Water is life

 

“Water is life” proclaim the advertising slogans.

It’s ironic then that one brand of bottled water, Hayat (which means life in Turkish), together with all other bottled waters, should be responsible for so much pollution.

A couple of years a I took a series of photos of marine litter for a photography competition on this subject. Ultimately it is, of course, the human race which is responsible for marine (and terrestrial) pollution. You have only to walk along any of the beaches on the island of Cyprus to see that this is a problem. Rubbish thrown into the sea at sea from small fishing boats to huge liners or container ships ends up being carried with the currents on to the shore, to add to the accumulation of all the rubbish already dumped by so many care-less people visiting the beaches.

On a beautiful, sunny, autumn day I was the only person on this beach, which stretches for miles and would be so beautiful if it weren’t for all the rubbish – plastic bottles and bags by the thousand, fishing line, shoes, pens, food containers, medicine bottles, glass, piping and a dead dog – to name but a few, polluted the beach of Akdeniz, one of the few remaining beaches where caretta caretta turtles come to breed.

In the rock pools where only seaweeds drifting in the current or small fish darting in the shallows should be seen, also drifted swathes of plastic.

“Message in a bottle” – it was sadly only too obvious that bottles were the message …. It took me less than 15 minutes on a small stretch of beach to collect enough bottle tops to spell out this message:

At the end of my walk I was appalled and depressed by the mess. It’s no wonder people don’t want to use the beaches. It’s all very well putting up noticeboards encouraging people to keep our environment clean but where were the rubbish bins? Children and adults too, need to be educated to take their rubbish home with them. It’s not difficult to do. Perhaps if we lived in Singapore we would all think differently – littering of any sort there is a punishable offence ….

David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series really brought home to thousands of people the damage we are doing to our seas, galvanising people into action – organising beach litter clean-up days, refusing to use plastic bags, re-using water bottles, rejecting plastic packaging on fruit and vegetables, refusing straws in drinks in their local bars, etc. Please do your bit to help the planet. We only have one life.

Sally Ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro

Here are a few macro photos I took of a yellow goat’s beard seed head, Tragopogon Pratensis (aka Meadow Salsify and Jack go to bed at noon) and a thistle. I loved the golden colours and the way the seeds shone in the sunlight.

They were taken with an Iphone 6S with in the in-phone camera. I decided not to edit them in any way as they are beautiful in their own right.

See Sally’s original post and links to other beautiful macro shots here.

I have walked in sacred places

photo composition by me

I have walked in sacred places
Seen colours never seen
Awake have dreamed of mysteries
Of things that ne’r have been
In trees heard music never writ
Of chords that are unknown
In those hidden sacred spaces
Where I journey all alone

Last night my life was woven
Within that sacred knot
Of ages past, forgotten mists
Of nature’s sacred lot
As the mysteries of life unfold
A tie that has no end
Enlightened by that mystic light
Of mysteries veil to rend

On darkest moor, high stones stand
My spirit is set free
As they speak to me of ages past
Touchstones of eternity
They rise upon those mystic lands
If only we might see
That in each secret stone is hid
A gift of nature’s memory.

To stand in dreams on hill top high
To soar above on eagle’s wings
Where visions are no longer hid
And spirits soar as nature sings
Above those lesser things of life
Above its woes and care
As dreams and visions are fulfilled
As we at one with nature share.

As lightning rends the sky at night
And thunder roars in angry swell
As nature groans in agony
Its song of loss – a tale to tell
Within such wondrous beauty there
Where stars are hidden from our sight
The seeds of dawn are gently sown
To bring new beauty with dawn’s light.

To gaze into life’s deep, dark wells
As though into the deepest grave
Of shadows cold – life’s blackest seam
Where hope seems lost – no hope to save
But from within those darkest deeps
New life springs forth in sweetest span
And flows to quench the longing thirst
That dwells within the soul of man.

Or stand beside a river clear
And gaze in wonder as it flows
A myriad of crystal lights
As to its journey’s end it goes
To hear in nature’s gentle breeze
As willows sing in harmony
As nature’s healing gently flows
If only we would hear and see.

Words by © Les Cruttenden, from Insights into Meditation

Sally Ds mobile photography challenge: black and white

I was particularly interested to read Sally’s latest post about preferring to use her iphone as opposed to her trusty old Nikon. I, too, have made the transition from my Canon Eos 450 (with which I was never entirely happy) to my iphone 6+ which I’ve had for just over a year now. I am rarely without it and only use the bulky Canon when we’re on an important trip, when I like to have the security of a second camera just in case ….

I use the Lenka app for my black and white photography. The advantage of this little app is that it takes both a black and white photo and a colour one so that if you’re not happy with the results of the black and white one you can always run the colour one through another app to achieve a black and white image. These are all SOOC (straight out of the camera).

For Lens and Pens

Sally D-s-mobile-photography-challenge:-nature

This is the bud

the ephemeral beauty of night-flowering cacti plants. Within half an hour of my taking this shot the flower had already started to wither

the ephemeral beauty of the last persimmons/kaki/sharon fruit in the garden – ephemeral because it’s a question of who gets them – me or the birds. I think the birds are winning ….

All photos were taken with an iphone 6+ using the Camera+ app, and the macro setting for the first two

Find other contributions here

travel theme: hills

Does this count as a hill or a mountain? Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

tea plantations in the hill country around Kandy, Sri Lanka

Sagaing hill, near Mandalay, Myanmar. The entire hillside is covered with Buddhist temples and gilded stupas

early morning in Provence

shafts of sunlight pouring down the hills in Northern Cyprus

view from St Hilarion castle, Northern Cyprus

view of Kyrenia/Girne harbour with hills behind, Northern Cyprus

Ailsa’s inspirational “hill”s are here, along with links to many others.

Sally D’s mobile phone photography:

Nature – Sally D’s choice for this Monday

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: challengee’s choice

We’ve been on our travels again recently so I have plenty of images to choose from for this week’s challenge. For the fourth Monday in the month the challengee (a word I’ve invented to describe the person responding to the challenge) can choose the theme. As Sally has just added a new category – photomontage – I’ve decided to run with that.

This is a very simple one, with the two images blended using the Superimpose app and I reduced the opacity so that more of the flowers is revealed than the wooden texture which forms the background.

Sharing with Sally D

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: black and white

Although I have been a subscriber to Sally D’s blog for some time now, this my first entry for Sally D’s mobile photography challenge

taken with Iphone 6S+ native camera app and edited in Snapseed

thistles in Provence

travel theme: pastel

Sometimes ones eyes need a rest from the garish colours that surround us. Pastel shades have always been restful. Here are some of my pastel photos:

pastel shades in Köln (Cologne), Germany

London

a Christmas rose flower (hellebore)

water lilies for sale in a temple in Myanmar

cherry blossom

lotus blossom bud with grasshopper

Do you prefer pastels to brights? Take a look at some more here.