Von Wong - Smokin' Ballet

Benjamin Von Wong is a very talented photo artist. His shoots are often
very large in ambition and execution. One of his primary subjects is the dance. 

Benjamin Von Wong's webpage is   http://vonwong.smugmug.com/ 

Our Home in 4K Video

Here we have a marvelous, high definition video of the Earth from space over four cycles of day and night. It was taken in May, 2011 by the  geosynchronous Electro-L weather  satellite.

I find myself in awe. The real Earth, the place we live, just seems so beautiful, so full of color, so alive.  It looks vibrant and alive. It doesn't look fragile, not at all... but what you can't see from 23,000 miles in space are the planet's 7.26 billion human residents. What you can't see are the relentless demands we humans put on the Earth's finite fresh water, forest, and  living ocean resources.  What you can't see is just how badly we humans have shredded the planet's living fabric.

When I look at this video, I want to nurture and protect this place. I want to stop people from abusing it.

This Earth is the only home we have...


Here is the link to a gorgeous view of planet Earth... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybh11kcDhfM#t=73
 

A Dollmaker's Perfection

I love the  simple beauty of this video. This artisan,  from Japan, has spent a lifetime learning his craft; learning all the skills required to create his art to perfection. It begins with the selection of the wood, then the turning of that wood on a lathe, then the minimal hand movements with a carving blade that shapes the wood to perfection. Then, he uses extraordinary hand-eye coordination with a simple brush to turn the shaped wood into a doll with lovely features.

Here is the link... https://vimeo.com/79369173

Prague

I have had the good fortune of spending time in some of the world's most interesting cities.  The city I most want to visit that I have not been to is Prague in the Czech Republic.

Prague is one of the few great European cities that was not bombed during the second world war.  The buildings in central Prague are pretty much as they have been for at least a century or more. Many of the streets are still covered with cobblestone. 

Prague

I just ran across this video of Prague, shot from a small camera drone.  It showcases the beauty of this great city. A visit to Prague is very near the top of my personal bucket list.

Here is a link to the aerial majesty of Prague...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfo2gvt2OlI

Lupita Nyong'o - An Exceptional Human Being

I watched the Academy Awards last night. I found myself completely charmed by a young woman named Lupita Nyong'o.  Ms. Nyong'o was born to Kenyan parents.  She received the Academy Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' for her role in Twelve Years a Slave, the film that won the award for 'Best Picture'

I was very taken with this young woman.  Her  speech accepting her Oscar was the best of the entire event.  Afterward, I came across another video of Ms. Nyong'o speaking to a meeting of black women film professionals.  She talked about beauty, and her own struggle to accept her 'blackness'. When she was young, she felt bad that her skin was not lighter.  Her speech about that is very moving.  Lupita Nyong'o is a very impressive human being.  I think we are going to hear a great deal more from her.

Lupita Nyongo

Here is the wonderful  'You Tube' video of Lupita Nyong'o talking about her struggle to accept her own personal beauty... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCkfARH2eE

Dancers Among Us

Clumsiness comes easy to me. It also helps me to appreciate the grace and beauty of people who dance for a living. It's takes discipline, talent, and perseverance to be a dancer.  I just ran across a photographer - Jordan Matter - who has created a unique platform to capture dancer's being who they are in one interesting place after another.  It started as a book titled, Dancers Among Us.   This book has morphed into a media franchise.  There are now multiple Dancers Among Us books, calendars,  and videos featuring dancers doing what they do in many places around the world.

Here is a link to Jordan Matter's very appealing website... http://www.dancersamongus.com/index

Here is a link to a video that showcases Dancer's Among Us... http://vimeo.com/76484966

Google Map View - Large Hadron Collider

This is a Google link with resizable, rotatable photo images of the inside of the CERN Large hadron Collider [LHC] in Switzerland.   All kinds of mega-sized hi-tech hardware in cavernous spaces.

This place is the center of the Earth for experimental physicists.

