Light In The Darkness

                                                          click to enlarge

Often I am struck by the simple beauty of light and darkness at play in this chaotic busy world we live in. We are constantly bombarded with sensory input giving us a continual flow of information from every direction at an accelerating pace until life becomes a blur.

 Phones are ringing, screens are feeding us images at a nearly subliminal rate, traffic, crowds, demands from thousands of sources clamoring for our attention, we are in a constant state of call and response. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. We are fast losing our ability to be affected by the simple, the understated, even beauty for its own sake.

While walking through my version of heaven not long ago I came upon this single flower standing alone reaching for the light above, bathed in soft sunlight, stunning in its beauty and was moved by the arresting stillness of it. The play of light and darkness was soothing. The resemblance to an old master’s painting from a far simpler time when people had the ability to be moved by the natural beauty around them came rushing over me like a deluge of happiness. I thought I’d share it with you today, just in case your life has been hectic lately.

Bud Tender

BudTender4405Butterfly – Butterfly Pavilion                                             click to enlarge

Because we’re living in the new Ice Age and any self-respecting wild thing has checked itself into the local Marriott to get out of the cold, I had to resort to finding wild things that were indoors. That meant going to the Butterfly Pavilion which has a gigazon of wild things of the insectoid persuasion. We’re talking primarily butterflies or as they’re known in the trade Butterfliticus Alotii.

According to The Institutes leading Plantologist, Bud Tender, who is an expert on plants and things that grow in the ground, plants and more particularly their flowers are the leading source of food for these multicolored winged farmers of the air.

When you first enter their domain there is a whirlwind of confusion as these gorgeous creatures swirl and dance around you, flitting here and there on butterfly business, seemingly at random, but gradually one begins to make sense of what appears to be chaos.

As you begin to sort out the colors and sizes and watch what each is doing it becomes apparent that there is order here. Each group seems to have their own purpose and goes about it with determination and zeal. This guy pictured above, is part of a group of Butterfliticus known more casually by its latin name of Budizoid Tenderii and it has a very specific job.

Since all these guys eat flower parts, flowers are of paramount importance here. They need to be watched carefully, tended with great attention and groomed for their arrival at the dinner table. That’s this guys job. We’ll call him Phil. Phil’s seen here testing this bud for burstiness, which is like a super important butterfly job, because as soon as it pops everybody, and I mean everybody and their cousin, and their cousin’s dog, is going to be swarming this baby sticking their little proboscis into it until it is just a shrunken shell of it’s former self. Harsh as it may sound it is just life on the butterfly frontier.

Although this has been a change from my dreary life of shooting Lions, and Tigers and Bears it has been an interesting way to pass the cold, cold day outside. Now if I could just find the Cannibal, Zombie, Killer, Vampire Assassin butterflies that they say lurk in the deep shadows where the Devil’s Tongue Flower blooms I’ll consider the day a success.