Monthly Archives: October 2013

And Now For Something Completely Different

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This is the time of year when we begin to shift away from the vibrant colors of the green growing season. The riotous colors of summer have had their day and now the parties’ over. As you look around it may be difficult to spot beauty, the colors are muted and understated, the background support of the greenery is gone and things stand on their own. You begin to see shapes and textures in a way that wasn’t apparent before. You have to look closer and with a different eye, if you will, to see the beauty that exists when the season begins to prepare itself for the long winter sleep.

I have long appreciated the Japanese aesthetics and view of the individual as opposed to the many, in finding beauty. According to the western take on Japanese aesthetics, “the Japanese aesthetic is a set of ancient ideals that include wabi (transient and stark beauty), sabi (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and yūgen (profound grace and subtlety)”. At least that’s how the bright folks over at Wikipedia see it. That description works for me too.

Many times when my mind needs clearing I will go out and look for this kind of image. The time it takes to find it and get my mind aligned with the calmness needed to see the perfect combination that is the melding of the transient, stark beauty with the natural patina and aging, transports me from a dark place to one filled with light. It is very cheap therapy.

To some this image will look like a picture of some weeds and to them I say “You’re right, but what beautifully exquisite weeds.”  To you I say “Take it for whatever value it provides.” and I hope it provides you with some peace and tranquility if that is what you need.

No Hiding

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All right everybody back to work. It’s Monday and you can’t get around it. See that sun, that’s the Monday morning monitor sun. It shines everywhere and there’s no hiding from it’s merciless glare. We’ve talked before about how you’ve abused your weekends with all kinds of deliberate malefactions, misdemeanors, transgressions and general bad behavior.  You didn’t care that Monday was on the other side of those two days of freedom and it’s been like a bad day at Vegas for you every weekend once you kick loose on Friday. Now it’s time to pay the piper. So no excuses and don’t bother hiding they know where you live. Back to work. P.S. Only 4 days to the weekend.

Thrills In Adventureland

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It had been a long arduous trip through the back country weaving our way carefully over every obstacle in our way. Our trusty old truck, the “Enola Gay” had taken us places very few people had dared to go with the exception of the road building crews, the occasional school bus, UPS, the Swan’s truck and the maintenance crews that maintained this goat track. We felt that we were traversing virgin ground. There was very little sign that anyone had been through  here in ages, Oh there was the usual abandoned Wal-Mart shopping cart, some post modern graffiti on the benches at the bus stops, but generally there was a feeling of abandonment and disuse that was palpable. You felt alone, like anything could happen.

In the continual quest for new images this photographer has been in some pretty hair-raising places where my personal safety felt totally at risk, but none so blatantly scary as this lonely road through this uncharted wilderness. Many times I’ve had to choose between safety and getting the shot. The choice has always been very clear, get the hell out of there, you can always get another picture. This day was no exception.

This had seemed like an opportune spot for getting some shots of rocks, maybe a cliff face or two, a vista maybe and although this particular area didn’t look all that promising my dad used to say “If you find yourself in hot water, take a bath.” so the photo shoot began. It was then that there was this sudden, incredibly loud noise like the mountain had split apart or erupted or just decided to give these puny little human interlopers a smack in the neck and the entire world seemed to stand still for a moment.

There was a rushing sound of little stones making bigger stones roll down the cliff, gathering momentum and encouraging others to join in until a huge mass of stones, rocks, dust and energy slammed down onto the roadway in a cacophony of destruction. It wasn’t this rock however, this one had been here for weeks and was in no danger of going anywhere. No, the rock slide I just described happened somewhere else entirely. I don’t have any idea where. It just wasn’t here. But it could have been. See that’s the dangerous part. If we had been in that very spot a couple of thousand years ago that could have landed right on us. I’m still breathing a sigh of relief.

Now I didn’t tell you this story to scare you or make you apprehensive about our safety. It was just to let you know the lengths that this photographer will go to get you the fresh spectacular images you’ve come to expect here at BigShotsNow.com. There is no risk too great that I can’t walk away from and get you another incredible picture taken in a safer place instead. I enter into this danger willingly because you’re worth it. Thanks for giving me a reason to do this dangerous job.

Bosque Banshee

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Screaming down out of the great white north, a snow goose comes in for a landing. One of thousands of birds heading south for the winter she is usually accompanied by the rest of her clan and the clan by the flock and the flocks by each other until the sky is filled to the horizons with birds. They literally darken the sky as they come in to feed at the cornfields and settle in to the ponds for the night.

