I wore myself out pulling weeds today so it’s a good thing I have another Iris photo to fall back on. I never get tired of doing macro shots of Irises. They are so photogenic.
Today’s quote is again from Julia Cameron:
By listening to our heart’s desires and listening to them closely, we are not only led into making the art we dream of making but also into the dream of that art being realized on a meaningful scale.
My neighbor’s Irises are a little further along than mine. Mine are just starting to bud but have no color showing yet. I played with this one for quite awhile. I had envisioned it with some French script in the background but ran out of time before I found the look I was going for. Maybe next time.
Today from Julia Cameron:
All human beings are creative. The more we can accept and welcome that fact, the more normal our own creativity can become.
My Tulips are in full bloom and looking very elegant if I do say so myself.
Again from Matthew Fox:
Among the Celts, “imagination” means soul. Celtic scholar John O’Donohue points out that in the Celtic way of seeing the world, the “soul” “is the place where the imagination lives.”
The wind machines were hard at work this morning keeping the frost at bay. I could complain about the noise but it’s a far sight better than the sooty black smoke we experienced this time of year when I was growing up. My brother had a job lighting smudge pots when he was in high school and he would come home covered in black from head to foot. I often wonder why they continue to keep the smudge pots in the fields but I suppose it is easier than storing or disposing of them.
It’s Sunday so that means I get to turn to a new source for my quotes. This week I will be relying on Matthew Fox’s book Creativity. Today’s quote make me feel better about the state of my housekeeping:
We have been told by those who have studied the processes of nature that creativity happens at the border between chaos and order.
It’s one of those days when I just want to get this checked off so I can move on to other things. So, here’s a little goldfinch from my session with the birds the other day. I cropped in a little to showcase the bird better and sharpened him up some.
Today we have a quote from Janis Joplin:
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
I’ve been noticing that when Cody and I go for our second walk of the day there are always finches in the neighbors trees. So, I decided to hang out on my porch for awhile with the big lens this morning. Bird photography is such a good exercise in patience. Usually, by the time I get them in my sights and get the lens focused on them they have flown away. So, I was really lucky to get not one but two House Finches in this shot. I just had to open the shadows so you could see them better due to brightness of the sky and voila.
Today we hear from Antoine de Saint Exupery from The Little Prince:
“And now here is the secret”, said The Little Prince, “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
It was another one of those days when I was going “Oh crap, I have to go out and find something to photograph.” So, I took the M3 for a quick walk around the neighborhood. The light was harsh, the wind was blowing and I wasn’t having much success. I had it in mind to do a close up of these blossoms when the bee just happened along. I had to futz with the exposure quite a bit due to the white blossoms and backlighting but I think I finally got there. Added a vignette to darken the corners and help the bee stand out.
Our quote today is from Henri Matisse:
Merely copying an object is not art. What counts is to express the emotion called forth in you, the feeling awakened…
The first Tulips are starting to bloom around the neighborhood. Mine promises to have multiple blossoms but is not this far along yet. I added a texture to give interest around the edges but masked it out over the flower.
From Mary Heebner:
Perfection is overrated. Sometimes it is the flawed, the damaged, the hapless that gives a piece its soul.
After being woken up at 3am by the roar of frost protection equipment I thought I would drive out into the orchards and see how the blooms are coming along. I had to stop and take a close look to see that the buds were barely beginning to break and not very photogenic so I kept looking for something to photograph until I came upon this field of sheep and lambs. Some had been sheared and some not. This mama called out to her lamb and he came running. Hope he was able to find the milk under all that wool.
Today’s quote is from Clarissa Pinkola Estes who wrote Women Who Run with the Wolves:
Some say the creative life is in ideas, some say it is in doing. It seems in most instance to be in simply being.
I keep thinking of places I should go and photograph but somehow it has gotten very hard to get in the car and leave home. I noticed the birds in the blossoming trees in the neighborhood this morning and decided to see if I could capture them. I had this one in my sights in amongst the blossoms but it decided to retreat to the top of the tree. If forced to put a specific name to it I would say it is a Sage Sparrow but I didn’t get a good look at it’s back or tail so I’m not positive. I had some goldfinches in my sights as well but then the neighborhood kids came out to play and it was all over for me and the birds this day.
It is almost straight out of camera. I did open the shadows to make its eye more visible and then brought down the blue luminance to darken the sky a little.
I turned today to Rod McIver’s book, Art as a Way of Life. Chapter one is titled Your Inner World: The Repository of Creativity and he begins with a whole page of quotes, one of which I have already used but today this one spoke to me:
Construction on a purely spiritual basis is a slow business. The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul… Wassily Kandinsky