Drift Away by Bodhi Smith

Jul 30, 2021

"drift away" a brand new impression and blog from me...
 
"under the stars again, this time sitting on a remote florida beach miles away from any civilization. listening to music harmonize with the beat of the gulf waves and the rhythm of the warm sea breeze. digging my feet into the cool night sand, curling my toes through the silky-soft calmness. the milky way glowing overhead as a red moon rises above the horizon...i just drift away to where i belong, where i've always belonged, and where i'll one day always be...take me away" ― bodhinku, drift away 
 
"she kissed me wildly, overwhelming me like a giant wave rushing to shore. i was soon lost in the turbulent grasp of her embrace and yet…i knew i was safe...together we drifted towards a safe harbor. the goddess of the sea set me down securely on a sandy beach and steadied me as i trembled. effervescent tingles shot through my limbs delighting me with surges of sparkling sensation like sandy toes tickled by bubbly waves. finally, the waves moved away and i felt my sea goddess watching me from a distance. we looked at each other knowing we were forever changed by the experience. we both knew that i would always belong to the sea and that i would never be able to part from it and be whole again" ― colleen houck
 
"pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind, possessing and caressing me, images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe...jai guru deva, om. nothing's gonna change my world" ― john lennon
 
"instead i let the moment pass and i just sighed and leaned back into the sand on the beach. the sky was pinky gold. i had the feeling that there was nothing more beautiful than this, that this particular sunset matched the beauty of anything in this world, ten times over. i could feel all the tension of the day drifting away from me and out to sea. i wanted to memorize it all in case i didn’t get to come back again. you never know the last time you’ll see a place, or a person" ― jenny han, it's not summer without you
 
"only from the heart can you touch the stars in the sky" ― jalaluddin rumi
 
"sometimes i feel so, i don’t know...so lonely. the kind of helpless feeling when everything you’re used to has been ripped away. like there’s no more gravity, and i’m left to drift in outer space with no idea where i’m going. like a little lost sputnik" ― haruki murakami, sputnik sweetheart
 
"in a place far away from anyone or anywhere, i drifted off for a moment in a smile" ― haruki murakami, the wind-up bird chronicle
 
"i must let go now. let you go. love is too often the answer for staying. too seldom the reason for going. i drop the line and watch you drift away. all along you thought the fiery current of a lover’s breast pulled you to the deep. but it was my heart-tide releasing you to float adrift with seaweed" ― delia owens, where the crawdads sing
 
this song is a classic from close to 50 years ago in 1973. it's one of the absolute best songs ever written and sang imho. it's such an easy flowing tune, with lyrics you have to sing along with anytime you hear it play on the radio...it has an equally calming message of how music makes us feel better, makes everything better by letting us drift away into better feelings...it is the perfect accompaniment (plus has the same name as my impression) to connect music with the meaning of my impression and blog today: "drift away" by dobie gray ... (just click on any of the words in the blue links to listen to the musical selection)....

"day after day i'm more confused. yet i look for the light through the pouring rain. you know that's a game that i hate to lose. and i'm feelin' the strain, ain't it a shame...oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away. oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away...beginning to think that i'm wastin' time. i don't understand the things i do. the world outside looks so unkind. and i'm counting on you to carry me through...oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock, and roll and drift away. yeah, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away...and when my mind is free, you know a melody can move me. and when i'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me. thanks for the joy that you've given me. i want you to know i believe in your song and rhythm and rhyme and harmony. you've helped me along, makin' me strong...oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away. give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away. oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away. hey, give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away. na na na, won't you, won't you take me, oh, take me home..." ― uncle cracker featuring dobie gray, drift away (dobie gray cover)  
  
"imagine this, visualize all of the places driftwood has been, places before ending up on this beach. wow, think of all the stories these 'washed-up' guys could tell us" ― bodhinku, drift away    
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MEANING
"music is life's best seasoning. music makes everything better: emotion, mood, exercise, work, playtime, romance, relaxation, and peace... it's amazing how turning on some great music can instantly turn off the noise inside and out, you can drift away into a melody of happy times" ― bodhinku, music: life's best seasoning  

"drift" is defined by merriam webster as: 
1. to be carried slowly by something flowing, like a thought, or a current of air or water; 
2. a gradual shift in attitude, opinion, or position
 
i sort of drift across the country in the summer, me and my doggie besos, following the weather and the stars to locations i wish to take impressions of with my camera...so i guess that makes me sort of a drifter...i understand clearly how lucky i am to get to witness and experience so much. i'm able to see so many beautiful places and things, and meet so many wonderful people (i always erase the idiots i meet from my memory banks each time when i go to sleep)...
 
