :) What a marvelous New Year it is going to be!
Wishing you peace, prosperity and joy in the coming year!
- Life After Death Studios
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The Lone Tree on 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach in California. A historical landmark here.
An absolutely picture perfect evening in one of the most beautiful places the desert southwestern United States has to offer, Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah.
What a beautiful treat to walk up the steps of the trail and when you top the rise, the first thing you see is the breathtaking glimpse of the gateway to Heaven itself! No words or photograph could ever convey the grandness and true awesomeness of this remarkable place. (Yosemite National Park)
Today is my father’s birthday and he would have been 74 years old in the way that us humans who still have bodies measure time. I know his consciousness still exists because he’s sent me signs and I had a visitation dream from him a few months ago. If I had met myself right now a year ago, I might not recognize the person I am today in many ways. But, I have accepted that to dismiss the idea that consciousness continues and that we live on this Earth for many lives is just arrogance. We cannot continue to demand proof for everything, either. That is also a form of arrogance. We have to open ourselves like a door to different possibilities. In any case, I can’t look back at the human I was. I have to move forward.
Still, it’s really hard to experience your first holidays and birthdays “without" a person you’ve known your whole life. It’s not just them that it feels like vanishes in your darkest moments but it’s also an aspect of yourself in a weird way. Everyone sees you and experiences moments with you that are unique and that helps you piece together what your identity is now and what it can become. We’re still all in this primordial mess, really, just trying to figure it all out. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut would say.
Also, your body knows the truth even if your heart believes consciousness still exists. In this case, my hair started falling out in long red strands. I still have a full head of hair but I feel like something is missing a little more each day.
My dad wasn’t a very easy person to be around when I was growing up, to be honest with you. He had a bad temper at times and it was best you avoided him when he was in a certain mood. There was a part of me that felt I could never live up to what he wanted me to be, especially in terms of my intelligence. I don’t think he ever realized that I felt this way, though, or maybe he didn’t understand how pervasive my thoughts about this were. I was and still am a very sensitive person. If someone is in a bad mood, I assume it’s my fault. I’ve had significant OCD symptoms since I was little and, because of this, I tend to play and replay interactions in my head, wondering what I could have done differently and perseverating on everything I did wrong. It’s hard for me to move past conflict because of this. My dad had this perception that if you didn’t do things his way, you were contradicting him on purpose or just flat out wrong without realizing fully how different brains can truly be. He didn’t seem to mind conflict (in fact, he seemed to thrive on it) and sometimes things I wasn’t even aware I was doing would set him off. Everyone has their “things” so to speak and rules they decide on in order to exist in a reality they consider reasonable and fair. That’s all I will say about that because I’ve accepted it in my own way.
My dad was also a highly intelligent, talented, progressive, and passionate person. I realized this when I actually sat down to write his Obituary in the summer. Making sense of a life-my life or another person’s life is laughable. We are just so complex. But, we still have to try. As a photographer, I was drawn to all of the photos of memories I had forgotten about with my dad I went through to put together for the service. I don’t have any brothers or sisters so I don’t have a comparison point for how my dad treated siblings. My mom just recently found this photo and it’s very much the age my dad appeared when he visited me in my dream and we were back in my first childhood home in the dining room. He was younger than I am now in the dream and I am still thinking about how absolutely absurd time seems.
What I found in these photos were moments of genuine love and acceptance, even if I wasn’t always aware of them at the time. I was always so stuck in my own head space. If I didn’t squeeze my toes every time I passed a yellow house, something bad was going to happen. If I didn’t tap my fingers every time a red truck went by, something bad was going to happen. If I told anyone why I was hysterically crying for seemingly no reason, something bad was going to happen. Must be, everyone felt like this and went through this, I thought. It was probably just a part of life anyway. I’m sure I wasn’t the easiest daughter. I always thought I was going to be poisoned or get gangrene or fall prey to some unexplained event because I didn’t do all the right things at all of the right times. That’s what having OCD is like for a child, by the way. And, keep in mind that if you know a child who seems melodramatic often, again they might not tell you why they are upset because they are too superstitious about it to do so. There’s an unexpected monster lurking around every corner. It always seems like there’s far more danger in the world than safety to us. Random and painful, life is coming for you. And as Douglas Adams said, “Life is wasted on the living.”
