View allAll Photos Tagged thoughts...
Notes on the heart... and the soul as light as gossamer wings.
.
.
Captured there before my minds eye I sometimes see an image of my soul falling from the sky.
It’s a vision of both beauty and despair.
Imagine gossamer wings aflame and wheeling down out of the sky at dusk. Descending in a quite agony from a darkening sky -
only a trail of vapor, smoke, and ash to mark the fall. And finally crashing into cool waters it sinks, but not even the cool caress of deep waters is enough to wrestle the flame away.
Shifting in a way that only the minds eye can I see my soul suspended and adrift, beneath the waves bathed in a naked blue light. I see shafts of sunlight beside me, beneath me, and above me. Time passes…
Then comes the thought of “purgatory.” My soul suspended and smoldering , burning - (but not too brightly.) I've heard it said that “purgatory” is not forever, and likewise no flame can not burn forever out of it’s element.
Still the magic in my mind is that the soul could ever fly free of this torn world. Over the years I've begun to see more clearly that perhaps a fundamental mechanism of the heart must be it's role in gathering all those little heart aches along the way. Could it be that “ a saving grace” comes to the soul only with an alliance of the heart?
How can any soul fly free unless it’s beyond “burden?” I begin to see now that a principle role of the heart must be to absorb pain, and to bear the bruises and scars. Could it be that in the end it’s the nature of the heart to act as a kind of veil behind which the soul remains “innocent?” I smile at a thought that at the conclusion of life, when the world falls away, there is a healing path for the soul to pass through... a route through the heart and through its veils, the first and a last place for burdens- to be unburdened. Leaving free the best parts of us - our innocence cleansed and our light rekindled while behind all the wreckages of “bruise and scar” and the loves lost … with their weight of pain safely harbored somewhere toward the center of our being, in a beating vessel that’s tilted 16 degrees to the left.
In my opinion this picture screams for thought bubbles, especially for the left pigeon... :D
PS: No photo manipulation, the ones in the middle hid their heads ^^
I thought I'd try to look a bit more normal so I tried out some sensible shoes and leggings.
I kind of like this outfit and it blends in better with the other women around me. It's always a question of getting the balance right when we go out isn't it. We all have those competing sides don't we?
The one that really wants to shine. To stand out and be noticed the one that just wants slip by unseen. To be lost in the crowd as we pass through. Just another person living their life and trying to make the world a better place.
Today I can take risks,
I can make new decisions I can make new relations...
I have the power to decide.
You too have to power to decide your new path in your life.
Im liking playing in the water and hope to get other opportunity soon...
How are you all ? Big warm welcome to my new followers you wow me with your pictures and inspire me.
The weather is still horrible in London I was wearing my winter clothes and muy leggings. We are beginning of July....longing for better weather.
When was the last time you observed your reflection on water...or sat on the beach by yourself for an hour without worrying about monday blues & missed calls??
ODC~begins with C
controlled thoughts
Please don't yell at me for not uploading all the time or not starting a project like I've been meaning to! The dragging winter leaves me with little or no inspiration, and when I have some, it's either too cold, too late, or I'm busy. And we're supposed to get more snow tomorrow! Bleh. I'm so over winter. Anyways, this is more of an upload to show I'm still alive. I'll catch you up on my boring life:
*I bought my shoes for prom.
*I found out I have two proms on the SAME NIGHT.
*I got my sponsor certificate today at church so I can be my brother's confirmation sponsor.
*Thursday I'm skipping school and going to NYC with my cousin, who I haven't seen in over a year!
*I bought a new battery for my camera remote so I can continue shooting.
*Five people ordered hockey books of their children, who won the state tournament two weeks ago!
*Spring hockey starts soon!
This photo is literally my backdrop and a picture frame. I had a concept, but I didn't use it because the pictures turned out horrid. I missed my remote!
I think that's it! I promise I'll upload a ton more after this cold winter ends.
Oh, and the photo I "traced" came from here!
Clicked on the streets of Gurgaon.
Indian Street Food is pretty famous and most tourists gorge on the delicious and affordable roadside food in India to get the real taste of this amazing country. The street food in India is an amalgamation of various flavors that stimulate the taste buds of tourists as well as locals. In every big metro, you will find all roads and small narrow lanes having at least one such portable food stall. The snacks are prepared right there in front of your eyes. You can also ask for extra flavors such as more spice or more tanginess.
Drooling Already??
you have broken in me
broken me.
all your mental armor drags me down...
we can't breathe when you come around.
all your mental armor drags me down,
nothing hurts like
your mouth.
[mouth by bush]
__________________________
stock used:
- background by TW3Dstock
- girl by Panda-stock
- crow by Shoofly-stock
_____________________
We approach the autumn season after an extremely humid summer, and before the leaves drop off the trees, here's a post to think of cooler times.
Here is Conway Scenic Railroad's 'Snow Train' shuttle returning with the final excursion of the day from Attitash Mountain Resort, with EMD GP38 No. 255 taking the lead home.
255 is definitely no stranger to the Mountain Division, she was built in November of 1966 new for the Maine Central Railroad. After the MEC became part of Guilford Rail System, 255 was sent to the Clarendon & Pittsfield Railroad, and was renumbered to 203.
In autumn of 2021, it was announced the Conway Scenic had purchased the 203 from CLP, and the locomotive arrived on property in November of 2021. As a temporary fit, the engine was fitted out with the Maine Central logo on the nose and was renumbered back to 255.
This is one of the many subway scenes I've shot with my iPhone.
I thought it was an interesting photo, and I gave it four stars in my Aperture rating system. But not five stars, so it never did get uploaded as a "public" Flickr photo.
However, one of my Flickr friends "faved" the photo moments after I uploaded it, so I've changed its status to "public."
**********************
Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.
After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real”camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.
But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.
Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.
And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.
With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.
Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...
I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.
Stay tuned….
Yesterday I met a Flickr friend from Atlanta for some C111-ENP birding. We had an incredible day but I wasn't sure about this bird. We joked that with the yellow it could be a Tropical Kingbird but said no....we couldn't be that lucky! I thought maybe a Gray Kingbird....due to the large bill. There were Western Kingbirds in several places at C111 and they all kept moving around so I just kept taking pictures of all of them and figured I'd sort them out later.
Gene (even more awesome in person), also got shots so we hope our mystery gets solved. Regardless....we had the best day of birding and Roberts delicious milkshake at the end made it perfect.....thanks Gene!
This is the first time I've ever seen a baby ring-tail on it's mother's back. I thought the adults were also cute but baby wins hands-down!
Thought I would try some HDR processing on the image of the broken groyne at East Head, West Sussex.