Soaking in Texas

All beauty of this world is wet with the dew of tears.

Theodor Haecker

The morning after a stormy night

a few raindrops linger

and a silent fog rolls in

Love is not a hot-house flower, but a wild plant, born of a wet night, born of an hour of sunshine; sprung from wild seed, blown along the road by a wild wind.

John Galsworthy

I had a great time visiting my family in Fort Worth this week. The weather was unusually cloudy and rainy for spring in Texas, but not unwelcome -the wildflowers are more abundant than I’ve ever seen them this year. It was a short visit. Now I’m blowing on down the road like a wild seed on a wild wind.

Hope your week was beautiful Thank you for to everyone who shared your photos experimenting with frames! Keep on sending! Maybe they will end up in a future post. Love to you all. See you next week.

An absolute

patience.

Trees stand

up to their knees in

fog…

Denise Levertov

Framing

The magic possibility of framing a certain space and time is what brought me to photography. This process of recording elements of 3 dimensions in the flow of time, and fixing them in a 2 dimensional image, creates a new context for the elements of the photograph.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

(See his photos)

What seems to hold you

Only frames you fleetingly

You were always free.

I have been thinking about and playing with frames in photographs.

How they can change an ordinary scene into something special.

How they can focus the eye, capture light, create intimacy with the vast.

You have escaped the cage. Your wings are stretched out. Now fly.

Rumi

Maybe this is something you can try yourself, if you’re interested. Go for a walk with your smartphone or camera and look for objects, doorways, fences, holes in walls, forks in trees - anything that you can look through to emphasize your subject beyond, within, or possibly even perched on your chosen frame. I would love to see what you come up with! You can either send it to me directly or just post it and tag me if you’re on Instagram @randomrho.

Thank you so much for being here! I am going to be traveling for the next couple weeks with unknown connectivity- so I might be posting on a slightly wonky schedule - but I’ll see you next week-ish 😊.

Potential frames are everywhere. Green Heron on the ropes at the Miami Beach Marina.

Murmur

The rare earth elements perplex us in our researches, baffle us in our speculations, and haunt us in our very dreams. They stretch like an unknown sea before us mocking, mystifying and murmuring strange revelations and possibilities.

William Crookes

Murmur

The Creator said,

“I will make a tiny bird

the color of night

speckled with stars,

this starling

will learn to speak in many voices -

confusing to his enemies,

delightful to his friends.

He will multiply and spread

Across the earth.

Men will name him ‘pest’, and ‘invader’

farmers will call him ‘menace’ -

all will drive him from their lands.

But for his protection,

I will give this beloved,

mischievous bird

the gift of synchronous flight -

When danger threatens -

he will rise

with thousands of his kind

spinning and circling

dancing and weaving

carving and twisting

in formations

mimicking the creation

and dissolution of galaxies

darkening the sky -

a dismay to his enemies,

a wonder to his friends -

each little bird

on his own path

in harmony

with the flock

a murmuration of sound

and movement.”

And when he watched

their first flight,

the Creator said,

“It is good.”

To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of all creation as oneself.

Mahatma Gandhi

If you haven’t ever seen a murmuration of starlings, this video on YouTube is amazing.

Also check out the beautiful work of photographer Soren Solkaer on starlings and their murmurations here: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/soren-solkaer/

If you want to hear a sample of the variety of sounds a starling can make, check out @inkydragon (artist, Sarah Tidwell, who rescued a starling she calls “the mouth”) on Instagram. Here’s a link if you don’t have instagram or don’t want to follow: the mouth

The creation theme was inspired by a writing class I’m taking from tricycle.org called “Writing as a Spiritual Practice” and my genuine awe of the amazing abilities of these little birds I see everywhere, and am only just now really beginning to appreciate.

Hope you have a great week. See you next Friday!