Photographic Accompaniments

"In my eyes, the world is bursting with beauty! I deeply respect Mother Nature’s talents with her beautifully artistic touches everywhere. I am a huge appreciator of the world around me, both at home and out exploring, every day..."

Photographic Accompaniments

In my eyes, the world is bursting with beauty! I deeply respect Mother Nature’s talents with her beautifully artistic touches everywhere. I am a huge appreciator of the world around me, both at home and out exploring, every day.

I have been very grateful to be able to live my whole life in such magnificent parts of the world. My home base growing up was in a big, busy, for the most part, lush, city full of neighbourhoods with ancient trees, and plentiful city park areas. My big, Canadian city bordered the Pacific Ocean with many incredible wrap-around beaches, multiple treed parks, and an amazing view of the majestic North Shore Mountains. Later in life, I was blessed to live near long strips of a scenic river where I often wandered with my little pup, smelling the fresh, salty air, with the sun on my face until magnificent sunsets would swish across the calming waters in bright oranges, yellows and pinks.

Every summer our family disappeared into a lush, green forest to a cabin perched over a fresh-water lake a handful of hours away from the city. (Please pop over to ladyofthelakebc.com to read my many stories, photos and poems I share for you there.) At the lake, we had a small off-grid, one-room cabin, and we were nestled into the plentiful forest in a tiny bay, with all the beauty and wildlife Mother Nature provided there for us to personally enjoy.

My whole life I have woken up with such a visual appreciation of the plethora of beauty that surrounds me. Each time over the years I have had to move, I always, somehow, find beauty in my new view, even though sometimes I have had to help it along, (setting up a tropical private outdoor space), or creatively reimagining what I see. The view from my last home’s front room often displayed so many sunsets as it faced southwest, and, if the sun hit the roof across the street just right, (I called that house’s roof, ‘Sunset Mountain’), the lowering, fire-ball, sun would rest for a moment or two on the top tip and seemingly make the roof look like a fiery volcano. Naturally, I would be right there taking another photo.

I take a lot of pictures. Most mornings here, where I currently am living, I am constantly taking early morning photos of a breathtaking, yellow-ball sunrise, or possibly a snap of the fog rolling across the expanse of raw mountains laid across my view in the front. I get so excited when I notice a beautiful moment happening right outside in my view and I leap into action grabbing my phone or a camera to capture that beautiful second in time to preserve it. Often I will take a series of photos, for instance, during a sunrise, so that I can capture the exact one I want to share with the world, either through social media, or to be married with a story or poem I might be inspired to write in the future.

I am so grateful that modern technology has improved phone cameras in leaps and bounds over the years. Since I am never without my phone, it is always handy to pull out and capture a picture at anytime. The quality is fantastic these days. I am also extremely grateful that these new phones have a night vision capability. I was able to capture photos out camping in the bush in the dark of night of the zillions of stars above me as I sat around a crackling campfire. I also captured some great shots after dark in a very special place, simply floating in the middle of dark lake waters in a boat, very, very late at night, under the twinkling stars, at a place that is so very dear to my heart.

I have a couple regular cameras, though they are not expensive cameras by any means. One just has a little more zoom capability than my phone, and one is waterproof, so I have been able to take it swimming with me. That was fabulous! (Check out my stunning photos on ladyofthelakebc.com in a story called, Swimming In The Rain, Camera In Hand). I will share one here for you, too.

I often take a picture with inspirational thoughts and words brewing in my head, inspirations that I will write about somewhere down the road, in a future piece. I tuck my photos away then like I pop things into a Safety Deposit Box. I lock them away for safe-keeping until I need to bring them out to use them. I cannot tell you how many times I have been so happy to dig out a photo I took a long time ago that ended up being the perfect one to use in a current work. A great example of that was when I took photos of my very young son holding ‘The Magic Stick’ in our back yard. That photo that ended up being the very photo I enhanced for the cover of my book, by the same name. (Find my eBook, The Magic Stick, on Amazon). I published that book when my son was in his 30’s, so I was truly grateful I took that original photo of him when he was about 7 years old! (Check out my blog on liseparton.com under the Stories Behind The Stories, The Magic Stick).

On my site ladyofthelakebc.com I have used all of my own original photos. I do understand that many of them are of poorer quality, and some a little blurry, but that is part of the point I am making, my stories, poetry and pictures there are real life, first hand, and original. On this site, liseparton.com, I will use as many original photos as I can, but I will use royalty-free images from time to time. My book covers, are created from my original photos, or my originally drawn digital images, (see an upcoming blog on that story), and sometimes, royalty-free images that portray what I am trying to say so perfectly. I send out a big thanks to all the talented photographers out there who supply photos for us all to use in our works, bravo, and thank you!

I hope you enjoy the photos I add to my written stories and poems, and in my books, and on my blogs. I am delighted to be sharing them with you, as I capture each beautiful moment to preserve it, and share it, whenever a I can.

Cheers! Lise