May 6, 2616

May 6, 2616

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

   Spring is here and it is welcome as long as it brings all the beauty that this wonderful season carries. It always does. One of the great joys in life is the yearly arrival of Spring and the hope for revival along with a refreshment of our basic belief that all is well with us, is spite of all the negativity that permeates so much of the endless news cycles. Spending time outdoors simply looking at what is being offered is wonderfully gratifying to all the senses, both inner and outer. 

    In the other season of of our days (note the small "s") harmful emotions are the states of being we are told we have to be in by the media - anger, frustration, disgust, fearful - and so on - the joys of being alive become clouded in the mists of "nothing is good." In light of so much unhappiness in the world the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman have developed a new website that maps human emotions and offers a naming of the feelings we have and why we attach to them. It is a well done site and I highly recommend taking more than a cursory look. Here is the address: 

                        http://atlasofemotions.com/

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   The first two images are the first signs of new life I saw while in Acadia last week. They are small, perhaps 1-2 inches in size, and I had to look closely to see what Mother Nature was offering. Odd that Spring starts with the colors of Fall, red, yellow and orange.  It is Nature's way and I will not give Her any suggestions as to how She works. 

   The seas were up over 12 feet at Schoodic Point and the images that follow were taken on that day recently. 

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   Schoodic Point -

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   Acadia Park -

The road may be clouded with fog occasionally,

but it is the road we were guided to travel on.

God's Way, and our choice.

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Eagle Lake, Acadia Park -

   Somewhere near the top of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia. 

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Some Humor:

(Spring is just on the other side of the off switch.)

Peace,

      Bill Lagerstrom

April 18, 2616

April 18, 2616

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

   Most of the images on this post are of an abstract nature. They are almost all taken at the Colby College Museum of Art. Some of the works  from the Museum are are only used as an undercoat if you will for the images seen below. 

   My process at this time is developing an impression that comes from the creative forces within, allowing an expression of what my internal senses may perceive without becoming too contrived - I hope. Photography is still the basis for my creativity, the tools I utilize. I only allow things to flow according to their energies, which is giving me a sense of connection to my inner sensibilities. Technique takes a large part of this process, but it is becoming more second nature and intuitive, as many ways of doing things in software are done without fuss - auto pilot may be a metaphor for the tools I use.

   Only the first and last images are photographic in a recognizable sense. They are something of an entrance and an exit from the abstraction of the middle works

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“...we live on the edge of the abstract all the time. Look at something solid in the known world: an automobile. Separate the fender, the hood, the roof, lie them on the garage floor, walk around them. Let go of the urge to reassemble the care or to pronounce fender, hood, roof. Look at them as curve, line, form. Relax the mind. Don't immediately try to make meaning or be practical. Truthfully, how practical is life anyway? All our work, and death is the final result? So let's enjoy the unfolding shape, the elemental, organic delight and agony of it all.”

       Natalie Goldberg, Living Color: Painting, Writing, and the Bones of Seeing

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Our inner self appears first as a dream,

Distant shores are visible and yearning arises -

A desire to transverse the seas of constructed barriers appears;

Then, the building of a boat, a raft, and the journey begins.

The span between our thinking and our inner self is traveled, 

As understanding of what may have been missing in life is revealed.

We come home to our self.

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There is a bridge to the heart

We find the way, or not

Because the Way is unknown

Many, afraid, will not cross.

The Olive Green Sea

One of the many colors of God revealed

Before the European invasion

a lone Native American waited on the shore,

peering into the Atlantic ocean, 

knowing life would never be the same again.

When we stand on the same shore,

what do we see and remember?

Every sunrise

Every sunset

Offers hope.

"The face beneath the ads"

Modern society is mechanistic

and we must take care to not get ground up

in the gears of all that is thrown at us -

"Buy" and "Consume" are two mantras that never stop.

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Eider ducks in a sheltered bay at Schoodic Point, Maine.

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Some Humor:

Another view of history, circa 1492.

Catlumbo arrives with the New world Order.

Peace until next post,

    Bill Lagerstrom

April 14, 2616

April 14, 2616

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

    This will be a short winded post as time does not win me over right now. All the images except the last one were taken at the University Of Maine, Orono green houses where many exotic plants are in residence. 

   They were taken on a visit last week.

   The next ten photos are macro shots of some of the plant life all of which are no more than one inch in size. Beauty can be found everywhere, in large scenic vistas and in the small places where we usually don't look closely.This is God's Creativity made visible in new and wondrous ways. 

  "Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself."

                                                                             Henry Miller

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   One image of an artistic nature taken at the same time as the previous photographs. Taking license with the creating of images is every ones right. We see beauty and if we can capture something of what God has made visible, we are more in tune with the wonderful world we live in. Our Mother, the Earth, is Creations vehicle for humanity to see and embrace what is always being offered freely. 

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Some Humor:

Peace until next post,

              Bill Lagerstrom