Lucid Dreaming – A Portrait

Lucid Dreaming

“Lucid dreaming has considerable potential for promoting personal growth and self-development, enhancing self-confidence, improving mental and physical health, facilitating creative problem solving and helping you to progress on the path to self-mastery.” – Stephen LaBerge

2014 Pointe Shoe Series – V

2014 Point Shoe Series V

ss 1/60  f4.5  ISO 1250

Manual focus, manual settings, diffused light, black and white conversion in Topaz Labs

“When life takes me on a new journey, I simply remember the smile my first ballet recital put on my face and I move forward.” – Andrea Thompson

2013 Tulip Series – 11

The images I am posting tonight are both of reflections of tulips.  Be sure to notice the variation in the depth of field used for each image.  In addition, I hope you see the pairing of each image to the quote selected.

 “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” – Thomas Merton

Reflection of Others

 

“Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed.” – Desiderius Erasmus

 

Wholesome Fragrance

Swallowtail Caterpillar

The Uphill Climb

Hide and Seek

The Contrast in Motion

The End of the Line

This evening when I went out to get parsley from the herb garden I found these interesting, beautiful creatures.  I was not sure if they were caterpillars or some type of pest similar to a tomato worm just visiting to take what remains of the summer herbs.  I  ran inside to research my find and found that the Swallowtail Caterpillar apparently loves to eat Parsley.  The Swallowtail Butterfly drops her eggs on the Parsley plant in July and by mid- September the caterpillars have grown and live off of the plant until time for their transformation.  Nature is so amazing.  Little miracles exist all around us and are just waiting to be discovered.  Keep your eyes open, they are often in disguise.

Just a side note about the photographs.  This afternoon was rainy, and cloudy, and very, very windy.  With that said I wanted to keep the shutter speed as high as possible, wanted to avoid additional noise so kept the ISO at 400, and therefore had to have the aperture pretty open at 5.  As a result, the shallow depth of field and some motion blur give way to images that are not quite crisp, but I don’t think this fact takes away from the overall capture.

Gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. – Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Hydrangea

Hydrangea with more shallow depth of field.

The Pigeon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

During a recent visit to New York City my mother, sister and I took a quick peak inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  When exiting the church, this pigeon was sitting on the steps outside.  It reminded me Mary Poppins.  Do you remember the scene when she takes the children to the city and they meet the poor woman on the steps feeding the birds?

I intentionally shot this so that there was no room to the right of the frame.  I was able to get so close to the pigeon that it seemed as though he was just standing guard and no intention of leaving.  I shot the pigeon at several apertures, but F2.8 was my favorite as it made the stairs just fade away.

His post.