Eclipsed by Bodhi Smith

Jan 17, 2020

"eclipsed" a new impression from bodhi smith...
 
i truly hope you enjoy this blog, with my impression "eclipsed", all the quotes, and the musical tunes found with in here...
 
"love is so much like the light of a solar eclipse...it's other-worldly, for it's so eerie, yet at the same time so breathtakingly beautiful, so entrancing and enthralling. it is captivating but indescribable, so boldly magical and absorbing when you are in it...but oh-so capable of rendering you blind if you look at it wrong..." ― bodhinku, love is an eclipse  
 
“how then does light return to the world after the eclipse of the sun? miraculously. frailly. in thin stripes. it hangs like a glass cage. it is a hoop to be fractured by a tiny jar. there is a spark there. next moment a flush of dun. then a vapour as if earth were breathing in and out, once, twice, for the first time. then under the dullness someone walks with a green light. then off twists a white wraith. the woods throb blue and green, and gradually the fields drink in red, gold, brown. suddenly a river snatches a blue light. the earth absorbs colour like a sponge slowly drinking water. it puts on weight; rounds itself; hangs pendent; settles and swings beneath our feet" ― virginia woolf, the waves
 
btw, here is the perfect tune to listen to as you read my new blog...and this is the song i was listening to on my ipod during the actual solar eclipse on easter island this past july 2, 2019, as i watched it and photographed it (including the impression you see here)...this is such a powerful song in message and melody, but no lyrics, it's an instrumental about 10.5 minutes long, "moments in love" by art of noise (just click on the song title, it is a link to the original video with its strong message about the meaning of life and love) 

“truth in love...in love, life is divine chaos...life is love, fall into life. fall in love. embrace it now. breathe. and enjoy the ride”― art of noise, moments in love (words in video)
 
and here is another perfect song to listen to as well if you prefer, beautiful and perfect lyrics...one moment in time by the late whitney houston...

"each day i live i want to be a day to give the best of me. i'm only one, but not alone. my finest day is yet unknown. i broke my heart, fought every gain to taste the sweet...i face the pain, i rise and fall, yet through it all, this much remains: i want one moment in time when i'm more than i thought i could be; when all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me...give me one moment in time, when I'm racing with destiny. then in that one moment of time, i will feel, i will feel eternity....i've lived to be the very best. i want it all, no time for less. i've laid the plans, now lay the chance here in my hands...give me one moment in time, when I'm more than i thought i could be, when all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me...give me one moment in time, when i'm racing with destiny. then in that one moment of time, i will feel, i will feel eternity....you're a winner for a lifetime if you seize that one moment in time. make it shine...give me one moment in time, when i'm more than i thought i could be, when all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me...give me one moment in time when i'm racing with destiny. then in that one moment of time, i will be, i will be, i will be free...i will be, i will be free..." ― whitney houston, one moment in time
    
“funny how even a grain of hope can manage to eclipse a whole world of despair" ― ann tatlock, i'll watch the moon 
 
"something so beautiful, mystical, magical has given me such a magnetic affinity for this solitary and remote island, one that supersedes all others, attracting me above all else, a place that has totally eclipsed and left everywhere else in the world in the dark shadows of my mind..." ― bodhinku, eclipsed 
 
“in the early dawn of happiness, you gave me three kisses so that i would wake up to this moment of love...but the moon took me away in its eclipse. it lifted me up to the firmament and suspended me there. i saw how my heart had fallen on your path, singing a song between my love and my heart” ― jalaluddin rumi, the music and silence of the heart
 
"life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breaths away”― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome
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MEANING
"a solar eclipse--in this moment, everything is connected into you...the earth, you, the moon, the sun, and the stars beyond, all aligned in a silent linear balance that boggles our intelligence and captures our imagination...aligning together what we know with what we can imagine" ― bodhinku, all connected
 
the meaning behind the title of the image, "eclipsed" is clearly simple on the surface, with some deeper meaning for me of course...this is a photographic impression of a solar eclipse...just getting to see a solar eclipse is a truly magical thing, and getting to see it on such a magical island just makes the moment even more exponentially magical... so here is my first ever photograph of a solar eclipse...this is the partial solar eclipse that happened on easter island on july 2, 2019 overtop and beside the nau nau moai at anakena...
 
