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Ramblings & Musings

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Diffusion of Self

March 24, 2016 in Blog

Diffusion of Self

The intrusion of reality,
Permeates my self,
As the winds that become my breath,
Carry conversations that cascade,
With the air filling my lungs.
The oxygen that sustains,
Also betrays,
Pulling my conscious self out,
As each unfocused breath,
Diffuses me into the world.

This short poem came to me on a recent trip as I sat meditating on the balcony of a cruise ship. The amazing sounds of the ocean wind and waves competed against drifting voices from others to equally push me into and pull me back out of a state of focus.

Click for full screen image.
Taken at 30 second at f/11, ISO 100 with a EF24mm f/1.4L II USM @ 24 mm on a Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark III
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Chasing Today

February 10, 2016 in Blog
Taken at 1/2 second at f/2.2, ISO 32 with a iPhone 5s back camera 4.12mm f/2.2 @ 4.12 mm.

Taken at 1/2 second at f/2.2, ISO 32 with a iPhone 5s back camera 4.12mm f/2.2 @ 4.12 mm.

Through mottled plastic and scratched glass
My vision falls on steel, stretching to the horizon,
Where sunlit clouds blur as we launch,
Reaching into the western sky,
Extending the light, running after the sun,
Chasing today.

A day like the others.
Lists to do, boxes to check,
And nothing particularly special
To dream about yesterday.
Yet these are the days as much as any other,
That make up life. While I am
Chasing today.

There are forever more boxes to check
And longer lists to be found with barely a glance.
Afternoon approaches and
Stress builds with infinite boxes undone.
Panicky plans form,
To work faster,
Run faster,
Stress faster,
And flap plaintively
Even following the setting sun,
Futilely,
Chasing today.

Without looking up this moment would have passed unseen.
The rules that dictate how to experience,
Would have kept me forever looking to tomorrow.
There would have been no stress about this missed sight,
Yet I would have been poorer for it,
Focused on the next,
Instead of experiencing the present, and
Chasing today.

Moonshadows in the Desert

October 23, 2015 in Blog, Photography

Click for full screen image.
Taken at 15 second at f/2, ISO 400 with a EF24mm f/1.4L II USM @ 24 mm

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A view of the Mecca Hills from atop a boulder as the moon rises behind me. That light is indeed the light of the full moon, and those are moonshadows covering the valley where we camped.

Revisiting Taos with Lightroom CC

April 22, 2015 in Blog
Click for full size

Click for full size

Looking for an excuse to try out the new DNG HDR and Panorama features in Adobe Lightroom CC and what better test than to create an HDR Panorama? 36 shots into 12 HDRs which then went into a single panorama. It worked great and was really seamless. And far faster than many round trips back and forth to Photoshop or Photomatix. Best part is that the final file is a 16 bit DNG which means all of the native, lossless lightroom editing tools are still available! The transition to 8 bit JPG output did require a bit of additional tweaking and some fine gradations don’t come through as cleanly, such as the water trails. But overall, I give the tool two thumbs up!

Here’s some more info about Lightroom CC from Chase Jarvis & Creative Live if you want to learn a bit!

This is taken from a rock out in the center of the confluence of the Red River and Rio Grande outside Taos, NM. It’s been on my “Hey I should get back to that” list forever. Glad I had an excuse to go play!

The Arch

April 18, 2015 in Blog, Photography

St. Louis Arch

The St. Louis Arch framing the city and a crescent moon. I’m not sure if the spotlights were to light up the arch or to highlight the beautiful moon in the evening sky, but both work for me.

While the weather has been rainy and clouds much of the week, the sunset last night was beautiful with an amazing sky and a breeze coming off the Mississippi River. An amazing way to end a long day of learning.