John & Anne Wiley

2012/05/06

Super Moon SB

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:05

I got a new camera from my Dad this evening. Though he passed many years ago, I’ve had his pickup truck (named Tonk) as a memento. I sold it a few weeks ago, and now the money from that has bought a Nikon D5100. So tonight we flew over town to snap the Supermoon and check out the remarkable low light capability of this camera.

0036 SB Supermoon

0036 SB Supermoon

Looking at the pix from the flight, I was enjoying how much better they came out than any ever taken with my old D40. But there was still quite a bit of grain and color noise, which surprised me. Then I looked at the camera and discovered I’d picked up a D3100 by mistake! Still better than the old one, but the 5100 is reputed to be remarkably better. So tomorrow maybe I’ll take it back and see what Dad really bought me. 🙂

2012/05/05

SoCal Glacier

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 22:16

Most times when we fly past La Conchita, I glance at the quiet little enclave near Carp and recall the headlines about the fatal landslide that took out some homes. The day of this pic I was also looking at the distant snow-capped peaks.

1778 La Conchita

1778 La Conchita

You can see the slide area at the bottom-right, in the missing rows of homes in the rectangular grid pattern. The distant snow got me pondering glaciers, and the glacier-like aspects of some landslides. Rather than race suddenly down the slope, many SoCal slides happen over several minutes, hours, or even days. This one was relatively fast, perhaps due to the fact it happened after a long period of heavy rains and was at least partly a mudslide. Looking at the aftermath, a heavy feeling in my heart mingles with a serene sense of the inevitable. Each of us and all our possessions will be buried in time, and I hope the examples set by our fathers will help me greet the end with a peaceful and dignified spirit.

2012/05/02

More Mesa Manses

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 05:02

On the beach by the nursery just West of More Mesa are some manses I really like. Isn’t this a great yard with a trail winding down to the beach?

1754 Yard Wander

1754 Yard Wander

The triangle in this next one is interesting, and the pool on the left is a really cool shape.

1757 Manse Shapes

1757 Manse Shapes

Gazillionaires sometimes just find a manse they like, and pay whatever the owner can’t refuse. They should fly around in helicopters and pick out the places they’d like to buy, because we sure see some remarkable manses.

2012/04/30

Remote Closeness

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 23:22

There’s a remote intimacy in flying as we do, close to the earth yet free of it. Flying miles up in an airliner produces an almost ethereal feeling about our planet, and maybe that helps some people treat her as an object to be exploited. For me, flying evokes a dreamy engagement looking at shapes of life and patterns of change.

1682 Shape Farm

1682 Shape Farm

The shapes and textures of homes, farms, agriculture and industry are divided by angled roads and traces of life. The pervasive effects of people are everywhere, and most easily seen from the air where the human density is greatest. The touch of our hand brings rows of order in a random tapestry.

1686 Life Quilt

1686 Life Quilt

Ancient quilts stitched on the terrain stretch toward the distant mountain above Santa Paula, and the “glory” lighting effect around our shadow in a field at the lower left makes it all more contemplative. How did this spot look 300 years ago, and what about 300 years hence? All suburban houses and shopping malls, or maybe some areas returned to nature?

1688 Agro Geometry

1688 Agro Geometry

In 300 years will we still grow things in machine-friendly rows, or might we have farms that look more wild from this perspective? Lately it seems as if divisions between people could turn our use of ever more powerful tools once again toward efforts to destroy the Other. Could it be that our population will dwindle to the point that our traces weather away and erosion divides up our flattened lands to begin carving new shapes?

1694 Erosion

1694 Erosion

2012/04/28

Flood & Drought

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 23:49

Rivers are so beautiful. Sitting in the reeds, walking the bank, splashing the shore, swimming across, and of course taking it all in again from the air.

1669 Jugular

1669 Jugular

Sometimes the ribbon of life running through this river valley at Fillmore is a thread like this, barely connecting mountain to sea. Summers it’s often a sandy band serving as a wildlife freeway skirting the towns. The wider view introduces a tale of occasional storms that have bathed the whole valley in relentless muddy mayhem when the Santa Clara River rears up and races downstream changing everything.

1678 Flood Plain

1678 Flood Plain

Life, and for humans Love, has such seasons. Dry times and those overflowing. Cultivating the fertile valley nourished by flows and floods is most productive when we can remember nothing is permanent, and that we need to welcome change. Then a richer beauty emerges in our enjoyment of rivers.

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