If I Could Talk to the Animals!

"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear.

What one fears, one destroys". Chief Dan George

I spent a couple of hours "communicating" with this vervet monkey near my tent in Mahale National Park in northwest Tanzania not too long ago. With my camera poised, I quietly (so I thought) moved through the jungle to gain a good vantage point from which to capture a good image. Every time I got set up and ready to click the shutter, he or she would move to another branch or tree. I soon got the feeling I was being "played for the fool". After about 45 minutes of this unproductive time (at least from my point of view), I resigned myself to the fact that cooperation was not the "forte" of the vervet monkey.

I decided that I would go and sit peacefully on the deck of my tent (yes these were 5 star tents:-)) and relax and call it a day. With my camera sitting beside me on the lounge, I began to read the book I had brought on the trip. After about 20 minutes of reading, I could hear rustling in the trees around my tent and on my roof. After another 20 minutes of activity, I looked up and saw this critter just staring at me as if to say "what, giving up already? I gently reached for my camera and got a few images. This little game that the monkey and I were engaged in reminded me of something that Henry David Thoreau said:

"Happiness is like a butterfly -- the more you chase it, the more it will

elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come

and sit softly on your shoulder."

Moving from Mahale to the eastern part of the country I encountered many animals in the Serengeti. This group of giraffe were particularly inquisitive.

*Note to readers: here is where I am quite frustrated #$@#$%$#@! The images of the giraffes is supposed to be here, not at the top. I thought I had this thing figured out, BUT I GUESS NOT!!!! This is now me going into Transcendental Meditation or some other catatonic-like state and regaining my sense of tranquility OHM! OHM! OHM! Now that I am almost at peace with the world, I think I will go have a snack instead of getting further frustrated.

Love and peace for now!

Dennis

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

My grandson who is 2 1/2 years old has a garden on the top of the local community centre. Every Sunday a "gardening class" is held for 2 year olds where they tend to their individual garden plots. The plot areas are about 20 square feet, and I am amazed at how much produce can be grown in such a small area. I was invited by Tyler (maybe summoned is a better word:-)) to attend one of his sessions. Because holding the attention of 8 to 10 two year olds is challenging to say the least, the course leader Jackie brought some bubble kits. Tyler of course wanted Grampa to blow bubbles. I was of course happy to comply, remembering many pleasant times some 60 years ago sitting in the sun and whiling my youth away, watching bubbles float in the air. My daughter (ever handy with the camera) caught me blowing bubbles on a community centre rooftop on a Sunday morning reliving my early childhood.

Looking at the photo now, I realize how important it is for us to relive our early childhood memories by getting in touch with our inner child. The care free times when the most important challenge for us was to have our bubbles bigger and last longer than those of our friends. When a catastrophe was a flat tire on our bike, and the fact our favourite baseball, football, or hockey team lost in the play-offs. I am lucky to be able to see life through the eyes of a 2+ year old, as my grandson invites me on his many adventures through the aquarium, science center, his Stanley Park community garden, visits to "our Hawaii home", and just our one on one visits to Coal Harbor Park.

My way of getting in touch with my inner child is to be the luckiest grandfather on this planet. I wish you all the joy of being your inner child for a little time each day.

Love and peace

Dennis

Teamwork! I'ts all about teamwork!

Got up early this morning with my creative juices flowing. Guess I can always clean them up later:-)). Yesterday I was talking with a dear friend, and we spent a great deal of time on the subject of creativity and teamwork. It brought to mind the photo to the right of the cape buffalo on the Serengeti and his team of "cleaners". Even on the Serengeti they understand the value of having a good team. I reasoned that we must all have members on our team if we are to succeed physically, mentally and especially spiritually.

Who are these team members and are we good team players? We all hear (ad nauseum actually) in the sports world that organizations are looking for team players, those who contribute, can follow a game plan and stick to that game plan, never give up, give 110% yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. But it struck me that it is no different in life. Who do we have on our teams, and more importantly perhaps is whose team are we on? In the above photo, it is pretty clear that the buffalo and his cleaning crew are a good team. My grandson who is 2+ years is usually convinced that he can do most things without help. This is true in many instances, but not so in many others. My daughter overcomes this by telling him that this is one of those activities that requires a "team" and she, or daddy, or grampa are his team members.

So today, I salute all the team members in my life; family, friends, significant others, fellow workers, casual acquaintances, and others who in significant and little ways contribute to my life and help make it the reality that I have created. I feel gratitude to be on the team with you and hope I am a good team player.

Dennis

If I am in Charge Here, Why is Everyone Laughing?

The image on the left was taken on the banks of the Chilkat River just north of Haines, Alaska. The scene reminded me of what many supervisors (me included) and parents must go through from time to time. This being Father's Day, I thought of the many times discipline or direction had (or was perceived to) be given to children or employees. I remember well phrases like: "if you guys don't stop fooling around, I am going to stop this car right here and turn around!" We of course giggled and soon kept on doing what we were doing. Not to offend mind you, but because we were kids doing what kids do and we were probably bored sitting in a car for hours on end on our "vacation" trips.

