A Passion Sparked!

My great nephew, Kristopher (11-years-old), took these photos. His family came to visit last year and I took them over to the Sepulveda Wildlife Preserve for a walk. There were lots of ducks around the lake and Kris asked if he could take pictures with my camera. I showed him how it works and he just took off! He loved taking pictures and got some very good shots.

His parents have gotten him his own camera and I think they got him into a photography class as well. Hopefully he'll email me some of his photos.
 

Out For A Walk/Meeting Myself

This photo was taken at the Sepulveda Wildlife Sanctuary. I was playing around with Photoshop filters and this was the result.

Amazing Sunset

This was the most amazing sunset I've ever seen. And this was the tail END of a magnificent light show. Of course, my camera was in trunk of my car and I was driving up the 5 Freeway while this was going on. I had to hand my cell phone to my friend, Stephen, in the back seat to get this photo. This is straight out of the camera - no Photoshop or alteration involved.

I have seen "god light" many times before - the light beams that come down through the clouds. I tried to look up god light to see who coined that term and couldn't find anything but I know painters of religious images have used that look for centuries as a symbol of the divine. However, I have NEVER see them going UP. Before this picture was taken the rays were much more pronounced.

 I've been trying to photograph the perfect sunset for years and have come to the conclusion that things like that are ephemeral and not meant to be captured or pinned down. They must be experienced and savored in the moment, but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying.

Sekmhet's New Home

My friends, Karen and Roy Tate have loaned this beautiful statue of Sekhmet 

to the Goddess Temple of Orange County.

The Temple had a lovely dedication ceremony for her on Saturday night (6/22/14)

with dancing, singing and poetry.

Roy and Karen Tate with Priestess Ava.

Karen Tate is a writer, tireless Goddess advocate and devote of Isis. 

You can view her website at www.karentate.com

and listen to her podcasts - Voices of the Sacred Feminine at 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/voicesofthesacredfeminine.

(full disclosure: I'm her webmaster)

Chasing the Super Moon

This is the photo I got, and it's...ok. It wasn't the photo I wanted to take.

I started out in Santa Monica (at about 3:30 a.m.). I wanted to take a photo of the full moon setting over the ocean.Too much cloud cover sent me driving up PCH in search of the Super Moon. It was a nice drive - not much traffic at that time of morning. The clouds finally thinned out around Oxnard and I could see the moon. It was still pretty high in the sky by then and I seemed to be several miles away from the ocean at that point. I thought I could get up to Santa Barbara or Goleta before moon set (sometime around 6 am).

I got to Goleta a little after 5 and walked out to the beach from the Butterfly Preserve parking lot. It was a lovely walk so early in the morning. It was (human sound) quiet but alive with the call of birds. Small rabbits scurried off the trail in front of me. I've never seen rabbits there before, but, then again, I was going to the cliffs from a different direction than I normally go. 

 The moon was getting "ghosty" because the sun was coming up. I checked today and sunrise yesterday was about 5:30. Had I known that, I might have stayed in Oxnard.and tried to get to the beach there. Oh well.

The moon slipped behind the marine layer shortly after I took this shot, so I wandered down the bluffs, enjoying the morning, taking photos here and there. It smelled lovely and although it was cloudy, it wasn't uncomfortably cold.

There is a lovely, full spider's web just to the right of this plant, but it didn't have any dew on it so, of course, it doesn't show up in the photo. I should carry a mister with me.

Breakfast at the beach.

The beach here has these odd striation of rocks in the sand. I haven't been able to find out what geological formation has caused this. I've never actually been down to the beach here. Maybe that will be one of my adventures for this summer. I'll have to look up the tide charts and go at low tide so I can check out the tide pools.