Mini World - 12. Joining the Dance

Google Plus failed.  At the beginning I thought it aimed to be another Instagram but I was wrong; Google Plus wanted to be another Facebook, only more efficient. Did we want another Facebook? Why should we abandon our love/hate relationship with it?  

What I liked about Google Plus.  

Variety.  My world became bigger.  I liked the possibility to create my own gallery of photographers whose work I liked.  I didn't know that soon I would lose my gallery.

Recently I learned in a surprising way that we are still connected to Google Plus.  I switched to Blogger account and tried to change my image. I thought it would be simple but I was wrong.  It took a while to figure out that I had to return back to Google Plus account and then start the whole process again.

I like the quote of Alan Wilson Watts:

The only sense to make out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. 

That is exactly what I am going to do, letting some things go, little by little, while joining the dance.

Mini World - 11. The Sound of No Sound

This  photograph was taken in August of 2018.  Looking right now at this photo I think I photographed silence.

That late summer day I was at Bear river and there were no birds around. I was frustrated and not happy about it. I thought, how unfair that I drove for almost two hours to the desert and the birds even didn't care to show up. 

Then I sat on the dry grass. Miserable and angry. It was so quiet and peaceful. I looked around and there was a dragon fly, I and comforting silence. 

We used to think about silence as the absence of sound, yet it's also a very powerful sound. The sound of light breeze, the sound of hot air, the sound of life.  The sound of my thoughts that I am here, I live, I exist and all wonders of life are already here, I only have to notice them.  How simple it is and how difficult in our crazy busy life.

Mini World - 10. Resilience

How many times I photographed these trees?  How many times I walked on the snowy field toward them sinking in a deep snow. How many times I fell down into the snow because underneath was a hidden ice. Many, many times. 
  
There is something that draws me to these trees every winter.  Probably, their strength, their resilience, their thirst for life.

Mini World - 9. To Autumn

Sometimes I go to the park to feel autumn, 
to enjoy its late warmth, to see something ordinary 
and think of it as sensual and beautiful.

Mini World - 8. One of Those Days

After a few long weeks I finally was able to get to Bear river.
I hoped that I might find a few Great Blue herons there or perhaps ducks
but Bear river greeted me with silence.  All my friends - the shore birds - left.

At some point I left my car and walked for a long time along the river
looking for ducks and other birds not believing that they were gone.
   I thought how it happened that I fell in love with shore birds.
Why I have never looked for different birds? Birds in the fields?
Birds in the forests?
I wasn't interested in them, that is for sure.

Well, the shore birds left Bear river.
Soon Tundra swans would come but they will stay far away from the shore,
no way with my equipment would I get decent pictures of them.

Once Wendell Berry said,
when we no longer know what to do and which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
I want to believe him.

Mini World - 7. Green

Very gentle green. The color of calmness. Of freshness.
Of renewal and promise. Of rebirth and healing.
I found this gentle green after a few days of heavy rains.

Mini World - 6.

there are bits of you 
that you'll never get back, 
and that is what 
will make you whole.

Mini World - 5. Isolation

Where do you go when the world is too loud?
and the thick of the air is too heavy to move through?
how do you find peace
and where does it feel good?

Mini World - 4.

In the mountains I feel that autumn is almost here.
 Our mornings and evenings are getting cooler.
And quieter.  Some birds are not singing anymore.

Mini World - 3. Do What You Can

The first breath of autumn in the mountains.

***
Yesterday I read a saying from a boy named Nkosi Johnson, 
who lived in South Africa. Like many children there,
Nkosi was born with HIV, and he died when he was twelve.

He had a mantra, as he called it. This mantra touched my heart deeply:
"Do all you can, with what you have, 
in time you have, 
in the place where you are."

That's all anyone can ever do.

Mini World - II.

thoughts to ponder:

Artists, in general, never really retire. 
We can’t. We aren’t made that way. 
We might cut back. We might hustle a little less, but we don’t stop. 
That would probably kill most of us.
Ray Laskowitz

Mini World -I.

  From time to time I look at my old photographs taken during last seven years.
It's like going back in time and "reading" your own stories 
written with a camera.

THEN.  Autumn.  Deserted Antelope island. A group of Japanese students.   I am with my first camera Nikon D3000. 
I like it and trust it completely.   Japanese students ask me to take their pictures.
I am nervous but try to stay calm.  
This is my first "serious" experience taking pictures of people 
which would lead to more unforgettable experiences.
This is a time of big expectations and a hope 
that some day I would be where I want to be.

NOW.  I am on social media which made me very vulnerable in a sense that I 
have to think twice what to say, to write and to post.
I want to write. I have things to say, stories to tell that are mine but each time I
 try to do that I feel that I am on the edge of a cliff and with one little step
 forward I will find myself falling down scared and empty.
Scared that there will be only silence, long and dense...