The Sage

A sage once told me:
When you feel you are alone, you do not really know how many people are behind you and support you.
When you feel despair, fear not, the despair is only inside you.
When your faith is stretched to the limit, it is time to grow;
encompass a wider range, depth of meaning can be enhanced.
Take a pause, relax, start anew.
That sage was me, my inner voice.
Don't feel home sick, enjoy the company you are with,
be that nature, people, whatever..
Relax, contemplate, slow down.
When you are down, then there is no place else but up,
things will look up.
Take heart

Rossini Overture to L'Italiana in Algeri

www.youtube.com/watch?v=94asd5_o_Sg

little camp fires on a tulip tree

Little camp fires on a tree
posed right out there just for me
Beyond my reach but near my sight
A perilous reach yet dare I might

A lovely little tulip poplar
where I stay above my room
To capture its beauty I dare to try
but they are perched beyond my zoom

So offered now a beauty blossom
up close to view comes far away
a captured version of what I'd see
if I could fly like birds in May

A hummingbird sees this lovely tulip
and I could too if I could glide
Birds and bees would bend their knees
if they could see my aerial ride

Please grab your camera and make the show
forget your troubles and let me know
if you would smell my fragrant flower
enjoy the close-up and let us grow

Dedicated to tygerlyly
a helpful friend, and what a dilly!

freewill

fall in to my tendrils deep and still
feathers softly bristle like a quill
falling uphill

lessons never learned can not instill
real distinction for another skill
but you've got freewill

elusive ray of light

I do it for light, light, light

I discovered a magical ray of pure sunlight,
I followed it up and I followed it right,
it dodged, and it bounded and looped
all around, I'm trying to find if I may if I might,

It was tiny and bright and it lept over head
but I followed it quick, and it wiggled instead
it was canny and clever and quickly receded,
but I followed it through and aimed just ahead

The light landed up on a green maple tree
and the seeds were illumed to be orange, can't you see
it was steady and stable and lingered awhile
and the seeds didn't move, nor extinguish my guile

The result you can see is a striking redound
of a blade in the air, just the way it was found,
and I captured it fine, and now that its mine
I'm happy to show it to you any time

Enjoy

(written to the music of this song:)
youtube.com/watch?v=O8CyJVTCFYs

I recently made some audio recordings of:
Wood Thrush:
javadoug.googlepages.com/MVI_0861.AVI.MP3

Hooded Warbler (wheatie-wheatie-wheatie-oooh)
javadoug.googlepages.com/MVI_0898.AVI.MP3
javadoug.googlepages.com/MVI_0900.AVI.MP3

Hooded Warbler (alternate call, not heard as often)
javadoug.googlepages.com/MVI_0902.AVI.MP3

The Ugly American

1982 - that's me climbing the statue. What's funny is I didn't even remember this!
I met some friends after a Pittsburgh Symphony Concert a few weeks ago, and my friend's wife said she remembers this photo, with me sticking my tongue out posing behind this statue. :-)
So he scanned these old slides for me.

From my friend Simon Lowenfeld, who took these photos:
"these statues used to line one of the avenues of the Forum Romanum in Rome; the Forum was the center of Rome and therefore the center of the Roman Empire; the statues were no longer there when I was in Italy 2 yrs ago, undoubtedly removed to save them from tourists climbing all over them…"

He calls this: "The Ugly American"
A reference to a phrase apparently only known to Europeans, about some sort of yankee think or other, I'm not sure exactly ;-) (He's originally from Romania)

Here is another picture from that trip, this one taken in Austria:
www.flickr.com/photos/javadoug/305729943/

And for more of my exploits on that trip, this time in Romania, read half way down this essay I wrote a few years ago:
javadoug.googlepages.com/beauty.html

mysterious stranger

This mysterious stranger was a very tiny insect visiting my small bachelor button flower. I've been reading about quantum physics and time particles again recently
In the article, a physicist remarks: "“The quantum world has become more tangible, and the nature of reality even more mysterious”

I used to watch a TV show called: "Connections" It would leap from one item to another, throughout history using these sometimes weak links called connections. Almost like gossip, which starts with a fact at one end of a chain, and ends up all the way at the other end of a chain completely different, yet with the show, it somehow wrapped it all up into a sort of quasi circle, with a plausible scenario for their completed elliptical turn, and if you suspended your disbelief, and without skepticism, it was an entertaining concoction of historical events.

