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contemplations New Zealand Photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 91/365

Keri Keri~ New Zealand 1997
At this spot I buried a strand of my hair and promised to return.

Continuing with the discovery journey of scanning my old slides and negatives…

I was once in New Zealand with a very special companion and found it to be a land of magic, beauty and power, if you have never been there, please try to get there at least once…

I was totally smitten with this black sand beach on the North Island (Keri Keri) when I was there almost 25 years ago. It has a power in the waves, the jet black sand and the wind that carries the sounds and stories of far far away with it.

I was living in New York City at the time and upon my return I never stopped talking to anyone who would listen about the magic of that beach.

The years went by, I moved to Germany, then to Shanghai and whilst there I had the chance to introduce this beach to another incredibly special human, my beautiful daughter, who was 9 years old at the time.

I am not sure I will have a chance to return for a third visit, but I hope she will. And hopefully you.

Lea ~ 2013
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contemplations inspiration italy morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 80/365

If we were robots, designed to be born, to live a span of life and then die, then life would have been a straight line of non-events.

But life is not like that and being human is so much more complex that straight lines are overtaken by curves. I often thought About how when you draw a straight line from point a to point b on planet earth, our beautiful globe, you end up with a curve…

Life is like that. There are ups and there are downs, there is joy and there is sadness, success and failure, and so much that makes you wonder why we were born into a duality state of affairs.

I trust in the reason why as much as I trust in my journey to ride the waves of earthly existence. I love life and its mysteries.

Good evening from Germany. The storm has passed, our heating seems to be fixed, the fireplace is quieting down and it’s almost time to slip into a peaceful night of sleep.

Let’s pray for a de-escalation in the Ukraine, because who needs another war!

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children contemplations Fine art inspiration Malaysia morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 57/365

fading memories~

Hi again, I almost forgot how fast projects like this go when you start them and how merciless time is…

How much of your childhood do you remember? For me it is short salient moments of intense emotion, some life changing moments that left permanent scars, or pleasant memories like the smell of my swimsuit when my mother took it out of storage for the first trip to the beach…

Why are we designed to forget? It could have been easily tweaked that we remember everything, couldn’t it have been? I do understand the need to forget pain, but what about everything else?

And most importantly, if you do believe that this is not your first life, then why do we arrive here empty?

At my age you sometimes forget what you’ve set about to do moments ago, so this memory thing needs some thorough investigation, don’t you think?

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Fine art inspiration new zealand Photography Travel

Morning Coffee Talk~ 46/365

Lea in a bubble in New Zealand~

Good Morning,

I have learned throughout my life to create bubbles to exist in when needed. These bubbles are unseen but they are as real as anything else that you may conceive as tangible.

In your bubble you can permit only thoughts that want to have, feelings that you consider suitable at that moment and frequencies that are enhancing to your process. The bubble is not automatically generated but takes years of work and determination. It also acts as a shield that keeps unwanted intrusions into your internal process, and when this works, it’s phenomenal.

Today is one of those days that I need my bubble, so I will be busily generating it.

I wish you all a peaceful weekend, full of color, beauty, health and tons and inspiration. I have been at my animation classes since 4:30 am and learning has never felt better.

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art contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 33/354

Good Morning,

It has been raining so much here in Dubai the last two days, it reminds me that anything can happen despite our projections and familiar expectations.

A good resolution this for me this year is openness mixed with flexibility to be able to meet the unknown with more resilience.

The future is here and maybe it arrived before our awareness of it. I hope to celebrate it with art and creativity. It may very well be the language it understands.

Image taken a few days ago in Dubai.

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inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 29/365

I see the sea~

Good Morning,

This is day 2 on this trip to Dubai and I am slowly adjusting to its timings, rhythms and frequency.

It’s probably the case with many photographers, discovering that it takes time to connect with a place during travel. Usually and if I have the luxury of time, then I try not to take photos on the first day. Instead I walk around, take in the impressions around me and wait for the place to draw my lens to it.

But then there are days where you see it all come together, the sun, the sea, the birds, the color,the silhouette and the incredible details and you just have to make the photograph.

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Boracay inspiration lebanon morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~14/365

Leap of faith~ Boracay

Good Morning,

I remember as a child playing with friends on terraced hills above my village in Lebanon, and we did this crazy thing of jumping from one terrace to the next (and these were high terraces), screaming something ridiculous in Arabic like: ‘my mother threw me and the Virgin Mary caught me’. We were very devout children trained well by aunts and grandmothers to fear a god who punished bad children and saw pretty much everything were did. So we trusted that if god or any of his saints were watching, then leaping was 100% safe and we would not break any bones.

Two broken bones later, I started to doubt this theory.

That feeling of invincibility that we all have as young children is certainly something to reconnect to when needed later in life. That faith that somehow all would be well and that sometimes a blind leap is exactly what is needed despite our great fear of the unknown.

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Photography

Being Alone Together- 03

It’s a new world, where up is down and down is a downer.

Categories
contemplations Photography

The future is calling~

Never before have I felt so unsure about what the future holds as I do today. Every morning, a new story in the news stranger than the next, wold leadership try to force the strangest and lowest of standards as the new norm and the first signs of tremors as the future threatens to eradicate the past. Anyone not feeling this must be sleep walking through life and bouncing from distraction to escape. How did we get here and what will our children’s world look like?

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children contemplations inspiration new zealand Travel

Daring to face the unknown~

It was as real as a recurring dream~ New Zealand

The more we learn, the less we know. As we open doors to unknown territory with our questions, (as we quest more ions), we realize how much more there is to know. A beautiful day on the beach is a starry night at a different time of the day and what seems to be truth is just another facet of the great unknown.

The magic lies in the journey and not the destination, as we, in our impatience and need for instant gratification seem to forget.

Day 60 of 365~ 

Image taken in magical New Zealand with my daughter