beauty | Words + Images

Posts Tagged ‘beauty’

music, motion, flight

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged ballet, beauty, birds, dance, David Hallberg, Eric K. Yue, flight, hawks, Inspiration, motion, music, nature, Nowness, Olafur Arnald, Photography on October 16, 2013| 2 Comments »

I was walking along the Charles River, years ago, when I saw this hawk taking flight. I just happened to bring my camera up in time. I don’t know what I expected to capture but memory is fickle and so I must have wanted something to help me remember the beauty of that moment, of the hawk’s motion.

There was no music by the river that day as there is in this short video of ballet dancer David Hallberg. And it is the combination of his motion with the music of Olafur Arnald that made me pause, mesmerized … and inspired to move. I will never move like Mr. Hallberg but it was interesting to be reminded of the physical self when it is too easy to get stuck to a chair behind a keyboard.

Director Eric K. Yue states that the video is “… less about the dance or context of a story, but rather a state of mind …” into a dancer’s preparations. I don’t see much ballet on stage but after watching this video I am tempted to seek some out. Enjoy the video when you can. 😉

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still dabbling in the dark

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, creativity, dark, experimentation, flowers, Inspiration, light, nature, Photography on October 15, 2013| 5 Comments »

Back in the summer, I wrote a piece about finding inspiration in the dark. As autumn progresses, I find myself still dabbling in the medium.

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to shine with a bright light

Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, arts, beauty, churches, colors, faith, Henry Holiday of London, Inspiration, Jesus, Postcards, religion, stained glass, transfiguration, Trinity Church in Copley Square on September 25, 2013| 3 Comments »

That is this lay person’s interpretation of this image of The Transfiguration of Jesus, a stained glass window in Trinity Church in Copley Square. It is by Henry Holiday of London. I hope to share more about the whole window and its maker in the coming month, but meanwhile I can share that I’ve been lucky enough to photograph this center part of the window. It will be available as a postcard in the church’s Book Shop in early October. Have a good day, folks.

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shells sitting in a basket

Posted in Nature Notes, tagged beauty, black, colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, shells, simplicity, white on September 23, 2013| 1 Comment »

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ethereal

Posted in Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, dance, fashion, food, food photography, fruit, Inspiration, music, nature, nectarine, Philip Glass, Photography, storytelling, white nectarine on September 12, 2013| 7 Comments »

Why “ethereal” as a title? Well, I recently chanced upon a very short video of ballerina Janie Taylor dancing in designer Chloé’s “dance-inspired spring/summer 2011 collection.” The dance was set to Philip Glass’s “String Quartet No. 3, ‘Mishima’: IV. 1962: Body Building.” I enjoy much of what Philip Glass composes. I have not been able to get the dance or the music out of my head. On this windy day, I went for a walk in hopes that the movement and music would inspire me to photograph something sweeping, cascading, flowing, etc. In the end …

… nothing. Not a single “sweeping” thing caught my attention. I put away the camera and headed home, pausing just long enough at a market to purchase a few pieces of fruit. At home, I placed the items on a side table figuring I’d put them away later. Back at the computer, I hit play and repeat on that darn video, and began to outline a writing project. But the wind kept rustling the plastic bag the fruit sat upon. Frustrated, I got up and went to the table. With Philip Glass blaring in the background, I looked down and thought, “That’s it! That’s the shot.” Anyway, that’s my story of this image and I’m sticking to it. If you’re curious, click here for link to the video.

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creating light and fashioning darkness

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged bar mitzvah, beauty, colors, faith, Inspiration, light, nature, Photography, sun, sunset on September 3, 2013| 7 Comments »

The evening before attending my first bar mitvah (quite an honor!), I happened to photograph this setting sun. So, the following day at the big event, as I read along in the prayer book, the phrase “creating light and fashioning darkness” stood out to me and made me think of this image.

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shooting stars, cosmic clouds and …

Posted in Inspiration, tagged astronomy, beauty, colors, creativity, fun, Inspiration, NASA, nightscapes, Photography, stars on August 20, 2013| 13 Comments »

As a child I learned to find Orion’s Belt in the night sky. But the star that mattered to me most was one whose name I still do not know with certainty. It was the bright light visible above the neighbor’s house across the street. Sometimes the speck would become lost in the canopy of the neighbor’s pear tree but inevitably at some point in some season its brightness shone. My mother, who knew far more about the earth than about the heavens, would point it out to me. With a smile, she always called it “Mama’s star.” In the quiet of the night, she would stare up into that sky, at her star, letting her mind roam. I’ve been lucky as an adult to travel the world and see the night skies from many different vantage points, and I feel lucky to live in an age when what I can’t see telescopes can capture beautifully.

By the way, these are not astronomy photographs.

While thinking about various things this morning, my eyes happened to fall upon the bowl of black sand I used for the recent shells photo shoot. I suddenly, desperately wanted to try photographing something else against that sand, especially something red. After deciding that using tomatoes would be bad (since I need them for dinner tonight), I searched and found some unopened tubes of glitter. As I poured them out onto the sand, the sun made them sparkle like stars. And thus the inspiration for this post.

Here’s NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

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works in progress — artist zoe langosy

Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged art, arts, beauty, Blue Hills Reservation, collaboration, collage, collage artist, colors, creativity, fashion, illustration, Inspiration, light, nature, Photography, Zoe Langosy on August 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy with characters Coyote, Columbine and Harlequin

Standing silent in the presence of others, while a friend describes the essence of your work? It can be an illuminating, humbling experience. That is what happened to me as collage artist Zoe Langosy described what she saw in some of my photographs. “There are notes of nostalgia. I am attracted to cut up stuff that has that dark edge. Through her photography Cynthia captures those parts of nature many people don’t see likes cracks in the ice on a frozen pond or the beauty of a dying flower. Her images can make you stop, feel and reflect. In her work, as in my own, there is a reminder that there are two sides to life. That in order to find balance, we sometimes have to suffer. The sun rises but it also sets and as a part of that arc there’s the dark beauty to be found at twilight.” Zoe is currently at work on new pieces for upcoming shows. As always, I’m honored that she has selected one of my images to use in a collage, in this case birch trees photographed near sunset at the Blue Hills Reservation. The sun-touched bark will help to create the light in Harlequin’s outfit.

Harlequin, Columbine and Coyote are recurring characters in Zoe’s portfolio, androgynous, melancholic and hauntingly beautiful. The patchwork of Harlequin’s outfit will also include bits of Japanese paper in dark blue with silver details that reminds Zoe of “a moonlit field at night.” In the end her patchwork will convey a sense that Harlequin is outfitted in nature.

work in progress by artist Zoe Langosy

Learn more about Zoe’s works in progress and upcoming exhibits by following her on Facebook. FYI, she will have several of her original pieces on display during NYC Fashion Week in just a few weeks. Prints of her work (and her father’s) are available on Etsy. Enjoy.