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This is one from an ongoing series trying to catch the ferry going along the horizon in long exposure. I'm only down in Swanage once every couple of months and with weather, tides and daylight hours all varying, it's taking a while to catch it. The timetable seems to have changed, so I missed it again.
Out at night, with a high tide and thick rain thrashing against the rocks, I shot this one anyway, and kept it for the impression it gives of the storm - that purple sky is SOOC. By the time I'd finished (this is a twenty minute exposure!), the tide had trapped me on the point and I had to climb up the crumbling defense tower to escape.
The more I take pictures, the more I realise bad weather outclasses good every time. I'm lucky now to have a supposedly weatherproof camera, but I also protect it with a thick bubble wrap sheet clipped on with a flexible ruler!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
I have promenaded into a state of constant questioning of what I value.
Long distance love is unnecessary yet I have chosen it. Believe in what I'm doing I do, though I yearn to be elsewhere.
Sun sets, quiet settles and my mind, heart, soul and reason rocket around within my body, considering not the overturning of my world they cause.
1048 miles west.
Commitment battles spontaneity.
Belief and belief clash.
The choice is mine, I can have any of the 100 juices bottled up and displayed in the fridge case. I study them for a while, afraid of choosing one I won't like as much as the next one. Follow familiarity?
So rich is this life full of wonder and desire.
Time heals.
I'm still learning myself.
"Never straight always forward." ~Julie McP.
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database with hundreds of hand-picked images of dogs, cats, as well as horses, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE
© Elke Vogelsang
20210727_Sofie_QuestioningSofie
No questioning the heritage of this GTW GP38-2, it's recycled Rock. GTW liked four-axle power for its extensive auto business and during the early 1980s, picked up second hand units from the Rock Island and P&LE. Still wearing its Rock blues, No. 5853 is seen at the Elsdon Yard engine terminal, in October 1981.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Lettice is sitting at her Hepplewhite desk next to the fire in her drawing room. On her desk sit two brightly coloured interior designs she has created for her new client, American film actress Wanetta Ward, using her watercolours and pencils. Whilst she works away, her old childhood chum, Gerald, also a member of the aristocracy who has tried to gain some independence from his family by designing gowns from a shop in Grosvenor Street, is sitting in one of her Art Deco tub arm chairs contentedly sewing beads onto his and Lettice’s friend, Margot de Virre’s, wedding dress bodice. Both have cups of tea from the pot Lettice’s maid, Edith, keeps replenishing.
“You sound displeased, Lettuce Leaf,” Gerald responds to a disgruntled huff from Lettice, drawing out his thread as he speaks. “What’s the matter?”
“Calling me that name doesn’t help, Gerald,” she mutters crossly. “I keep telling you, we aren’t children anymore. I hated it then, so imagine how much I detest it now?”
“Oh! We are techy tonight!” Gerald remarks without looking up as he pushes his needle back into the centre of a crystal bead. He pauses and looks up. “I’m sorry.” He pouts dramatically. “Friends again?”
Lettice looks over at him disgruntledly, but at the sight of her friend’s rather comical expression of remorse, she sighs, smiles and then laughs tiredly. “Yes Gerald.”
“So,” he looks over at the desktop littered with Lettice’s paints and jugs of murky water with brushes sticking out of them. “What’s wrong then?”
“It’s these designs!” She flicks her hands irritably at the offending pieces of paper and gives them a contemptuous look. “I’m not happy with them. Miss Ward says yellow is her favourite colour, yet I can’t quite manage yellow walls with blue furnishings.” She holds up a design of a music room with grand piano in yellow with blue accents.
“Oh,” Gerald’s eyes open widely as he nods. “Yes, I do begin to see what you mean. Well, it’s dramatic, I’ll say that.”
“It’s vulgar, is what it is.” She picks up her paint brush again, although is dumbfounded as to what to do to improve the image, other than to screw it up and start again, as she stares at the yellow wash spread across the page like a huge bruise.
“Well, she is an actress, darling.” Gerald remarks, going back to his sewing. “And part of the American mi…”
“Oh, don’t you start on the mediocre middle-classes again!” she interrupts, wagging her brush at him threateningly. “I scolded Margot when we were shopping at Selfridges last week. She sounded just like you.”
“Oh, bully for Margot!” Gerald smiles contentedly, taking up another bead, casting in onto his thread and plunging it into the fabric of the bodice. “I really must congratulate her next time I see her.”
