Meditation

Today. Thursday. Rain. A hard and steady rain. And wind.

It looks something like this:

Dark Day of Rain at Look Park. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Yesterday, with today's weather in mind (and Friday's weather forecast), I went for a walk at the park down the street. This is what I saw:

Mittineague Park, 9/10/29. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Thinking of Andy Goldsworthy. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Waterfall, Bridge and Wall. Photo by Bruce Barone.

 Today. A good day for quiet meditation.

Geri. Photo by Bruce Barone.

I photograph people and nature for a living.
My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community.
How can I help and inspire you?

"Love makes everything that is heavy light."
~Thomas Kempis

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Tara. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you’re seein’ double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room
Where I’ve got me a date with Botticelli’s niece
She promised that she’d be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece
Oh, the hours I’ve spent inside the Coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin’ time
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see ’em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb
Train wheels runnin’ through the back of my memory
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece
Sailin’ round the world in a dirty gondola
Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!
I left Rome and landed in Brussels
On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin’ muscles
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police
Someday, everything is gonna be diff’rent
When I paint my masterpiece
Copyright © 1971 by Big Sky Music; renewed 1999 by Big Sky Music
~Bob Dylan and The Band

I photograph people and nature for a living.
My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community.
How can I help and inspire you?

Fine Art Portrait Commissions start at $350 and are always unique to you,
celebrating your spirit. Fellow artists call my work Distinctive Photography with Soul,
and thus often a life-changing experience.
Finished Portraits are available on Canvas, Watercolor Paper,
And Fine Art Photography Papers, including Photographic Paintings.

Three Poems on Monday Morning

I photograph people and nature for a living.

My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community. 

How can I help and inspire you?

So Much Depends Upon a Pink Wheelbarrow

Actually, it is Victorian Purple, from Benjamin Moore:

Autumn in a Wheelbarrow. Photo by Bruce Barone

And the poem by William Carlos Williams:

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

I photograph people and nature for a living.

My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community. 

How can I help and inspire you?

The Autumn Rose & September Sun Shower

The Autumn Rose. Photo by Bruce Barone.

I photograph people and nature for a living.
My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community.

How can I help and inspire you?

God's World

Mittineague Park. West Springfield, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do fear
Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me, let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

~"God's World" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Mittineague Park. West Springfield, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~With Thanks to Little Augury.

I photograph people and nature for a living.
My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community.

How can I help and inspire you?

The First Day of Autumn

I love Autumn.

And I love what my good friend, Ann Bingley Gallops, wrote yesterday about this time of the year on her Blog, Open Spaces, Feng Shui:

"In Feng Shui this is a time to consider the balance in your life, a time to take stock of your inner needs in relationship with your commitments to the outside world. It’s also a great time of year to meditate about what you’ve harvested this year and the seeds you wish to plant for success in the year ahead. One of the easiest and most pleasurable ways to do this is by getting outside: bring yourself back into balance with the beauty and bounty of nature."

I like to think of this taking stock as being in the world in a state of astonishment:

Fitzgerald Lake. Northampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

It is the age old question (or prayer): Where am I going? 

Railroad Tracks. West Springfield, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Again, today, I ask myself "what am I called to do" and "how can I make the world a better place."

To paraphrase Rumi; I remind myself: I need to be permanently astonished. The second thing I need is to love; to draw upon love for energy. And the third thing is sacrifice--giving the drop that is myself.

Simone Weil said: "Absolute attention is prayer." Seeing. Prayer. Astonishment.

We design the world by the way we choose to see it! I choose to see beauty and to share that wonder, that astonishment with all. 

Hay Field. Easthampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

I believe God has given me a gift. A gift for believing in Love and Seeing Beauty--and Creating Artful, Remarkable, Memorable Photographs.

Walt Whitman said:

"To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle. Every square yard of the surface of the earth Is spread with the same. . . . What strange miracles are these! Everywhere . . ."

Photo by Bruce Barone.

I photograph people and nature for a living. My mission is to connect with people, inspire people, and build community.

How can I help and inspire you?

Looking for a WOW Color!

As I mentioned a few days ago, Autumn colors have inspired my paint choices for the rooms I have painted in our home.

Last night, in the middle of the night (I thought I was dreaming!), Susan whispered in my ear "I want you to paint the sitting room."

I am puzzled about what color to paint this room. It is the room we drink our evening cocktail in, where we enjoy wine and cheese, conversation, read, and watch Jeopardy or Sarah's House.

Here is a self-portrait. I am sitting on a C.R.Laine couch reading Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper to Nadine:

Here is another self-portrait in the same room (I'm reading John Gutmann, The Photographer at Work; Nadine doesn't seem all that interested):

Here is one more self-portrait; I just want to give you a feeling for the room. Here I am reading Art in America (I don't know where Nadine is.):

And here is a peak at some of the art:

 

 

The wall facing the couch is one solid, custom-made, oak unit. It holds a TV, books, CDs & stereo and sculptures of elephants.

This is the room which we enter most often from the outside. It has three doors: one to the garage, one to the backyard, and one to the front/side yard/driveway.

What color would WOW you when entering this room?

The Last Day of Summer

Fitzgerald Lake. Northampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Are you a Summer person or Autumn person? Or both?

Looking for Inspiration

Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
~Matthew 6:26 

Birds Out My Loft Window. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Where do you find inspiration?

Dinner with Dad

I encourage you to read my recent Food post!

Autumn and Interior Design

This morning I was thinking how inspired I am by Autumn colors.

I was thinking how the rooms of our home reflect Autumn colors.

Our dining room; painted "Get Back Jack" from C2Paint--Susan and I call it our Black Cherry Soda room.

Window treatments are arriving soon from our friend and interior designer, Anne Lubner. And here, a wall of leaves:

Our bedroom is painted "Winding Vines" from Benjamin Moore (Again, with help from Anne Lubner! Paint color and headboard.).

That's our cat Nadine and the bed is one of her favorite places to rest, when she is not updating her Blog.

More inspiration from Nature:

I had a Vision to paint our living room red. It's "Poppy" from Benjamin Moore and that's me in the photo!

And here's another photo of Nadine, aka The Cat Nadine or Queen Nadine!

And here for more inspiration:

Are you inspired by Autumn colors? How so?

Photographs from a Saturday Afternoon

On Saturday, yesterday, Susan and I went for a drive here in Western Massachusetts and stopped at a few farm stands and antique stores. Here, for you, our day in photographs:

Susan tried on a few Vintage hats!

This next photograph is not Susan!

Have you ever been in New England in the Autumn? If not, please visit us!

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin Field, Hatfield, Massachusetts. Photo by Bruce Barone

Do you like Pumpkin Pie?

TGIF

The real thing!

Gin & Tonic. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Care to join me for a Gin & Tonic? And then Grilled Salmon?

Just finished redesigning my website to better target brides:

Thought for the Day

When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has found.
~Sufi proverb

Becky. Photo by Bruce Barone.

 What do you rejoice over?