Light to Highlight

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I looked at yesterdays blog and I am compelled to write the following. A little adjustment in exposure, here and there, can make a big difference in how I feel about an image. With a slight adjustment in exposure on both lights and darks, I improved my feel and appeal for Up n Air.

Also, my link to MESipe.com, where you can view a few other images I took ‘running’ to the shore after being inspired by Kelly O’Neal’s work, ekovisions.com, didn’t work. Take a look now, if you are so inclined. MESipe.com Look to the tab ‘recent work’.

Up n air edit

Inspired by Minimalism

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I am walking Burlington Pine street annual Art Hop with thousands of others, looking to be inspired. I am. I meet Kelly O’Neal, ekovisions.com, with an eye-catching display of her minimalist photo landscapes. Her images grab me, and hold me. Kelly’s tag line, ‘Through Motion, I Create Stillness’, is apropos. I love it. I love Kelly’s approach even more after I view her website. I can’t imitate Kelly. I don’t want to imitate Kelly. I move to my own way of minimalism.

Inspired by Kelly, I am moved to walk to the shore of Lake Champlain from Pine street to capture a land and sky minimal like image. The sky is too complex for me - there is so much I want to capture in what I see - what I feel. I can’t do it. After I shoot a dozen or so images, I capture one that may qualify. I call it ‘Up n Air’. I post four images from the journey that catch my attention this motivating evening. See MESipe.com. Look under the tab ‘recent work’.

Up n Air

Plane Site

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As I walk the path of Black Walnut trees, I reflect: Plenty of growth this year, trees and me. Clouds are wonderful this season - have I not noticed before? My project of skyward photography is a surprising delight. I see a plane in the distance. I enjoy the planes overhead, especially the roaring f-35’s when they are low and in pairs - deafening loud. Lagging sound requires a search for the formidable crafts - impressive form. I sometimes ask myself, WTF? Why in this supposed advanced state of being we need so much military defense? Why war? I think back to the sixty’s saying, “make love, not war”. I am into the idea of LOVE now more than I have ever been. Maybe it is age. Maybe it is wisdom. My sister Bernadette is a good example of loving all that cross her path. I see her great capacity to love while visiting her in the nursing home. WOW.

Plane site

F-16

Magenta

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Fifteen - twenty years ago, I used to apply a magenta filter every time I used my 4x5 wooden film camera. I wore rose color glasses for years (inside and out). I miss the tint. It is reflective of my slant on seeing the world. I am reminded of the beauty of a little magenta tint with a recent meet. I processed the image below, that I call Magenta as a result. I love it.

Perspective is important to attitude. Years ago people lived for less than 40 years, now people live over 80 years. At one time, 90% of the world’s population was in poverty, now it is less than 10%. Famine was an issue, now it is not. There was a time when a quarter of the kids didn’t make it past 5 - yes, progress - life is better than what you hear. What a wonderful world. “ I see skis of blue, and clouds of white. The bright blessed days, dogs say good night. … I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do, they’re really saying I love you…. I think to myself, what a wonderful world”

magenta

Morning Glory

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It’s the first day of my new year. I am up early for an airport run, so I visit my favorite Adirondack range to see if I can capture a sky treat to top the range. The other day it was fog and rain - no mountains to see. Today it was a clear view of the mountains. You never know what delights from above. I am treated to beauty skyward to accent the wonderful peaks. And afterwards, I enjoyed a solo breakfast, again, at outdoor seating, at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. One of Marianne Williamson’s tapes on A Course in Miracles enhanced my reflections with a lesson on LOVE - a real joyful morning.

Morning glory

Green Bay

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Rain rain go away, come back some other day. It’s different for me this summer from any previous summer I can remember - so much rain. I’ve enjoyed it though. I am walking in the rain. I am wearing my ‘Wellies’ more than ever. The grass is long with wild flowers, because it is too wet to mow, so let it grow.

I went to Shelburne Farms the other sunrise (or at least sunrise time) to shoot across the water at my favorite Adirondack range, thinking I may get a nice sky to top the wonderful mountain range, but no, just fog and rain I could see. I should have known not to expect anything certain. Life doesn't work that way. There is beauty in so much nature offers. Just enjoy what is Mike. I also enjoyed a wonderful outside breakfast, lakeside, at the Inn at Shelburne Farms.

The grass is green this August - most often it is brown. It is nice to see the green bay at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. Life doesn't get much better.

