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WILSON WYATT JR

Tag Archives: Nature

Inspiration . . .the muse is always present

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by Wilson Wyatt Jr. in Inspiration, Photography, Sunrise, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Creativity, Inspiration, Muse, Nature, Patience, Photography, Sunrise, Writing

Inspiration – Click on the image for a larger view.

Often we hear, “I need inspiration,” or, “I’m waiting for the muse.”  It’s as if we wait long enough it will come to us. Creativity is not a passive endeavor.  Just around us, perhaps only a few steps away, there is always something that can inspire us.  If we look, it will be there, waiting for us, like it always has.  We need to take that first step.

I find inspiration in a beautiful photograph or painting, in the lines of a poem, or the words of a great story.  I find it by walking outdoors to capture the sunrise or sunset or a flower in bloom, or to hear the rustling of deer in the forest.  It’s also present in the innocent faces of laughing children, or the wisdom imbedded in the wrinkles of an elder.  It is evident in remarkable deeds of kindness by one human being toward another. If we stop just long enough to see it, inspiration will be there, waiting…patiently…for our embrace.

Nature is spectacular, commanding our respect

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by Wilson Wyatt Jr. in Dust Storm Over Phoenix, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Arizona, Desert, Dust Storm, Haboob, Nature, Phoenix, Pima Indian Reservation, Scottsdale, Weather

Haboob Over Phoenix, Arizona – Click on any photo for large view.

An intense dust storm swept over Phoenix last Saturday, offering this photo opportunity.

A haboob (Arabic for “strong wind”) rolled a fast-moving wall of dust across the desert, engulfing most of the Phoenix area at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 21.  Considered the largest and most dangerous of dust storms, it comes to the arid region about three times a year, during July and August, pushing dust, sand, and debris along its massive path.  Motorists pull off highways, and residents find cover for the two or three-hour duration.  It precedes a monsoon, the thunderstorm whose downdraft or microburst creates the powerful haboob…though, sometimes, the rain evaporates in the heat and never hits the ground.  Last Saturday, the rain came, as well.

I’ve seen these storms from an airplane…but never up close.  I was in Scottsdale visiting my son.  We are both photographers.  We were driving along the Pima Indian Reservation and spotted the wall of the dust storm billowing over the horizon, as if some invisible force was pushing it to the ground and churning it forward.  It was an incredible sight…powerful and mysterious.  The wall of dust was moving toward us at about 30 miles per hour.

I pulled off the road and parked on a sand clearing.  We got out.  I had my camera in hand.  Wilson III, my son, picked up an iPhone, and we walked toward the storm to gather some images.   This was an amazing opportunity.   Some other cars passed by, but we were the only ones who stopped to take photographs.  The wind picked up.  As it came closer, the thick dust wall grew taller and more magnificent.  We both took photos…of the storm and of each other.  As it neared, the air turned an orange brown color, and debris started to roll across the desert.  When the wall was almost above us, we noticed a multitude of black desert birds being carried by the wind in the front of the ballooning cloud.   They used the momentum of the wind to carry them to safety.

When we felt the dust and sand against our skin, it was time to return to the car…but we continued to take images and experience a spectacular phenomenon of nature.  While the wind gusts were strong, we were not in danger.  We just felt the exhilarating power of nature at work.  I hope you enjoy these images from an afternoon we will not forget.

The storm moves closer

Nature’s Spectacular Power – Eye of the Storm – photo of me by my son, taken with an iPhone

Photo of my son, as the haboob moves toward us

– The Storm Arrives (click on photo for larger, detailed view)

Photographic Tribute to Water Lilies

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by Wilson Wyatt Jr. in Flowers, Longwood Gardens, Photography, Water Lilies

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Dragonfly, Flowers, Kennett Square, Longwood Gardens, Lotus, Nature, Pennsylvania, Photography, plants, Water Lilies

If you care for nature, she will reward you with her beauty.  That is certainly true in Longwood Gardens, near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  It’s a living museum spanning over a thousand acres of gardens, woodlands and meadows devoted to our natural heritage.   Nestled outside the 4-acre Conservatory “greenhouse” building, landscaped pools provide a home for numerous varieties of water lilies, from June to October.  Despite its popularity, this is a quiet place where the gentle sounds of fountains stir the water…and your mind…and colorful blooms rise from the dark pools like nature’s stars.

For our anniversary, my wife and I returned to this special place to photograph the water lilies and stroll along the trails throughout Longwood.  I am presenting here a sampling of my images from June, as a tribute to the water lilies.

A dragonfly joins us in the Water Lily Garden

Thank you to all the welcoming staff and volunteers who maintain Longwood Gardens…and to the foundation that has preserved this unique horticultural wonder for the public, in the spirit of the founder, Pierre S. du Pont.  Website: www.longwoodgardens.com

Our sense of Time

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by Wilson Wyatt Jr. in Photography, Uncategorized, Writing, YOSEMITE - CATCHING THE LIGHT

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Catching the Light, Light, Mariposa Grove, Nature, Sequoia, Time, Trees, Yosemite, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Valley

Each to their own time. As we are born, and die, and our parts rejoin the earth…a fallen sequoia rests in the forest unaffected, for generations …affording a humble view of our own mortality.

– Photo from YOSEMITE-CATCHING THE LIGHT, Copyright 2011 by Wilson Wyatt Jr.  (Click on image for full size)

This image presented unique photographic challenges.  I wanted to capture the “feeling” I had in the Mariposa Grove of sequoias, in a cold June rain, as a small being among these giants that have endured three generations of “guests” in the forest.  So, Time was one quality to capture.  Lighting was another issue.  How does a photographer render the many shades of “black” in the tangled ancient roots from this tree…a root ball almost three stories tall…while capturing the array of greens from the moss and surrounding forest, without the image being “blown out” by the sky? I also wanted the image to portray the dimension of size, comparing this mammoth to its surroundings, like the old, broken trail fence and the new growth of young trees.  So often, nature is impossible to replicate. A photographer can only do his best.

This fallen tree will remain here, unchanged, long after I depart this earth…but I had the opportunity to witness it in my lifetime.

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