I think that is a good way to describe it, for me anyway. In this hectic world in which we live any way that we can find to escape sometimes, in a healthy way, is a very good thing. We all know that our minds are very powerful and if we have a happy mind, we physically feel much better. There are several ways that I "try" to involve the Zen lifestyle into my daily life, that may not be what others find peaceful, but for me it works. First off, I am passionate about photography, when I am taking photographs; I am at my most peaceful state of mind. I love nature! It's a must that when I come home from work, I grab a tropical iced tea or an Iced vanilla chai tea and sit outdoors with the water feature going, listening to the birds, and watching the butterflies, dragonflies and any other little critters that may stop by. Try not to think about anything that wasn't positive that day, and just totally relax. I had noticed quite some time ago that there were two things that really relaxed me when I was either at the beach, around a pool, or most place here in sunny Florida, and I seem to gravitate to photograph them. I had never put it together before, but that is beautiful shadows and reflections. living here in Florida most of that does revolve around palm trees and the water, I have an obsession with palm trees. There is something so peaceful and calming about both, shadows and reflections - some would say Zen like.
When I was a very young girl living in Ohio, I was at my Grandparents home one afternoon on a beautiful summer's day. In their living-room, which was located on the second floor and there were two huge picture windows, and their property was just landscaped so beautifully, with huge trees, flowers and rock gardens methodically placed by my Grandfathers loving care. I sat there starring at the wall, and was watching the tree's shadows reflecting slow movement on the living-room wall from the slight breeze outside. I will never forget an older cousin said to me, "that's called silent movement". I couldn't have been more than five years old, and I can still see and remember that day so vividly, he was much older, so I knew it had to be true. To this day, I have no real idea if that is the correct terminology, but for me, it is. I just remember how I was almost mesmerized by it. Well, I guess that child still lives in me, because I love to watch "silent movement" and beautiful shadows, especially anything of the tropical nature like a palm tree, and of course, reflections, especially those seen in an ocean or a pool. As you come out of my front doors of my home, to the left of the entrance way is a small cardboard palm, and to the left of that is a huge bamboo palm tree for which I have up lighting on the palms in the front yard. Well, this particular light, will hit the bamboo palm and reflect over to the cardboard palm and cast a shadow on the outside wall leading in the entrance way. Of course the shadow is much larger than the plant itself, but at night it looks like a mural.
I love looking on line at other's photographs just for ideas and techniques. I've added several here of both the shadow and the reflection...they were found in a variety of places so I cannot identify exactly who took them.
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| A photo I took several months ago on Clearwater Beach, after a very long rain storm. |