Here is a very cool link to the LHC images...  https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/cern?gl=us

Chesher's Memory Bubbles

I have a friend that lives a life more than a few people dream about. He is a marine biologist. His name is Richard Chesher. He and his wife Frederique have been living on their sailing yacht, Moira for the last forty or so years. During that time, they have  anchored now and then in pretty much every island nation in the South Pacific. The last time I had a chance to spend time with Rick and Freddie, they were based in the harbor at Port Vila in Vanuatu.  For the last few years, they have spent most of their time in New Caledonia, a South Pacific island nation with ties to France. French is the official language in New Caledonia.

In recent years, Richard Chester has elevated himself from being just an excellent photographer to elite world class status.   His work showcases the remarkable beauty of the pacific islands and the mostly still pristine marine environment around them.  More recently, he's been using a rig he designed himself using GoPro cameras to produce images of the marine environment that are technically amazing and breathtaking. They showcase the beauty of his home environment in rotatable, 360 degree panoramic images. They allow the viewer to stand where Chesher stood, or, better stated, be where he was when he captured the image in question.  The latter is the proper way to describe what he does because so many of his images are shot in the marine environment, many underwater, and remarkably,  some straddling the surface interface of sky, land, and water. Chesher calls these images memory bubbles.

I am amazed at what Richard Chesher accomplishes from his home base, a 44 foot long motor sailing yacht named Moira. 

Take a moment to enjoy some of the great photography of marine biologist, Dr. Richard Chesher.

Each still image that follows includes a link to a 360 degree rotatable, 'virtual reality'  version. Prepare to be dazzled.

Sea Eagle Nest

Here is the link to Richard Chesher's amazing image of Sea Eagles on an uninhabited isle in New Caledonia...  http://www.360cities.net/image/ua-eagles#28.63,2.21,110.0

Click to the full screen version and rotate the next image.  You will see Chesher's vessel, Moira anchored in the background, and if you look closely, Rick's wife Freddie cane be seen in fins and snorkel.

 https://www.360cities.net/image/diving-spots-new-caledonia-ua-reef#23.43,1.87,80.0

 

 http://www.360cities.net/image/underwater-scenic-overlook-kouare-new-caledonia#356.90,6.30,70.0

If you take a moment to link to these images in all their virtual reality,  memory bubble glory,  click on the comments icon below the image and leave an expression of appreciation.

Thanks, Rick and Freddie. The world is better because of the wonderful contributions the two of you make to it.

Suzan Ehrens - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

What a joy it is to experience an artist in peak form.  Such is the case in the attached video. Suzan Ehrens is a Dutch soprano.  As an instrument, her voice is as good as it gets, maybe the most impressive and pleasing that I have ever heard. Bravo to Suzan Ehrens.   Her version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow melts the heart and tugs at the soul.

Suzan Ehrens

This video  link showcases Suzan Ehrens singing Somewhere OverThe Rainbow  in performance with Andre Reiu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKkVrvSYVr4


Here is a bonus. Suzan Ehrens singing, Don't Cry For Me, Argentina  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dlwVKm8ArQ

Hanging Out With Whale Sharks

About ten years ago,  my friend and sometimes film collaborator, Michael Tobias told a group of us at a party about his sublime experience swimming with whale sharks in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.  Michael's experience was part of Whale Shark Hunters of the Philippines,  a film he executive produced in 2001 for National Geographic about these marvelous creatures.

Whale sharks are kin to some of the most ferocious predators in the sea, but while great white sharks and their ilk can be extremely dangerous, whale sharks are the gentlest of creatures.   To be sure, they are giants. The largest can exceed forty feet in length and 50,000 pounds in weight. Thought to live up to 70 years, they are filter feeders, living off of plankton, and other small organisms, and can be found in all the world's tropical oceans.

 

 

 

I read a piece on the net today that reported on a whale shark tourist industry that has developed on Cebu in the Philippines.  It turns out that Michael Tobias's documentary, which was directed by filmmaker Erin Calmes,  was a catalyst that led to many nations declaring the whale shark a protected species.  Further, whale shark tourism is thriving now in the Sea of Cortez as well as in the Philippines.   Instead of hunting these gentile giants,  fisherman in Cebu are making money taking tourists to swim with them. 

I just told my wife, swimming with whale sharks is on my 'to do' list.

