Look at all that field of blue sky in the picture above. I love that. I love the peace and the quiet that is completely mine as I leave work in Washington D.C. and have approximately 45 minutes all to myself to drive in pretty much complete peace. I am often very tired and my left knee acts up at this time as I am finally able to relax or start the long process of relaxing until I get up the next morning.
THree streets lamps above for Rosslyn ..
I love starting this process of relaxing and yet if I have my Canon camera handy I also love taking pictures of the things that I see as I drive home that inspire/fire and motivate and fill me with the energy that I need or will soon need to keep my fires internally ( as well as externally ) completely stoked. Music does this, too : but nothing more than Nature : I'm constantly falling in love with Nature pretty much any time that I am in it's presence outside.
Looking out my windows as I drive at the bounty of so much Nature in all it's colors and shades and textures and forms and varying lights is breath-taking. I'm sunk every time that I am witness to it : any of it. I don't even really have to make the time for it : it seeps into me - it deluges me, it washes over me - it calls and sings and blows and rattles me. I love it. I say many times during these drives to and from work that I am lucky to be alive and an active witness to all of this glory and splendor that I can be inspired by and share in. I never own any of it. It's not for sale. It's there to those of us that are able to avail ourselves, our senses , our time to actually look and smell, taste, hold ... not hard, but it does take some involvement on our parts.
Now only one street lamp for Rosslyn ...
This may be a Thursday evening? I am not sure. The light is still with us though it is now quickly bidding it's adieu. So I snap my Canon camera feverishly here and hope for the best. I can't really focus much on what I am doing with the camera : I have to just turn it to where I want to record/preserve an image, try and aim it so that I get something of what I want and which triggered my initial desire to take the picture in the first place.
Again, only one street lamp for all of Rosslyn?
These are all split-second decisions on my part. I don't have any time. I must act immediately! I must simply trust and move along and be safe and sound in my car and arrive home to my family that I love and which is expecting me home soon in one solid, sane piece ...
So I snap and click away and often have no idea what the camera's eye will actually see and be able to preserve? That's part of the real beauty in all of this : it's a completely collaborative effort on the three of us : Nature, the camera's eye and me. What will we three conjure finally?!?
No more street lamps here on Route 50 : at least in this picture ...
The dark is now setting in and yet in this reverie and love of the moment , of Nature and being finally off and free completely for 45 minutes I want to continue in my artistic license. It's like my driver's licence : I need both : and both work together here with me as I drive home and try to be witness to ; as well as to appreciate all that I see and which triggers me to want to utilize my artistic bent and to cry and sing and draw and create and take pictures of all of this!
It's so immediate! It's like something that sweeps me up, takes me strongly or gently into it's grip and moves me along with it. Like the wind it will drop or settle me - leave me definitely sometime and probably quite soon. Yet I am a willing slave to all of this. Use me please ; force me - forcefully, tenderly, gingerly, without care at all for me as you go about your business. Just let me be a part of it and witness to it. I will compose. I will lose all composure. I will not steel myself. Rather I will open myself completely to whatever/ whichever/whenever ... I love you Nature and I draw most all of my inspiration along with that of the grounding love and home and sense of my place with my family.
I love composing pictures and here I have some nice ones with the added color from the car lights on Route 50 here in northern Virginia.
I love the darkness of the trees and the white wispy cloud formations on a light baby blue sky background that is quickly changing as the sun's light vanishes behind the horizon ...
Above in the center here of the photo it almost looks like the sun's setting here but in fact it's the bright headlights of one or more cars heading in my direction. Now the headlights when lit will have to serve as many minuscule suns for us until sunrise tomorrow.
Here in the picture above the car's light are really reminding me of the blaze and the sense of warmth that the sun brings whether one actually feels it or not. I love it : ablaze in full rage and full center stage glory of gold and light and fire's/bulbs rage! All on one page ...
Route 50 turns on it's lights here and so do many if not all the cars driving along with me or towards me on the many missions that are theirs and theirs alone ...
There's still plenty of blue sky infused with many white clouds moving slowly along the horizon. I'm hoping to see the very last of the sun before it goes behind the horizon. I know that just before I get to 7-Corners that they view is spectacular because of the height on the hill there. I may or may not see the sun : it may have already departed. And yet I drive quickly along Route 50 in hot pursuit of whatever the setting sun's rays may do for the various clouds and the baby blues of the skies that turn to grays and violets and many shades of purple and lavender and creamy whites, too. It's quite a show : the taking of the sun away from us as night takes it's place...
I've always liked the strong colors of red and greens in the traffic lights. They set off the skies behind them here and all that lovely creamy pink and salmon and light custard colors in and around the clouds in the skies...
And then it's finally dark and I am closer to home and I am enjoying all that is written on the side of the bus to my left : so much so that I have to take a picture of it. I also like the reflection in my side left mirror with the blaring yellow/golden orbs of light like small suns shining brightly/frightfully at me demanding that I go and not be stopped at the light as I am at Annandale Roads and Gallows Roads ...
I put this one in above because of it's almost complete darkness. What was there originally that I thought worth capturing on digital image?!?
I love the deep and darkened blues and whites and shades of such dark greens from the trees that almost envelope Annandale Road as one drives, winding one's way to Little River Turnpike ...
Ahhh, but one more picture of this bus with it's message of clean air as in clean gas emissions that it gives off when in use ...
And what person isn't stimulated to be a part of a revolution? Perhaps in this case a personal one to motivate one to do better at whatever ...
I love all the play with different colored lights in the dark of the night both on and off the road as my car winds it's way safely home.
As much as I love taking these pictures like this with a click and a quick snap of the finger I also love getting home safely. That's key : I have responsibilities to my family as well as I have to serving my various art muses.
This is all so dark outside in the picture above with the lights being framed by that upholstery of my Ford Taurus. What's that sitting on top of the upholstery? I will have to enlarge the picture here later to get a better idea as I have none now.
Traffic lights and car lights, oh boy! ...
Strings of white lights : our modern day wagon trains strung together these cars : following one another for safety? Or maybe just to get to their destinations as quickly as possible ... What's the big white box to the right here? It's acting like a mirror with a big flash of bright light as a reflection ...
I love how in this picture the clear image of the lights is in the thin band that's running parallel to the top of my dashboard in the car ... all the rest is a bit foggy/hazy ... as the skies and the trees and the road all melt into one it seems ...
I love these two bright car lights as they approach me : blinding me- mesmerizing me ...
I love these forty or so minutes that I have all to myself giving me a moment to relax and for thoughts to come to me finally that have been trying all day. It's also a moment to compose myself before I step into my other role as a husband and father and leave that of a worker and a bread-earner behind for the time-being ... cheers, and Happy New Year! TONY