My connection is this, I begin with the tiny insect, to which I state he is very very small, and I've got this camera which is able to record his or her beauty in fabulous macro style. But I observe his tiny presence and extrapolate smaller, to particles unseen and infinitesimal. The article appears, thanks to first a visit by Panta Rhei, a contact who just got back from a vacation to the North Sea, so you see I'm leaping here, I'm placing these links together in semblances of connections. She has a contact named Perceval's Land (or he has changed his flickr name now). So in his photostream, I see this picture of the chains and gears of a bicycle, and of course I can't resist, being a bike lover myself, and I see a reference to an article about a possible way to actually observe these particles and or waves without disturbing them, perhaps by fixing what you have disturbed, and a reference to a fellow named Katz; so the article was sent to Panta, so of course I have to google that and I find the article, it is the quantum theory again, about not being able to observe without also disturbing. Sort of like photography, I am able to observe and photograph this tiny insect, but have I disturbed the scene? Have I sent it into an alternate universe? If I had not disturbed this, it might have happened differently. In the schrödinger's cat thought experiment, the cat is in a box, in a state where he is either alive or dead, but at the same time (that departure elides me a bit), and when you open the box (observation) you find the cat is either alive or dead, but cannot be both at the same time, by observing you have disturbed. I once before observed, In any walk with nature, one disturbs far more than he knows.

I could make this program a bit longer, with chains upon links of connections, but I'm off for work, and you see I don't want to be that late, even though I'm already a bit. Many more of these connections are possible! Let's take trips through flickr with many connections. My final connection is this: I just happened to be reading a book by Mark Twain, called the Mysterious Stranger, you can only guess who that is. Well I also read another book by C.S.Lewis called "The Great Divorce" about the divorce between Heaven and Hell. Well in that book, heaven is in the sky and grand and glorious, hell is in the tiny cracks of the ground and is infinitesimal. Therefore, you can begin to see further connections, that hell is the tiny particles of quantum physics, and our great big world is heaven, and well, perhaps by disturbing the tiny particles, we are disturbing hell, we don't want to wake up Satan!

Perdurance

A star appeared one night, midsummer
An apparition of dread yet soon to befall
the stranger who would be firm friend
short term knowing can deceive
Consent to avoid folly too soon
hold back tears of joy for a subtle time
and while thy realm is blurred
sharpen thy tooth on dreams of perdurance,
the long continuance of yon tender relationship
fraught with broken slumber
Determination rewards with eventual pure bonds
of long lasting friendship
sleep tight, thy midsummer dream
sleep well, do daydream,
do care,
hold fast,
friend

ageless

Two beauties who have not faded with age
nor will I relent to the onset of time
as if written in image or verse upon a page
hold stature with composure, trippingly within rhyme

Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
youtube.com/watch?v=hOA-2hl1Vbc
I like this version, it has the harpsichord and the viola pizzicato included.
I listened to about 6 versions before I chose this one.
more info:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachelbel's_Canon

Translucent wing

Translucent wing

Take me on the wind translucent wing
reluctant journey neigh
vibes attenuate sigh
colliding acoustics oft do let me sing

Impassionate vivid green flavoured dew drops
perched impossibly, adorn the theatre of my mind
Arouse curiosity beyond the gentle refrain
one's fervent passions never cease to sustain

Ein Heldenleben

youtube.com/watch?v=iXnhrbILUmc
youtube.com/watch?v=-ngdhUPuoMY

If anyone wonders, might I say, I just really enjoy classical music, and this is my way of sharing, perhaps in the hope that others may become enamored with this beautiful music someday too. I know when I was introduced decades ago, it built upon me slowly. Sure, I listened to classical music from my youth, in bugs bunny and tom and jerry cartoons, we all did, and then it progressed, all through movies and various places, you can't miss it. But the true love of classical music comes from the appreciation of each piece, each composition, and all the components, the individual instruments, you pick them out, hear them, individually, and collectively, and make the connection, you enjoy the point and counterpoint, the drama, the showmanship, the splendor, and you wrap it all together and what do you get, a marvelous art form that is a new appreciation, with neverending possibilities for hearing more and more, and then you wonder why you are not doing this yourself, but at the very least you can share it with others, so enjoy :)