i'm totally aware of the fact i'm blessed to have this in my life, but it does come at the expense of having a family, or even a girlfriend. unfortunately sometimes i do get lonely and wish i had someone in my life to share everything with...although besos does his best to keep me company and entertained while we share our adventures together (but a pup is totally different than the needs of being around another human being, or a "significant other")...
 
so, even though i'm drifting along a beautiful remote florida beach with my best friend, my doggie, i'm feeling kinda uptight about things in my life. but then the song "drift away" starts playing on my ipod, and that's what i actually did, i drift away, literally and figuratively, as the music takes me away, freeing my mind of me, moving and soothing me at the same time as we splash through the waves with not a care except where this journey taking us...
 
and our path leads to the donna kay, a shipwreck on cape san blas which is permanently beached until it can be removed one day soon. however, this shipwreck is still in remarkably good shape and makes for stunning seascapes and nightscapes under the darkest skies in the state of florida (when you are lucky enough to have clear night skies which is not too often)...
 
this ship drifted away from its homeport somewhere in louisiana, pushed all the way across the gulf of mexico and driven ashore way up deep into the sands by the powerful category-5 hurricane michael in october of 2018...but all the same, it found this beautiful beach, the same beach i now find myself for this picture and quite a few more in the future...
 
and here i am, under the stars again, this time sitting on a remote florida beach miles away from any civilization. listening to music harmonize with the beat of the gulf waves and the rhythm of the warm sea breeze. digging my feet into the cool night sand, curling my toes through the silky-soft calmness. the milky way glowing overhead as a red moon rises above the horizon...i just drift away to where i belong, where i've always belonged, and where i'll one day always be...take me away...
 
"finding happiness in my loneliness has helped me discover a strength and a meaning i never knew i had...like a lonely constellation drifting across the sky all night long" ― bodhinku, happy being lonely
 
another classical song, with maybe the best lyrics ever written by one of the best song writers of all time, john lennon, "across the universe" by the beatles (lyrics by john lennon) ... this classic tune sung by the beatles and is a bit more moody, but fits nicely into this blog's mood for me today...
 
"words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. they slither while they pass. they slip away across the universe. pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, possessing and caressing me...jai guru deva, om. nothing's gonna change my world...images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe...jai guru deva, om. nothing's gonna change my world...sounds of laughter, shades of love are ringing through my open ears, inciting and inviting me, limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, and calls me on and on across the universe...jai guru deva, mm. nothing's gonna change my world...thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box, they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe...jai guru deva, om. nothing's gonna change my world...jai guru deva...jai guru deva..." ― kurt cobain, across the universe (the beatles cover)
 
"turn the music on and embrace life. drown out the noise and lose yourself in you. sing along with your inner voice. let yourself drift away in rhythm and rhyme and harmony. feel your heart beat to the beat. breath in, breath out. smile and dance down your chosen path to such a beautiful melody" ― bodhinku, drift away 
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MORE QUOTES FOR EXTRA MEANING
"no one else, love, will sleep in my dreams. you will go,
we will go together, over the waters of time.
no one else will travel through the shadows with me,
 
only you, evergreen, ever sun, ever stars.
your hands have already opened their delicate fists
and let their soft drifting signs drop away;
 
your eyes closed like two gray wings, and i move
after, following the folding water you carry, that carries
me away. the night, the world, the wind spin out their destiny.
without you, i am your dream, only that, and that is all." ― pablo neruda, 100 love sonnets
 
"towards midnight the rain ceased and the clouds drifted away, so that the sky was scattered once more with the incredible lamps of stars. then the breeze died too and there was no noise, the air was cool, moist, and clear; and presently even the sound of the water was still. the beast lay huddled on the pale beach...somewhere over the darkened curve of the world the sun and moon were pulling; and the film of water on the earth planet was held, bulging slightly on one side while the solid core turned. the great wave of the tide moved further along the island and the water lifted. softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations" ― william golding, lord of the flies
 
"a sky
full
of stars
and he
was staring
at her" ― atticus, love her wild  
  
"each of us has...all the time there is. those years, weeks, hours, are the sands in the glass running swiftly away. to let them drift through our fingers is tragic waste. to use them to the hilt, making them count for something, is the beginning of wisdom" ― eleanor roosevelt
 