“You’re a bad influence on her, with your overt snobbery.”
“It is true,” Gerald sighs. “But I can’t help it. It’s just part of my charm.” He bats his eyelashes across at his friend and smiles. “Anyway, you are the one who called Miss Ward gauche, so shouldn’t her home reflect a little of that gaudy, showy moving picture actress personality of hers?”
“Not if I’m designing it, Gerald. I have a reputation of exceptionally good taste to uphold.” She looks at her second design of a dining room, also with yellow walls. “Miss Ward be damned! Anyway Gerald, you of all people shouldn’t complain about the middle classes.”
Gerald sighs and drops the beaded bodice into his lap, whilst still keeping a firm hold of his needle. “That too is true, my darling. If it were not for Mrs. Hatchett and her coterie, well...”
“See,” Lettice smiles. “Did I not say that she would be the making of your couture house?”
“Hardly!” he retorts, giving her a shocked look.
“What? Aren’t she and her friends putting in countless orders for day dresses, tea gowns and evening frocks?”
“Oh they are!” he remarks. “But,” He exhales disappointedly. “Up-and-coming middle-class mediocrity Mrs Hatchett and her friends’ outfits are hardly going to make the pages of the Tattler or Vogue, are they? And even their money can’t make Grosvenor Street pay for itself. A day dress suitable for a Surrey village fête is hardly going to cost what a stunning piece of couture,” He holds up the exquisitely embroidered fabric. “For the London Season will. Why else do you suppose I’m sitting here embroidering Margot’s bodice in your Mayfair drawing room and not at home in Soho?”
“I assume because you enjoy my company.” Lettice teases with a smile.
“Oh I do darling,” Gerald says in earnest. “But I also love the fact that here I don’t have to pay the electricity bill.” He glances up at the glittering chandelier above them casting prisms across the white painted ceiling with its Art Deco cornicing.
“Nor the grocer’s bill,” Lettice smirks with a friendly chuckle, indicating to the plates on the black japanned coffee table containing the remnants of one of Edith’s chocolate cakes.
“Nor the wine merchant’s bill. The largesse of one’s friends is always welcome.”
Lettice looks back sadly at her friend. “Have you asked your father about an increase to your allowance, or perhaps an advance?” she asks hopefully.
“It isn’t as easy as that. I’m not you, Lettice.”
“I’ll have you know Gerald, that I get constant lectures from Pater about designing for my own class if I must insist on designing anything, and Mater just wants me to throw it all away and marry some dull member of the peerage, live in the country and have a dozen children.”
“A dozen?”
“Well at least three, like Lally.”
“Your sister is expecting again?”
“Yes, due in February, and Mummy is always comparing me to my propagating older sister, lording it over me that ‘Lally is married’, unlike me, and ‘Lally has children’, unlike me! She’s convinced my life is unfulfilled. I’m a girl, and I’m the youngest child and…”
“And you have your father wrapped around your little finger.” Gerald counters with a knowing look.
“Well,” Lettice blushes. “I can’t deny that I do seem to have some influence over the Pater.”
“Whereas I am just the second son: the spare.”
“Well thankfully you aren’t the heir, Gerald.” Lettice gives him a knowing look. “Otherwise, you would have to fulfil your duty to carry on the family line with some poor little debutante who must never know that her husband…”
“Is sexually inverted.” Gerald finishes Lettice’s sentence discreetly, stabbing the fabric with his needle. “Yes, I know that doesn’t help my cause in father’s eyes, any more than my wish to sew frocks for ladies.”
“At least you don’t wear them, revel in that fact and have photographic proof, unlike dear Cecil* does.”
“Nonetheless, being the second son, a fashion designer and a deviant,” Gerald blushes, looking towards the dining room, making sure that Lettice’s maid, Edith, isn’t listening at the green baize door. “I’m a disappointment, through and through. And my obvious shortfalls do not endear me to Father.”
“You asked him then?” Lettice asks with defeat. When Gerald nods in assent she adds, “Not even an advance?”
“Not a bean.”
“That’s so unfair.”
“My father isn’t your father, Lettice.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we might be neighbours, but your father owns most of the neighbourhood. Your father is the Viscount of Wrexham with a fine estate, which Leslie has helped to modernise, thank goodness.” He raises his eyes to the ceiling. “Whilst my father is just Sir Bruton, a baron – an obstinate and old fashioned one, and an impecunious one at that – with a leaky roofed manor house on a plot of land that is getting smaller as he slowly sells it off. The golden pre-war days are gone, yet Father won’t face up to facts.”
