Category Archives: Photography

The pedestrian’s antipode

The pedestrian’s antipode

PEDESTRIAN is that which pertains to someone merely walking about, often boring or unremarkable. A second-rate artist might call his company “Pedestrian Graphics.”

ANTIPODE refers to the direct opposite of something else.

[pardon a thought not fully-formed]: Life is best when this pedestrian is framing the work of true artists. As a bench provides relief to the weary walker, so discovering and framing art produced by one friend or Another refreshes my beauty-seeking soul. [getting there]

Redeemer’s Eggstravaganza 2019

Click the image below to view the animation of a photosphere shot with a Ricoh Theta. Note: the video is hosted on another platform, so clicking the image will open that other location in a new tab or window.

A beautiful day for our church Eggstravaganza. Thank you, Raikes family, for your hospitality!

A beautiful day for our church Eggstravaganza. Thank you, Raikes family, for your hospitality! And thank you God for a beautiful day and the hope of a beautiful forever.

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i thank You God for most this amazing day*

What a beautiful day for walking around White Rock Lake! The temperature was perfect, and all the wildflowers were coming off a couple of cool, moist days. They were ecstatic. With my smartphone, I listened to all of 1 Peter through Jude, backing up several times to listen more carefully to some intriguing passages.

By the end of the hike, I had in mind e.e. cummings’ poem:

*i thank You God for most this amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings
1894-1962

For an extra treat, check out this webpage, where cummings’ poetry is discussed, this poem is set to music, and cummings himself reads the poem!

Silliness of Mythical Proportions

There’s something irresistible about being INSIDE a tree. I knew that early. Reading My Side of the Mountain, I met my kindred spirit, Sam Gribley. At age twelve, Sam ran away from home and survived winter in the Catskill Mountains by living inside a giant hollowed-out hemlock.

My early reading also included Greek myths featuring un-kindred spirits. For instance, there were the Dryads, a form of nymph who lived inside trees. Even Christianly literature, like The Chronicles of Narnia, would harken back to the animation of trees. Mr. Tumnus warns Lucy about the Dryads: “The woods are full of her spies, even some of the trees are on her side.” And then, you have to admit… trees are pretty special in the Bible, from beginning to end.

For those reasons — and because I’m part Scottish (my excuse for strange excess) — when I see a giant hollowed-out tree, it still tugs at the little boy brain in my old man body. That happened yesterday. The question was inevitable: “Can I get inside?” One disturbing picture — that I’ll spare you — says, “Yes, I can get inside.” After removing my daypack, I was swallowed whole by an ancient tree at White Rock Lake.

Reviewing tree-related mythology, I encountered a Slavic myth: Leshy.
Judge for yourself if Leshy is also a kindred spirit.

Just when I think he’s done for the year, Buxbaum’s Speedwell rushes up and disabuses me.

Just when I think he’s done for the year, Buxbaum’s Speedwell rushes up and disabuses me.

I often think about what the little field critters see as they walk about in this big world. Flowers that are tiny and inconspicuous to us are their daily delight (at least I fancy God has given them some ability to appreciate beauty). CLICK HERE for a poem I wrote when I first noticed this little flower.

A whole congregation of delightful gifts

These are Buxbaum’s Speedwell plants collected from the field and assembled in one pot. The photograph itself is nothing to be proud of. In fact, as I wrote on Facebook, people who don’t read my poetry (and even those who DO) may think I’ve lost my mind. A pot of wildflowers. What’s up with that? “Humor him, he’s nutty.” See my poem “Celebrate What Is!“A whole congregation of delightful gifts (Buxbaum’s Speedwell plants collected from the field and assembled in one pot).