Birch Over Water

Birch Over Water - c Lynda Lehmann

Serenity is where we look for it.

A white birch with fresh spring leaves, reflected in a Maine river, offers a moment's tranquility.

Image and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

In Every Inch, a World...

Texture Play - Image c Lynda Lehmann

The wild woody plexus knows
its own emergence
and certain of the sun,
wills itself to life.

Wrinkled welter of the arbor
yields to efflorescent splendor,
and springs forth in joyful verdure
to grasp the azure sky.

****

In the tangle of the thicket,
intimations of Everything...
and in every inch, a World.

- Poems c Lynda Lehmann




Bark Abstracts c Lynda Lehmann

(Note to my dear blogging friends: Any and all constructive criticisms of these two little poems are invited and will be gratefully accepted. What would you change? Which words would you leave out? Would you change the line breaks?)

HAPPY SPRING, EVERYBODY!

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Rush of Water, Hiss of Foam - Cut and Edited

Sorry to repeat myself, but I think I've made a great improvement here, over my last post. This is a cut and edited version of my latest amateur beach movie. I've put back the original soundtrack with wind and water sounds. I hope you enjoy it. When the music pauses, listen to the waves!

I loved making it, and hope to learn more about the video editing software. It's on my long list of goals....

Thanks for your visit and for sharing this with me!

Video c Lynda Lehmann but available on YouTube for embedding.

Rush of Water, Hiss of Foam: Scenes from a Dazzling, Sunlit Beach Walk

I did not turn on the wind filter on my camera, as I wanted to share with you the howling of the wind and the crashing of the water. But those sounds ended up drowning out most of my commentary/narration, so I replaced the soundtrack with Beethoven's "Pastorale." I hope you like it, and enjoy the sights of this beautiful, pristine day on the beach.

I may re-do the video at a future time, with what's intact of the original soundtrack and a little tighter editing of the visuals. Now, if I can only learn to hold my camera steady and handle that movie-editing software! I can't wait to catch the next seagull performance over the waves....

Thanks for stopping by. I wish you harmony and creative bliss.

NOTE: Just click out of the ad if it's in your way. It's a condition of using a YouTube provided recording.

Sibilant Songs of the Shoreline: Surf, Shells, Seagulls, Sand, and Sky

Early Bird - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

Winging It - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

Feeding Time - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Alone Among Strangers - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Anticipation - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Blue Sky, Blue Water - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Nested in the Sand - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Gull Walk - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Beach Baubles - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

Inevitable Beauty - Image c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

What's sibilant at the seashore? The hissing of the foaming surf, the shrill screeching of gulls, the satisfying intervals of silence and solitude.

Okay, you've got me. The words I've used to DESCRIBE those natural phenomena are instances of sibilance, whereas the phenomena themselves, are not.

Nevertheless, every time I go to the beach with my camera, nature reveals her little secrets to me, sights and sounds and smells (there I go again) that fill me with joy. It seems that by looking through my camera lens, I've made a pact with beauty. Each time I see more than the time before. No exotic foreign scenes, just everyday sights of the shoreline. Each time, I feel so rich and enriched: my cup of beauty is full again!

I see the entire animal kingdom in the clannish squawking chatter of the gulls, moving mostly in unison against the waves, in vigilant outlook for their next meal. I see the cosmos in a brightly colored scattering of shells, the treasures of ages in a golden, iridescent conch half buried in the sand.

It's an addiction. Framing an image in your viewfinder or LCD screen can do two things. It can actually insulate you from the walking/hiking experience because you loose yourself in the intention of getting satisfying photographs to document the experience you're only HALF having, lol....

Or, by the concentration of your focus on aspects and segments of the surrounding environment, you actually sense and see MORE of it! Most of the time it's a wash (no pun intended) and what I lose in the directness of the experience, I'm compensating for by the poignant visual moments--those shining little moments of thrilling epiphany--in which I entirely lose myself. Nature spins its magic around me and I'm in FLOW for as long as I go with it.

At one point I had hundreds of gulls taking wing around me--and for a moment I was immersed in a universe of fluttering wings whose "whooshing" sound filled the beach and drowned out the crashing of waves and the hiss of sea-foam. (As you can imagine, I was immensely grateful that none of them dropped on me...)

I watched in awe (through my lens) as one sedate gull was knocked over backwards by a wave. He had to use his wings to straighten himself and scramble back into his sitting position. If a gull can look surprised and flustered, I think he did! But maybe I'm anthropomorphizing too much....

I've been carrying my tripod lately. It becomes quite heavy to lug over long distances on sand or muddy trails. But it's worth the benefit of better photo quality--and I'm finally training myself to carrying it religiously. I've been shooting at narrow apertures, as small as F 11 and even F 16 on sunny days, to facilitate depth of field. Although JPG noise continues to be a problem, even when I use a noise filter in the processing.

Here are a few of the many images I shot the other day. My favorite shots are "Anticipation," "Nested in the Sand" and "Blue Sky, Blue Water." My greatest joy is finding beauty and tranquility in everyday scenes, including local beaches and parks. Most of us are fortunate enough to have a park, or a stretch of forest, or a garden, somewhere nearby. Do you have a favorite sanctuary where you habitually go to find natural beauty and peace?

NOTE: I would like to thank all those of you who voted for my photo in the Newsday photo contest. I believe the winner had literally thousands of votes, and was a shot of a child hugging a marine mammal. I haven't been able to find it again to verify this, but it was an adorable and heartwarming photo, well deserving of the votes.

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Slats and Dips

Slats and Dips - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2010

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Glimmers of Solitude

Near the Point - Image c Lynda Lehmann

Beach Bouquet - Image c Lynda Lehmann

Glimmer of Solitude - Image c Lynda Lehmann

A moment of quiet contemplation, surrounded by nature, will calm the beast in us. Most of the time, anyway...

Giving one's self permission to steal away for quiet moments is a good way to decompress, throw off the shackles of everyday busy-ness and the pursuit of creature comforts, to let some air into the soul. Where do YOU go, or what do you do, to take take pause and contemplate? Do you seek out a favorite natural setting, or do you just sit down near a sunny window with your favorite cup of tea or coffee? What works for you?

If we never live today, tomorrow never comes. This is one of the few things I feel certain of! May you have a wonderful day, lived in balance and harmony and mindfulness of the moment. Each moment of each day is a moment that will never come again.

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.