The Wizard: Lessons from the Hillside

 

“A great photograph is a full expression about what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.” - Ansel Adams


    How strange to sense the presence of love while simply observing two trees on a hillside. But then, the forest, the mountains, and the mist can fill you with a sense of wonderment you might dismiss as folly were it not for the obvious intimacy and constancy those two trees share. And what marvelous lessons we might take with us from watching them resist the wind, one tree mostly full with branches and the other less so but still hanging on, still fully engaged. We could learn much about loyalty from such trees as these. As I wrote in my post on December 18, 2021...

    Out by the edge of the forest on the hill, sits a tree that radiates pure magical energy. It’s a wizened old tree, bent but never broken by the wind, backed by the clouds and the mist and the pretty autumn leaves in the hills beyond, but not a part of them. The tree has a partner, older yet and only a shadow of its former self, but defiantly remaining steadfast in support of its compatriot. Out by the edge of the forest on the hill, sits an example for us of devotion and wonder and love.

Clicking on the image will open it in full screen

‘The Wizard,’ in the chilly embrace of an unusually cold late afternoon during fall in Deep Gap, North Carolina, in Watauga County.

www.johnjgiardinaphotography.com



Location: Deep Gap, NC 28618, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gatherer: A Perfect Partnership

Image
  “ I often wished I could capture and share the sudden moments of beauty that I would see around me."   - Caroline Mueller     It's been put many ways but we don't help our spouses as a nice-to-do, occasional thing. A marriage, or relationship, is best built as a complete partnership where both people, or birds in this case, work together selflessly for the good of the relationship or family. Nobody is doing a favor as both parties act without ego to help further the goals of the unit. As I wrote in my post on May 13, 2023...      Welcome back to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge where the graceful great white egrets roost and rule. Both male and female egrets help with nest building. This elegant bird posed perfectly for me with a small stick in their beak as they prepared to fly back towards the rookery. I watched the whole congregation for a long time work on their nests together and care for their hatchlings. What a magnificent display and a prime example of wh
Read more

Interconnection: The Way Things Fit Together

Image
  “ If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. ”  - Jim Richardson     Sometimes, the interesting stuff I'm looking for is an evening beach, a ship out at sea, an interesting cloud, and a glowing moon, all working in unison to inspire me to think about how everything works together. The moon influence the tides, affecting the ship, and also the weather, which influences the cloud, which all worked to produce this interesting composition for me to capture and share. I love the color and the light, but most especially, I love the way all the elements work together. What harmony we have when our connections are clear and valued. As I wrote in my post on March 19, 2022...      When I was much younger, there was a BBC television show called Connections starring the Sherlock Holmes of Science, Mr. James Burke, who had a way of making each episode exploring some aspect of science into a spellbinding detective story. It was fantastic how he traced th
Read more

Cow Branch Bend: Part 2 of 3 at Carolina Sandhills NWR

Image
“ Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. ”  - Matt Hardy     You probably know that President Theodore Roosevelt directed the creation of our amazing National Parks, but did you know he also founded the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903? On March 14 of that year, he established Pelican Island NWR along Florida's Atlantic Ocean coast.      Since then,  more than 560 wildlife refuges are in place across this country, and they're all managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Each NWR unit can be a wildlife refuge, a conservation area, a marine national monument, or a waterfowl production area. The different units help with conserving native species that depend on that land or water to thrive by using scientific management  methods. And I think they're another of our many national treasures.     As I wrote in my post on April 29, 2023...      Back in Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife R
Read more