nature, you've done it again

Scenes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium...
I have a couple hundred amazing images but could not bring myself to share more than what I've got here. Although, I might be tempted to add more later.
Disclaimer: I can not really be held responsible for "creating" these images, these shots were simply presented to me and my eyes, and I am simply passing them on.

recovered views from last years fire escape

Yosemite

Olympic Wonders: via i phone

foot

So I spent a night in the Olympic National Park/rainforest while in Washington State over Labor Day weekend this year and had my mind blown. The thing is, I did not even bring a simple little point-and-shoot camera. So I trusted my phone to bring home some images of some unbelievable organisms that live up there. It was an amazing feeling to be next to some of these dr. suess-like furry giant creatures and I am almost glad I didn't have a real camera--why? well for one: I might have not appreciated it with my naked eyes as much and for two: I mean seriously how can one possibly even dare recreate these greater than lifesize scenes into a tiny 2 dimensional rectangle? There are certain times to be humble and this was one of them. So just an idea of what it might look like if you went to the Olympic Peninsula.

california dusk

August 28, 2009
Los Padres National Forrest
south of Big Sur

While I re-found my clicking addiction on this hiking trail and was busy snapping away, my husband, Joe, wrote this poem:

pocket glance
california highway one
around the turnpike
under blue turquoise water
the kelp forest hides
erosion, orange
signs botanicals
along the edge
the moving particular
fly buzzing in ear
chili flowers
blaze in the sun
lit up before dusk
roar of one
sun behind leaves, dried
from summer, look up
to camera's flash
buzz buzz tweat
sea flat from distance
bloated texture, porous
red rocks, a magenta
film over everything
seated by tom thumb
shaped rock, sun behind
tree cluster off an edge
whirlpool spied from left eye
pink throat of horizon
the trail is a long trail
three horizontal slabs
scratch cloud form
gold and buoyant in ocean
half sticks, shining out
half moon rises with night
pushing Helios deeper down.

wisconsin farm house: late summer

Thailand (part two): Koh Tao

(especially magic)

This last set of photos from my trip this summer is largely distracted by my advanced open water scuba diving course. On the last days of the course, I brought my camera with me in some waterproof housing. Needless to say, I never mastered the art of multi-tasking between being in awe of everything around me, breathing underwater, navigating the reef, having the time of my life, staying out of harms way and getting a gauge of manually controlling the amount of light in my camera. Oh well better luck next time. I mostly used these underwater photos as a way to teach myself how to use CS4.. some of these are a little over or under done. Photoshop can do wonders in returning a photo to its natural colors before they were completely deflected.

These ameteur underwater photographs are special to me because they capture the magical realism as best they can of an experience I can't stop having recurring lucid dreams about.