“Poor Gerald,” Lettice says, standing up and putting a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. Looking down at the beautifully beaded bodice in Gerald’s lap she continues, “Well, let’s hope that Margot’s wedding dress heralds better times for you as well as her and Dickie. At least this gown will appear in the Tattler, if nowhere else, and that means good business for you. That’s a beautiful pattern you are embroidering.”
“Thank you darling.” Gerald smiles as he looks down at his own work. Suddenly he sits up in his seat. “That’s it!”
“What’s it, Gerald?” Lettice looks up from her paintings in concern.
“Patterns!” He looks at her excitedly. “Did you not say Miss Ward was also interested in bold patterns?”
“Yes Gerald. What of it?”
“And did I not see you when I was here last week, flicking through some wallpaper samples?” He clambers up from his seat, carefully putting the beaded bodice aside.
“You did Gerald.” Lettice looks at him questioningly.
“The combination of blue and yellow is jarring when yellow is the main colour.” He gesticulates around him dramatically. “What if you swap it around? I’m sure there was a strong Prussian blue wallpaper amongst the samples: one that had a bold pattern highlighted in gold.”
“You’re right Gerald!” Lettice agrees excitedly. “It was a fan pattern! Of course! I’ve been looking at this the wrong way around! Paper the walls rather than paint them! What a dullard I am!” She grabs up her brush and dunks it into the jug of murky water.
“No! No! Don’t change your pictures!” Gerald gasps, anxiously hurrying around to Lettice’s desk and staying her elegant hand. “Use them. Show Miss Ward how jarring yellow is, and then pull out the paper. Show her how luxurious it is, and you’ll easily be able to convince her that it’s the right choice.”
“It is a bold pattern…”
“Yet an elegant one.”
“And it’s certainly glamorous.”
“And fans are very oriental, darling.” Gerald bats his eyelashes coquettishly as he pretends to hide behind an imaginary fan.”
“Oh Gerald!” Lettice giggles. “What would I do without you?”
“You’d never be able to decorate Miss Ward’s flat, that’s certain!” he smiles at his friend’s glittering eyes and gentle grin as she contemplates the possibilities he has helped instil in her mind.
*Cecil Beaton was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. Although he had relationships with women including actress Greta Garbo, he was a well-known homosexual.
For anyone who follows my photostream, you will know that I collect and photograph 1:12 size miniatures, so although it may not necessarily look like it, but this cluttered desk is actually covered in 1:12 size artisan miniatures and the desk itself is too. All are from my collection of miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Lettice’s Hepplewhite drop-drawer bureau and chair are beautifully and artfully made by J.B.M. miniatures. Both the bureau and chair are made of black japanned wood which have been hand painted with chinoiserie designs, even down the arms of the chair and inside the bureau. The chair set has a rattan seat, which has also been hand woven.
On the top of the Hepplewhite bureau stand three real miniature photos in frames including an Edwardian silver frame, a Victorian brass frame and an Art Deco blue Bakelite and glass frame. The latter comes from Doreen Jenkins’ Small Wonders Miniatures in England, whilst the other two come from Melody Jane Dolls’ House, also in England. The photos themselves are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.
The watercolour paint set, brushes, and Limoges style jugs (two of a set of three) also come from Melody Jane Dolls’ House. So too do the pencils, which are one millimetre wide and two centimetres long.
Also on the desk, are some 1:12 artisan miniature ink bottles, a roller, a blotter, a letter opener and letter rack, all made by the Little Green Workshop in England who specialise in high end, high quality miniatures. The ink bottles are made from tiny faceted crystal beads and have sterling silver bottoms and lids. The ink blotter, sitting behind the paint box and next to the jug’s handle is sterling silver too and has a blotter made of real black felt, cut meticulously to size to fit snugly inside the frame. The letter opener and roller are also sterling silver. The letter rack which contains some 1:12 size correspondence, is brass. Like the other pieces, it is also made by the Little Green Workshop.
Lettice’s two interior design paintings are 1920s designs. They are sourced from reference material particular to Art Deco interior design in Britain in the 1920s.
The fireplace appearing just to the right of the photograph is a 1:12 miniature resin Art Deco fireplace on which stands an Art Deco metal clock hand painted with wonderful detail by British miniature artisan Victoria Fasken.
The geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.
During these last few months I have been questioning the following:
1) Whether I should consider this an “issue” for my practice or whether I should see it as part of the imperfect journey at this moment in time and be patient. A more purist approach where I will be just shooting film whenever I can.
And
2) Whether I should just use one tool for the sake of consistency in my work and keeping things simple. Or whether it will be wise for me to introduce a digital camera into my practice for those times that I am struggling to shoot film.
I also asked myself what is more important for me at this moment in time?
I think keeping a consistent practice routine is more important at this point in time, both for my mental state but also for the craft.
I see photography as another way of communication, another tool, another language, and I am trying to speak here. I know from experience that practicing everyday is my way forward when it comes to learning languages. I have to use my voice to find/develop my voice.
Anyway, just a few thoughts I had and I wanted to share.
Regarding the photo. I love pigeons! I find them very streetwise and if I could talk with them, I would ask them to share with me all the crazy street tales they see around them daily.
They are city residents themselves and spend so much time around us and with us in these same streets.
This specific one was stressed, probably injured. I stood there with it for more than 10 minutes not knowing how to help. The look in its eyes left me speechless.
Dev & Scanned by @comethroughlab
The important thing is to not stop questioning :-)
― Albert Einstein
HPPT!!
little theater rose garden, Raleigh, north carolina
Back to what I know today - welcome to texture central.
Joe and Ben caused a mini-riot at my mum and dad's today, Lydia went over to say bye to my sister as she's going back to Doncaster tomorrow and the kids, having had a few late nights in a row, decided to kick off big-time.
So when I walked in the door from work I was met with a teary-eyed Joe and Ben already in bed. This was before 6pm.
Now Lydia's questioning whether she should still be working as she's running herself ragged trying to fit everything in.
I hate days like this, it's not nice to get home from a busy day at work and see your family tired and upset with each other. I imagine that most people can identify with this situation but it's still not cool.
Things calmed down pretty quick, the good thing about me coming home was that I wasn't involved in what happened earlier so I could try and deal with the situation with a clear head.
It was just one of those days y'know - I'm the lucky one to not have been involved, and I'm sure tomorrow will be better.
I'd love it if Lydia didn't have to work . . . well, I suppose she doesn't have to work but it certainly helps financially - the most important thing is that she's happy though, and I'd take a bit less money in a heartbeat for Lydia to be a bit more relaxed. She does so much for her three boys (me included) and she deserves to not have to work if she doesn't want to.
She's worried that she doesn't spend enough time with Joe and Ben while they're little, and I can see what she means but she's an intelligent girl and I wouldn't want her to be stuck at home going stir crazy, nor would I want her to have a job that she doesn't find fulfilling. Whatever she decides I'll back her decision 100% though, she always makes the right choices . . . she's way cleverer than me!
Anyways, she seems much better now she's watched Will & Grace.
And the shot? There's no thought or preperation behind it, it was just a case of standing in front of the camera until I got something I thought I could work with, I didn't have time for much else and didn't want to spend ages taking photos while there were more important things to sort out.
I did try something new tonight though, instead of doing my usual trick of upping the clarity in Lightroom I went the opposite way. What I found was that it softened the shot without detracting from the detail and I quite liked the effect.
It's probably not noticeable to anyone but me as I saw the before and after images but I feel like I've found something new to consider playing around with in the future.
There's three or four textures layered over the original image, including one of my own I took at my parent's house last week - light shining through glass and making a ripple effect on the wall. And I think I duplicated one of the layers (the grungy wall one) to lighten the image, one layer set to multiply and the other to overlay in the layer blending options.
I like it even though it's not very adventurous.
Single Dried Bay Leaf
Do you really add flavor?
Or is it false hope
Many times I wonder when I add a bay leaf to a stew or soup if it really does anything or imparts flavor to the dish.
Haiku written by me, Scott Henderson
November 9th, 2024
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database with thousands of hand-picked images of dogs, cats, as well as horses, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE
© Elke Vogelsang
20220725_Balu_QuestioningBalu
Questioning what?
At Burning Man 2016...
