Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Editing and Processing (Art and Nature)

30 May 2016

Lens:

I. Taken in Camera+ and Edited in Snapseed

1. UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley , California; Copyright © 2016 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

II. Taken with Native Camera and Edited in Snapseed

2. Mt. Tamalpais, Mount Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley, California; Copyright © 2016 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

Let me know which you prefer. Click on image to enlarge, which takes you to another page. If you decide to leave a comment, please return to this page.

Pens:

I.

Walking the trail of human emotions, red flowing through my veins, washed across the walls.

Red meadows flushed with enthusiasm, created for glory, inspiring the explorer of the mind.

More than happenstance brought me to that space–that space that asks devious questions.

Red meadow of human endeavors, play with time, play with my heart. That red sparking memories of living breathing pulsing streams of gazes.

Cleverly hidden, waiting, waiting for recognition, waiting for an emblem to be illuminated onto the walls’ reddish memory.

II.

In the heart of Marin County’s Mill Valley the trail carried us up to the peak through meadows of wildflower and ever-present terrain, rocks, calm overachieving landscapes, vistas beyond one’s imagination. The sun was a guide to spaces that plucked our thoughts, and asked us to absorb the splendrous majesty.

Sometimes we lingered to share our profound awe and wonder. Scenery articulated spring’s profusion: countless wild flowers, some familiar. In the distance the golden city bathed in afternoon fog. The San Francisco Bay’s colors were vibrant greens and blues that converged with the Pacific Ocean. The vista was so massive and voluminous that it’s hard to fathom how I felt before that moment.

This sacred place, this legacy for all who wander here, has been traversed and explored, explored and traversed. After we climbed over 2,000 feet rewards were expansive. I began to fantasize about those who lived in and around this area throughout the ages; those who experienced this bliss (human and non-human). Footsteps walking the same path, ambling through the same wild. Those memories of so many spin through the air, landing upon my thoughts.

Nature is the quintessential master of the universe. And, at that very moment, that very spot in the wave of the Mother Nature’s progeny, there is no doubt, only confirmation.

Suddenly, my friends and I sit on rock-like chairs, and we become masters of the moment’s gifts. We slow our thoughts, we slow our voices. Just being.

Art and nature. It seems so obvious that one of Mother Nature’s talents is as an artist’s artist. And on Mt. Tam I know there is no human who can match her. But then it’s not a competition.

At this very spot it also is obvious that art and nature are a continuous duo. The human animal could not ask for a greater influence than the vistas at Mt.Tam. To witness her beauty and the environs is to be provoked into an emotional response, which in turn can be fused into one’s creativity, however that manifests itself.

Tip of the Week:

I have selected quotes that stir thoughts about the relationship between art and nature:

Art takes nature as its model. ~~ Aristotle

Art will never be able to exist without nature. ~~ Pierre Bonnard

Art does not imitate nature, but it founds itself on the study of nature – takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz. the mind and the soul of man.  ~~ Edward G. Buller-Lytton

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ~~ Rachel Carson

I have not tried to reproduce nature: I have represented it. ~~ Paul Cezanne

What is one to think of those fools who tell one that the artist is always subordinate to nature? Art is a harmony parallel with nature. ~~ Paul Cezanne

A poet ought not to pick nature’s pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. ~~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~~ Albert Einstein

View other entries for this week’s challenge:

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-editing-fun-with-ipad/

https://angelinem.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-my-mexican-rooster/

https://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/editing-the-muse-sally-ds-5th-monday-challenge/

https://decocraftsdigicrafts.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/sally-ds-mobile-photography-a-golden-sunrise/

https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/manipulating-memory-x3/

https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/love-it-or-leave-it/

Note:

As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. My photographs for the mobile photography challenge are taken with an iPhone 6.

If you’d like to join this Mobile Photography Challenge, please click here for details and history of the challenge. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming challenges:

1st Monday: Nature.

2nd Monday: Macro.

3rd Monday: Black and White.

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Panorama, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.