no title today
Imagine
Thanksgiving
It’s the Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada. Just like our friends in the US, we celebrate our good fortune with turkey and family gatherings. It’s a good time.
There will be many family photos this weekend to be sure, and in places where the weather is less bitter, a final chance to get outdoors to enjoy nature without the blanket of snow that is surely hulking towards us.
But I really don’t believe that one day of gratitude is enough. It should be continual state. Buddhist teachers tell us that when we are grateful we are “in the moment.” Not pondering the past or musing about the future – but fully engaged in the NOW – which spiritually anyway, is where all the good stuff happens. Photographically speaking, since we capture moments, it seems fitting that our heads and hearts be there too.
Here’s my Thanksgiving challenge to you. That gratitude you feel when you sit down for your big dinner with your friend and family – feel it every day. Stay in the moment.
You’ll feel amazingly exhillarated, and you may just find your photography improves too!
Faulty towers
It was just a short trip…
What happened in reality was the damage I did to myself and my gear was the result of one wonky plank on the pier. And as I tripped on it, fully loaded with cameras and lenses and tripods, I tumbled and fell like a bag of bones, camera parts strewn in all directions, my tripod with its 2 lb ballhead had crashed landed exactly in the middle on my dear 12-24mm DX lens, which I soon found out had rendered it fully broken and most likely unfixable! (tears flow). Both cameras seemed to be missing components, which from my inglorious position on my belly I couldn’t immediately spy the location of.
And then as I made a move to re-assemble my self, the pain kicked in! I’d had a filter and my ball of keys in my pocket. Apparently now, bits of polarized glass shards and metal parts had quite inconveniently re-located themselves inside my left thigh.
As I reached down to see just how much blood was spewing from me, a searing pain shot through my elbow. it seems the pier had also claimed a few inches on my elbow skin as well as my camera’s parts!
Quite clearly I was a bit of a mess!!!!
I did manage to get myself vertical again, and did find all the camera bits. Also delightful was discovering that the ginormous Nikon 70-200mm VR lens emerged totally unscathed. I will never again complain that it’s too big and heavy for a peripatetic nature photographer!
I am ever so happy that I had professional Nikon gear, because the upshot of it all was that only one lens was toast – and maybe it CAN be fixed. (ever hopeful)
As for me, the klutz, and my brused bodyparts, I do believe I am on the mend, thanks to nurse Judy. The skin will grow back and cover the bare patch of bone (!) and who needs gorgeous elbows anyway. As for the shards in my leg, fortunately I’m a little too old to be wearing anything THAT short so the battle scars will be my own reminder of my most recent Lake Winnipeg debacle.
Once again the lake leaves it mark! Sorry no photos this time!!!
They’re on the move already
Rain, cool, wet…If I had wings I try it somewhere else too! But these geese are smart and leaving early this year. I watched for a half hour as they gathered forces and eventually fled. Boy, it seems like I just saw my first one of the year a few days ago…
Time, like the birds, does indeed fly.