But what I actually just realized in the last few hours of my existence is that going through all of the photos, all of the memories, all of the things my dad wrote in his memoirs class (like when I flew out of a roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland and he pulled me to him until the end of the ride) is a little like Kintsugi. We’re such broken beings and every day a little more cracked and aching. So, we have to do our best to piece it all back together and make sense of our life on Earth and our relationships. We can re-attach with twine or even lacquer or superglue but what we have left might transform completely from what we started with before we fell apart. I have fallen apart many times myself.
Isn’t it great that we can use Kintsugi with photos to put it all back together again? We’re going to continue to exist, no matter how hard it is. The world can feel like a bunch of noisy nonsense most days. Sometimes, we ask for more when we don’t deserve it or at least think we don’t. We are going to mend and try to make amends. We are going to make mistake after mistake after mistake and we are going to feel so sad about it in a way that feels relentless and we’re just going to keep crawling on our knees to find all of the missing pieces. It’s ok if we leave some of the pieces out when we reconstruct. Maybe we find them and maybe we don’t. Then, we look in the mirror and don’t recognize ourselves. Maybe that’s ok, too. But then we find ourselves in a photo all over again with someone we love and somehow in that moment things make sense again.
Happy Birthday, Dad!
**All photos and senseless rambles are copyrighted. So it goes**
A group of young tourists stand gazing in amazement at the grand spectacle Nature presents at Cedar Breaks National Monument. Happy Fence Friday!
A beautiful Golden Hour sunset shot of Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
The National Park System was signed into existence by President Woodrow Wilson on this day in 1916.
Yosemite National Park in golden rose alpine glow.
"A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy." - Galen Rowell
A beautiful evening in the hills of California. Branches of a small bush capture sunlight in glowing beauty.
Beautiful pink flowers line a sandy pathway to the beach on the coast of California in Monterey Bay.
Red Canyon at Bryce Canyon National Park. Snow-covered mountains rise up from the high desert plains in the background, making a striking contrast in color and climate.
A gorgeous and colorful sunset at the edge of the world. Tomorrow is another day. Keep looking up. (Cedar Breaks National Monument)
Reposting one of my most favorite photos. I have been in the art studio lately, and have a brand new piece to share soon. It's exciting and not like anything I have ever done before. Also, learning a new camera is tricky. A bit of a change from my old camera I lost last year. :) It's so fun! Still working on photo processing from past trips. Can't wait to share with you! In the meantime, remember to take time to smell the roses and look at the sky. :) Beauty is all around us!
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Half Dome, probably the most famous iconic monolith in Yosemite National Park, sits bathed in afternoon light and framed by an autumn gold oak tree.
A small hammer-like hoodoo at Cedar Breaks National Monument lights up in the last golden light of the evening before a spectacular sunset show.
A very close up shot of a lady bug gathering yellow pollen granules in a field of wildflowers, deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Look through the window and out to the horizon. Don't limit your view. Don't limit your dreams.
A vast window view through a rock hoodoo wall in Bruce Canyon National Park, looking out toward the vast painted high desert canyons.
A long switchback trail crowded with visitors, complete with archway door carved out of the rock. (Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah)
Two beautiful spider's webs shining in the sunlight with iridescent brilliance! What a marvelous work of nature!
A beautiful tiny rock daisy against a purple ground-cover backdrop. Mojave Desert Super Bloom 2016
*Repost June 3, 2016. Been away! :) Sorry! I'm catching up. AT&T dropped their network since Friday the 27th. More new pics coming soon!
Zoom in to see all of the visitors and the grand perspective. :)
A scenic overlook view of Vernal Falls and the visitor area above the Mist Trail and Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley. Vernal Falls is adjacent to Half Dome and is a favorite day hike destination. Vernal Falls can be dangerous, as many have dared go into the waters above and a few have been swept over to their death.