Fire pink

Native wild flower to Western Pennsylvania

Fire pink my native child
wispy waving pure and wild
vivid colour deep and free
yield your wealth for all to see

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0QQeYrEk-Y

you'll never know

more of the Speed Poetry,
typing as fast as I can, in less than about 5 minutes,
while listening to music, you should try...
youtube.com/watch?v=Gx_XfNWkf_s

You'll Never Know by Doug Bauman

rolling on anticipation cloud
softly floating through the shadowy regions
reaching well beyond my grasp
clasping fingers 'round dewdrops that collapse

meld back, yonder being, unmixing thought and truth
dimensions unfold untold phantoms of veracity
veraciousness to behold through brimming visor
visages of yonder brimming aspect without meaning
juxtaposed beyond my hold

another exercise in futility
with infinite meaning to me, yet none told
cold fertile joyousness running up my spine
divine my content yet fulfilled

yet revealed, you'll never know

I grant I'll never be revealed
I shan't unnerving be aneilled
Whence discovery come unveiled
Thence composure is unsealed

my heart is yet too very tame
to jump quite quick to any game
keeping simple, running ample
as always never be the same

here she is, my vision of despair
softly fading goldness of her hair
anticipating choices of great flair
hold tight, yonder sight, be fair

I never knew the lovely texture of your form
till that silhouette of sunlight gladly beamed
right by bending supple form, toward my eyes
seeing sight untold now hold just as it seemed

quivering motion upheaved upon my soul
building joyous passages
the kind that overwhelm
gushing emotion beyond the pale seam
of my splendor

you'll never know

Wake Robin

Wake-Robin, hear my gentle refrain..
hearken, wake up your bountiful, beauty
darken, when shade pours over your visage
brighten, whiten, sounding subdued then renewed
rolling, doling, hearing, nearing, clearing, searing
heighten, brighten, frighten,
slowing, growing, glowing, flowing
impromptu, spritely dancing from petal to petal
tinkling over lightly textured silky spider web threads
reverberating through the multi-wavelength visual spectrum
repeating, revealing, unveiling, retelling, mellow tantrum
done, but not yet over, rondo repetition ready yet to begin
textured, layered, folded, then refolded, wrapped together
like composition of musical drama, toccata and fugue
Unnerving, tension, feeling unsaid felt sentiment
together, through unknown connections through medium untold
Behold, truly fragrant ripple through glistening waves
embrace, gravity holding together ample molecules
running, sunning, funning, punning, woning, cunning, donning
umbrella radiance throughout, beyond the membrane of space
untold dimensions over under between us, beyond us, together
don't ever end.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBc_xHI7ea8
A fun exercise in creative writing:
Listen to the beautiful Schubert Impromptu,
Think about the image,
then write the words, as quickly as you can, it's fun!
Try your own...

sunburst

Tiny fairies danced over the tops of the small maples
Star burst ran along my range singing sight and sound
Only eyes could see the lingering magic quite profound
Subtle shades of colour enraptured, wringing round and round

Conservation Connection at the Zoo

Life's path

While listening to Rachmaninoff Concerto N. 2 - II. Adagio sostenuto
youtube.com/watch?v=llveGVApdz4
youtube.com/watch?v=aseYsowHj4E

I composed the following words, quickly as they are, no rework:

remember me when I was younger somewhat spree

I always knew you'd remember me
taken to heart real dearly dear
for thee,
don't hesitate, no regrets for something
more beautiful than anything real

listen once more

I always felt a kind revere one can see
reverberating rather all around me

building like the water down a stream
to a pond that sits and wonders at its
new found potential built up from
trickles.. trickles, streams rivers

rolling washing flowing
flowing like the rivers in my heart
glorious tempests of passions rise
a shimmering sheath of reflecting light

tumbling bouncing building boiling
fall, fall dance, right up
and down and over the edge.....


