In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Aristotle
Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth
find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
Rachel Carlson
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands
through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
Aldo Leopold
through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
Aldo Leopold
I think one of the most exciting things is this feeling of mystery,
feeling of awe, the feeling of looking at a little live thing and being amazed by it
and how it has emerged through these hundreds of years of evolution and there it is perfect and why.
Jane Goodall
feeling of awe, the feeling of looking at a little live thing and being amazed by it
and how it has emerged through these hundreds of years of evolution and there it is perfect and why.
Jane Goodall
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man
if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature
and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
E.B. White
Our task must be to free ourselves . . .
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
Einstein
Happiness,
not in another place, but this place . . .
not for another hour, but this hour.
Walt Whitman
The poetry of the earth is never dead.
Keats
These are wonderful quotes and gorgeous images. Leopold's touching on the "as yet uncaptured language," is one of the reasons I look forward to each day ... always something new to see and a new way to express it ... Thank you for this post, George. I really needed to see and read this today.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Teresa. I totally agree with you that daily life is best approached with the belief that something new and lovely, something which can be the seed of new creativity — indeed, something that may be the seed of a new life for ourselves — will unfold.
DeleteYour photos are WOW, George. What is that stepping bird with the red eye? I'm also mesmerized by the dragonfly.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barb. Glad you liked the photos. The stepping bird with red eyes is a black-crowned night heron (taken at Pawleys Island, SC). I, too, like the dragonfly image. The dragonfly appears to be pole-vaulting over the moon (though the white orb in the bokeh is actually a reflection in the distance).
DeleteGorgeous shots and amazing colours! I have a soft spot for the butterflies!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Sandra. Ah, yes, what would the world be without butterflies? Less enchanted, for sure.
DeleteWhat Aldo Leopold said. No ability to find words for such beauty and the music it creates in my interior life.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ruth. I, too, especially love this quote by Aldo Leopold, reminding us that beauty is simply a series of gates through which we pass in our journey into deeper values, values that can be experienced but never reduced completely to words or concepts. Glad these images added a little beauty and music to your morning. Personally, I must find beauty and meaning in every moment — indeed, everything living thing. Otherwise, it's difficult to bear the world's growing insanity and violence. My words may be off a bit, but somewhere in "Four Quartets," Eliot says that "humankind cannot bear very much reality."
DeleteGeorge, you truly have an eye for beauty, for framing the shot and so much patience. So Lovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your lovely comment, Gwen. Delighted you like the images. Personally, I think everyone has an eye for beauty. The key, of course, is to keep it open, attentive, and focused. As for patience, you undoubtedly know, being the artist that you are, that the creative process always requires patience, the willingness to work through failure and disappointment in the search for the sublime.
DeleteGeorge, the artistry in your photographs and in your photo art shine with the purity and beauty of ... zen ...
ReplyDeleteYou have really captured the meaning of "happiness ... this place ... this hour. Thank you for the gift of this post.
Thanks so much for your generous comment, Bonnie. To suggest that you find a bit of Zen in these images is the highest compliment you could pay me. My goal in photography is to eliminate everything that is extraneous and draw the eye — and perhaps the spirit — to something that, at least to me, embodies the quiet beauty and mystery of life.
ReplyDeleteGeprge, to call your photographs and the colour in them 'vibrant' is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat. I'll take that as a compliment.
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