This is the famous O'Shaughnessy Dam that holds the waters of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir just outside of Yosemite Valley, actually inside the boundaries of the National Park.
To learn more about beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley, conservation efforts, and its history, as well as the O'Shaughnessy Dam, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy
Repost for new gallery page (www.lifeafterdeathstudios.com)! Also, you can now follow on 500px, as well! :) Thanks for all of the views, support, and the great community all these years on Flickr! Hope it continues! Have a wonderful new year in 2019! :)
500px.com/lifeafterdeathstudios
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Just got back from our last camping/photography trip of the late summer season. It snowed on us! I'll be trying to catch up today on all the great photos from my friends and family! :)
I just got a new landscape lens for my birthday, a Canon, of course. :) We went to Mono Lake basin to try it out. I love this shot because of all of the textures and colors. The white "tufas" sticking out of the water make for great contrast and objects of interest.
Mono Lake is a very special lake, with a very unique ecology. Native American Indians called this place home, and utilized the brine shrimp that thrive in the salty mineral water. Mono Lake is ringed by ancient cinder cones (volcanic cores) and natural hot springs. Learn more about unique Mono Lake here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake
I can never get tired of looking at this view. This is the view from the campsite we chose. Watching the stars over this place is something wonderful. (Mt. Whitney & Alabama Hills in historic Lone Pine, CA)
A heavenly necklace woven on the loom of nature. Beautiful water droplets on a tiny spider's web, glistening in early morning prismatic glory.
A pinecone succumbs to the warm embrace of fire. Some pinecones need fire in order to open up. The soil, enriched by the ashes, becomes fertile ground for new life. Just like a phoenix rising from the flames.
"... To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." Isaiah 61:3
A most unique seed-puff (Fireweed) growing near a quiet ancient creek, in one of our favorite places to visit in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
A tenacious pine tree precariously thrives in a very lonely spot, with an incredible view of Utah's high plains desert canyons and mountains. (Red Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah)
*Repost: March 7, 2016 ... One of my personal most favorite shots. Catching up today. Have a beautiful week, everyone! :)
Golden Praying Mantis, waiting for his prey to wander into his sight. He also waits for us to water our plants, so he can catch a drink in this very hot weather.
Beautiful wild Baby's Breath in a dream-like capture. One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen: a small field of Baby's Breath in the forest evening light.
Sunset just out of the Grand Canyon, on our way to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Been several years since I have been able to be home with my family for the holidays. Very thankful!
Dew drops on a dark purple leaf. One of my new favorite drought tolerant plants is the Cotinus Royal Purple shrub/tree. The leaves are deep purple and crimson, almost black in appearance, while the stem portions light up with beautiful vibrant greens, yellows, and oranges. The 'smoke bush' produces beautiful tufts of blossoms that resemble smoke, hence its name.
Kolob Canyon, just out of St. George, Utah at dusk. The "back side" of Zion National Park. Gorgeous color! One of those moments in time when you just have no words for the beauty and majesty of nature.
Sometimes life gives us rare quiet moments to reflect on just how far we've come and what may be on the distant horizon. Don't give up on your dreams, though they be tossed about like a ship on the ocean. Quieter ports will come.
Happy Birthday to Cindy O! :)
A beautiful almond blossom covered in rain springs forth after storms and calamity. I remember from watching Disney's "Mulan" when her father says to her "The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all." That quote has found a special place in my heart. Almond trees always bloom first.
There is always hope.
The Upper Yosemite Falls in late winter when the water is pumping with incredible energy. When you walk up the trail you can feel the power, hear the roar, and feel the mist on your face as the water falls hundreds of feet to the granite jagged rocks below.
Sitting and watching a sunset in the dog-days of summer, I was treated to a spectacular sight I had never seen before. The smoke from nearby wildfires in the King's Canyon area drifted into the Owen's Valley in California. The effect created a beautiful sun-ray from the last light of sunset, right over the shoulder of Mt. Whitney. What a magnificent sight!
(Repost: 3-22-16 Digging in the archives. In the studio today. :) Enjoy!)