Altitude Adjustment

Water doing what it does best -

flowing over rocks, making music, enchanting with sight and sound. 

10,623 foot Mount Langford, Absaroka Range, Sylvan Pass

Buffalo Bill Reservoir  Moon Juggling
Photo credit Pat Wiener 

     
     What a Day in the Park Will Do

We headed for the hills like Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang.  Filling up the tank of the F350 was highway robbery but we knew it would be worth it. Our hope was so bright that the darkness of the tunnels seemed a confusing aberration.  Released into the light, that innocuous physical  barrier magically carried us from care and responsibility to living art.  We had been transported from the frustration of self-imposed limitations to expansive views, majestic mountains and the soothing sound of water, the refreshing smell of pine, the compelling call of the wild.  We had enough horsepower to pollute the pristine skies of both the Northfork and half of Yellowstone National Park, but there was no stopping us. Like infamous desperadoes, we were hightailing it across the prairie to meet the veritable "sundance kid" of our renewed selves.

Our first stop was an easy choice - the  moonlight softly sparkled across a stretch of water, bathing the scene with enough beauty to stop a bank robber in full flight.  Breathing fresh mountain air with every scenic mile that enchanted our gaze, we stopped, we drove, stopped again.

The day was spent with a good friend, a simple picnic in a big rig while watching a small herd of buffalo seek thirst-quenching, fresh water - and there were lessons: adjusting my camera settings and the many colors you can see in the junipers and quakies; the effects of changing light, bark with shadowed, textured, trunks - and conversation that won't make this weeks' local Seen and Heard column.

Like any decent photo critic knows, good focus is essential. Decisiveness prompts motion, action, follow-through.  Sometimes we just get stuck in our own heads, stuck at the point of a simple decision: what to do next or how to fit another new task into our life.  Uncertainty robs us of serenity as surely as an outlaw knows when it's time to get out of Dodge.   All the advice in the world, even love and support from our best friend doesn't seem to help very much when we don't make up our own minds.

  

Waiting for a miracle, we forget we are a miracle.  It's up to us - all up to us - to decide whether to fit the bread-maker into the kitchen cupboard or into our schedule, or to read another blog about someone else who got motivated and lived to tell the tale. We decide to go about clearing a path through a busy, chaotic life, choosing to get a head start on a pile of overwhelming paperwork, or spend our time worrying about what might go wrong while we are busy feeling sorry for our self.

Nelson Mandela said, "May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." Surprisingly, the key word in that statement is "your" - because it's very simple...you and me...we decide. How we respond to our perception of the scenario as it plays out before our eyes has much to do with what we see and what we believe about ourselves and our potential.  If we nurse a sense of powerlessness we will soon be fleeing our responsibilities like a gang of outlaws with a posse of justifiably angry bank-depositers behind them.   

We create power when we believe we have or can find the knowledge, fortitude, and ambition to tackle the next obstacle; to figure out a way around it, over it, through it.  We diminish our power supply when we choose avoidance and the burden of regret.  The final decision to be where we are, after all, is completely up to us and that needs to be acknowledged.  From that place and with that honesty we make our next move - discouraged and negative or hopeful and motivated.

We choose to be victimized by circumstance, offended by our spouse, annoyed with the weather, disappointed in how we were raised, and generally angry about the results of our own choices.  We justify a heightened sense of unfairness when we should have checked the results of our like-minded friends before we bought their version. Someone else always seems to find a way to thrive.  Their life appears lovely, unlike ours, but in reality maybe they're just better at being happy - maybe they have better information, are more decisive.   They learn, grow, move on - believing that mistakes will be made but can be fixed.  Don't blame the process for the disappointment when the project hasn't yet been completed.

Take responsibility and choose to finish or start over.  Choose to learn - the critics have something to teach us. For every excuse we have, there's a highly challenged victor to inspire us: a child prodigy, a deaf composer, a physically challenged athlete, a once starving artist, a successful business that started with a shoestring budget and an obscure idea.  In short, someone has done more with less. Shall we then give up and let someone shine who has less to work with than we do?  Shame.  Shame on me.

  

Composition lesson from my friend, Pat.

Bison Brunch

The Driver, the Rig, the Moment.

          Overlooking Lake                                  Yellowstone 

Last stood at this spot when my sister was about to
turn 12 years old.  I felt as entranced as my cute little sister had been.
I wonder what she saw.

Highly Polished Vintage Yellowstone Touring Bus
At Lower Falls Parking Lot.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Over and Over

Tourists gasp at first sight of Lower Falls
from Artist Point.

132' Tower Falls

The only disappointment was not getting close enough.

Bison With Their Young.

Following the leader along the buffalo trail.
 
Pat Weiner's Web Page:

www.wyomingwestranchgallery.com

Hasta la vista.

The clouds really performed in this uplifting view 
across the yellowing hills with quakies in the foreground.

Undine Falls  in Three Mesmerizing Levels.

Blanket Flower - Gaillardia
A Perennial 

Danger Sign - Bull Elk at Mammoth Hot Springs 

Hostile and Invasive Hot Mineral Fountain. 

Looking Back on Dawn

Shadows Galore in Northfork Sunrise

Focused: A Few Square Feet of Wilderness

Just Plain Pretty

Lesson - Colors of the Trees when they are in the light,
when in shadow, and abundant clouds without flat bottoms.

When Mother Nature Chills

Bluest of blue sky with lingering bits of cotton fluff.
All shades of green from almost black to bright lime.
Blackish trunks, and sunlit ones.
That vivid splotch of an orange deciduous tree on the right.
Random lime to yellowing leaves, dry grass.
Contrast of texture:
 Smooth highway to velvety forest edges. Clear sky to misty clouds.

"The Bubbler" Water Spout @MammothHotSprings

Rustic Falls

We Were Warned - September Snowstorm

Filigree Park Bench Sports Fluffy White Coat

Summer Iris September Stylin' Winter Cap