Working With Light

"There are darknesses in life and there are lights, 

and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights."

~Bram Stoker

Dracula

I was in a restaurant the other day and saw this pretty light. It was in the middle of the day, but the light photographed as if I had taken it in a completely dark room. I loved it. I need to experiment more with lighting I think. Anyway, the lighting situation reminds me of our current political climate. There is a light. But then everything around it seems to swallow it up and thrust it into darkness.

 A 24 hour news cycle doesn't always jive with the position of the sun... does it? It can be a hot, clear, August day, and yet when I hear about North Korea successfully launching a missile or Donald Trump's latest hateful musing, I suddenly feel a winter chill down my spine! What season will we be in, when we find ourselves on the last day of the world?

 I think about the surreal beauty of the morning of September 11th, 2001, with it's clear blue sky, and mild temperatures. It was a day that you muse to yourself that nothing bad could possibly happen. Then it did. Except it seems like we have forgotten about that day. We have gotten used to pain or maybe we have gotten good at ignoring how it felt to be an American that day. I don't know which. Truth is, it's probably different for everyone.

But...

Did the darkness swallow the light?

Did the light lie to us, when it swallowed the darkness?

Where it begins and where it ends is a mystery.

Maybe we are better off not knowing much about tomorrow. Maybe some days are like the light in the picture. There is a little light, in the middle of some darkness, but the light is shining anyway. It isn't giving up because there is darkness surrounding it. If I chose to not see the light, that's on me. I can't fault the light.

The light will shine, with, or without me.

Mood: Introspective

~Me :)

Alone On A Beach

"Outside of a dog, a book is man"s best friend.

Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

~Groucho Marx

The Essential Groucho:

 Writings For By And About Groucho Marx

As I get ready to begin some autumn blogging, I have been tip-toeing through my archives to see what inspired me in years past. All the usual suspects abound... leaves, sunsets, butterflies. The colors of autumn in the natural world and in decorations. What I don't have a lot of are the creatures you happen upon. The ones you can't really plan for. I have so many memories of the odd dog or cat doing something super interesting, but that I had failed to photograph, because it was more fun to just stop and watch them, then it was to get the dream shot. It's always a difficult choice for the avid shutterbug. Do I grab my camera and document this extremely interesting moment to share with my followers and friends, or do I put the camera down and just have the quiet moment all to myself?

As you can see by the technical errors in the photo above I had a moment of indecision. It's not perfect, but fortunately it is interesting, if not a little whimsical. Here I was, standing on a cliff in Montara, watching this beautiful pup running around in the sand, barking and enjoying his life. I stopped to watch him, then he stopped to watch me! I wonder what his picture of me would have looked like, had he had a camera and been able to use it! Would there be an interesting light behind me? Would he have zoomed in closer? Zoomed out? Would he have struggled with the rule of thirds? We will never know, but he and I made eye contact, and starred at each other for about 2 solid minutes. I wish I knew what he was thinking. The next time I have an opportunity like this one, I think I will also take a photo directly behind me so I can see the full picture, from all perspectives.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

August 23rd, 2003

"Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself."

~Pat Conroy

My Reading Life

I have been blogging since August 23rd, 2003! How in the world is it possible all this time as passed so quickly? So much has happened since that day... all those years ago... that I decided to start Ellipsis. At first I didn't have much to say. I just wanted to post my photos, and let them say that words for me. Folks could make of it what the would. Then one day someone asked me my opinion... I think it was about the upcoming election... and to my surprise, I had something to say! And I have been, which occasional intervals, talking ever since. The last couple years have been busy, and it's taken some turns I never expected, let alone saw coming! But we rode them out, and here we are, living in our own home, and that is probably been the biggest surprise of all! 

In that life is never boring I have some news. I am not really wanting to talk about it in this post, but maybe tomorrow, or later this week. Soon. If you are following me on Twitter you may already know a little about it. It's health related. I don't mean to be cryptic, I just don't know how much I want to share in this particular post. I will expand on it soon. So, you will just have to come back to find out whats up! LOL. How's that for a cliffhanger?

And speaking of upcoming posts, have you seen the autumn light yet? You know how the soft yellow glow tends to show up a couple weeks before it officially becomes autumn, yesterday morning was the first time I saw it. It was gorgeous! The soft autumn glow was coming through the window and shining on Joey, bringing out all his colors. He has orange, gray, brown, and white mixed into his tabby stripes. He is a beautiful cat, and one of the best things in my life. 

So, there are plenty of upcoming posts about Joey, and Hendrix and Dylan, and the autumn sun, and my Leaf Of The Day project will be starting up beginning the first day of autumn, and if all that isn't enough to keep me blogging, American Horror Story begins a full month earlier than usual, and our vacation happens in October, as does Halloween, and the elections are in full crazy mode and...

and...

and...

Sheesh. I am already tired!

LOL.

Just stay tuned. There are a lot more blog posts coming.

 We have a lot to discuss!

The first pre-autumn leaf.

Cull Canyon, August 14th, 2016

Mood: Content

~Me :)