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Light Writing

December is a good month to celebrate the light. With short daylight hours, seasonal displays of colored lights at night are delightful to look at. And because of the shortness of the days, the late sunrises make it easy to study the early morning light. The word photography literally means Light Writing The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. ― Dorothea Lange This morning as I sat to meditate I was so enchanted by the early morning light that I abandoned my chair and picked up my camera to do some sunrise light Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

A Certain Light

This morning when I woke up and looked out the windows I noticed A Certain Light that captured my senses. It was soft and a little bit golden, and it seemed to paint the landscape outside my windows with a certain ethereal grace. I picked up my camera and made some photos through the windows trying to see if I could distill the scenes as my eye saw them in the early morning light. I don’t think that I succeeded. But I came as close as I could to the feelings the morning engendered in me. The sun was a Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Playing Around

I’ve been Playing Around with flower photos this week. The one above that I made using a photo of my red Christmas cactus feels like a bright holiday greeting to me. It has been quite awhile since I played around with making mandala like images from flowers or other plant photographs. Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.    — Diane Ackerman Each time I play like this I learn new skills through exploration. After our most recent snowstorm I realized that the snow is probably here to stay for quite awhile and that winter is really and truly Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Swans and Falling Snow

  I headed down to Medicine Lake with my Canon camera and long lens this morning and photographed some of the remaining trumpeter swans in the falling snow. Swans and Falling Snow Watching the swans calmly feeding and grooming themselves as snow gently fell reminded me that these birds are accustomed to weather of all kinds. In 2017 when I was staying in a cabin near Ely, MN from March through May, a pair of trumpeter swans appeared in the Burntside River as soon as the ice was mostly gone from the stream. Day in, day out I would see Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Everyday Grace

The day began with overcast skies but the clouds soon gave way to blue skies, thin white clouds, and sunshine. Any time the temperature gets above freezing this time of year I feel like celebrating. Add in the sunshine and I am feeling total gratitude for this day (and for all of the above freezing days last week). My day has been filled with mundane tasks like buying groceries and filling the bird feeders. It feels like Everyday Grace! This morning I drove by Medicine Lake and saw that there are still some Trumpeter Swans and many ducks in the Read more…

By Marilyn, ago