Hesitant, waiting, anxious, tempted,
back and forth undecided,
relaxing, letting go,
winding down, finding time to go,
over the edge, slow waters still
and now flowing, sparkling waterfall

Down ye go, now smooth and silky
to the bottom of the falls
my love is waiting there
can wait and yet be ready

No need to hurry when there is
patience to find the sublime
time to meet and

Find one find two together
as one, combined now
all right when we
see each other in
our existence
and we can go down
life's path
as a pair can
never ever be
alone
alone
no one
done
yet
now
we
do
seeeee
our..
time

Lilliputians -- British Soldiers

This magical little world reminds me of the Lilliputians of Gulliver's Travels

I was walking in Harrison Hills Park last weekend, attempting to locate a less than common bird, a Northern Shrike. I didn't find the bird, but I found this old snag of a tree long since laying horizontally at the top of a hill, and all covered with these Lilliputian-esqe fungi growth. It was amazing! My attempt to photograph was difficult, the only one I liked was this Depth of Field style...
Cladonia cristatella

According to my friend Dick: "They're British Soldiers. Also called Matchstick lichen. They are very sensitive to air pollution and disappeared from the Pittsburgh area back in the 1960's and in Murrysville as well. With catalytic converters on the cars after 1973 they started returning. Still haven't reached their former abundance."

Never Comes the Day...

Westmoreland Conservancy Calendar

This is the front page of a calendar that myself and other members of the Westmoreland Conservancy developed about one year ago for 2008.

This year the Westmoreland Conservancy is organizing
"Conservation Connection at the Zoo" to be held at the Pittsburgh Zoo on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008. Our purpose is three-fold: to promote land preservation, expand membership and to encourage like-minded organizations to meet and mingle at a dinner at a great Pittsburgh venue like the zoo. We would like to invite everyone to attend. If you are interested, please contact us. Thanks!

Northern Mockingbird and berries

I go to Phipps to wander around inside the glass rooms in warmth to photograph flowers, and outside I see this Northern Mockingbird sitting in a bunch of berries with the wind blowing his feathers.

Punxsutawney Phil

That goofy goober groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil
heard man-made warming fable from humans on the Hill (Capital)
Sprung up from Gobbler's Knob
their story he would rob
Grievous global forecast do oft make this Phil ill

Phil:
As I look around me,
a bright future 'tis all I see,
deep shadow well before thee.
Rising temps will never be.

Phil's official forecast as read 2/2/08 at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob

Dawn's Crows

A gaggle of crows,
gathering in the dawn's early mist
Endeavor to blow,
making beeline for their jubilant tryst.

Neither humble nor modest,
their early morning carousal about to begin;
Not drunken but noisy,
do babble and bluster much to my chagrin.

Their cackle and riot
form cluster to muster parade to their daily feast.
Whooping and boasting
revelry unhinged as seemed to an earthly bound beast.

To my wondering amusement
the affair in the heavenly trees seems to me
To vauntingly burst forth
to a gurgling tear and divert into swaggering glee

The light breaks forth smoothly
the waining of squawking whooping crows
Ever disbanding so swiftly
my amusement now done, yet where do they go?

Luftpost

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Zi

Wozu lebst du, wenn du nicht Lieben kannst (Laotse).
Why you live if you cannot love (Laozi).

Pflicht - ohne Liebe macht verdriesslich.
Duty - without love makes annoyed.

Verantwortung - ohne Liebe macht rücksichtslos.
Responsibility - without love makes ruthless.

Gerechtigkeit - ohne Liebe macht hart.
Justice - without love makes bitter.

Wahrheit - ohne Liebe macht kritiksüchtig.
Truth - without love makes critical.

Erziehung - ohne Liebe macht widerspruchsvoll.
Upbringing - without love makes contradictory.

Klugheit - ohne Liebe macht gerissen.
Wisdom - without love makes torn.

Freundlichkeit - ohne Liebe macht heuchlerisch.
Kindness - without love makes hypocritical.

Ordnung - ohne Liebe macht kleinlich.
Order - without love makes paltry.

Sachkenntnis - ohne Liebe macht rechthaberisch.
Expertise - without love makes bossy.

Macht - ohne Liebe macht gewalttätig.
Power - without love makes violent.

