"What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."
— Gabriel García Márquez
The Magic of Memory #2 - photomontage of three shots
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens / Samsung 70-200mm Lens
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Making Tracks II
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Making Tracks To The Moon
"Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun."
— J.R.R. Tolkien
The Magic of Memory #1 - photomontage of two shots
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, December 26, 2011
The Nature of Solitude
"I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude."
— Henry David Thoreau
Spearfishing in the Tasman Sea at Christmas...
Happy Holidays everyone ! ツ ツ ツ
* Pentax K100D + Sigma 70-300mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Fire and Ice
"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."
— Robert Frost
Happy Holidays everyone ! ツ ツ ツ
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Heart of the Sunrise
Little by little the night turns around.
Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn.
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning.
Under the eaves the swallow is resting.
Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
From Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
by Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
* Samsung Galaxy Note Smartphone - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, December 23, 2011
Returning Home
"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."
— Vincent van Gogh
Random Acts Of Beauty #6
chosen at random from the archives...
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Golden Lining
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Bring On The Night
"You see my state, and still increase my pain
I see your face, the need for union regain.
For my welfare, you have no care, I complain
Why do you heal me not from the sickness I disdain?
You bring me down and leave me on the earthly plane;
Return me to my home, by your side let me remain.
Only when I’m dust, your mercy can entertain;
Your flowing spirit stirs up dust of the slain.
Heartbroken of your love, from breathing I abstain
My life you destroy, yet my breathing you sustain.
In the dark night of the soul, I was growing insane,
Drinking from the cups that your features contain.
Suddenly in my arms, you appeared, clear, plain;
With my lips on your lips, my life and soul gain and drain.
Be joyful with Hafiz, with love enemies detain,
With such potent love, impotent foes self-restrain.
مرا می‌بینی و هر دم زیادت می‌کـنی دردم
تو را می‌بینـم و میلـم زیادت می‌شود هر دم
بـه سامانم نمی‌پرسی نمی‌دانم چه سر داری
بـه درمانـم نـمی‌کوشی نمی‌دانی مگر دردم
نه راه است این که بگذاری مرا بر خاک و بگریزی
گذاری آر و بازم پرس تا خاک رهـت گردم
ندارم دستت از دامن بجز در خاک و آن دم هـم
کـه بر خاکـم روان گردی به گرد دامنـت گردم
فرورفـت از غم عشقت دمم دم می‌دهی تا کی
دمار از مـن برآوردی نـمی‌گویی برآوردم
شـبی دل را به تاریکی ز زلفت باز می‌جستـم
رخـت می‌دیدم و جامی هـلالی باز می‌خوردم
کـشیدم در برت ناگاه و شد در تاب گیسویت
نـهادم بر لـبـت لـب را و جان و دل فدا کردم
تو خوش می‌باش با حافظ برو گو خصم جان می‌ده
چو گرمی از تو می‌بینم چه باک از خصم دم سردم"
— Hafez
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Dreaming Isle
"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."
— Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
Random Acts Of Beauty #1
chosen at random from the archives...
* Pentax K20D + Sigma 70-300mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, December 5, 2011
Flying Far Away
"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."
— Richard Bach
The Dancing Gull says goodbye...
* Pentax K20D + Sigma 70-300mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Praying To Neptune
"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune."
— Noam Chomsky
The wild West Coast at Granity in the north west of New Zealand's South Island... I dream of living there one day.
Spot the person praying to Neptune! :-)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, December 2, 2011
A Slice of Life
"How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em."
— Shel Silverstein
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Beach Silhouettes Series #5- The Gambia 2011
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Riding The Waves
"In riding a horse, we borrow freedom"
— Helen Thompson
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Lazy Day Cruising
"I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen."
— Jean-Paul Sartre
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, November 25, 2011
Senegal Safari
"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has no personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
— John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #9 -Giant Eland
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, November 24, 2011
A Forest of Necks
"God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things."
— Pablo Picasso
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #8 - Giraffe
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Zebra Stripes
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Red On Green
"When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?"
— Shel Silverstein (A Light in the Attic)
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #6 - Red-Billed Hornbill
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Monkey Wondering
“Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.”
― Haruki Murakami
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #5 - Green Monkey
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Another World
“Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Lying under this shade all day, reading Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, listening to the pounding surf... priceless!!!
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, November 18, 2011
Golden Beach
"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."
— Bob Dylan
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Beach Silhouettes Series #3 - The Gambia 2011
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Hitching A Ride
"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."
— Barack Obama
"Hitch your wagon to a star."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #3 - Giant Eland
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Inquisitive Egret
"Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions."
— Tom Robbins
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #2 - Egret
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, November 14, 2011
West African Sunset
"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
— Desmond Tutu
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, November 13, 2011
African Family
"Westerners arriving in Africa for the first time are always struck by its beauty and size--even the sky seems higher. And they often find themselves suddenly cracked open. They lose inhibitions, feel more alive, more themselves, and they begin to understand why, until then, they have only half lived. In Africa the essentials of existence--light, earth, water, food, birth, family, love, sickness, death--are more immediate, more intense. Visitors suddenly realize what life is for. To risk a huge generalization: [In the West], amid our wasteful wealth and time-pressed lives we have lost human values that still abound in Africa."
— Richard Dowden
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Beach Silhouettes Series #2 - The Gambia 2011
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Monkey See Monkey Do
"We are all just monkeys with money and guns."
