"I want to go someplace where I can marvel at something" says an unhappy Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) in the film "Eat Pray Love." I haven't seen the movie yet, but I know where this character is coming from.
The phrase I use is: "I want to see something beautiful." By beautiful, I really mean something so stunning that it will take my breath away and make my soul ache.
Dag, from Lois McMaster Bujold's novel "Beguilement," talks about boating in a beautiful lake covered in lily pads and how he stored its memory away to sustain him in difficult times. I like that sentiment.
"The water weeds wound down and around each other like waving green feathers. And floating on top were these flat lily pads...Deep green, with red edges, and thin red lines running down the stems in the water. And their lily flowers had just opened up, floating there like sunbursts, white as...as nothing I had ever seen, these translucent petals veined like milky dragonfly wings, glowing in the light reflecting off the water. With luminous, powdery gold centers seeming flowers within flowers, spiraling in forever...I hung over the edge of the boat staring at them, must have been an hour. Watching the light and the water dance around them in celebration. I could not look away." He gulped a suddenly difficult breath. "Later, in some very dry places, the memory of that hour was enough to go on with."Photo by Flickr's tuinkabouter (Creative Commons license here)
I haven't been to a Marveling Place in a few years. The next best thing? Armchair marveling. Enjoy.
Animal
Swimming with the Whale Sharks (via Chookooloonks)
Make sure you click through to see the manta rays shots.
Vegetable Gardens in Japan shot by William Corey (via Livestrong Magazine)
Corey used a huge 70 lb, early 20th Century wide-angle 8x20 Korona Panoramic View Camera with film that was hand cut in sheets. Corey would sketch and plan shots for several days before he actually took the photo. Corey was the first Westerner to be invited to photograph the Emperor of Japan's private gardens.
This is my favorite photo:
http://www.williamcorey.com/japanese-garden-photography-portfolio/nd62-Shisendo.html
Mineral
Time Lapse in Joshua Tree National Park During the Perseid Meteor Shower by Henry Jun Wah Lee. The shooting stars are hard to see. The lines that appear are airplanes (I think.) What I like most is just seeing the rotation of the earth. Makes all your problems seem tiny.
Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.
2 comments:
Wow, those are some big sharks. That kind of took my breath away.
A number of years ago my husband and I met up with some friends in LA and drove out to Joshua Tree to see the Perseids. We brought sleeping bags and just lay on the ground watching the sky. It was lovely.
That is a beautiful timelapse video, thanks for pointing it out!
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