Archives for December 2008

3:42pm Mauna Kea, after hiking into the Waikōloa hills just above the 6mile marker

Photo 2 for “Photo of my day”

It has been raining quite a bit this December, always welcomed for us, for we seem to perpetually be in “drought conditions.” Ironic considering we are islands surrounded by so much water, but it does get you to appreciate the life-giving qualities of what the rains and mountain filters do for you.

For our hills surrounding Waikōloa the rain means two things: Snow on Mauna Kea, and the temporary return of precious green for our pastures, normally the drab straw color of the invasive fountain grass which has taken over so greedily.

Chose this for my POMD yesterday because it was taken in circumstances different than usual for me. I chose to start my daily run early, hoping to beat the impending afternoon rain, heading out at about 2:30pm and opting for walk versus run with camera in hand. All the luscious green pulled me farther mauka [toward the mountains, and away from the sea] than I’d normally go, and so fortuitously, for I was able to get pictures of a snow-dusted and cloud-caressed Mauna Kea quite different from those I’ve taken up to now. I needed to hike in off the highway to get them, and despite knowing it’s probably considered trespassing, I always feel blessed that I get to do so, seeing certain angles and vistas that no one else can see or feel the way I am in that moment.

I imagine history, and concoct stories in my imagination, for the road used to be in different places; others were there before me, and probably many others. Those misshapen wooden fence posts prove that brush fires did roll through here at some point, but as she always does, nature has healed the land and refused to be beaten. I wish I could also capture the sounds; mostly that quiet where you’re sure you can hear the wind, though it doesn’t blow that fiercely, constantly interrupted by the birds you never see, as if they are telling you, “don’t for an instant believe that you are alone.”

A larger view of the photo can be seen here. I am using it for my desktop background today; a small way to keep the serene feelings of the day with me for just a little bit longer.

Shared this on Flickr this morning:

POMD: December 20, 2008

8:52am Auhili garden veggie plot

Starting a new set with this photo. POMD stands for “Photo of my day.”

Since my earliest days on Flickr I have been loving the photo-of-the-day sets I have seen on the pages of others, and I have waited for the New Year to arrive, thinking that January 1 would be the perfect time to start a set of my own. This made so much sense in my normally (obsessively) ordered thinking” I like sequence, and I like the routine of deliberately set good habits.

But then there was something about this picture which made me re-think the whole set in the way that would up the ante with me, and lend more quality to it, so it could be part of the collection I call “Learning Photography” versus part of a daily diary.

Sometimes too, doing things daily can force the issue too much. We like to think that every single day can present us with perfect opportunities, and yes, that possibility is there, however life does interfere, often joyfully, and we nalu it ”“ we go with the flow and forget the daily diary obsession for all the right reasons.

So I now think it better for me that I use this POMD set of mine for one special picture a day, as it might happen and whenever it happens, and special to me for whatever different reasons I can describe and share with you. But it won’t be every day; just on those days when I’ve taken a picture that seems to deserve being here. I suspect the hardest part for me will be the choosing, for I am getting attached to way too many photos, no longer caring if I repeat them, but it will also take some pressure off to know I needn’t do the every day thing, and further, that doing so may cheapen the whole.

This first one was taken on December 20th, 2008 when I was looking at the way the winter morning shadows fell in my garden. These layers caught my eye in such a pleasing way, and even though the grass was still very wet from the night’s rain, I lay down flat on the yard to get the picture the way I wanted it, for I so wanted to share it with you! And that, I think, is what photography, Flickr, and a picture of my day as it happened somehow, can deliver for us both” getting momentarily lost in the stunning specialness of some momentary visual feast – or some mental gymnastics where the thinking is what gets beautiful – and craving to share it best you possibly can.

The picture is of the edge of a vegetable garden I have which can most accurately be called “Rosa’s pretending she can put food on the table occasionally.” It isn’t a raised bed, but one where a scrap of lumber keeps the grass out of the bed best it can. Now nearly twenty years old the wood is quite rotted and home to assorted creatures, and it often falls over (as in this picture) when the neighbor’s cat jumps down from the rock wall on the other side of the bed, and nicks it enroute to whatever it’s now chasing in my yard. Usually that damn cat’s paw prints in that bed far outnumber my seedlings.

As for waiting until today, December 29th, to upload it, a) I always seem to be behind with choosing my uploads from the tons of photos I now am taking, and b) quite sure this blog post I wrote yesterday for Managing with Aloha Coaching was an influence: The Virtue of Vitality, which by the way, I could not find photos of my own for!