Here is a link to a wonderful video that features people swimming with giant whale sharks...http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_898895&feature=iv&src_vid=dUMUSFLyZpU&v=o6lpDsBYX6A

Here is a link to a group that is working to protect whale sharks...http://www.whalesharkfest.com/pdf/ecoocean-brochure.pdf

Pen and Ink

Tricia Kittredge is an artist of the first order. Her medium is pen and ink.

Tricia Kittredge

Largely self-taught, Tricia has been working her magic for 35 years, specializing in illustrations of pet aniimals, landscapes, still lifes, portraiture and figure studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tricia Kittredge is based in Salem, Oregon. Her husband, Don Anderson is one of my mentors. Don's awesome photographic work often provides inspiration for Tricia's art.  They are a winning combination, and a big part of what makes them that way is their refusal to act their own age. They know very well how to have a good time.

Pen and ink is a beautiful but notoriously difficult medium.  It takes about six weeks of painstaking work to produce one of Tricia's exceptional works of art.  She appears to relish every moment she spends with pen in hand. 

If you want one of Tricia's works, it will cost you. These days, she keeps herself quite busy producing commissioned work. 

I am fortunate to have Tricia and Don as friends. Now, I need to cobble together enough bucks to get in line for my own commission.

Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis, aka 'Northern Lights' is an amazing night sky phenomenon, seen only at  extreme polar latitudes.  The first time I saw an Aurora was in 1999 while on location in Northern British Columbia, shooting a documentary on the Canadian raincoast.   It was clearly visible, but not in spectacular fashion.  The second time I saw it was a few years later in Iqaluit on Baffin Island above the arctic circle in Northeast Canada. On this occasion, the Aurora displayed itself in truly amazing fashion.  Though Iqaluit is the capitol of Nunavut province, it is a small community,  accessible only by sea or air link from Montreal.  The manager of the hotel where we were staying drove us to a park outside of town to give us a view of the dancing lights of the Aurora.  She did warn us to be on the lookout for roaming polar bears, which apparently are quite common in that area and are very aggressive and dangerous  predators.

Anyway, that night in Iqaluit, in the park away from the city's lights, the Aurora was truly awe inspiring. For more than an hour, we stayed there gazing up at the night sky, mesmerized by the Aurora's immense natural beauty.  I would not choose to live in the remote, far north regions where one can experience the Aurora regularly, but I am grateful for the opportunity I've had to see it twice in my life.

Here is a link to a beautiful, awe inspiring video of the Aurora
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG8gZcAzfDI


Here is a link to a brief video that explains the physics behind the Aurora phenomenon.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJBrMXSn-hU


Here is a link to a video of Aurora images accompanied by a wonderful music track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sU6CpQz-D4

Choros - Dance with Echoes

This melding of the dance with something called chronophotography has evolved since it first appeared late in the19th century.  This latest iteration featuring a single dancer with a trail of 32 visual 'echoes' is a sophisticated and visually stunning example of this unusual photo/video technique.

Here is a link to the 13 minute video titled Choros...   http://langanfilms.com/stream_choros.html

Ua Reef 360

Marine biologist Richard Chesher is a wizard with a camera.  His latest 360 degree image features his wife, Freddie in the glassy smooth, crystal clear waters of Ua reef in their South Pacific home base of New Caledonia.  

Ua Reef - New Caledonia

Here's the link to the very  cool 360 degree rotating image of the reef.
http://www.360cities.net/image/diving-spots-new-caledonia-ua-reef#808.56,-24.88,110.0

There are several other blog entries  - posted earlier -  about Richard Chesher's remarkable life with wife Ferddie aboard their yacht Moira in the South Pacific. Click below on the label - Richard Chesher - to find the earlier entries.

Gratitude

A while back (5/14/12), I wrote about kindness.  Of all the character traits we humans can possess, kindness is the one I value and admire the most in a person.  Gratitude is an attitude reflected by a kind heart. The article pasted in below appears to confirm that... 


A Grateful State: Gratitude is vital to well-being, research shows
November 22nd, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry


Before we eat Thanksgiving dinner at my house, along with saying grace, each of the 20 or so people at the table takes a turn lighting a candle and expressing gratitude. The appreciation can be lighthearted - for mashed potatoes or a day off from school. Or the thankfulness may be accompanied by a heavy heart - for the memories of a loved one recently passed.

