Sudden Beauty

Don’t you love it when you are going through the motions of a mundane day, uninspired and mindless, when suddenly something soul stirring appears right in front of you and (to borrow a saying from my youth) blows your sensory doors in?  It could be a herd of antelope in our meadow or the setting sun illuminating the mountains.   It is what some of my friends call God showing off … other say Nature in all its glory.   Here on Oldereyes – Bud’s Blog, it doesn’t matter which you choose, as long as you take time to notice.  And let it move you.  Some years ago, I became an avid photographer when I found out that keeping a camera close by keeps me noticing the world around me.   Yes, I know, every phone has a camera, but a real camera is better no matter what Apple tries to tell you.

This week as I turned onto Lake Avenue headed toward Mountain View Parkway, the sky was filled with clouds tinted gold by the late afternoon sun.   The sky was a crisp blue and seemed to go on forever.  I reached for my camera and … gloom …I’d left it at home.  But yes, I had my phone.   I pulled to the side of the road and began snapping (well, I know, phone cameras don’t really snap but that’s how 78 year olds talk).  And here’s what I got.

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Nature in all its glory.   God showing off.  Amen.

Kestrals

If you drive around our new neighborhood in Daybreak, Utah, you will notice numerous streets named for the robin-sized hawk known as the American Kestral. As a bird-lover, I was anxious to see one by it took a while since: from a distance, they look like any other medium sized bird; they are fairly shy (especially camera shy, more about that in a bit); and their population is in decline as the human population grows. I eventually became adept at spotting them, usually perched on the top of a lamp post or the uppermost branches of a small tree. Having spotted them, I naturally wanted to get a good photograph.

The Art of Napping

If you have ever owned a cat (or more correctly, if a cat has ever owned you), you know that cats sleep a lot.  According to catster.com, cats can sleep up to 16 hours a day, more as they get older (I can relate).   As a somewhat fitful napper, I am always jealous of how my cats have seemed to be able to nap comfortably almost anywhere … and appear blissfully at ease in the most interesting positions.   Yes, there’s stretching, too, but we’ll leave that for another day.  However, my newest feline companion, Claude, between his Rorschach-Test markings and the variation of positions he assumes in his beds, raises napping to the level of art.   Here is a collage of just a few of his abstract patterns.

Small Things

I’m sure I’ve said this here before.   I’m pretty sure I’ll say it again.  The reason I carry my camera when I walk in the park is that it takes my focus away from what’s going on inside my head and into the world around me.   Some days, there are red-shouldered hawks, trees in bloom and sunsets over the lake to grab my attention.  Other days, like today, Small Things catch my eye if (and only if) I am mindful … petals on the ground against fallen leaves …

… seed pods hanging from a bright green tree …

De Haze, De Haze

We are currently on a vacation in the Canadian Rockies celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of Mrs. Eyes and I.    Flying into Calgary last Tuesday, the pilot on our Alaska Airlines flight announced that visibility at the airport was very poor due to the dozens of fires burning in British Columbia.  That was the first thought I’d given to concerns that the smoke might interfere with the incredible views we hoped to see around Banff and Canmore.   Our concerns were confirmed as we pulled into our hotel, the Blackstone Lodge.  The towering mountains visible from our room were vague silhouettes against the gray, smoke-filled sky.   By Thursday, when we took our first tour of the Banff area, the haze had lifted some but my photographs were hardly what I’d hoped for, color faded toward gray by the smoke in the air.   It is interesting how the human eye can perceive the beauty of a scene but the camera can only capture what it sees.

One More Sunset

One of the best things about our time spent in our Little House in the Desert has been watching the desert sunsets from our patio, which looked over the San Tan Mountains.   Last night, Arizona offered me one more sunset before we leave for good.  As always, my camera was nearby and I recorded it to share with you.  It is a fitting farewell, I think.

Twilight

Yesterday, before I went to my Thursday Night Men’s Meeting, I decided to take a walk in the park.  I have been maintaining about 8,000 steps a day since I got a Fitbit for Christmas … it was really just what I needed to remind me to get out and walk.  At this point in my life, remembering to walk has a double, even triple benefit.  For one, I usually listen to music while I walk and any day I listen to music is a better day than one with no music.  And I usually bring my camera on my walks, giving me an opportunity to get the creative juices flowing.   I reached the park just as the sky was beginning to fade from cobalt to pastel blue and wisps of pink were collecting along the horizon.   I’ve always found twilight to be the most peaceful time of the day … and perhaps the most photogenic.

Serendipity Plus Patience

I have always found photography an interesting and frustrating artistic medium.  After all, if I were to stop people at random, in, say, the Brea Mall, how many do you think would say, Oh, yes, I paint in oils, or Watercolor is my favorite medium.  How many would confess to loving to work in charcoals?   But almost everyone takes photographs, particularly since the advent of capable smartphone cameras.  I know quite a few people who regard themselves as photographers whose photographs, while beautiful, seem to be nothing more than snapshots taken in very beautiful places.   To me, a photo becomes art when it illuminates some familiar place or thing in a way I’d have never seen through my own eyes.  That can be a matter of composition, or lighting or even a particular moment in time that makes me say, Wow!  How did the photographer ever catch that?  Sometimes it takes serendipity, just being at the right place at the right time.  With camera in hand, of course.  But look at Thomas Mangelson’s signature photo, Catch of the Day.  Does that look like serendipity?  Yes, right place, right time plus endless patience.

For the Birds

If you’ve been coming around Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog for a while, you know … I am very fond of birds.   There is absolutely no doubt that I inherited it from Mom, whether that was an inheritance via genes or simply watching her feed the birds in our yard for my entire childhood.  There was always a bird book near the kitchen window in her house and I have never been without a bird book since my wife, Muri, and I have had a house of our own.  I never heard my mother say this but I’m sure she’d agree have agreed with what I say: Birds are among God’s most beautiful creations.

So, it’s photo Tuesday and I thought I’d post one of my favorite bird photos.   Bird lovers have been promoting our local Yorba Regional Park as a habitat for Western Bluebirds.  As a result, anyone with a camera and some patience can get some photographs.  The best itme is the spring.  After the males put on their brightest plumage in preparation for mating, the juveniles, plain gray with the first hints of blue tinting their wings, show up, beautiful in their own way.

California Autumn

Speeding along winding Connecticut road in an Alfa Romeo convertible, crisp autumn wind in our hair and our lives ahead of us.  A canopy of color overhead and fallen maple leaves, reds, yellows and browns, rising again in our wake.   When that is your best memory of autumn, California autumn can seem dull.   But if you look, there’s beauty beyond the fact that it isn’t followed by freezing temperatures and foot-deep snow.   Connecticut autumn shouts, LOOK!!, California autumns whisper, Look carefully, my friend.  I’m here.

This photo was taken with a star effect lens in our local park when the sun was low enough to brighten the colors of the usually muted Sycamore leaves and to glisten in the dew drops clinging to the leaves and branches.  New England, it ain’t.  But it’s beautiful in its own right.