Scales Of Perception

Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends upon what we look for.
What we look for depends upon what we think.
What we think depends upon what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality.

By Hengki24
Note: The title is mine
Original title: Haiku Haiku
Quote by: Gary Zukav
Quote provided by: CZ

Waterton Lake Eclipse

Explanation: Recorded on April 15th, this total lunar eclipse sequence looks south down icy Waterton Lake from the Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, planet Earth. The most distant horizon includes peaks in Glacier National Park, USA. An exposure every 10 minutes captured the Moon’s position and eclipse phase, as it arced, left to right, above the rugged skyline and Waterton town lights. In fact, the sequence effectively measures the roughly 80 minute duration of the total phase of the eclipse. Around 270 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus also measured the duration of lunar eclipses – though probably without the benefit of digital clocks and cameras. Still, using geometry, he devised a simple and impressively accurate way to calculate the Moon’s distance, in terms of the radius of planet Earth, from the eclipse duration. This modern eclipse sequence also tracks the successive positions of Mars, above and right of the Moon, bright star Spica next to the reddened lunar disk, and Saturn to the left and below.

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuichi Takasaka

Sublime

Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burden of the mystery
In which the heavy and weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened

Photo by: DMMDesign
Location: Sunset – College Cove, Trinidad, California, USA
Portion of poem by: William Wordsworth
Poem provided by: CZ

Evening Light

By Ann Marie Bone

The Anthropocentric Orrery

For man to be convinced he is the at centre of the universe, is a profoundly shallow view of the part we all play in the grand scheme of things. The living and breathing universe is as much part of us as we are of it.

Sat against the backdrop of the constellation of Orion (left), the Pleiades star cluster (centre) and the Andromeda galaxy (right), I triggered the camera to capture myself pondering the impact of human activity on the landscape that we are so very fond of.

The light pollution and passing ships on the horizon that, together with less than ideal weather conditions, make it very difficult to capture the night sky like this.

Let’s keep the lights off at night, so that we together can enjoy the night sky again.

Please share this image if you like it! This helps me out a lot. Thanks!

By SurrealExposure
Location: Den Helder, Netherlands

8464

It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears.

By Kari Liimatainen
Quote: Irish Saying
Quote provided by: CZ

Autumn Light

In the depth a light will grow,
A silver shine no shadows know,
Like wings unfolding in the sky,
That circle ’round a gleaming eye,
Turning darkness all away,
Even depths will know their day,
For every shadow has its end,
In light!
Life will return again!

By: Peter From
Quote by: Robert Fanney
Quote provided by: CZ

Purple Mountain Majesty

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.

By Zack Schnepf
Taken: January 11, 2013
Location: Mt Bachelor Sunrise, Oregon, USA
Quote by: John Muir
(1838 – 1914)
Quote provided by: CZ

Kananaskis Winter Vista On Christmas Day

Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything – even mountains, rivers, plants and trees – should be your teacher.

Photo by: Howard Kilgour
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Quote by: Morihei Ueshiba
Quote provided by: CZ

RainBow Over Two Medicine Lake

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

Photo by: Frank Krahmer
Quote by: John Muir
Quote provided by: CZ
Location: Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Iman

Artist: Azam Ali
Group: Niyaz
Album: 9 Heavens, 2008

Elemental Iceland

Photographer Stian Rekdal combined thousands of photos to create this time-lapse video showcasing Iceland's natural beauty. He spent three weeks—and more than 3,000 miles—on the road and took more than 40,000 photos. He used about 3,500 of these to make the video.

Read the National Geographic interview with Stian Rekdal here:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.c...

VIDEOGRAPHER AND EDITOR: Stian Rekdal
http://www.stianrekdal.com
MUSIC: Thomas Tipi

The Cold Earth Slept Below

The cold earth slept below;

         Above the cold sky shone;

                And all around,

                With a chilling sound,

From caves of ice and fields of snow

The breath of night like death did flow

                Beneath the sinking moon.

The wintry hedge was black;

         The green grass was not seen;

                The birds did rest

                On the bare thorn’s breast,

Whose roots, beside the pathway track,

Had bound their folds o’er many a crack

                Which the frost had made between.

Thine eyes glow’d in the glare

         Of the moon’s dying light;

                As a fen-fire’s beam

                On a sluggish stream

Gleams dimly—so the moon shone there,

And it yellow’d the strings of thy tangled hair,

                That shook in the wind of night.

The moon made thy lips pale, beloved;

         The wind made thy bosom chill;

                The night did shed

                On thy dear head

Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie

Where the bitter breath of the naked sky

                Might visit thee at will.

Photo by: FramedByNature

Photo title: Deep Blue Blizzard II

Poem title: The Cold Earth Slept Below

Poem by: PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Poem provided by: CZ

Location: Spearfish Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota

Wintery WaterScape

The woods were made for the hunters of dreams,
The brooks for the fishers of song;
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game
The streams and the woods belong.

Photo by: Alz-Stock
Poem by: Sam Walter Foss
Poem provided by: CZ

Ghosts Of Fallen Leaves

Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves,
O flakes of snow,
For which, through naked trees, the winds
A-mourning go?
Or are ye angels, bearing home
The host unseen
Of truant spirits, to be clad
Again in green?

WallPaper
Quote by: John B. Tabb, “Phantoms”
Quote provided by: CZ

Winter LandScape

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter…. In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.

WallPaper
Quote by: John Burroughs, “The Snow-Walkers,” 1866
Quote provided by: CZ

Break On Through To The Other Side

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

By duongquocdinh
Original title is: Dqd 5139
Lyrics provided by: CZ
Note: The title is from a song by The Doors

A Magnificent Construct

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.

Photo by: Peter Eck Brasil
Taken on: November 15, 2009
Quote by: Albert Einstein
Quote provided by: CZ

Fire Of Fall

Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev’ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;
Harmonious lays the feather’d race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.

By John De Bord Photography
Taken on: October 2, 2011
Location: Autumn sunrise over Lake Estes, Estes Park, Colorado
Poem by: Phyllis Wheatley, A Hymn to the Morning
Poem provided by: CZ

The Traveler

We have all heard that no two snowflakes are alike. Each snowflake takes the perfect form for the maximum efficiency and effectiveness for its journey. And while the universal force of gravity gives them a shared destination, the expansive space in the air gives each snowflake the opportunity to take their own path. They are on the same journey, but each takes a different path.

Along this gravity-driven journey, some snowflakes collide and damage each other, some collide and join together, some are influenced by wind… there are so many transitions and changes that take place along the journey of the snowflake. But, no matter what the transition, the snowflake always finds itself perfectly shaped for its journey.

I find parallels in nature to be a beautiful reflection of grand orchestration. One of these parallels is of snowflakes and us. We, too, are all headed in the same direction. We are being driven by a universal force to the same destination. We are all individuals taking different journeys and along our journey, we sometimes bump into each other, we cross paths, we become altered… we take different physical forms.

At every given moment we are absolutely perfect for what is required for our journey. I’m not perfect for your journey and you’re not perfect for my journey, but I’m perfect for my journey and you’re perfect for your journey. We’re heading to the same place, we’re taking different routes, but we’re both exactly perfect the way we are.

Photo by: Nelleke
Quote by: Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
Quote provided by: CZ