Great American Total Solar Eclipse is today!

It's finally the day for the much talked about solar event known as The Great American Total Solar Eclipse! By now, everyone has surely heard about the event; and, probably has well laid plans to see either a partial view, or total view of it, depending upon where one lives.

Here on Blogger, my first mention of The Great American Total Solar Eclipse was this past Friday, in an entry where I discussed my concern for the impact this event will have on wildlife. Within that post I included an image from an article published in The New York Times, which discussed this phenomena, and I included an image from that article that is similar in tone to the one atop this posting, which was also taken from their article.

I chose to include this particular picture for a couple of reasons. An obvious one (at least for those who know that I have a passion for birds), is the illustration. However, another reason that I chose it is for the caption associated with it: During a total solar eclipse, this lifeline is temporarily severed. At the moment of totality, a tide of darkness briefly swallows the land.

For it seems, in many respects, a tide of darkness is already swallowing the land.

My experience on the other side of a camera.

Because I only have "counting fingers" vision in my left eye, and need glasses to enable me to see out of my right eye, folks seem to think it's interesting that I produce photographic images. I've been interviewed on two major radio stations (WINS and WBAI) re processes I've used to create the aforementioned types of photographs. Both my black and white pictures as well as my color images, which are kaleidoscopic, have been featured in a number of galleries here in NYC. 

Most of the photographs that were represented in my exhibitions can be found on my web-site, Patricia Youngquist, The Last Leaf Gardener. For the past seven years, I've mostly used my abilities in photography to give voice to the flora growing in my rooftop garden as well as the array of birds and insects which visit it. Some pictures from this endeavor are included within the pages of my web-site, others have been used in my garden-themed movies which can be found on my Vimeo Channel. Additionally many of my pictures featuring flora as well  fauna can be found here on Blogger as well as Facebook, tumblr, hometalk, Instagram, Pinterest and twitter.

And as many of my readers know, my book, Words In Our Beak Volume One, which is written from a bird's perspective, contains hundreds of pictures featuring the flora which grows in my garden as well as photographs of the birds and insects that visit it.

All of this info is a long way of saying that I have spent a lot of time behind a camera! However, for the past two days I've had to be in front of a type of camera known as an Optos (seen below) to have pictures taken of the back of my eyes.

What the Optos saw and it is not good news for me. I now have a large floater in my right eye, which is the only one of my eyes that serves me. Floaters, as you may know, dear reader, are a normal event that occurs after certain birthdays. They mainly are an annoyance that one has to live through until his/her brain begins to ignore them. However, in instances like the one I have with my eye-sight, there can be cause for great concern.

In Honor of World Turtle Day

I've just learned that today, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. According to Wiki, this holiday has been sponsored yearly since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue "to bring attention to, and increase knowedge of and respect for turtles and tortoises, and to encourage human action to help them survive and thrive."

The picture featured atop today's blog entry is of a turtle at a lake just north of Strawberry Fields in NYC's Central Park, and he/she seems to be a perfect spokes-turtle for the occasion, given his/her quizzical expression. Turtles are often found sunbathing in this lake as they do their people-watching. This one was not camera-shy, another quality making him/her a great candidate for a spokes-turle on World Turtle Day (or any occasion for that matter). Other turtles – as is the case with yours truly — do not enjoy having their picture taken.

National Coffee Break Day

Drinking a cup of strong Venezuelan coffee (that I make a from a blend purchased at Sensuous Bean) in my apartment, and listening to 93.7 AM (NPR), 1010 WINS or Lite FM at 106.7 which are New York radio stations, to find out (among other things) the upshot of the traffic and transit report before heading to work is my morning ritual; and, doing it this morning, I learned that  today is National Coffee Break Day. 

This information prompted me to share my black and white photograph, Federal Café (posted above), on this morning's post. Federal Café, is not my only café-themed photograph. 

My image, At the Café, also pays tribute to reflective times that cafés offer, when one takes the time to truly take a "coffee-break" — a break without texting or tweeting or checking phone messages or journal or blog writing or making lists or  making phone calls.

Making the time to do nothing and allowing the mind to empty is the ultimate coffee break; it recharges the mind's batteries and refreshes the soul.

Hopefully, I've conveyed this in these two photographs, which can be viewed with others on my web-site, where they also may be purchased. Additionally, the second photograph, At the Café, has been rendered into an all occasion note-card which can be found in the store-front  pages of my web-site.

FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

I no longer actively produce event program covers, invitations and the types of greeting cards described here or on my website but arrangements might be able to be made under certain circumstances. My focus is on the Words In Our Beak book series, pictured below...

MY BOOK SERIES

...whose stories are told from the point of view of Cam, a female cardinal, whose photo is on the cover of each book. Words In Our Beak’s goal is to open readers to a simple understanding of the winged world and their environment. Set in my rooftop urban garden in New York City. Words In Our Beak is directed to children and adults who are curious about birds, and want to learn about them from a unique perspective. The books include hundreds of images of flora and fauna, links to movies, as well as to informative narratives that have been created by the author.

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.

Additionally,  I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

Reflecting on The Twelfth Day of Christmas AND Camels Hitting the Streets of The City That Never Sleeps . . .

Today I put my figurines of the three kings (pictured above) on display and invited a friend to dinner, so we could pay our own homage to ring out the Twelfth day of Christmas, January the Sixth: the Gregorian Calendar's Day for Epiphany (also known as The Feast of The Three Kings as well as The Twelfth Day of Christmas). 

To honor this day, in New York City, The Feast of the Three Kings Parade, a parade which includes camels, will march down Fifth Avenue. This is an annual event that I have yet to attend, in my nearly thirty years of living in New York, although the idea of seeing camels march down Fifth Avenue, in East Harlem, is more intriguing than checking out Easter bonnets at the annual Easter Parade down more trendy parts of Fifth Avenue — another annual parade that I've missed. The fact is: I don't list attending parades as one of my favorite things to do; and, although I live just a half a block from the part of Central Park West which is the route for the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, I have only seen part of the parade twice.

Upcoming Feast Days: Chanukah & Advent Shattering Darkness Part One: Chanukah

It is good to reflect on the symbols of light and hope that mark the Jewish Feast of Chanukah and the Christian Feast of Advent, a time when "Jews and Christians use the symbols of candles and lights to shatter the winter darkness."