Here’s another one from the Hydrangea. This one got high marks from my photography teacher in today’s class.
From John O’Donohue:
When we awaken to the call of beauty, we become aware of new ways of being in the world. We were created to be creators. At its deepest heart, creativity is meant to serve and evoke beauty.
I bought some tulips at the store today to practice with for my flower photography workshop. So far I haven’t been too happy with the results. I think I am going to have to go visit the rose garden tomorrow.
And today’s thought from John O’Donohue:
Much of the stress and emptiness that haunts us can be traced back to our lack of attention to beauty. Internally, the mind becomes coarse and dull if it remains unvisited by images and thoughts which hold the radiance of beauty.
Continuing in our raindrop theme here are some raindrop on a daisy. It was a little hard to capture the whiteness of the flower without blowing out the details on the raindrops so I’m afraid this one is a little darker than I would like.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for quotes from now on but when I went back the the beginning of the project I realized that for awhile I was looking for quotes from other people in John O’Donohue’s book so there are still plenty of gems from John himself that I skipped over. So, for today:
Beauty brings a sense of completion and sureness. Without any of the usual calculation, we can slip into the Beautiful with the same ease as we slip into the seamless embrace of water, something ancient within us already trusts that this embrace will hold us.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things.
Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein
I can’t see raindrops on roses without bursting into song. I just got a new Lensbaby, a wide angle velvet. Haven’t decided if I like it yet. I was about 2 inches from this flower and couldn’t get the super macro look I like. But I think it will be handy in the tidy studio where I just can’t get far enough from my subject at times.
I’ve come to the end of John O’Donhue’s book on Beauty. I will share with you one last quote from a blessing with which he ends the book:
As twilight fills night with bright horizons
May Beauty await you at home beyond.
It is pouring rain right now so I’m glad I still have a few aces up my sleeve from Sunday’s neighborhood walk, including this lovely lily.
From John O’Donohue:
Beauty can arrive in such a clear and absolute sweep that it throws the heart sideways.
I don’t know what these weeds are called but they look kind of like a giant dandelion. The seed heads have some fine delicate detail up close and they are always a joy to photograph.
Today’s quote from John O’Donohue:
The awakening to the beauty of your creativity can totally change the way you view limits. When you see the limit not as a confining barrier but as a threshold, your are already beyond.
The Peonies are definitely the stars of the show in the neighborhood right now. They are not the most photogenic from close up though.
Today’s quote from John O’Donohue is very appropriate for our times:
Where beauty seems absent, she is often hidden and still at work in the slow industry of transformation.
A rose is a rose is a rose. But they are photogenic. Hard o miss with a closeup of a fresh rose.
Today John O’Donohue shares with us this short poem by St. John of the Cross:
I did not have to ask my heart what it wanted
because of all the desires I have ever known
just one did I cling to
for it was the essence of all desire:
to know beauty.
I was headed out the door to photograph this flower in my neighbor’s front yard only to discover her about to dig it up. Glad I got there just in the nick of time.
Today John O’Donohue continues on the theme of beauty and the heart:
Compassion and attention keep the prism clear so that beauty may illuminate our life.
Here’s something a little different. I’m thinking in terms of the beauty of simplicity. Actually, I’m all out of flowers and my hydrangea is just on the verge of blooming. Meanwhile, I have been working on my still life chops. I see this one printed large and hanging on the wall of a breakfast restaurant.
And from John O’Donohue:
The heart is the place where beauty arrives; here is where it can be felt, recognized and shared.