Shopping Centers aren’t the normal epicenter of natural beauty but as I arrived onto a property in Venice just ahead of the sun this morning, I was greeted by a heavenly sight of epic proportions.
Which just goes to prove that all you really need to bring to mother nature’s sunrise party, is an open heart, a waking eye, and a trusty camera by your side.
Hope these add some color into your weekend!
I managed to capture the take off of an Osprey the other morning and managed to combine eight images to show the track of his flight.
Having a steady hand and a camera that can shoot 15 images per second can really reinforce the value of digital over film cameras.
There is something about bearing witness to such a wondrous moment that really gives impact to the value of being an early riser.
I am incredibly lucky and hope that this image adds a little wonder to your week.
The other morning, I found myself again down by the lake side waiting to see what the sunrise might grace me with. A father and his son came down to the pier waiting for Grandpa to come by with the bait for the day’s fishing trip.
As I caught them in the golden hue of the rising sun, it reinforced for me what I already knew … that sharing your love of the natural world with those that you love, can be truly a moment worth its weight in gold.
I hope these adds a little color to your day and a welcome thought to your week.
After I had taken these shots on Saturday, it struck me how many of us look merely at surface beauty even when we are taking the time to admire our surroundings. Flowers and plants are often taken at face value when we just take a quick glance at the colors and contrasts and shapes that they present.
Sometimes, though, when you look beyond the petals and take the time to explore what may be lying beneath the surface, new worlds open to our senses and we are enriched with visions that often go unnoticed.
Here are a couple of moments that I hope might make you look at things a little differently today and I hope they add a bit of natural elegance into your week.
These are some of the experimental shots from Saturday night that I thought might start your week with a little different view on life.
What you are looking at is called “steel wool photography†and essentially each of the bright streaks you see in the images are sparks of molten metal flying through the air. I am fortunate to have risk-taking friends that don’t mind taking a burn or two in the name of art ? (In fact if you look closely at the picture 9927, you might be able to spot a huge lump of fiery metal that landed on top of the umbrella and seconds later had fully burnt through her cover)
Have a wonderful week!
… it was such a beautiful start to the day, I had to share.
Even in the screen grab (p0001) you can see they lovely progression as Mother Nature played out her early morning harmony. Definitely a “good-to-be-alive†morning!
Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful day today
It was never going to be spectacular with a dense cloud formation hugging the horizon. But it didn’t need to be. And the distant smokestack on the far side of the lake was doing its best to obscure the rising sun anyway.
But urged on by the sounds of the waking birds and the fresh autumn air coming in off the crystal waters, I stayed there and witnessed another lovely start to a weekend that I just had to share!
Hope your week ahead is a good one!
We can become fixated on what things are called rather than what they actually are and often dismiss them if they don’t fall into a convenient category for us.
I have little doubt that almost nobody else at Circle B today bothered to study the grasses and weeds like this old Irish fool, who seemed to spend most of his time crouched down and kneeling in the dirt. But my curiosity paid dividends in the hidden beauty that these lovely little plants so anonymously contributed to a near perfect day.
Though they may indeed be just “weeds†and tiny to the point of being almost invisible …. I thought they are worth sharing.
Hope they add a new perspective into the start of your new week!
Built in 1200, King John’s Castle is a centerpiece of any visit to my home city. It was a lovely crisp morning when I took this picture and I wanted to share.
The true value of history lies not in the books we read of stuff like this, but the significance of our own moment in time as compared to the centuries that such a place has already experienced.
Makes you think!
It was a rainy Saturday morning in Limerick and I dragged my brother-in-law and my niece out to the Stone Circle at Grange so they could experience a little history on their visit to Ireland.
This Stone Circle dates from around 2,000 BC and on a soft rainy day like this we had the place to ourselves and a chance to feel the wonderful sense of history that such a special place brings to your soul.
Its builders likely didn’t have wheels and yet moved large boulders great distances. They had limited celestial knowledge (or did they) and yet they perfectly aligned the entrance to the circle so that at daybreak on the summer solstice in June, the early morning rays would beam through the entrance and directly hit the center point of the circle. They didn’t have drones or satellite views and yet the entrance to this circle and two others in nearby fields formed a perfect isosceles triangle.
For many years, this little spot has been my personal haven … a means to ground myself away from life’s chaos and restore some sense of reality on the relevance of issues that I get to face on a daily basis.
I flew back last night and I hope these three little images help give you room for thought as you go through the rest of your week!