For reproduction rights, please check www.deselliers.info/en/copyright.htm
Photo ref: j81_11097-98-ps3
examination
One of my favorite Coldplay songs:
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called "Yellow"
So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all "Yellow"
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn on into something beautiful
And you know
You know I love you so
You know I love you so
I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
'Cause you were all "Yellow"
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all "Yellow"
Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn on into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry
It's true, look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do
She's a picture perfect child of innocence
Searching out in childlike ways for knowledge
Now she's questioning her mother
Yeah she's questioning her father
Yeah she's looking for the answers
To the problem that confronts her
Do you know where the sun goes when the water falls?
Do you know where the rain goes when the water falls?
Though I think her subjects could run far and wide
She has centered on the topic of the sky
Now she's questioning her mother
Yeah she's questioning her father
Yeah she's looking for the answers
To the questions that confronts her.
Do you know where the sun goes when the water falls?
Do you know where the rain goes when the water falls?
Song by Collective Soul
Have a listen
(Not as good as the CD version but) www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiFs8X9qVIA
Made explore for Oct 30, 2008 #459
Thank you all!
For an article on blue sky thinking click here.
You will find more than 184 of my poems HERE. fno.org/poetry/index.html
Blue Sky Thinking
Returning to the box
The crayons
Obedient
And cooperative
Line up
Like workers on an elevator
Squeezed together
Shoulder to shoulder
Eyes on the floor
Numbers blinking
On and off
Until all spaces fill
And one crayon remains
Apart
Blue
Lost without a box
Unable to get off the ground
Drawn apart
Alone
Away from the crowd
Coloring the sky
Cloudless
© Jamie McKenzie, all rights reserved
You will find more of my poems and songs here
and in The Storm in Its Passing and Flights of Fancy.
My songs are at
Photography for me is a process of questioning. I don't use a camera to take things or capture them or even to find images... or answers. I like how photography can start conversations for me, many of them solely in my own head and under my breath. The process lets me step just a bit out of myself, my head and the preconceptions I carry and wear like an old pair of boots. This landscape could have just been a landscape, it could have just been a photo of a landscape but instead it became a part of a narrative and an exploration on too many tangential topics to be able to explain, both for lack of time and desire on my part. If this seems vague, my apologies. Just as I am not generally one to have my camera prove things for me, I am also not one to try to provide the answers for others.
But anyway, I cannot really express how much I value how I look at, think of and interact with the world has changed because of photography. With photography no landscape has to be just a landscape.
Credit for the idea for the title to the U2 song Please which was playing while I edited this image.
Pentax 67 / Kodak Tri-X
"An old world is crumbling, let it.
The agenda is becoming painfully obvious, let it.
People are questioning fabricated lies they've been told, let them.
Others, are achingly intertwined in a dark domain of inverted reality - let them be.
Even as the matrix slowly collapses, it still uses mind games and manipulation to distort the truth, let it.
Allow the old reality to crumble.
The disproportionate ideologies of Rome to fall.
Let an inorganic reality built on global pessimism and materialistic addiction collapse.
There is an organic process trying to emerge... let it.
Those who have awakened from the matrix will not find salvation in desperately attempting to prove the matrix to itself.
Let the matrix reap its own karma, its life cycle unwind, as it has no choice but to reveal itself through clumsy missteps of parabolic paranoia and pathological persuasion.
Allow those who have a trauma bond with the matrix, to fall in love with systemic deceit.
Humans have to make mistakes to learn. Let them.
The time and focus spent detailing the corruption and mechanistic means of a dying society, can be spent building and creating anew.
Let the old world meet its fate.
No amount of psychoanalysis will cure or stop a broken system from dying.
Be the doula for a new earth.
You're infinite potential woven into the tapestry of a new timeline.
You're free now, if you'd like to be.
A new earth emerges, let it."
- Mary Allison ♡
A friend sent me this heartening piece of writing today and it prompted a contemplative journal entry and I pass on its energy to you. Peace and Love to you all who visit.
Mural inspired on the masterpiece of Vautier Ben... " L' art est inutile rentrez chez vous."
Questioning the validity of art....This mural was made in a very poor neighborhood in Brazil. In front of drug dealers spot. I wrote the sentence in english so people got very curious what does it mean. As most of people has a smartphone these days no matter how poor they are. People started to searched on internet what does it mean the sentence.
Interesting fact the Drug dealers liked the mural and bought me painting material.
Art is always useful to someone. It can take the form of instrumental spin or commodity-object. Art can provide a platform for narcissistic expression or fuel the introspective turn of passive nihilism. Through the postures of mannerist radicalism in the gallery, art can act as a pressure valve to reinforce a conservative orthodoxy.
