{"id":2638,"date":"2017-06-06T11:43:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T16:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lyndalambert.com\/walking-by-inner-vision-blog\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2017-06-06T11:57:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T16:57:20","slug":"rh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lyndalambert.com\/wordpress\/rh\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing Rhododendron Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capturing Rhododendron Dreams<\/h1>\n

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It’s\u00a0 Springtime in Western Pennsylvania<\/h2>\n

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My ordinary, everyday world\u00a0is alive\u00a0with:<\/p>\n

peaceful sights in the early morning dawn,<\/p>\n

bird songs and melodic\u00a0 conversations,<\/p>\n

insect sounds that provide a soft white noise effect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0 of the blooming flowers in the woods\u00a0 in\u00a0my yard,\u00a0is delicate and memorable.<\/p>\n

I just want to stand still with my eyes\u00a0 closed\u00a0\u00a0for a while \u00a0to take them all into my awareness.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0held\u00a0my camera and\u00a0 shot a lot of photos of the\u00a0 twenty-foot- high<\/p>\n

Rhododendron\u00a0bush in full\u00a0bloom<\/p>\n

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LOVE of PHOTOGRAPHY<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wanted to capture the early morning light\u00a0the fully open<\/p>\n

lavender-pink blossoms \u2013\u00a0hundreds of them.<\/p>\n

I am alive and so is all of\u00a0Nature<\/p>\n

There will never be another day just like this one.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0sense that I am \u00a0a fragile breeze that will never return.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve always loved the magic of taking photographs.\u00a0 My loss of\u00a0sight has not decreased\u00a0 the passion I have for those unexpected\u00a0and succulent images.\u00a0 My methods have changed though.<\/p>\n

I sold my totally manual 35 mm cameras and all the attachments because I needed a camera I could set on automatic controls, allowing me to point and shoot.<\/p>\n

For some people who observe me taking pictures while standing with my long white mobility cane, it\u00a0 is \u00a0a puzzle. I just have to think of it as my little joke.<\/p>\n

They cannot imagine the beauty I capture in my photographs because they don\u2019t understand we do not have to physically see our world to completely enjoy it by taking photos.<\/p>\n

I love photography as much now as I did when I was completely sighted. Maybe I like it even more now because I have a deeper appreciation of the craft.<\/p>\n

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HOW I SEE<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I can see the shots on my large screen<\/p>\n

computer\u00a0monitor because I use a program that is an adaptation for the blind or visually impaired person.<\/p>\n

I \u00a0use ZoomText.\u00a0 Not only does it enlarge my photos to the point where I can see them in detail, it also reads texts to me as I write.<\/p>\n

It has\u00a0a \u201cSpeech\u201d option on ZoomText.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How I love my ZoomText! It is pure magic for me. It enables me to fully participate as a photographer in the visual world, just like I always did before sight loss.<\/p>\n

I am writing about these activities with photography, this morning, to say that it\u00a0is another\u00a0 way to capture images that will be transformed, at times, into a new poem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FROM PHOTO TO POEM<\/h2>\n

There is no separation, for me, between fine art and poetry. My process is the same for creating both,\u00a0 though the instruments and methods are different.\u00a0 It is the tools and the\u00a0 adaptations of tools that enable me to continue to do the things I have always loved to do \u2013 write poetry and make art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

When I begin to think about my subject and how I will create a poem from this image, I begin to remember my physical contact with it, too. It is only partly a visual image. My other senses are there as well. I use them all when I begin to create the photograph or the poem. It all begins with awareness of the moment \u2013 fully aware of it all.\u00a0 It is a kind of awakening from a deep sleep \u2013 it happens slowly, in layers.<\/p>\n

The question is:<\/h2>\n

How to take a great photo\u00a0or write\u00a0a great poem\u00a0from an<\/p>\n

image you cannot see?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BE AWARE of YOUR SURROUNDINGS<\/h2>\n

Awareness of the\u00a0physical aspects of your subject is important.<\/p>\n

Every detail \u00a0has a living presence. A flower is a tangible thing. Pay attention to the smell of it. Each blossom or blade of grass or leaf has livingness; it breathes, moves, shifts, changes, lives, flourishes, wilts, decays and dies.<\/p>\n

