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contemplations human rights morning coffee talk Photography war

Daily Coffee Talk~88/365

Hi again,

The last few days I found myself unable to write, thinking constantly of the situation in Ukraine and feeling the pain of innocent people echoing in my mind.

We must fight the low with embracing the high. If I have learned anything from witnessing the bravery of Ukrainian people, it’s that you cannot bow down to evil.

‘Saved by Art’. This phrase keeps coming up in me. It is about creating in the face of destruction. Being bright in the face of darkness and rising when all wants you to fall.

Hoping for a better, clearer, more hopeful tomorrow.

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contemplations Germany morning coffee talk Photography spain

Daily Coffee Talk~ 84/365

Self portrait taken in Spain by the moonlight ~

When we are confronted with life changing events or the possibility of them, we tend to go inward and see life more clearly.

With the shocking onset of a war in an otherwise peaceful Europe, life becomes more real. Our senses are honed to feel, detect, and comprehend what is and might be going on around us. For a brief time, clarity replaces the fog and we become more human.

It is strange that it takes a war to make us learn the flag colors of the Ukraine, to become aware of its people, its history, and its current state of affairs because it is brought center stage at this time.

We become sensitized to the pain of others and feel a care that we previously were not conscious to.

The human and its behavior are a deep mystery to me.

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CHINA contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 67/365

Tribal Ethnic Woman~ Yunnan, China

Today this image of the ethnic woman that I took in China triggered in me thoughts of lightness and weight. As I live and get older I feel the weight of my history and all that has happened in it.

I picture my life events as packages and bags that we have had to carry and as time goes on they can slow us down and keep us from moving forward and especially upward.

How do we let go of the weight and find the lightness we enjoyed as children?

Interestingly, most of my dreams that I diagnose as stress induced include suitcases, travel and items that are missing from them and time pressing on the whole situation and turning the level of stress to unbearable till I wake up.

Do we only let go of the weight when we pass on? Or can we start the shedding now, as we live, and be lighter and brighter?

I wish you a light and effervescent day ahead.

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children contemplations Fine art inspiration Photography street photography thailand

Daily Coffee Talk~ 64/365

I dream in color~

Do you have time periods when your dreams become vivid , alive and filled with color?

I am currently having those type last of dreams and they leave me wondering about where we actually go in our dreams and what part of our faculties is actually active?

There are so many levels of dreams that you can detect and so many different kinds, it would take a lifetime of research to get inside of this mystery.

Do you dream in color?

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children china contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 61/365

I am still traveling through favorite moments in photography today and these images stand out.

During my travels through Yunnan, I often had a Polaroid camera with me to make instant photographs of people and mostly the children that I could offer to them as small gifts.

This process caused a huge amount of joy and fun at the surprise of seeing their images appear as if by magic and at times like this as in the second photo, an attack of little people trying to get their hands on the magical device, my Polaroid camera 😂.

But as a traveling street photographer, this is a great way of bringing the distance between you and local people you are meeting for the first time and trying to photograph them in a short time window.

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CHINA china contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~60/365

Some of my favorite photography memories come from the times that I traveled alone on journeys to remotes places like in these photos.

These were taken in Yunnan, China, in villages so remote where the locals rarely ever see the likes of me.

On such trips, you meet innocence, curiosity and you feel the invigorating sense of discovery that only comes from being very far from comfort and routine.

I can’t wait till I can travel again and for the world to be allowing for that.

Good night from wintery Germany.

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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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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography

Daily Coffee Talk~56/365

Hi from a cold German Evening,

The world feels more and more alien to me with every passing day. 2022 is proving to be an even more intense transition into a changing future than the years that preceded it.

What kind of world are we leaving our children? They are a generation that was born and grew up in an accelerating age of technological advancement and an ever narrowing focus toward screens and social media with less and less connection to nature and its wonders.

How will they reconnect to what matters the most? How can we guide them towards a more harmonious, connected and natural state of affairs?

Maybe winter weather , shorter days and exploding covid numbers are promoting these thoughts and contemplations, but they are real and dominate my thoughts.

Good night from here and I hope you wake up to a bright new day full of promise and change to the better.

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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography UAE

Daily Coffee Talk~ 55/365

free at last~

Hi my friends,

Lea’s quarantine ended today! We have a negative covid test and the birds are singing again in our neighbourhood. You don’t realise the importance of human contact till you go 10 days without it.

We have been smiling a lot today, hugging and being silly. I am grateful for her recovery and wish for this global pandemic to disappear and allow for a new kind of normalcy to return.

Stay healthy and well. Happy and gratefully signing off from Germany.

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Boracay morning coffee talk Photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 54/365

Self portrait ~ Boracay

Hi my friends,

I remember a world with less restrictions, a planet without a pandemic, a state of affairs when most travelled freely, and a time when the world as it is today was inconceivable.

And yet, here we are, at the end of an almost 3 year run at this virus’s stroll around our planet or is that wishful thinking?