The artist often occupies a position of weakness but by performing this weakness, art can reveal inconsistencies in the narrative.
What is the social function of art?
One of the questions i have never found an answer for: There are too many other girls in that world, why exactly me?........
For Thursday lock down I replied to a comment that was questioning the ethics of photographing my daily walks (exercise). I was in fact replying to a comment replying to my reply to the first comment.
I then decided to delete all the said comments because I was just going to behave like a dog with a bone. I do get aggrieved by people questioning my ethics when they align me with people going to the coast or beauty spot during this period.
Sure, ask if it's a good idea posting images that might encourage others to go out and do the same! that I would understand and was something I did take into account when I posted said outside location photos.
anyway I won't do it again, just as I won't stop going for the daily exercise the government said I am allowed to do.
Other than that I planted the tomato plants out along with some carrots that will probably get attacked by carrot fly. I mixed in some chives as this is supposed to help keep the carrot fly away from my small crop. The beans will probably go out tomorrow if I can find my canes.
Yeah I wore this all day today even doing the gardening and my three mile walk.
Questioning fear and how it can influence who we are. Fear can start of as something insignificant but with time, it can manifest into something overwhelming. The crows symbolise fear itself (not an actual fear of birds/crows) and the red dress represents the desire to overcome the fear as it flows high in the air.
Shot this today with my friend Marani at the local park, it was so much fun! A few people walked by with puzzled faces haha
Questioning the origin of music is like asking why the breeze is soothing, why you shiver in exhilaration when the spray from the waterfall hits you.
- Ilaiyaraaja
Usually, street portraits focus on the faces... Here, what first struck me about these two young women was the size of one of their rucksacks!
I truly can't wait to revisit Glacier National Park in Montana. It is unbelievably beautiful and I feel so blessed to have spent the better part of a week there last year. The views are breath taking and when splashed with light and color it's hard to comprehend what you are seeing. I found myself questioning myself if I was dreaming quite often.
This here is Mount Wilbur standing boldly over Swiftcurrent Lake as Mother Nature casted her spell upon the scene. A serious nature buzz settled over my body as the sunset colors were revealed
© Bob Bowman - Bob Bowman Photography
Rather tongue-in-cheek, I have to question if the Question Mark cat's appearance is so busy that it deflects predators by confusing them with questions of 'what the what is that?' lol 😄
I did have to question Chaney on how on earth she spotted this tiny early instar on our Upper Delta hike yesterday...but I'm glad she did!
On a second day's visit to the upper delta, Karen and I were screening opposite sides of the trail today when she called me over to see this beauty...one of my very favorite butterflies! Thanks so much, Karen!
i love this innocent polite questioning look she gives me. there is a frog that lives in our pond (located at the bottom of the pic) and she always looks for it . if she hasn't found it yet, i will go help her look for it and point it out to her when i find it. we search together for the hiding frog, but while we're searching she occasionally looks up at me with this face to see if i've found it or not. it just kills me! she's so unbelievably sweet. i've always wished i could take a picture of her looking at me like this, but never had a camera in my hands. finally i remembered to have it ready and this is the only shot i got (well, with her face actually in it, as i was shooting blindly). when she finds the frog they have the longest stare downs! she slowly inches closer and closer and the frog just sits there until they are just inches apart and finally it goes under water and swims away, or if it's outside of the pond, it leaps in. then we get to look for it all over again!
Everyone agrees that even though too much sport is barely enough*, too much art generates a zombie state.
On the floor outside Cézanne to Giacometti is this assemblage of glass. In my state of saturation I didn't look for a label affirming that this was an art installation, and not just an artefact of the opening afterparty last week.
I'm reminded of the two lads who "installed" a pair of spectacles on the floor of San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. For the brief time that the owner's vision was impaired, the spectacles became celebrities. Is that what's happened here? What's art anyway? Did Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray deceive us with their found objects?
Enough! I'm in need of sugar, caffeine…fresh air and good company. Which way to the exit?
*I think that's what HG Nelson said.
Scripture: Matthew 22:15-21, The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Subject: Why are you testing me?
Today’s Gospel reading is relevant to us and it revolves around a simple question that Jesus asked of the Herodians and Pharisees who were questioning HIM; “Why are you testing Me?” It is a question we should ask ourselves whenever, we are confronted by individuals that are “locked and loaded” with a question in which they will use to probe, confront, and ultimately judged and label us. Why? Within the question they are asking is their “intent.”
