I am a lover of the moon and pull from her quiet emotion when she peeks between the clouds. For the longest time, however, I was intimidated at trying to capture her beauty. While I still have much to learn with night photography, this is my very first non cell phone capture of her grace. A better lens is in order but for now, I admire her beauty from afar.
Captured this image during a hike in the fall and with no pun intended is memorable for me as I fell getting to it along the slippery rocks. The laughter commenced as thankfully I didn’t get hurt and a rest along the mossy stones was appreciated. Waterfalls are among the many wonders of nature that carry me to a different place and are a favorite of my camera to attempt to capture where the magic seems to flow in slow motion.
I took this image while sitting on my deck in the backyard. I love to travel and adventure to new places especially with my camera in tow but more often than not, I become inspired by the views my own backyard offers from the ever changing blooms and sway of the trees to the visits I receive from the wanders of nature (minus the spiders, I’m sorry) such as this crow that found a moment in the shade before venturing about his day.
This song, that I just recently discovered, found me on the drive home from a challenging day of work and carried me to this image. A calm overcomes me every time I watch a bird in flight or perched upon the branch of a tree. How free they seem to be. How much wiser they are than thee.
I captured this image within the gardens of Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. The statue, one created by artist Maria Louisa Lander, is that of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. Her rendition is that of her imaginative design of what little Virginia would have looked liked as a woman. For those of you unfamiliar of the mysterious story of Virginia and the Lost Colony, read more here.
What I didn’t know, until recently, is the extraordinary history of all this piece endured before finding its final resting place within the gardens. The artist created this piece in Rome over a fourteen month period and upon its completion in 1859, it was placed aboard a ship and in 1860 began its journey to the United States. The ship, however, sank off the coast of Spain where the statue remained at the bottom of the sea for two years until Lander paid to recover it.
Once recovered, the buyer of the statue died from a fire in his home but thankfully the statue was recovered and found its way back to Ms. Lander’s possession where it remained until her death in 1923, leaving it to the state of North Carolina.
It then sat in a public building in Raleigh where it soon received complaints because of its nudity and ultimately was placed in a basement then later to a state auditor’s office. It was here that the piece repeatedly suffered vandalism by way of mockers applying lipstick to her.
Her journey wasn’t finished yet though. In 1938 she was crated up and sent to the director of what is now the famous play “The Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island where she survived a flooding and then later was moved to his home in Chapel Hill where she remained crated until the 1950’s when upon his death it was donated to what is now her home, The Elizabethan Gardens.
One hundred years after her creation and harrowing journey, she is a beautiful addition to the Gardens surrounded by live oaks and flowers that beckons you to sit a spell and take in the history and the beauty that Roanoke Island and the Elizabethan Gardens offers.
This was the result of my very first attempt at long exposure photography and while I still have much to learn, I’m rather fond of how it came out. The camera challenges me and it’s one I enjoy at my own pace and capturing the little nooks and crannies of life as I see it is beyond rewarding.
thumbs up to the clouds waiting for the train to catch that wind
the bell tolls silently so to those who listen
to those with no fear of letting go
i cradle my bag, my makeshift courage kit
to wander now needlessly to where the leaves blow, where they seem i shall fit
always the backseat traveler i still shan’t take the helm
for it not my eyes that lead, but my heart that swells
i follow where it takes me, perhaps to dead end roads
pulling out my kit with compass to direct me as best it knows
ye of little faith, the reclusive voice no more
for those journeys once forgotten i now ready the score
days absent of sunlight, of curtains drawn
now places me on this train, piercing through dusty windows all those what ifs now gone
Iris– U2
I photographed this image along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 34. I categorized it within my abandoned photography as what you see here is the remnants of an old logging railroad. Although it is abandoned it is not forgotten and is visited quite frequently among hikers and travelers alike and offers a serene, picturesque moment to step back in time. Thank you for reading. For more of my nature and abandoned photography please visit my gallery here.
