Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Seeing 2014 (#4)

For your consideration:  a stellar performance, witnessed.

'Tis all too easy to lose one's focus, to stray far afield from any consciousness of the literally boundless wonders resplendent in an incomprehensibly vast universe, that profoundly mysterious space which is in fact the incubator of our fragile lives.

What's your preoccupation?

Mine has been the bizarre fate of Malaysian Air flight 370, the unrest in the Ukraine, the horrific Oso mudslide (in the grim category); the joy and heartbreak of my Arizona Wildcat's journey through March Madness, the nascent MLB season ahead for the San Francisco Giants (true confession: casual fan here), the passing of the torch by David Letterman (entertainment category); what can possibly go wrong next in technology at work, and which of the literally hundreds of newly-photographed-fountain images do I want to process next (work-and-play categories) . . .

Regardless of one's chosen niche in life, the vast majority of us inhabit a microscopically narrow slice of the available and readily accessible, amazingly diverse paths which can be pursued; we tend to unwittingly fall asleep to the plethora of wonders surrounding us at every instant of our existence.  A pity, that, for midst the so-called demands of the world, too often sources of stress, anger, and myopic despair, thrives spectacular, splendid, euphoric beauty and grace.

This alternate reality accompanies and calls to us with every breath, every step, every beat of the heart. The challenge is to awaken to it, to pause long enough to notice that indeed the heavenly spheres have their music. And what a joyous, moving, healing and awe-infusing symphony it is . . .

Thus, despite a self-imposed conflict of being too tired (lazy) to undertake the logistics (on short notice, especially), of being immersed in the warm comfort of my digital darkroom, and of telling myself that the "seeing" would, due to the local metropolis' overwhelming light pollution, be lousy anyway . . . at the last possible moment I rousted myself from the mundane, engaged the technical and aesthetic challenges, the misty, damp air and soaking wet grass beneath my vantage point (in a local park), and turned my gaze upward, in pursuit of a view far beyond my Self . . .

And was amply, profoundly, humbly rewarded.


Lunar Eclipse, April 15, 2014, 12:55 a.m., #2253-7D

© 2014 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: April 15, 2014, Canon 7D; f/5.6 @ 1 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 800;
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM @ 300mm

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