Comments on: Swan – Taking Action after Searching Within – Picture to Ponder – v6 – Issue 10

By: Sheila Finkelstein

Sheila Finkelstein — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:32:56 +0000

Thanks for the fun story, great share and acknowledgment. I’d love to see your photos and read your “story” when finished. Do you have a place where you can post it?

Appreciatively,

Sheila

By: Sandra Mindus

Sandra Mindus — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:32:09 +0000

Hi Sheila,
Your swan photos were beautiful, but also whimsical. They reminded me to see the lighter side of life more often.

Seeing your swans, I remembered my own series of swan photos. I was watching a pair of black swans and their offspring when one of the swans swam within an arm’s reach of me, and my camera. As I clicked the shutter button he cocked his head and floated even closer, checking me out. When he was satisfied that I was neither threat nor food source, he curved his neck, gave me a haughty stare, wheeled around and showed me quite a display of his tail feathers!

Your swan series has inspired me to take another look at mine and have some fun with the captions. And of course, to review the message in the Ugly Duckling story.

Thanks for giving me a creative nudge, Sheila.

Sandra Mindus

By: Sheila Finkelstein

Sheila Finkelstein — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:57:32 +0000

Beautiful writing and sharing, Tracy. Thank you!

By: tlmiller

tlmiller — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:17:49 +0000

Dear Shiela,
thank you for these images today. years ago, i was given the gift of a soul retrieval, during which i was told the swan was an important creature to me. i was aghast. to me, the swan may as well have been a disney fairy princess. i was blind to the beauty such a creature could offer, seeing it only as a fluffy, powerless symbol of haughty beauty or ego.

just today, i have released a personal block, allowing a certain voice to flow through me in writing. as soon as i saw your swan photos, another block broke.

this is my spontaneous, unedited response below. again, thank you!

i am singing my swan song. not the end of me, but of all that is NOT me. sing your song with me, you toads and lizards, sing with me all manner of beast. sing from treetop to river to muddy brown bog. sing your self free of the binding skins, shake feathers free to feel a new air. this place is rebirthing itself all around. and music of beasts shall herald it in. don’t expect fanfare of trumpeting horns, rather your breath will set the rhythm and pace. as a newborn arrives with eyes fresh from god, and we look on in wonder at something so pure – purely life, purely love, purely trust. but we lose our wonder while busy with “safety”… so sing your song to recover your own godly eye, that each beast you cross paths with may find again its own breath and song.

By: Sheila Finkelstein

Sheila Finkelstein — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:45:09 +0000

Thanks, Lynn. In this case, it may be that I took more photos than you did. Rather than simply waiting for the “right” one, I simply keep “shooting” once I start. Do you recall, were you looking for anything specific when you were photographing the swans?

Also, I think part of the difference may be that my camera has a stronger telephoto lens than yours. And, I “cheated” a little on these photos, using Photoshop Elements “Auto Smart Fix” Enhancement tool. It lightened the murky water and allowed more of the swan to show up. On a couple I used the “Sharpen” tool also.

By: Lynn Ward

Lynn Ward — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:07:17 +0000

Sheila, your swan pictures are so much more interesting than mine, it’s hard to believe they’re the same swan! So I’m asking myself: Was I only looking for the ordinary? The posed? What other delicious things am I missing because I’m either not looking for them or have a preconceived notion about what they should look like?

It’s time to go back to Paying Attention 101!

Thanks for the reminder!
Lynn