Quiet Witness on a Snowy Day

The beauty I see around me leaves me speechless. Sometimes I just like to pay homage, bear quiet witness, and fill my cup with beauty.

Today we took a two-hour walk in the snowy woods, surrounded by peace, scenic snowy scenes, and a tangle of living things groping their way to the promise of new growth. I'll publish more of my photos from our trek, if I find that they have enough exposure. I was shooting with a small aperture for depth of field, but the ice and snow made it difficult to manage my tripod. And those hand-held shots are tricky, especially when you have to watch your footing!

I wish you a warm and cozy night. Before I close, I just want to thank my dear friend Anna at My Only Photo for posting my image from my last post, on her page. Anna is a terrific photographer, mommy, and friend. Thanks, Anna!

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.

Wishing You Peace

Lonely Path - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2009

Swan Song - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2009

Still Winter Among the Birches - Image c Lynda Lehmann

Solitude - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2009

Thicket Before Spring - Image c Lynda Lehmann 2009

Whatever your beliefs, your culture, or your position, I wish you the best at holiday season. To my readers and blogging friends: May there be peace in your nation, peace in your home, and peace in your heart.

I love all of you and although I know I may not post much for the next three weeks, I will be thinking of you, and wishing you success and joy in all your endeavors, as well.

All images and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view 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. The images above are or will be available at those and my other sites.

Preening Seagull Dance: A Nature Video

I didn't have time this week to write a long post, so I thought I'd upload this short video I shot on the beach this past winter. Or maybe it was early spring; I guess that depends on your viewpoint and how literally you take the calendar!

The snow was still melting on the beach, it was a mild day, and this seagull was up for a good cleansing bath. I thought his behavior was so animated and interesting, and I'm glad he let me get close enough to capture it. Nature is so full of wonders!

Please bear with me in that I'm posting and commenting less than usual, as we are still in the throes of house construction and remodeling. I didn't forget about you, and hold my blogging friends dear.

I hope to be more "present" soon. I hope you're having lovely late-summer days, filled with warmth, discovery, and wonders of your own making.

All video and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view 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.

Signs of Life After Winter: Sand, Stones, Gulls, Shells, and Foam: Visual Notes from the Beach

Companions

The Preening Puddle

Timeless

Interior

Colony

Codependency

Bubbles, Sand, and Stone

Beauty Underfoot

I wanted to share these images from yesterday's beach walk with you. I hope you enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed all the teeming and emerging life forms that I saw on the beach, before it began to rain on us!

I am postponing the next Bussana Vecchia post to share these with you. And I have more of these beach images to come, including a wonderful performance of a preening ritual by the seagull seen above. But first, I have to find a file format converter to change my movie from MOV to MPG format, in order to edit it. Can you possibly recommend a video format converter? I appreciate any input on this, as I do love the video and want to post it. It's much better quality than my last one.

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING, EVERYONE!

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.

Sky Blue Universe

View From the Jetty on a Pristine Day -c 2008 Lynda Lehmann

Sky Blue Universe

sunlight bends to grasp and hold
far regions bound to earth.
horizon ties heaven, land, and sea,
the universe-continuum
whose color is the sky.

waters, skies, pass days to nights.
boulders massive, algae slight
bind all to One
grand cycle, play, and song,
transforming dark to light.

- Text and image c Lynda Lehmann 2008


Image 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.

The Time of Her Life

This past Sunday my husband and I walked at a nearby beach. The day was pristine, abundant with sunshine and fresh air. Both the sky and water were the most gorgeous, sparkling hues of blue and the wind was calm. Everything felt right: a truly mellow and harmonious afternoon.

A child's joy is precious. This little girl romping through the water along the edge of Long Island Sound is feeling not only the coolness and refreshment of the water splashing her feet, but also the caress of the wind and the warmth of a giving sun. She is truly discovering life, opening her senses to the wonders of the world around her. Since I wasn't carrying a model release, I photographed her from the side and back.

As adults, we can open ourselves to our "inner child." Taking time out to visit a beautiful place with a spouse or friend is half the battle. Remember the saying "You gotta be there!"? Isn't it amazing how just "being there" can rid us of our preoccupations and open new doors of perception and experience?

Here are a few more photos. I wanted to share the beauty and drama of this setting with you. I shot 245 photos that afternoon, in less than two hours. Yes, I admit to being a camera nut! But who would trade away such joy? And with digital, I don't worry about wasting film or buying prints which I'll later have to toss.

What I like about the shot above is the sense of scale the viewer gets from the tiny figures in the background, while the mass of the boulders anchors the panorama and gives a sure sense of foreground.

Here are gulls seeming to fly in tandem. We enjoyed seeing a lot of waterfowl activity on this sand spit, and shooting in "sports mode" allowed me to capture many shots of them in flight, including a huge gull swooping around with a clam in his mouth. In spite of this wonderful feature built into my SONY Alpha D-SLR, my telephoto could do only so much to bring the scene closer. This image and the others I took of the gulls, are a little far away for my taste. I wish I had been able to get closer to the feeding frenzy and gossip session taking place on that narrow peninsula!

Here's a view looking from the wetlands out to the open water of the Sound. I was taken by the weathered look and textural features of what was apparently once a dock, and I'll upload some of my recent beach close-ups in my next post. In this saltwater marsh, the holes where crabs had dug into the sand were everywhere. In here, sheltered from the breeze over the open water, we heard bountiful birdsong and saw a great variety of scrubby trees and some varieties of pine I can't name, as well as flowering bushes. Seagulls called raucously over our heads as they made their way down the channel, following the last surge of receding tidal flow.

Here are pebbles in a tidal pool, smoothed by years of surging and receding water. Their brilliant colors are enhanced by their wetness. I'm always fascinated by rocks and pebbles for their surface qualities, mass, and the feeling of enduring presence they convey.

Here are two more images, shot at close range. Notice the gorgeous texture of these mineral encrusted boulders. The North Shore of Long Island is full of huge rocks, left by receding ice at the end of the Ice Age.

I hope you enjoyed these views from our walk on the beach. I'll post more of them next time!


All images on this site are 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 Imagekind gallery!

Back at the Dock

Dinghies lined up and berthed at harbor on a chilly autumn day, make an almost-abstract composition. Long Island, New York.

Image c 2007 Lynda Lehmann. This photo is available at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/ as an archival print of 8 x 10 inches, matted to 11 x 14 inches in an acid-free mat. Please feel free to ask about other sizes if you're interested.

Seeking Serenity

The serenity of twilight, a time when the light of day fades into that magic in-between period when dreams start to form and summon the darkness and somnolence of night...

I feel serene tonight and don't have much to say--doesn't happen often--but I wanted to post this shot anyway.

Hope it makes you feel peaceful, as it does me... Image c Lynda Lehmann. Unmatted print, 8 x 11 inches. I can crop it to an 8 x 10 print and mat it for you, but it will lose some of its panoramic quality. Available at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/