Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Strange Beauty: Finding those things that strike hard

Our world is full of things we tend to think of as less significant than we are. But in truth, that tree you climbed as a kid has been important to this place for longer than you have. A humbling thought, isn't it?

Even with all our surroundings that we don't appreciate, there are beautiful things that we have to bring into being. In most cases, fire is one of them.

A few weeks ago, my family and I were burning brush and debris from the floods. It was a big fire, but well contained. I'm responsible, I promise.

But well... I ran inside for my camera. The fire was making some of the strangest and prettiest patterns I'd ever seen. I had to try about a hundred times, but I finally got a picture of it.

I haven't retouched this in any way, it is just as it came off my camera. Greens and blues and purples, with those little red squiggle flames... it's gorgeous, right?

Sometimes, things are just too beautiful. I know I have an odd sense of beauty, and that I find things interesting and pretty that others take for just another thing... but this isn't one of those things.

This picture strikes me and inspires me. It makes my chest ache, looking at it. I don't know why... it's just fire, right? But to me, it's special. There's a short story there. I can see it.

Can you?

Peace & Love
~Effie

9 comments:

  1. Cool, Effie. Yeah, that's a sweet pic. I see a story there too. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love what fire can do to pictures. Some of the best photos I've taken were from around bonfires. Fire is beautiful and dangerous at the same time, like a macrocosm of life itself.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Effie that's gorgeous. We have the same taste in beauty but it's only beautiful if you think it is to you. Not strange at all in my eyes. Amazing.

    Thanks for sharing the picture with us.

    What's so unusual is that icy blues and purples sometimes only come from man made things, when then get into the fire. So it's a mixture of natural and human. Always an interesting cocktail.

    Hugs girl

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not sure what woods you were burning but some do produce some odd colors, especially when they are green and a bit damp still. And yes, it is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful, beautiful picture! Thank you for sharing it with us. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Blaze caresses the brume in a passionate conception of firedoves which upon birth fly away to start their evolution into the phoenix.

    I can see four; two to the left flying away; one fully formed top right and one forming within the smoke. It would seem their creation is never ending. If you study the smoke you can see how it has formed the wings and body of the next one.

    Fire is a living, breathing thing. If you watch it long enough you can imagine its thoughts.

    If I am not too far beyond the appropriate sharing on your blog, two of my photos have stories hidden within too.

    http://www.jo.13lights.com/Pictures/Lakefairy.jpg

    http://www.jo.13lights.com/Pictures/aura_of_the_cross.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the beauty of fire. I've got a bit of pyromania hiding inside me. (Well... more than a bit if I'm honest.) That is a beautiful picture.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think all humans have a trace amount of pyro in them. Who doesn't love to sit in front of a fire place and just... watch it dance and burn?

    ReplyDelete
  9. We used to achieve this effect in our campfires with a piece of rubber tubing stuck inside another, larger piece of copper tubing.

    Hopefully whatever caused yours was something a little more fumes-friendly.

    :D

    ReplyDelete