Pause 2: Looking With New Eyes - Retired in Costa Rica

My handwriting is so bad and so much slower than typing, that I decided to do my notes on the laptop in Word files from now on and just tape in the notebook. And I’m trying to be more positive today about this course and I really like the quote they start off with today:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

~T.S. Eliot (“Little Gidding”, 1943)

The title of this lesson, “Looking with New Eyes,” is sort of what I’ve always tried to do in my nature photography, seeing beauty in simplicity and all aspects of nature, which is why one of my photo folders for each month is labeled “Leaves and Nature Things,” revealing things I’ve seen with “new eyes.”

First was an audio recording: “Looking with New Eyes,” 14 minutes.

This was definitely better than yesterday’s monologue and more inspirational. As I think will be the pattern, she started out with a short story from Buddha and a student of his “really” seeing for the first time and then she expands on that or talks about it, with maybe quotations to illustrate the concept and she used one that I used in one of my photo books by Marcel Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” That was in my book of landscapes titled A Voyage of Discovery, Having Eyes for Costa Rica Landscapes. And at this point, I just made the decision to move these class notes from Word to a page on my website, so I can link to things like the above book! 😊

She then suggests we go find an object in the house or outside in nature that you don’t normally think about, like a cup or a leaf. Then study it and photograph it from different angles, showing many different looks or concepts of it. Sound familiar?” That is me with my “leaves & Nature Things.” 🙂 And here’s 2 shot I made for this class . . .

Cecropia Tree leaves & flower bud close.

Then she shares some photos of the ocean from different angles by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. https://andanafoto.com/en/dt_gallery/hiroshi-sugimoto/ (The link to their website may not work if not a registered student.) So try one of his many websites: https://fraenkelgallery.com/portfolios/hiroshi-sugimoto-seascapes though I think I have better ocean photos in my gallery VISTAS, BEACHES, SUNRISES, SUNSETS Costa Rica with quite different looks on our two oceans: Caribbean and the mighty Pacific! In Costa Rica it is easy to be mindful of nature and its tranquility!

Next (another pattern it appears) she has a music video for us to watch titled “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong and it is available on YouTube at: