Lots of people have forgotten how to look at nature. We only can be happy such marvellous photographers like the retired psychotherapist/mental health director Cindy Barton Knoke can bring the incredible beauty and richness of the world back onto their doorstep.
Perhaps because she now can take lots of time and can not be disturbed by cell phones, because they do not work out there where she lives: the outer limits of no-wheres-ville to a home she calls “the holler.” People perhaps also are better to forget their GPS, because it misdirects. Looking at her pictures I can believe you quickly can be taken away far far away in the countryside, forgetting time and other people. Sometimes I even think she got caught up in a paradise on earth.
I would love she would be one of the persons not minding to share some beauties with us. Because she herself presented herself not yet, I take the liberty to already share and direct you to her pages, where you might find liberating animals, and see where the odd or unusual, becomes something magic.
Even when she gives us the advice best not to wander too much out there, in heavenly Appalachia in rural California she allows us to have a look at the wonders of her world, which also can bring the peace or the wonders of the creation to others living in cities and other rural environments where weather conditions may not be so nice.
At her place the people (and their dogs) are kinda twitchy, but they may perhaps be still more connected with each other and with their environment, than by those living in the more industrial and economical parts of the world, where many have lost feeling with nature.
It looks incredible that she has the blessing to be able to see all those lovely animals. Nice that she can capture them also so beautifully, and bring lovely pictures of woodpeckers, redwing blackbirds, wren, yellow finches, robins, doves, hummingbirds , kestrels …
Enjoy the beautiful world of the hidden imagination of natural reality, which if people would closely in their garden can be hidden also somewhere there, be it different, but also so magic. …
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If you’d like to follow Cindy Knoke elsewhere, please check out the following links:
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- Cindy Knoke: With an Eye on the World (becausewerepoets.wordpress.com)
Today’s feature is a photographer whose work is as beautiful as her own humanity. In fact, it is not enough to say that it is merely beautiful. Infused throughout her work is the unambiguous rawness of her passion for nature and her love of life and all that the natural world has to offer the patient observer.
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Since her retirement from serving her fellow human being in such a demanding way, Cindy takes about 3 months out of each year to travel. Her focus, as you will see, is photography, a focus that began as means by which she could document the experiences of her travels. And Cindy has documented such travels as her self-drive trip through Kruger National Park in South Africa, her adventures through the Amazon, and an excursion to Antarctica. For those of you that don’t know, the lowest temperature ever reliably recorded in Antarctica is -89.2 degrees Celsius (-128.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Most recently, Cindy enjoyed a tour Patagonia. For details of the trip, check out her blog entry Lodging Options In Southern Patagonia!
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Cindy Knoke, a beauty through and through. While she would not regard herself as an artist, I must, and will, say that she is a photographer that I look up to, personally; not just for her talent and skill, but for the love that she expresses for what she does. It is honest, it is pure, and it is purposeful. It is real. What can I say? That she is an example of what we artists may do when we set not only our minds to it, but our hearts. With an eye on the world and her finger ever on the shutter button, Cindy Knoke captures moments in vivid color stills just as we poets capture the very same in black and white. And while we will not all call ourselves artists, even stilling time itself, that the moments we cherish or the moments we abhor may be immortalized, living beyond our natural lives, is an act of creativity.
- Sparrowhawk, woodpecker and redwing (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
half-hidden between branches of a coniferous tree, a special bird: a sparrowhawk.
- Woodpeckers and blue grosbeak in Costa Rica (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
One of the earliest birds that morning was this rufous-naped wren.A wood stork flies past.
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Eating rare animals now illegal in China
Massey University biologists have been in China’s Qinling Mountains researching the eating habits and vocal patterns of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, in the wild and in semi-captivity.It is one of five species of snub-nosed monkey, all of which are endangered.
- Bird Feeding Basics (lowes.com)
A lot of people enjoy watching and listening to the birds in their yard. Here are some tips on how to attract birds to your yard using appropriate bird foods and feeders.
- Redwings and great spotted woodpecker (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
Today, to the cemetery. On a tree, a great spotted woodpecker; and a jay.In the far end of the cemetery, nuthatch and greenfinch sounds.
As we walked back, a carrion crow in a tree. Next to it, a redwing. On a branch a bit further, two other redwings.
- Red-tailed Hawks – More from the Big Bend (bobzeller.wordpress.com)
I have tried to quietly get out of the car, to take a photo over the roof, or from behind it, but almost every time the bird gets spooked. It is so amazing. I can get sometimes within 15 feet with the car and get great shots, but if I leave it when I am 40 or 50 feet away, the birds scatter.There are times, though, that I find myself in a large area of bird activity, some times in parks. I have been able to set up my tripod, maybe next to a picnic table for comfort, and just watch and wait. This is particularly nice it the trees are large and open like large oaks.