Green Bay

zonal geraniums

Up Close

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What don’t I see, in nature? And, what don’t I see in myself? Getting up close and paying attention is revealing. Asking, listening, looking for what is, is a fruitful adventure. Like the Brown Knapweed below - I usually mow the weed down. Instead, I made paths to walk the fields - front middle back. I photograph the ordinary, up close, and see the extraordinary - the color, the droplets, the detail, the cartoonish figure smiling to the sky, the bug. I too am Nature. What’s to be revealed when I look up close, inside, to my Inner Wisdom. I look for LOVE…. I find LOVE - It is good.

Brown knapweed up close

Road to Bountiful

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Actually, the image below is a road to Richmond, Vermont. I imagine though, beyond my horizon - a trip to Bountiful. The morning light over the aesthetic bridge sets the mood for reflection - reflection on what’s important to me given a theoretical five years. The time frame adds a sense of urgency; not to add stress, but to know that maybe I best not let the grass, under my feet, grow too long before honoring my priorities.

I hear keeping your plans to yourself is good advice. My belief is preparing to tell my world is thought provoking, and adds the element of - now my world knows - I better act, or be marked, just a dreamer. I also know, if you want to make God laugh, tell him/her your plans.

Juxtaposition the idea of a plan for five years with my mantra, Live LOVE now, and you may wonder, what’s the deal with Mike? Is he troubled with single hood after fifty-four years married to Patty? Actually, it’s a new world for me now, and I love it. I am getting clarity - it’s a little like my former associates at AIS Planning say with their new tag line - “Plan your tomorrow, so you can enjoy your today” I am thinking about traveling down a pretty short road. I am making my five year view, a rolling five years, though. Who knows how many healthy five year periods this aging body will roll along.

Here are my salient reflections about the next five years: deepen family and friend connections, listen to my Inner Wisdom while deepening my spirituality, communicate my understanding of live LOVE now, have soul mate(s), explore and photograph natural wonders, travel often to be with family and friends, reflect skyward and produce book including reflections to accompany images, play more - worry less.

Road to Bountiful



Love Lilies

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Susan Shelly loves her lilies - she is nationally known for her hundreds, maybe thousands, of lilies she so passionately tends to, on her hilltop property in Underhill, Vermont. She opens to the public to enjoy, not her variety of flowers, but her variety of lily flowers. What a treat.

I asked Susan - don’t lilies have a short life? Why just lilies? She said yes, they bloom for a short time, but there are varieties popping up all the time, even as late as September. She lost me in the details, but the flowers filled my cup - made my day. I love it, as I believe the other members of the Northern Exposure Photo Group that made the private showing at low light. I have ten interpretations of the beauty I saw at MESipe.com recent images, and flowers tabs.

Love Lily (my name)

Salient Seeds

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Nature is miraculous, isn’t it - a seed to a person, plant, a rare four leaf clover. Emmett and I took a walk on my newly mowed path in the front field, where I planted a number of Black Walnut trees. I have ignored tending them for a year of so - the nursery said they should be ok on their own after a few years. I thought I lost all sixty I planted, with the late Spring freeze - all the leaves dropped dead. Miraculously, new leaves popped - maybe a positive of heavy rains this summer. I see about two feet of new growth - wow. Nature doesn't stand still. All are part of Nature - what a wonderful gift. We grow - as One, together.

Salient Seeds

Four leaf clover

Wild in Richmond

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I loved having a view of Lake Champlain from our Overtake Condo in Burlington. I moved, a little reluctantly, to Richmond, where I am a good twenty minutes from the Lake. I gave in to my condition that we build our multi-generational home within five miles of the Lake, to go to the foothills of the Green Mountains in Richmond. I am happy though, because I get a new prospective of beauty being so close to the mountains. The rolling topography from our home at Purple Lark Farms is spectacular. We view Camels Hump and Mount Mansfield from a neighbor view from one of the seven hills that surround our acreage. I feel like I am in a valley, even though I am a 4% incline for two miles, from Richmond village. Visit if you can - you’ll love it.

Wild in Richmond

In Position

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It’s the 4th of July - actually the 3rd of July, at Joe and Barb Gaida’s place on Lake Champlain, feasting with friends, in prep for the annual fireworks show in Burlington. The warm-up is the sky - hard to match with man-made works - so grateful to take in! Boats in position, under Nature’s beautiful cloak.

In Position