Inside and Outside; Hidden and Revealed Strong backlighting reveals the intricacies of form, pattern and texture in this daylily. It’s a wonder to me that the plant has chosen, over eons of evolutionary time, to reveal its complexity and beauty in individual flowers for just one day depending upon multiples for pollination. Flowers— like […]
Social values are right only if the individual values are right Notice the cloth is fraying in places, threads are broken, and holes are appearing. Is it beyond repair? Or is there something we can do to keep it from unraveling further? One of the lessons I learned from Robert Pirsig’s Zen And The Art […]
Takes Coordination and Integration The image of workers framed by a steel lattice—particularly with the number painted on the beam in the upper left corner—calls to mind one of the many lessons learned from the Apollo space program. Whole systems management. For this office building—system—to exist it had first to be envisioned. And then, for […]
The wider our view, the more we can encompass In a previous blog I noted that it’s the brain that sees, not the eyes which send data via electrical impulses to the brain where they are interpreted to make seeing instantaneously possible. The image above, taken with a zoom lens, reveals something about perception—beyond merely […]
Open minds and unconditional love My posted contemplations are primarily about appreciation, gratitude and perception. While fear is generally an undesirable sensation, I appreciate it as one of the primary forces that affects human behavior universally. Fear has survival value for individuals, and socially it’s an evolutionary driver. I also appreciate it’s significance as one […]
The essence of living systems is self-organization In nature and in the world of man-made objects, geometric order evidences the interrelatedness of all things. Using the above image as a model, humanity may be said to consist of a single string within the spacetime continuum. Rather than forming a straight line—the way we experience time—the […]
In imagery and in life My dad, a toolmaker for Ford Motor Company, used to say he could make anything out of metal. He also said, “The difficult I can do tomorrow; the simple takes a little longer.” It’s the same with photography—or any kind of art or design endeavor. Although there is an underlying […]
Wisdom teachers are putting the abuses of freedom in check. The iris symbolizes hope, wisdom, faith, trust, and bravery. The biosphere has hit a limit, delivering a constant stream of evidence in the form of more frequent and increasingly destructive fires, flooding, droughts, tornadoes and earthquakes. At the same time, and probably related at some […]
There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere. Ralph Waldo Emerson From atoms to galaxies the sphere is a prominent form because it requires the least amount of energy to form and has the least possible area for the […]
What is it? Where is it? The image of this nest evokes the notion of home. At a family gathering where Jennifer, my daughter, referred to her “home” at the dinner table, I questioned whether she meant her home with us, her parents, or her home nearly two hours away with her husband and son. […]
Contemplative Photography 