As it happens, this expression is not an empty exercise. And if we developed the discipline to be consciously grateful on a regular basis, year-round, research shows we'd be happier and suffer less depression and stress. We'd sleep better and be better able to face our problems.

There's evidence that gratitude is uniquely important to well-being. Long embraced by religion as a "manifestation of virtue," it's one of the few things that "can measurably change people's lives," says Robert Emmons, a University of California-Davis professor who has been studying it since 1998 and is the author of the book "Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier."
"Gratitude implies humility - a recognition that we could not be who we are or where we are in life without the contributions of others," Emmons writes.

At a time when Thanksgiving is the starting gun for a race to the mall, Jeffrey Froh has some insight as well.

"We know there's a negative relationship between materialism and gratitude. That's pretty powerful right there," says Froh, a professor at Hofstra University on New York's Long Island. His research with more than 1,000 high school students showed that grateful teenagers were also less likely to be depressed, more likely to want to give back to their communities and more likely to have higher grade-point averages, among other traits.

But despite the benefits, Emmons says, gratitude is in trouble.

"Outside of happiness, gratitude's benefits are rarely discussed these days. Indeed, in contemporary American society, we've come to overlook, dismiss or even disparage the significance of gratitude as a virtue," he says. "We have become entitled, resentful, ungrateful and forgetful."

Not all of us.

Gratitude, says Susan Swan, is an important component of yoga - something she's taught since 1991.
Almost three years ago, she had a stroke during a class. But when she tells the story, she focuses on her good fortune. Her students called 911, help came quickly and she was given an experimental drug that worked wonders. She has children, grandchildren and friends. Swan knows she doesn't look like she's had a stroke. At 68, she's tall and wrinkle free, with straight, shiny blond hair. Her speech is good, her aphasia not overwhelming. She's gone back to teaching yoga, which she credits for her ability to feel gratitude rather than anger. It's important, she says early one evening over tea in her tiny kitchen, to "come into the now. Lose your mind and find your senses. Right now, I am fine."

Swan, who also has survived breast and colon cancer, gives meaning to Emmons' statement that gratitude "is morally and intellectually demanding." He doesn't suggest forgetting the negative.
"If you have something that life serves up, you have a choice to say, 'Hey, there is a blessing in here,'" Swan said. "'How is it going to serve me and not impede me?'"

Judy Vaughan is a St. Joseph of Carondelet nun who "has real trouble with the institutional church" but a rock-solid belief in a God who is "a loving spirit who has my back," and a doctorate in social ethics from the University of Chicago.

"I learned from my mom the importance of saying thanks," Vaughan says. "She was born in 1916 and came from the school that said when you got gifts, you wrote notes." She founded and has lived since 1996 at Alexandria House, which actually is two lovely Mid-Wilshire homes offering transitional housing and support to homeless women and their children.

"Gratitude gives an opening to the universe to give more good things. Gratitude is opening to receive more good things from the universe," says Vaughan.  She tries to be grateful every day, even now, when Alexandria House faces falling state and private funding.

"Gratitude really is a perspective. It is one that needs to be cultivated," Vaughan says. "It is a gift from God in my life that I like almost everyone I meet. I'm not naive, but I really work at seeing the positive in people."

Gratitude could save the planet, says filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg. "If you can really absorb the beauty of a flower or a landscape, can you really bear to see it destroyed?" he asks. "Gratitude touches your heart. And we need the heart to create a shift in consciousness."

Schwartzberg, who has been shooting time-lapse photography of flowers for more than three decades, showed his "Gratitude" film at a TedX Talk; it's among the most-watched presentations.
In it, author, lecturer and Benedictine brother David Steindl-Rast speaks: "You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day. It's the one day that is given to you, today. ... It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. ... If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well."

Look, really look, at a cloud, a stream, a strawberry, Schwartzberg urges. "Instead of gobbling it while you're reading the paper, say, 'Oh, my God,'" and take the time to be in awe of it.
—-

KEEPING A 'GRATITUDE' JOURNAL

The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California-Berkeley is making it easy to try out a "gratitude" journal, with an interactive online project launched this month that's shareable on social media. At www.Thnx4.org, anyone can sign up for a two-week journal plan that includes prompts to get your grateful thoughts flowing.

