gazing ball

  yes, it's a little blurred, and yes, i've touched it up a bit with an iPhone app.  who knew i'd be using that thing for imagery as much as i now do?  but i carry the phone, slender and light, along with me on our every morning walk, so it is all too easy to slip it out of my pocket, hit the camera tab, and take a photograph of something i'd not ordinarily be able to capture on film.  for the last few mornings, there've been several elk right next to the trail - right next to walter and me, in other words, or blocking our path.  these animals are huge, and quiet, and i'm not ever sure if i should try to skirt on past or turn and head back to the car.  so beautiful, are they, so big and so much a part of these deep, rich woods.
yesterday morning as we made our way back home along a quiet road that skirts through rolling pastures filled with grazing goats, the fog made the usually familiar vistas seem other worldly and foreign, bathed in milky pale light.  i rarely ever pass another car, and it was easy to come to a complete stop right there in the middle of the road, pull out the phone, and capture this new land to carry home with me.  from that image, i tinkered around and came up with this:
i look at this and think i might have stepped back to a time when there were no stripe in the road, when there was no asphalt at all.  it's easy to imagine this, anyway.  the fog was just as thick, even thicker, when we got to firefly road:
we've been walking this road a lot this month, since the rain has taken over and i don't want to spend 15 minutes driving one way just to have the rain come down the minute we step out of the car.  firefly is steep, though, deceptively so, and i do love to have the energy and the sounds of the river at our side.  the quiet where i live is tangible, something i can just about reach out and touch.  i think you can see that, just by looking at this milky photo taken on a foggy, milky day.  from that image, i went to this:  and also to this:  and upon pulling into my drive, i captured this: which transformed into this and then to this.  it's almost like looking into a gazing ball, or down a well that reflects an image in the water of the sky, and of yourself looking down into that world that is of something else, that is purely of reflection and contemplation.  and writing this brings to mind a passage from the beloved novel Cold Mountain, (set as the crow flies perhaps 25 miles from here) where ada is instructed to lie down and gaze backwards into a well to see what her future would bring.  it brought love, and loss, and life.  that's what i see when i look at the photo of my driveway, above.  i see all of those things, in that light.  and today, i take the emotions that i've strained through threadbare cheesecloth into memory, and i work with what remains:  the light, the love, the loss, the life.  that's what i do, as i work quietly away on a winter day, in pale light that is filtered, in light that is not of this world of the here and the now:  i work with the memories of light, and life.  xo

Comments

[julie]

will never get tired of seeing shots from firefly...love the driveway series.

[Molly Vollmer]

Lovely and thought provoking. I'll try to hold onto that mood today.

[delila]

you are so often on my mind when i look the sepia tinted winter trees covered with whiteness.

[susan]

such beauty and peacefulness, Nina - thank you.

xo dusan

[jennifer valentine]

so ethereal and lovely...

[Jamie V]

These photos are a peaceful getaway from the hustle-bustle in my life. Thank you so much for sharing your life through your words and amazing pictures. I love the elk. Jamie V in MT

[Monica]

I so love visiting your world Nina, it is so peaceful, so lovely, so graceful and the images you conjure send me back into the mists of time =-) SIGH!

[Lori Burek]

EKK! Not a fan of those mountains roads if I have to drive. They are beautiful! Love your new piece!
Lori B

[Sophie]

I love your photos Nina. They have an inviting dreamy quality that makes me regret living right in the middle of town. Which app are you using?

thank you for sharing.

[Karen]

Nina...what app are you using on your iPhone? I love your photos and have been using Instagram but yours are awesome!

[dorylyn]

such beauty

[sandra]

yes...

[Tina in McLeansville]

your world is a dream....and i needed a glimpse into a dream today. thank you my friend. wrap yourself in the blanket of that world and be warm. hugs..xo

[Sue]

Beautiful. Just beautiful....

[Lori]

I'm madly in love with your photos and thought you used Photoshop. Which iPhone app??? (I'm joining the group!)

P.S. Your photos always remind me of living in Roanoke - we were in the Blue Ridge, too, just further north than you.

[Leigh Williams]

Your art work is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your vision.

[eKo Art]

really beautiful images and words, Nina. Thank you for sharing them.

[gretchen]

beuatiful, haunting and ethereal images....
I too, must ask which apps you are using; I think I spent the better part of my film camera days trying to emulate these "tin-type, daguerreotype" -like images, from using special screw-on filters to hand tinting my prints- nothing ever approached the look and emotion you have achieved with this app(s).I would be so grateful to know what you used.
~ gretchen

[Becca Valone]

Beautiful, beautiful photographs. I too would love to know which apps you are using. So far, I have just been using the freebie apps, but perhaps an upgrade would have more filter choices. Your blog is the complete package so to speak with words and images....Thanks you for sharing. Becca

[Lorri Scott]

These photos are so beautiful. I see so many people doing things with Iphone apps, I have an iPhone but have not explored the photo aspects. Lame huh? This inspires me to figure it out. And I love that necklace!! I too like Cold Mountain and I think I told you to read his new book "Nightwoods"? I think you'll like it.

xo

[Jess]

Once again, thank you....

[Rebecca Anderson]

I too must agree that your photos are stunning, but respect your decision not to share here - they are all yours! I don't like somewhere with anything like as much natural beauty (although I have friends who live on the Isle of Skye, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, I have some lovely photos from there...) so Manchester just wouldn't look the same on film anyway! Thank you for sharing these. I do love seeing the magic of 'before' and 'after'!

[Jeff G.]

Nina, These photos are awesome! They are art produced through your particular artistic lense and style. Pictures do convey a thousand words...

"Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul and shows to other people these secrets which are common to all." ~Leo Tolstoy

Jeff G.

[Gretchen Schaumann]

I find it truly amazing what beautiful emotions can be released through photographs and using our smart phones. You surely have captured some beauties here... Thanks for sharing your before and afters, as it is such an encouragement for all to learn and seek beauty in the lovely nature that surrounds our lives and is often taken for granted.
Be blessed~
Gretchen

[Kathy Pennekamp]

I love waking up and reading about your beautiful life. You have such a wonderful gift. Thank you for sharing.

Kathy

[sandra]

my ball is foggy over here...life is foggy sometimes. it makes the clear days so lovely. thanks so much for reminding me.