Ehre - ohne Liebe macht hochmütig.
Honor - without love makes haughty.

Besitz - ohne Liebe macht geizig.
Possession - without love makes stingy.

Glaube - ohne Liebe macht fanatisch.
Belief - without love makes fanatical.

ice fern curl

Curling fern I couldn't resist
bracketed images arm at rest
Light and color here enhanced
rhythm together as they danced

Only a Tree

Only a tree
yet the source of all life
Sometimes a tree
sees love and sees strife
Only a tree
is needful of me
Forever my life
is grateful for thee
A source of all life
our beautiful trees
so strong and so supple
their branches and leaves
sway in the breeze
and fall to the ground
with nary a sound
yet splendor profound
Only a tree
forever a sight
in each and every season
to bring me delight
in summer so green
in autumn a colorful sight
in winter sturdy and divine
reaching to heaven
a ladder which to climb
O heavenly tree
bring me a spring
filled with sweet scents
and buds of light green
renew your dear life
my dreams I've foreseen
Only a tree
the boon of wildlife
by javadoug
(Thanks for the inspiration Gudi :)
(I saw the photo of a tree posted in her photostream, and wrote the poem)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB76jxBq_gQ

youth and the thinker

One man the thinker, observing everything he perceives
quiet, gentle, perplexed yet never impatient.

What is the thinker contemplating --
perhaps meaningful philosophical questions of life,
or cognitive interpretations of sensory perception,
with transcendental mediations of pure thought.
Is it coy expressions of ardent love
or else simply observations of all that is around
stored for future contemplation..

The youth seem curious, new experiences all around;
white as pure as the driven snow surrounds their
senses like seeing for the first time.
If the thinker could interpret, observe in
the wild eyed innocent manner, without preconceived notions
or hard wired interpretations which leap to fill in missing gaps...

That is the equation, can he do it?

Look up: Sycamore trees in winter

Look up: Sycamore trees in winter
Sycamore tree on Hunter Drive, Murrysville.
How many people get depressed or sad in winter because of the weather and conditions outside? What are you missing. You are missing the beauty that still exists out there, but is harder to grasp. It may be cold, colourless and drab, but there is beauty there, nevertheless, and alwaysthemore. Just look at the Sycamore trees, if you have them near you. All of the rest of the trees I would still characterize as beautiful, even in winter, but the Sycamore trees out shine them all. You just can't deny it. They have lost their giant leaves, which aren't necessarily the nicest of leaves, so in summer if you were a sycamore tree you might feel inferior. But in winter it is now your time to shine. The other trees are sort of a dull drab gray or brown, but the sycamores have a beautiful white bark, especially as you ascend the trunk to the upper places. Just look up. Perhaps if you walk all day just looking at your feet, which if you are walking in the woods might be good advice, so that you don't trip over a root or fallen branch, but you must resist that urge and look up at some of that beauty just above you. Whoever endowed you with two sharp eyes to perceive perhaps left out maybe one more to look skyward. But seriously the times I find myself looking up, especially at nature, are the most joyous. The white bark of the sycamore is a great sight to see in winter, so go see it. I've tried to photograph it, and that looks nice, but without the effect of walking around or even driving by one of these great trees, you don't get the full effect. In Pittsburgh old sycamores line many of the roads, but the younger ones in the parks and woods outshine these and deserve a look. One of these days I'll find a way to ascend one of these great beauties to try to get a close up photo of the white bark, just to see how that would turn out.

I wrote this a few years ago, and now that I have my new camera with the 12x zoom, I no longer feel the need to climb the tree to get a good shot :)

alive and bright

alive and bright, tunneling toward the sun
concentric downy autumn seeds
capture the sun's rays

Writhing

Writhing, squirming slender colour out
acute distortion wrenching arm about
bending flavour eliptic radial shout
contortled sinews showing little doubt

infectious tendrils twisted out of sight
convoluted intermingled strings of night
flexing indirect sperpents into light
meander forth to spew your crooked height

curving damaged figures till the show
abundant texture over frequent flow
unwrapping beauty discourse under tow
unveiling fervent outline soon to grow

patterns fashion figure from their bode
sparking clever structure form and mode
sharply jutting skeleton connecting node
gently blowing grasses now bestowed

Magic Fountains of Thistle

Oh magic fountains of thistle
unleash your source of charm
conjure forth magnetic allure
your powers do oft disarm

With abracadabra and alacazam
magically invoke your benevolent craft
pour bewitching extraordinary zeal
and uncanny imagery soon to be quaffed

Spectral light and ambient tones
revolve around mysterious prophecy
with gushing charismatic fascination
our eyes perceive thee grandly



Taken at the field where we play Ultimate Frisbee.