It also includes a survey so researchers can mine the data to look at the effects of gratitude in many specific ways, Emilian Simon-Thomas, who, with Robert Emmons of the University of California-Davis and others, developed the $5.6 million project, said Thursday. At Thnx4.org, participants take a survey of 78 questions, then get a little nudge for two weeks to write in their journal, perhaps sharing their grateful states on Facebook or other sites. At the end, after another survey, they'll get a report on their own changes - and be invited to stick around and continue to express gratitude, perhaps less frequently.

Of course, you can express gratitude on your own, and here are some of Emmons' suggestions:
Occasional "gratitude journaling," one to three times a week, is more effective than writing every day.

Journal writing is more effective if you make the conscious decision to become happier, more grateful, more positive.

Gratitude in depth is more important than "gratitude by the numbers." In other words, elaborating on a particular benefit in detail is more beneficial than listing several benefits more superficially.
Another recommendation is to focus on "mental subtraction" of good things from your life: Consider, for example, what life would be like if you had never met your spouse, rather than how grateful you are for that spouse.

(c)2012 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by MCT Information Services

Owl and the Pussy Cat

Amazing video of a black cat playing with a young barn owl.  Apparently, the owl was an orphan raised in a household shared by the cat. There's a special joy in seeing creatures who don't generally get along in nature, actually finding pleasure in eachother's company.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0nxsE196Xc

The Most Beautiful Animal Species

What is the most beautiful of all animal species?  A judgement like this is obviously very subjective.   If being photogenic is the primary criteria, my vote goes to the Snow Leopard. Not only is this medium sized cat beautiful to look at, it's also a creature of incredible grace, wonderfully adapted to  the sheer rock faces of the high Himalayas, above 10,000 feet. Snow leopards have massive paws and very thick fur, with a color pattern that blends perfectly with the snowy, high altitude environment. 

Snow Leopard's are rare, and are seriously threatened by habitat loss and the Asian fur trade.  Until a few years ago, there was virtually no video of a snow leopard hunting in its natural habitat.  Then, the BBC sent a crew to Mongolia; it's sole mission was to get video footage of snow leopards.  After a few weeks of waiting, the BBC crew was rewarded with some spectacular footage of a snow leopard chasing a young mountain ibex down the craggy face of a near vertical rock cliff.

Here is a link to that snow leopard video on Discovery's 'Planet Earth' minseries     .http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Snow_Leopard#p00378k9

Alan Hunt, a well-known and much admired wildlife artist, has painted the Snow Leopard multiple times. We have a limited edition print of the one below hanging in our home.

Nomad by Alan Hunt

Here is a link to the  Snow Leopard Trust http://www.snowleopard.org/

Scherzo by Felix Mendelssohn

One of the greatest composers of the 19th century. Mendelssohn was a child prodigy born in Germany in 1809.  His Scherzo is part of the incidental music he wrote to accompany Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Nights Dream.  Other works of Mendelssohn that remain popular to this day include his Violin Concerto in E Major, Op 64,  the Italian Symphony, and the Scottish Symphony. He died too young at the age of 38.

Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn's  scherzo is a mellifluous blend of joyous grace and complexity. I never get tired of hearing it.

Here is a link to Felix Mendelssohn's Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHTV3GFyHfM

Purely Pacific Northwest

Portland Photographer John Ekland spent several years putting together time lapse video clips of some of Oregon's most beautiful places, including Crater Lake, Mount Hood, Lost Lake, and Cannon Beach.

Oregon is a beautiful place to live. Here is a link to John Ekland's video that showcases that beauty.
http://vimeo.com/48787310

My Pix - Sunflowers

Like many photographers learning their craft, I spent a lot of time early shooting photos of flowers.  I particularly like sunflowers.  They are big, bright, and eager to please.  There are always bees dancing over them,  getting dusted up with pollen.

The first four sunflower pix were taken in our backyard.  The rest on a farm in the Hood River Valley.