When I was young, way last century, my maternal grandmother would yell at us kids out the back door “You kids knock it off you sound like a bunch of banshees”. We never knew what banshees were, unless they were a bunch of 8 and 9 year old kids that yelled a lot but we also knew that the razor strap hung on the nail next to the key that never locked the back door so we’d quiet down for a while.

When the snow geese are coming in they must be the banshees that my grandmother yelled about. The sounds they make are incredible and constant and fill the air until you can’t hear anything else. Your very skin seems to resonate with the sound. At sunset when they’re returning to the ponds and filling them with their bodies until it would be impossible for one more bird to land they keep up a constant volume of noise that must soothe them just through being exposed to the standing waves of the sound. Kind of like an audible massage.

The next morning when the magic of the ascension happens the thousands upon thousands of geese lift into the air in unison and at first all you hear is the soft gentle thunder of their wing beats that gets louder and louder as they start to pass over you. They lift off just moments before the sun comes over the hills surrounding the ponds and as the first rays strike them they begin to call in what can only be a song of celebration of a new day.

Banshees or not it is a sound I have come to love and believe that everyone should hear once, although it’s probably a good thing for the geese that my grandmother wasn’t along though.

Checking In

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Things are still slightly chaotic as the various organizations struggle with reopening after the shut down. It’s not just a question of taking down the yellow crime scene tape and  throwing open the gates. The various groups that had been dispersed have to re-gather, check in and get their new assignments. Their new id cards have to be issued and duty schedules have to be worked out. Late arrivals have to be tracked down to make certain the pack is up to full strength and to make sure they’re all present for the final muster before they turn the tourists loose in the park. Logistically it’s just another screwed up monkey dance to get the place up and running again.

Felony VonLupus, master-at-arms of the Hayden pack is seen returning after getting the word out to some of the stragglers that hadn’t checked in yet. She has been working tirelessly to get the pack reformed so they qualify for their elk allotment. If the pack isn’t at full strength they won’t get their kill authorization for their full allocation of elk and buffalo and with it being this late in the season they’re going to have  to work double-time to bring down enough animals as it is, to make it through the winter. Plus this whole shut down thing meant that the instructors, being government employees, had to cease training so they didn’t have sufficient time to get the young wolves up to speed in elk killing let alone how to bring down a full grown buffalo. So they’ll have to spend valuable time on OJT, or on the job training, to turn the youngsters into proper killing machines. There’s going to be a lot of ripple effects from this fiasco.

But problems or not, they’re ready to open this place up for business and get everybody back to work. At least for the next month or two. So I feel better, don’t you?

Well It’s A New Day

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The world woke up this morning and found that it was a brand new day. The sun came up pretty much on schedule, found that there were some minor changes made in some areas, then proceeded to make its rounds through the heavens just like it was supposed to.

Some of the changes appeared to be monumental to a few folks, some appeared to be monumental to a lot of folks, but in the over all scheme of things it was just life doing what it does.

It appears that whatever set of circumstances we humans are operating under will play out as they will and it looks very much like the cosmos will continue unaltered for some time yet. And regardless of what may be happening locally we can all take some comfort in that.

Apparently the director of the Institute has been located after seemingly going off the deep end, and that dispite bingeing on at least eleven packs of Lucky Strikes a day, and mild over the counter sedatives plus an overindulgence in Everclear, seems to be his old self. Although a little bit weathered from the storm, he appears ready to return to the Institute and resume doing as much good for the world in an institutional way, as he can possibly afford. The staff is anxious for his return, not only for his leadership which was unmissed, but after all he is the boss, and he has the only set of keys to the food lockers. People had begun eyeing each other in a Donner Pass kind of way if you know what I mean. There was also a rumor that they might even get paid. I wouldn’t count on that one just yet, but who knows weird things are happening all over the place. But aside from all that it’s still a brand new day. Let’s get on with it.

Some of These Days

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Some of these days aren’t like the others, some of these days are not the same. Most days start out pretty much the same, you get up, you can’t find your glasses, you want to sleep another 3-4 hours, you want tea, hot tea, with lots of caffeine, you want it to be a good day, one that won’t end up being the worst day you could ever remember, but what happens is you don’t have a lot of say in the matter, you take what you get.

I think today is going to be one of those days that is going to fall somewhere between “this is one of the worst days of my life” and “well, that was better than a  circumcision gone wrong”. The sun came up just like normal that’s a good sign and it even looks like it might be a bright sun-shiny day. I remember something a buddy of mine in the service, now long gone, used to say. “Well, they can kill you but they can’t eat you.”So let’s get to it and see what the day brings. Whataya say.