nature photography – Elizabeth Oakley Weaver

Change

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The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

For Stella

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What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

My friend adopted an 11-year-old, 17 pound miniature pinscher, Stella, as well as Stella’s senior bestie and brought them home to her regal 85 pound rottweiler mix, Luke.

Stella was deaf and a few weeks earlier had lost an eye in a fight to a much larger dog. Her stitches were still in place when Stella met Luke, who surprisingly accepted the new dogs in his home. However, when Stella came near Luke’s food, he let out a roar that other dogs had always run or cowered from.

Not Stella. She reared up on exceptionally slender legs, stared at Luke with her only eye and growled right back, loud as she could, ready for action. Never-challenged-before, Luke looked shocked as he stared at this fine-boned snack-of-a-senior, and let it go. Though Stella may have been small in stature, her spirit was indomitable.

Love as…

And if you are to love,

Love as the Moon loves;

it does not steal the night –

It only unveils

The Beauty of the dark.

isra al-thibeh

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pure

Gorgeous shot from Scott Randall’s experience.

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One of the most extraordinary experiences of my life was spending time with the mountain Gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. The entire process of starting early in the morning, hiking to their habitat in the mountains, fighting our way through the dense vegetation, and then being with these serene animals was amazing. I can’t adequately describe the feeling of catching our first glimpse of the gorillas and then sitting feet away from them as they went about their daily routine. There was something just incredibly peaceful about them and a feeling that we were sharing the morning with a friend or relative – at their place. It was at once both quiet and exhilarating – a moment of a lifetime. Pure.

Gentle Giant (1 of 1)

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Photography Master Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film 2002

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This shot captures the depth and reflection nature offers whether through redwood or mountain, water or desert, silence or birdsong. We might have lost the National Parks in California’s Sierras without Ansel Adams. This American Experience presentation about Adams provides an hour well spent in nature and creative expression. Thank you to PIPA Fine Art for posting it.

Photography Master: Ansel Adams “Photography is really perception, the analytic interpretation of things as they are. The medium true power comes not by evading reality but embracing it.̶…

Source: Photography Master Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film 2002

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If Bird

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You would be my loon

calling long past light,

my mourning dove, my

sweetest finch flashing

sun from black as night.

If my bird you were I’d

feed you nectar from my

palm and plant thick trees

for you to rest and nest until

I could transform my arms

and hands to feathered limbs—

our hearts remade as song.

Thank you to the editors of The Tishman Review for first publishing this poem.

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Look!

Who looks outside, dreams;

who looks inside, awakes.

~Carl Jung~

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Bee is Mantis

Oooh, pretty!

Praying mantis! And so well camouflaged in salvia!

Those were my first thoughts.

The WP photo prompt this week is fleeting…like beauty…life…thoughts…experience…

and though I chose not to publish these photos previously because they disturb me and I didn’t want to disturb you,

they perfectly illustrate fleeting as they catch the ephemeral beauty of nature

and how living requires eating so these photos also illustrate how fleeting life is.

The honey bee is caught,

savored,

beheaded

and further savored…

and I had to walk away from breathtaking wonder that shifted in a moment to revulsion though I recognize that the bee is the mantis and we are each both bee and mantis, and our moments as fleeting.