Not exactly sure what the point of this message is for today, but something that just came to mind. I am off shortly to have a Father's Day breakfast with my wonderful daughter and unbelievably smart and precious grandson. That of course is a totally unbiased opinion:-))

Until next time, create the best life you can imagine.

Cheers

If a Tree Falls in the Forest and no one......

The other day a friend and I were talking about "reality" in photographic images. Yes I know, I should get a real life! He was looking at some of my images and asked me if I had altered the photo in some way, or was that the way it really looked? It brought to mind the old saying "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" At the risk of delving into quantum physics and "event" versus "observer" considerations I will only say: "of course it doesn't make a sound" because sound is only perceived by an observer or someone to translate vibration into "sound". In fact I would go further and say the tree didn't exist, so it couldn't fall in the forest, because the forest didn't exist if there was no one there to hear it! But I digress.

This reality vs "photoshopped" arguement arises a lot, especially for so called "fine art" images. I attended a photo workshop a couple of years ago in Giverny, France at the estate of the late painter Claude Monet. Out objective for the week was to "paint" images with light and color and not rely on lines. In other words to adopt a new reality in our vision. The first photo attached above if of the famous "Japanese Bridge" which features prominently in Monet's painting. The four of us on the course had the whole garden to ourselves as we entered with the gardeners at 7 am and then departed when the public was allowed in at 9 am. We then returned when the garden close at 6 pm and "contemplated our new "reality in vision" until the light left us around 8:30 or 9 pm. I daresay that the image above was total reality for me (as I remember it), although someone standing beside me would most likely remember (see?) it differently.

The image at the top left (which should actually appear here but I haven't figured out how to do that) is to most people standing beside me at the time some twigs and branches tangled together. To me it became with some creative focusing and lighting, a man striving for perfection in a world of challenges and strife.

I just tried to load another image in this location, but there it is as the top. I guess the reality for me right now is to learn how to post the images correctly:-))

Until I return with new found knowledge on posting photos, I will leave you with a mantra that I have used:

"I willingly and enthusiastically accept responsibility for creating my own reality"

Cheers for now

The Art of Procrastination

Here I am on day 2 of my "blog life". Sitting here in the morning and creating something coherent (I hope) is in direct opposition to my usual modc of procrastination. I once joked that I was going to set up a procrastinators club, as soon as I had time. I of course realized that I had all the time there was (being 24 hours each day) and it was my choice what to do with it. So it really comes down to choices, doesn't it. In trying to overcome procrastination, I look in the mirror each morning and say to myself: "what exactly are you going to use the next hours for". It seems the first thing I do is make a "to do list" of the things I must achieve during the day. This of course takes up a good part of the day which in itself is quite self defeating (sigh!). Having set forth the tasks, it is time to consider which ones I will start out doing. My usual modus operandi has me doing either the easiest ones, or the ones that are the most fun. This of course leaves little time for the usually more important items that then get moved to tomorrows to do list, where they ultimately join items that are more fun and easier and so on and so on. All this talk about procrastination is just my way of not getting to the items on todays list. See how this works now?

I once heard the phrase "Life is now in session, are you present"? There are times when I wonder about myself, but then I can always come up with the answer later. Perhaps I can put that on my to do list for tomorrow!!!

My original intent today was to talk about my recent trip to Arizona and Monument Valley. One of my images is posted here of sunset in the valley (actually on the Utah side of the border). The process I generally use is a technique called HDR (high dynamic range) in which involves taking 3 to 5 or more images at different exposures and blending them to give an artistic look to the images. There is plenty more I could say on this subject, but I will leave that to another day. Oops there I go again!!

Until next time, create a wonderful day.

Cheers

My Initial Foray Into Blogging

This is my first attempt at a "blog". It wasn't that long ago that I didn't know the difference between and blog and a dog! However I am learning. What can one expect to read here? I am not sure really, but I expect that I will tell tales of my various travel adventures and photography related stories.

To introduce myself, I live in Vancouver, Canada on the west coast bordering the Pacific Ocean. I am very passionate about photography, mostly nature and wildlife, although my young grandson figures prominently in my photography to the extent that I am known (affectionately I hope! as "grandpapparazzi")

Recent forays in the past 2 years have taken me to France, Iceland, Tanzania, the Falkland Islands, Arizona and in September back to Africa namely Namibia. After a family holiday in Hawaii in December, I will be off to Venice to photography the Carnivale.

I have a website at: http://thedeltafox.smugmug.com where a number of my images are posted if you care to have a look.

In upcoming blogs you can look forward to seeing some images of various trips in the recent past and further news as life unfolds. Until then, cheers