I was really thrilled to receive this particularly nice comment. That this image is "especially thrilling -- Something so common and unwanted looking so magical!"

"Sind sie aus Deutschland?"

Ich bin vom USA, aber drei oder vier Generationen vor meinen Vorfahren sind von Deutschland und anderen europäischen Nationen ausgewandert.

Mehr wichtig, versuche ich, gesprächige deutsche Sprache zu lernen. Es ist meine Suche, ist es meine Reise, die Sprache von meinen Vorfahren zu lernen. Und die schöne Sprache, die solche Genies angespornt hat, als Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, und die Liste weitergeht.

More importantly, I am trying to learn conversational German language.
It is my quest, it is my journey, to learn the language of my forefathers.
And the beautiful language that spurred such geniuses as Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, and the list goes on.


Abba - take a chance on me

I'm rich

I feel rich, or enriched, with this bounty of chestnuts!

Every year we collect chestnuts from trees at Northmoreland park. My daughter just loves to do this with me. We each get a bag, and try to fill them up. It's a fun contest to see who can gain the most. And of course there is sometimes a little cheating, one of us will steal a few nuts from the other's bag. Money can't buy this kind of fun :)
I truly am blessed and enriched :-))

These are chestnuts from Chinese Chestnut trees, which are smaller than American Chestnut trees in height and breadth. The American Chestnut tree has suffered a huge decline because of a blight brought in 100 years ago with the introduction of the later. Hardly any really big American species are left, although there still are quite a few small saplings that can try to resist the blight.

The American Chestnut Foundation, Working To Restore The King of The Forest
http://www.acf.org

O awful Loveliness

"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (excerpt)
I vowed that I would dedicate my powers
To thee and thine - have I not kept the vow?
With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now
I call the phantoms of a thousand hours
Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers
Of studious zeal or love's delight
Outwatched with me the envious night -
They know that never joy illumed my brow
Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free
This world from its dark slavery,
That thou - O awful Loveliness,
Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

O, that I could write like that!

Musical Mystery Ride

Going round and round
the kids are nearly found
the lens can point one way
yet motion can betray
the focus on one spot
to capture one sure shot
I spin the camera 'round
rotationally unbound
to match the field of view
their motion would askew
as they hang deftly on
unbridled fun and song
Yes round and round they roam
and I bring image home

Spring Beauty

Spectacular Spring Beauty
Crept up behind me
and surprised me
a beauty unsurpassed and unexpected
vibrant white, soft and subtle texture
remarkable
The beauty of nature
captured in an image
only a small tiny static representation
of a fluid, dynamic multi-dimensional beauty.

My eyes are amazing, what they see.
A camera is technical and cold,
cannot even begin to compare to reality

seeing in all its glory, the drama and movement
the gentleness and purity,
the grandeur and flavor
unsurpassed in sight
simulated with a model
a simple picture in 2D
not as nice as three
not as nice as thee

But its the next best thing to being there.

It reminds me of a real life spring beauty.
Infatuation, a beginning
Also a first sight, a seeing
meandering on a bicycle
finding my way
seeing another
instantly seeing
vibrant beautiful
spring beauty was she
right there before me
so nice and friendly
something to see
one more time for me.

Thank you, so nice

Spring Beauty

Kennywood!

We saw aliens, roller coasters, merry-go-rounds and more!

Spinning freely
Merry go round
Blazing clearly
Joy unbound.

There is so much to learn about photography. My shots are not technically precise, nor artistically composed with respect to the image to be generated. I like to concentrate on the subject. So the photo is just a window into a static view of what I have seen. Just a bit of what I have seen for you all to see as well.