When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men,—those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.
– Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist
copyright: ellen kooi photography
Great photographs reveal humanity’s truths through the use of subject, depth, texture, and emotion. Here’s a quote from Cedric Canard:
“A good photograph reveals a story. A story that may be long, that may be short, that may be different to the story intended by the photographer. Does it matter? It might tell me something about the photographer, it might tell me something about the subject matter, at the very least it will tell me something about myself.”
Read Cedric’s full post at the following addy: http://aplop.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/illumination/
Little Girl With Flowers
Color That Pops
Have you ever seen those photos that are basically black and white, with a bit of bright color
added that makes the whole visual image pop??? Well, that technique is known as selective
colorization, or cut-out, and you can get info for how to accomplish that in an image by
going to any search engine and typing in Selective Colorization.
Here is a link to one blogger who explains the process step-by-step : #mce_temp_url#
© photo: www.e-Cobo.com, Nikolay Dimitrov
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson,
1803-1882, American Poet
Since much of the country is presently in “snow” mode, I thought I’d
drag out one of my old original poems for your enjoyment:
A debate not of the words
themselves,
but our interpretation of
the words. Think
of the many kinds of
white, of the fifteen or so
names for snow.
Pure white Alaska.
A wind comes down from
the north with it’s all-white
shiver. A river of snow.
An embankment of salmon,
Flesh-pink, climbing
the falls. The intricate labor
of some undoing.
The true name. The purposed
focus that eludes us
all in the black of night.
White light seen
from a window. The jumble
of white beyond death,
beyond doing. Here is a candle.
Here, in this fresh
snow, is a white-waxed blue
flame carving your name.
© Diane Beaty
Taken from Paulo Coelho’s “The Zahir”
That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release
them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is
playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes
we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect
recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be
discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle.
Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because
whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door,
change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust.
Stop being who you were and become who you are.
For those who are grieving or freezing…
dig-n-dash
