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"You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway."
~Steve Maraboli, Life, The Truth, And Being Free
Okay, I have been a little stressed lately. I could give the laundry list, but why? No good comes from ruminating, and besides, why burden you, and possibly stress you out, about what I stress about! So, what am I going to do about all the stress? Glad you asked! I am going to spend a lot of time at one of my favorite places on Earth. Point Montara Lighthouse, in Montara, California.
Lighthouses have been my passion for years! I have been to many of them up and down the California coast, and have been intrigued and inspired by all of them, but there is something about Point Montara Lighthouse that I love, and let me tell you, it's true love! I love it's size, and it's history. I love that there are benches overlooking the water where you can sit for as long as you want, and just let go of whatever stress or pain that is in your way. I love that I can go there when nothing is wrong, and leave even happier than when I got there!
It's always there for me. It doesn't judge. It just shines it's light on me.
See...
And look how beautiful the sun is, as it begins to set, on a January day.
Who wouldn't want to spend the day there? Perhaps one day I will stay at the hostel on the grounds for a couple days, or maybe forever. You never know. Shrug.
Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel
Mood: Quiet But Okay
~Me :)
"Strange New Cottage In Berkeley"
By Allen Ginsburg
"Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening."
~Allen Ginsberg
I look to a lot of different sources to influence and inspire my photography. Poetry, sculpture, music, literature, you name the art, I will bury myself in it to help me look at life differently, or at least with new perspectives. I get excited by other peoples art! I do! When I find someone who is truly talented, I want to know more! So, I study. Not to gain their perspective, but to challenge my own. I am lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, a place of immense culture and art. In Berkeley, there is always something to see. I know that sounds like a big statement, but it's true. You should walk around Berkeley and take a deep look around. There is a vibe the transcends decades. The architecture, the history, the art, the people, the students, it's all here, ready to be discovered. I am very lucky to fall in love with the town deeper with each new camera jaunt.
A Strange New Cottage In Berkeley
By Allen Ginsberg
All afternoon cutting bramble blackberries off a tottering brown fence
under a low branch with its rotten apricots miscellaneous under the
leaves,
fixing the drip in the intricate gut machinery of a new toilet;
found a good coffeepot in the vines by the porch, rolled a big tire out
of the scarlet bushes, hid my marijuana;
wet the flowers, playing the sunlit water each to each, returning for
godly extra drops for the stringbeans and daisies;
three times walked round the grass and sighed absently;
my reward, when the garden fed me it's plums from the form of a
small tree in the corner,
an angel thoughtful of my stomach, and my dry and lovelorn tongue.
And Now For Some Sculpture...
"Caliope" By Joe Slusky
"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does."
~Allen Ginsberg
Mood: Inspired
~Me :)
"I don't just look at the thing itself or at the reality itself; I look around the edges for those little askew moments... kind of like what makes up our lives... those slightly awkward, lovely moments."
~Keith Carter
So, my quest to understand lighting and B/W verses Color photography continues. I have been a bit under the weather the last few days, a common bout of insomnia, mostly due to the changes in the weather, the stress of getting the computer and TV changed from one carrier to another, plus Joey is getting bigger, which mean his wrestling with his older brothers takes on a whole new level of grrr. On top of it, well, you know, life in general I guess. My point is, because of all the stuff going on, I haven't been able to get out with the camera as much as I would like, if at all! The photo at the top is a new one, I took it a couple days ago, but the following ones come from the archives. I am wanting to do more nighttime photography because I haven't done much with it, and I could use the challenge. So, when I chose a favorite night shot from the files, I decided to convert that one, along with some color favorites, to black and white to study the different vibes.
Observe...
Nighttime On Columbus Avenue
Treasure Island Pier
Bay Bridge At Night
Stockton Street Tunnel
My work, my passion for photography continues. It never bores me, in fact it continually inspires me to do better. I love it so much!
Mood: Happy
~Me :)
"The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defines all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't."
~Christopher Paolini, Eragon
I took this photo several years ago, on the 17 Mile drive, near Monterey. I love it there and don't get to visit nearly enough, but with it being March, and the ice plant along the shoreline beginning to turn bright purple and pink, I think it might be time for a visit soon. There are some amazing sunsets to be seen as well! No phone... no Internet... just me and my cameras. The stuff relaxation is made of. Who knows, maybe it will help me sleep better.
Mood: Happy
~Me :)
"You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path."
~Steve Jobs
Stanford Commencement Address, 2005
US Computer Engineer & Industrialist (1955 - 2011)
Last month, while on my way back across the bay from the coast, I spotted this cool little dot, illuminated all by itself, on a highway alert sign on the eastbound side of the San Mateo Bridge. It made me smile. Was it a period? Was it the second dot in an ellipsis? What did this singular dot mean? Well, as of right now, I am leaning toward the ellipsis theory because I spotted a second one just a few days later on the same type of sign, on the southbound side of the Devil's Slide Tunnel, just south of Pacifica! Again, the singular dot made me smile! I don't know why, but there is just something really amusing about it to me. Anyway, I am keeping my eyes open for one more dot to complete my cosmic ellipsis. Who knows, maybe there is a message in there somewhere! I can't wait to find out!
Mood: Happy
~Me :)
"I want to go to sleep in my time machine and wake up eight hours in the future."
~Jarod Kintz, This Book Is Not For Sale
No one knows how to enjoy sleep quite like cats do, because insomnia does not exist in their world! I wonder... is it because they feel no guilt? Or remorse? Or negativity in general. They don't ruminate about stupid things they have no way of dealing with. They fantasize, but their dreams are of their realities. Catching butterflies. Chasing mice. Jumping high up on fences. Exploring the world. Cuddling up in a safe place and letting the sun warm them. Eating a good meal. Who knows? There are probably a million reasons my cats sleep better than I do. But all those things sound really wonderful, and I should do more of them I think.
:)
Mood: Inspired
~Me :)