— Tom Waits
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
African Wildlife Series #1 - Red Colobus Monkey
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, November 11, 2011
Review: 1Q84 Book 1 and Book 2
1Q84 Book 1 and Book 2 by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Murakami, the master weaver of worlds, at his epic best! This is a stunning and complex story expertly woven by alternating the two main characters, Tengo and Aomame. This book defies categorisation. at once drama, thriller, epic and love story it is a literary masterpiece that enthralls the reader from beginning to end. Absolutely the best Murakami, in fact best book I have read for a long long time. Clearly the first two of three books, the end leaves everything hanging and demands you immediately read Book 3. Thank god for the Kindle! ...even though I was on a beach in sub-Saharan Africa I just went online and downloaded Book 3 there and then with Whispernet.
A Brilliant literary masterpiece from a modern literary master!
View all my reviews
At The Beach
"This is how the entire course of a life can be changed: by doing nothing."
— Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach)
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot SOOC
Beach Silhouettes Series #1 - The Gambia 2011
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Roofline Reflection
"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
— Charles Dickens
I'm heading off for an adventure in the Winter Sun of sub-Saharan Africa and will be away for three weeks... see you all when I get back, hopefully with a stock of new photos :-)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, October 24, 2011
A Sense of Space
"Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear, and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun."
— American Indian Lakota Prayer
* Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Romance of Sunset
"Cuando amor no es locura, no es amor."
"When love is not madness it is not love."
— Pedro Calderón de la Barca
* Pentax K100D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot SOOC
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, October 21, 2011
Land of the Long White Cloud
"Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?"
— Han-shan
Kapiti Island lies dreaming between sea and sky, under the long white cloud...
* Pentax K20D + Sigma 28-80mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Flying To The Sun
“It's hard to tell the difference between sea and sky, between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.”
― Haruki Murakami
Its getting really cold here in the UK... so I'm planning on flying to the sun :-)
* Pentax K20D + Sigma 28-80mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Molten Dawn
"O Dionysus, we feel you near,
stirring like molten lava
under the ravaged earth,
flowing from the wounds of your trees
in tears of sap,
screaming with the rage
of your hunted beasts."
— Euripides (The Bacchae)
The volcano Mt Ruapehu is clearly visible on the horizon, some 320 kms/200 miles away, as the dawn light reflects on the breaking surf on the black volcanic sand of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand.
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Retreating Ocean, Advancing Sky
"Somewhere over the darkened curve of the world the sun and moon were pulling; and the film of water on the earth planet was held, bulging slightly on one side while the solid core turned. The great wave of the tide moved further along the island and the water lifted."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sun Arise
"Be calm, be strong, be grateful, and become a lamp full of light, that the darkness of sorrows be annihilated, and the sun of everlasting joy arise from the dawning-place of heart and soul, shining brightly."
— Baha'i Writings
The sun rises over the Kapiti Coast in the south west of the North Island of New Zealand.
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Of Shadows & Light
"For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3))
Shadows and light play across the tumbled gravestones in St Woolos Cemetery, the oldest public cemetery in Britain and a very large and peaceful place. Used as a location for two Dr Who episodes, Blink (2007) and The Next Doctor (2008).
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Contemplating Crossings
"I sat cross-legged in the sand and contemplated my life. Well, there, and what difference did it make? "What's going to happen to me up ahead?"
— Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
deGull contemplates three of the nine bridges crossing the River Usk at Newport / Casnewydd, Wales / Cymru. The George Street Bridge, the first cable-stayed bridge in Britain, the City Bridge and the Newport City Footbridge in front of the new riverside campus of the University of Wales.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Watching The Fall Blow In
"Time that withers you will wither me. We will fall like ripe fruit and roll down the grass together. Dear friend, let me lie beside you watching the clouds until the earth covers us and we are gone."
— Jeanette Winterson (Written on the Body)
After several days of unseasonably warm weather, 27C/80F. I sat here watching the cold front of Autumn/Fall roll in, bringing with it a cold wind and a plunge in the temperature to 10C/50F ... brrrrr :-)
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Rays Above The Valleys
"I don't think it had ever occurred to me that man's supremacy is not primarily due to his brain, as most of the books would have one think. It is due to the brain's capacity to make use of the information conveyed to it by a narrow band of visible light rays. His civilization, all that he had achieved or might achieve, hung upon his ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet. Without that, he was lost."
— John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids)
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunflower Serendipity
Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
Ah! Sunflower By William Blake
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Late Summer Blooms Series #2
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Fuchsia Discretion
A spear of zinc light wounds stone and water,
stripping the scarlet fuchsia bells and yellow buttercups
of any discretion, so they confess their end in this
luminous declaration that they are no more than
shortlived absolutes in living colour, bright eyes
open against the dark.
From Summer Evening by Eamon Grennan
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot
Late Summer Blooms Series #1
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, October 3, 2011
Flowers and Clouds
"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars."
— Martin Luther
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Embracing The Ocean
"There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life."
— John Lennon
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Dusk of Delight
"There is only one day left, always starting over: It is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk."
— Jean-Paul Sartre
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Friday, September 30, 2011
Breathing It In
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot HDR Toned
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Mystigull
"Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly."
— Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Monday, September 26, 2011
Transitory Tracks
"Things aren't all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beside our own small, transitory life"
— Rainer Maria Rilke
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Watching It Fall
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
— Roald Dahl
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Listen to Joey Fehrenbach - Being Around You
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Hovering Above
"As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment."
— John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men)
If you look hard you can see the shell the Gull is dropping to break it open on the hard wet sand :-)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Listen to Koan - Sweet Dream
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
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