This morning I stopped and listened carefully to\u00a0 the lone crow calling from the woods surrounding my home. I heard the rushing waters of the creek below the meadow. Mingled in with the water\u2019s flow, I heard the softer sounds of the wild geese that are along the water\u2019s edge, as they are every spring. Suddenly, I was aware of what seemed like a layer of sharp staccato jabs, piercing trills, from a bird. It felt like the sound punctuated the top layer of the morning\u2019s landscape.<\/p>\n

My body brushed against\u00a0the dripping wet leaves as I moved through the water drenched trees along the path.\u00a0 I felt the dampness because my tennis shoes were wet. The dew was heavy and seemed to flatten down the grass so that it looked like an ocean of gentle waves of deep\u00a0 emerald-green.\u00a0 My clothing\u00a0clung to my torso as the water dropped steadily from the thick tree branches overhead.. I walked steadily, parting the branches along the pathway. This day felt good.<\/p>\n

My physical contact with everything that surrounds me will appear in my photograph.\u00a0 I\u2019ll concentrate on capturing the livingness of this particular day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ART AND LIFE ARE ONE<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll return to the house and in the solitude of my office I\u2019ll begin the additional work\u00a0\u00a0 that will take the images from the morning\u2019s experiences. I will take them from the camera, blow them up through the computer photo program, and then begin to crop, select, and edit my photos.\u00a0 For the poem that might come forth from this morning\u2019s work with the camera and the photo editing, I will begin to record some words about my subject.\u00a0 I will write a blog about today\u2019s adventure in the early morning.<\/p>\n

My blossoms have center stage, they are\u00a0 stars, each of them. They bloom gloriously on a bush I plunged\u00a0 into the soil years ago. It was once a small plant in a little plastic container at that time.\u00a0 As the years have passed it has grown into the magnificent blooming waterfall-type of wall \u2013 bursting forth with magnificent\u00a0 flowers that I saw\u00a0 this morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writing and photography remind me that life happens slowly, like the growth of this Rhododendron bush that reaches up as high as the second story of our old house<\/p>\n

Our life\u00a0 performances are acted out \u00a0on a stage in the smallest details\u00a0over \u00a0the passing years.<\/p>\n

Would you like to take a walk today and see what you find blooming in your world?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

Copyright 2017. Lynda McKinney Lambert. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Poems, \u00a0Essays \u00a0and Photography by Lunda McKinney Lambert. Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Lynda \u00a0McKinney Lambert<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n

.\"Front<\/p>\n

\n

Blogger:<\/h2>\n
Walking by Inner Vision Blog<\/a><\/div>\n
SCANdalous-Recollections Blog<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Author:<\/h2>\n

Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage (Kota Press), 2002.<\/em><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n

Walking by Inner Vision: Stories & Poems, DLD Books, 2017\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n
Visit Lynda\u2019s Author\u2019s Page<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lynda is a Peer Adviser \u00a0and writes articles on sight loss and blindness for \u00a0Vision Aware Blog<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CONTACT ME: riverwoman@zoominternet.net<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Visit my Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Contact Me<\/a><\/p>\n

Author’s Page<\/a><\/p>\n

“Our truest life is when we are in our dreams – awake.” Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing and photography remind me that life happens slowly, like the growth of this Rhododendron bush that reaches up as high as the second story of our old house<\/p>\n

Our life is acted out on a stage in the smallest details of the passing years.<\/p>\n Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trusting-god"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4gbwn-rh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.lyndalambert.com\/wordpress\/rhododendron-dreams\/","url_meta":{"origin":2638,"position":0},"title":"Lynda’s Journal – Rhododendron Dreams","author":"Lynda Lambert","date":"May 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Rhododendron Dreams\u00a0 \u00a0 Spring Time \u00a0in Western Pennsylvania \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What a beautiful morning \u00a0here in Western Pennsylvania. The world here\u00a0is alive\u00a0with sights, sounds,smells today. My senses are acutely aware of it all because I have just returned from my early morning workout at the gym where I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#Trusting God"","block_context":{"text":"#Trusting God","link":"https:\/\/www.lyndalambert.com\/wordpress\/category\/trusting-god\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wRNc_qOVurw\/T7J-x21ZENI\/AAAAAAAAAMg\/UFdc03Ficig\/s320\/2012_Rhode_LovelyPinkLady.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3086,"url":"https:\/\/www.lyndalambert.com\/wordpress\/a-fragile-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2638,"position":1},"title":"A Fragile Thing","author":"Lynda Lambert","date":"May 3, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"May 3, 2018 \u00a0 I am so delighted to share my new poem with you. I worked on \" A Fragile Thing,\" most of the day yesterday. 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