Challenge #1. To try to listen to the trees and their stories.
Challenge#2. Always remember that we were born with wings.
Challenge #3. Take a bike and go on a path and see where it leads you and if your heart tells you that it’s not your path leave it.
Challenge #4. To accept that all paths lead to somewhere and only one will be yours and only yours.
It’s not what you LOOK matters. It’s what you SEE. ~ Henry David Thoreau.
My biggest excuse in my life is that I don’t have time for everything. When I try to squeeze everything in a few hours I end up frustrated and if I choose only priorities I am ok.
I decided not to think anymore big, I will think small. The Tao once said that journey of a thousand miles must begin with one single step. I like it very much. It makes sense to me. You take this little step and then next little step and you soon might find youself achieving more and more.
I went yesterday to the park and told myself that I will not try to photograph everything I will find interesting and not interesting. I will photograph only what really inspires me. When I saw this little forest in the park I found it amazing. Actually, it’s not a forest, it’s a place with a few aspens and spring flowers. I saw it as a forest. I took only a few pictures and went home.
It takes only ten minutes by car to get for me to the country. And then my adventure begins. I love to take pictures of horses, cows and donkeys. This time I was lucky when I saw this rancher on a horse. I thought he looked so cool that I didn’t ask for his permission and took a picture of him. He didn’t object.
They were heading for a Saturday ride. Everybody was having fun, even their little very energetic friend.
I love old ranches. They carry many interesting stories. This is also my first attempt to do HDR photography. There was a good high contrast scene and I took three exposures and then merged them in Photomatix. I am not sure if HDR photography is my cup of tea or not.
This is also an HDR image. I spent two hours on this ranch and someday I will probably will return. It’s fascinating place.
I “collect” old and abandoned trucks. It’s not easy to find them but when I see them I always stop and take pictures. This truck I found interesting and beautiful.
Winter is back! Perhaps, it awoke and realized that its days are numbered.
Early Sunday morning I put on my waterproof boots and went to chase winter and its beauty.
This time I wanted to capture the beauty and strength of old trees. It really didn’t matter what kind of trees I might find. And I found a few which looked quiet interesting.
I drove North.
Sunday was windy but not very cold. The road was deserted and that was good because there wasn’t much space to pull my car off the road.
I saw a hawk on my way back; I thought that he wouldn’t let me photograph him and I passed him with a heavy feeling. That could have been a great picture. He was huge.
I don’t have luck photographing birds; they are all teasing me. They let me approach a little bit and then they are gone.
It may be happiness, togetherness or just contentment.
I drove to the desert and it was a gloomy day with clouds which formed a light gray blanket on the sky.
And I found this swamp with only one little duck there. I stopped and thought does it look interesting or not and I decided that it looked interesting. I love to photograph little swamps or ponds on the gloomy gray days because there is not much reflections of the blue sky in the water.
So far we have had only a few snowy days during this winter. These pictures I took when winter showed gracefully to us her real face. Everything was so beautifully white.
A lonely wonderer who was slowly crossing the snowy field.
A day was gloomy and clouds where getting heavier promising more snow. It was time to leave for home.
Let me begin with a simple but elegant step. Pa de pa…
And then… a final dance of a Dying Black Swan. Sorry, I meant a Dying Goose.
I think it’s time to rest for a while in one of ballet positions.
Audience. Grateful and appreciative. It’s not everyday you can watch dancing on ice.
I was saving my money for Sigma 10-20 mm lens. And it seemed that it would take forever. And then I got from my husband an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas and it helped a lot.
These are my first pictures taken with this lens.
This dog was so cute but he ignored me completely. First, he ran toward me and then not saying hello to me, he passed me with total indifference. I think I just happened to be on his way and it annoyed him.
Funny, somebody hanged this Christmas toy on a tree and left it there. I thought how thoughtful it was and took a few pictures of this ornament. And only this picture came out OK.
I always wanted to create ice abstracts but there were not many interesting looking icicles.
Yesterday I went with my dog Tasha for our morning walk and I saw these icicles hanging down from a roof. A few of them had interesting shapes. This one had the shape of a rhinoceros.
These icicles formed freakish shapes. I love how they tried to connect to each other.
Does it look like a little island lost in one of the galaxies? Eternally frozen island…
I thought this little baby bird was lost and was looking for his mama. I tried to approach him even closer and it didn’t bother him. That made me think that he can’t fly. I made a few steps closer and he suddenly took off and flew away. I think he was pushed out of the nest to learn to fly.
And I thought that many of us have been pushed out of the nest also and our world changed. We had no choice but to flap our wings and learn to fly the best we could.
It was snowing all night again and next morning I went to Antelope Island to take pictures. To my surprise there wasn’t any sign of snow. The weather was warm and nice.
I was so thrilled when I saw antelopes for the first time on Antelope Island.
I was leaving the island and suddenly noticed the antelopes. I stopped the car, changed my lens and began to move slowly toward them and then heard an angry voice behind my back, “Stay on the road! ” It was a state security guy.
That was a disappointment. Of course, I am not sure how close the antelopes would let me approach them.
That was such a joy to watch these beautiful and graceful animals. Yes, there are antelopes on the Antelope Island.
I tried to do something very simple like a mail box or just a window.
What do you see, when you look outside a window?
I read that looking from outside into an open window one never sees as much as when one looks through a closed window.
What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what goes on behind a window. There is life there, dreams and sometimes suffering.
Once I saw in the window an old woman’s face. Her face was wrinkled and her dress was very simple. And out of her face, her dress, and her gestures, out of practically nothing, I have made up this woman’s story in my imagination.
You probably would ask me am I sure that my story was a real one?
Does it really mater? What matters that we can feel, imagine and create.
I saw this fence against a very bright brick wall and I thought that all of these geometrical forms might be interesting.
This abandoned hotel probably new better days in its life.
Aspen Studio… Perhaps, many years ago a photographer opened this studio and it was his creative kingdom.
I saw this Coca Cola painting on a wall and it looked a little bit surreal and intriguing.
It would be nice to sit on this bench and listen to the silence but it seemed not very inviting.
Snow was falling from trees leaving beautiful traces of white in the air.
It seemed that everything was so serene and so calm this early morning.
And a little spruce showed to the whole forest how beautiful and festive it might be in the winter.
Last summer I was going to take pictures of snails in my garden and they for some unknown reason didn’t come to my place. Who knows why? Only this slug came to visit me. When I saw her in my garden I ran home to get a camera hoping that it wouldn’t disappear. Luckily, a slug was busy studying something in the leaf’s hole. Her green world was full of surprise.
This slug a little bit resembles me, Kaya, during this week trying to understand how my wordpress blog works. I spent hours and hours trying to understand it on my own until I was able to find a support feature inside my blog. That was a tremendous help and relief.