"people can drift far away from themselves but eventually tether again" ― lee matthew goldberg, the ancestor
 
"my heart stopped. it just stopped beating. and for the first time in my life, i had that feeling. you know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you're floating. floating in midair. and the only thing keeping you from drifting away is the other person's eyes. they're connected to yours by some invisible physical force, and they hold you fast while the rest of the world swirls and twirls and falls completely away" ― wendelin van draanen, flipped
 
"i will love you forever; whatever happens. till i die and after i die, and when i find my way out of the land of the dead, i'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till i find you again...then lay side by side, hand in hand, looking at the sky" ― philip pullman, the amber spyglass
 
“when someone mentions the gracefulness of the night sky, climb up on the roof and dance and say, like this" ― jalaluddin rumi, hush don't say anything to god 
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"even though i'm drifting along a beautiful remote florida beach with my best friend, my doggie, i'm feeling kinda uptight about things in my life. but then the song "drift away" starts playing on my ipod, and that's what i actually did, i drift away, literally and figuratively, as the music takes me away, freeing my mind of me, moving and soothing me at the same time as we splash through the waves with not a care except where this journey taking us" ― bodhinku, drifting away
 
this impression was captured on the sands of a florida panhandle beach looking south out over the gulf of mexico on july 26, 2021...this composition is comprised two separate exposures taken in the same frame by leaving my camera on a tripod unmoved for a little over two hours and then merged together...one long exposure of the seascape with the shipwreck (f/11@24mm for 111 secs, iso-64) taken 11 mins after sunset (the cabin of the ship was illuminated with low level light from my cell phone for 11 seconds), with a second shorter star and milky way exposure (f'/1.4@24mm for 15 secs, iso-2000) taken 2hours and 22 minutes after the sunset...
 
in my photography, i always use filters to create longer exposure effects, saturate colors naturally, and balance the light in my composition in-camera...i often use as many as four filters at time, and i always use at least one filter in my completed impressions...
 
and to get the effects and balance i was looking for in the shipwreck exposure of this composition (f/11@24mm for 111 secs, iso-64), i used two progreyusa filters: first, a 3.0nd progrey antarctica filter to bring the light in the image down 10 stops and permit for the long 1 min and 51 second exposure which in turn creates this dreamy effect with motion blur of the waves and naturally saturate all the blues and reds in the image; second, combined with a 0.9gnd progrey aurora filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it...in this case, to stop down the much brighter light in the sky, the remnants of the sunset, at the top right of the image an extra three stops and help permit details in the sand on the beach come out better in the exposure... 
 
i also used the progrey g-120z magnetic holder to hold the filters and secure the filters to my nikon d850 mounted with a nikon nikkor 24mm f/1.4 prime lens... 
 
however, for the separate exposure of the stars (f'/1.4@24mm for 15 secs, iso-2000), no filters were necessary, so none were used...
 
i wish to openly thank my sponsors who have always supported me through both the good and bad times...for truly this long exposure impression of 111 seconds merged in the same frame two hours later with a second exposure of 15 seconds would not be possible without the use of my faithful induro phq3 series 5-way panhead with an induro carbon fiber tripod, in combination with the aforementioned progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...
 
"if nothing else...if i open my eyes, if i cry, if i think, if i sigh, if i giggle, if i dance, if i love, if i breathe, then i have lived a full days worth of life...nothing is wasted, nothing" ― bodhinku, if nothing else
 
"i do not want you to just be into my photography, instead, i'd much rather you take a journey into my pictures, and feel the impression i have created, feel it with all your senses" ― bodhinku, into my photography
 
"contemplate without thinking. be certain only in your uncertainty. stop the world. slow down everything. let it all be. shut off the noise. hush. relax. seize this moment. reconnect. feel and sense what surrounds you. listen to all the colors of light whisper as they envelope you. see the melody and harmony that float about unnoticed. taste the solitude of all this wonderment. smell the beautiful silence. now discover your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith with all your senses. this is my world. awaken!" ― bodhinku, my world
 
"my photography is my way of keeping a diary" ― bodhinku, my diary  
 
i leave you today wishing that bright joy 
and spiritual peace fill your life...
imploring you to make every moment count, 
no matter what, always and forever, 
for that is the only thing that truly matters...    
 
and above all else,
i hope this message and impression find you well.
 
namaste,
bodhi
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