I offer some contemporary examples:
Are you a Christian? Do you believe in God? Who are you voting for? Are you a republican? Are you a democrat? Are you pro-life? Some local favorites: Do you drink coffee? What religion are you? Are you a Christian? Don’t you believe in God?
These are just a few questions we are all to familiar with and we do understand that they are loaded with more meaning than the question implies. The motives behind these questions, and our answers, can easily allow the one asking the question the ability to unload all the baggage that is behind the question with a convenient label such as “you are a good Catholic”, “you are not a good Catholic”, “you are an atheist”, “ you are a conservative”, “you are a liberal”…and yes a local favorite, “you are a gentile.”
I want to revisit our reading again…remember...
The Pharisees are plotting how they might entrap Jesus in some way, and the unknown reality to them is that- HE knows what their intent is. They think they are smooth by building Jesus up by saying “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man, and you teach the way of God.” In a contriving way, they ask Jesus a simple question…” Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Straightaway, because he understands their motive and intent, he asked them a question: “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?” Without waiting for a response to his question He states, “show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Whose image is on the coin? Jesus is the one leading now. They say “Caesar’s image.” He states, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”. If Jesus had said “yes” he would have been going against most of the people and if he said “no” would have brought him into conflict with Roman authorities. You see in his answer Jesus avoided their trap.
They were amazed and his replay and went away. However, we must remember, that their original intent was to find a reason to kill him. As we know, they will keep trying until the the crucify HIM and yet they will soon learn that they are wrong-the Jesus movement has continued to our day.
What can we learn from Jesus and this Gospel reading?
Firstly, Jesus shows us what evil intent can confront us when we are citizens of two dominions-the temporal and the spiritual. As faithful Christians we maneuver between two worlds and make efforts to be loyal to both. Our loyalties are being challenged in every moment of our lives…this is our reality. More times then we would like, these worlds meet wherever a question is asked between us and another. Jesus shows us how he skillfully managed to stay loyal to both the temporal and spiritual. However, because of who “He is” we fully understand what Kingdom dominated HIS world-the Kingdom of God.
Secondly, we learn that our Christian beliefs are bigger (they transcend) the labels that get thrown around. Our secular labels are too small to contain the truths that our Christian faith entails. However, remanence of truth is found everywhere in our secular culture. When we mix the secular and the spiritual together expect confrontation and disillusionment. The effects of this are all around us. Yes, indeed these two worlds meet most visibly in the questions we ask one another. When conflict arises between spiritual and temporal powers, it is wise to keep in mind St Thomas More’s famous maxim, “The King’s good servant, but God’s first”.
But our reading challenges us to rise above the visible divisions that surrounds us. It is possible! Why every Sunday, we meet for Mass! For obvious reasons, we come into the Church quietly. We carry with us smiles, waves and kindness! Why? Because we understand that we are closer to God here than anywhere. We come into the Church a broken people and we leave with Christ in our hearts. As your deacon, after the conclusion of each Mass, I get to say to you “Go in Peace.” There are other phrases that I could use, and one is an extension of this on…”Go in Peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” May we take up this Gospel challenge and meet those who would question us with hurtful intents, with a smile, a wave and kindness. Let us give them what they do not expect!
-rc
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20220406_Hera_QuestioningHeadtilt
Questioning ones existance. (Original)
Im wondering if I over did the deeping of the sky tones & adding the bloody visuals to the cloud cover top left.
I'll be submitting this to the Delete Me group soon. Submitted to Delete Me!
Does a fly every ask why insects keep getting caught in spider webs? If it could only read: www.nature.com/articles/srep02108
Artists' creative struggles to reconcile their individual imaginative life with their social existence can-- through the emphatic reading of viewers-- affect the level on which others experience events. The structural strategies in a work of art can put the viewer in a certain frame of mind that he or she can then bring to bear, as a posture for questioning, on real events" - Jonathan Fineberg, art historian
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I don' want this to turn into a diary entry but lately I've just started questioning everything and it has led to a very stressful couple of days. I wasn't sure who I was in terms of my photography, social life, or at the very base level, who I was inside. I still don't think I'll ever fully understand what caused my breakdown but that's what friends are for and they helped me through it. I do know that one day I will go and find myself someday and that will be wonderful.
I started off hating this photo, but the longer I worked at it I really started loving it. But that's just me so if you hate it let me know why!
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