plus to add another level to the meaning...when it comes to my own desires of places to travel, rapa nui (easter island) has easily "eclipsed" all other places. i have traveled here three times and plan to make a fourth journey again at the end of this year in december 2020...
 
but why? something so beautiful, mystical, magical has given me such a magnetic affinity for this solitary and remote island, one that supersedes all others, attracting me above all else, a place that totally eclipses and leaves everywhere else in the world in the dark shadows of my mind...in a weird way, i can call rapa nui my own like no other...
 
and finally, going much deeper into the meaning, a solar eclipse is like a love metaphor...for love is so much like the light of a solar eclipse...it's other-worldly, for it's so eerie, yet at the same time so breathtakingly beautiful, so entrancing and enthralling. it is captivating but indescribable, so boldly magical and absorbing when you are in it...but oh-so capable of rendering you blind if you look at it wrong...  
 
"i am constantly missing you, my island, my energy...missing you in every moment, in every breath i breathe, i need you to recharge me, fill me back up with happiness...i am just so depleted, when i breathe in and then slowly exhale, the overwhelming feeling of missing you and being incomplete only fills back up the space in my lungs where the air once was..." ― bodhinku, my missing air  
 
“let us say in passing, to be blind and to be loved, is in fact--on this earth where nothing is complete--one of the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. to have continually at your side a woman, a girl, a charming being, who is there because you need her, and because she cannot do without you, to know you are indispensable to someone necessary to you, to be able at all times to measure her affection by the degree of the presence that she gives you, and to say to yourself: she dedicates all her time to me, because i possess her whole love; to see the thought if not the face; to be sure of the fidelity of one being in a total eclipse of the world; to imagine the rustling of her dress as the rustling of wings; to hear her moving to and fro, going out, coming in, talking, singing, to think that you are the cause of those steps, those words, that song; to show your personal attraction at every moment; to feel even more powerful as your infirmity increases; to become in darkness, and by reason of darkness, the star around which this angel gravitates; few joys can equal that. the supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves--say rather, loved in spite of ourselves; the conviction the blind have. in their calamity, to be served is to be caressed. are they deprived of anything? no. light is not lost where love enters. and what a love! a love wholly founded in purity. there is no blindness where there is certainty"― victor hugo, les miserables    
 
“gorgeous, glowing rays of light...this was what true beauty and goodness looked like-- a spectral, luminescent gathering of beings so pure it hurt to look directly at them, like the most glorious eclipse, or maybe heaven itself" ― lauren kate, fallen 
 
“yesterday—i was the moon...today—just an eclipse...something in me travels; some days it’s to the dark, some days it’s to the light" ― noor unnahar, yesterday i was the moon
 
“be happy in the moment, that's enough. each moment is all we need, not more” ― mother teresa    
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STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
"breathe. and slow down. and breathe again. there is an infinity of life in this passing moment. breathe in the infinity. but be stubborn and do not let it pass so quickly. instead, slowly exhale it back out. live. love. be. breathe again." ― bodhinku, breathe infinity 
 
in 2018, when i saw the data that this eclipse in the southern hemisphere would be happening in july of 2019, i knew exactly where i would be heading, directly to easter island...and once there, with this being my third trip to the small and remote island, i know the island quite well....but, i had many choices of famous, iconic, and photogenic locations on the island to shoot during this eclipse. but with an event so rare as this, especially one crossing over such a tiny speck of land in the south pacific ocean, i wanted it to be special...
 
i have never before released any image of a solar eclipse, nor have i released any images that i have taken of this ceromonial ahu (platform) of moai (statues) on rapa nui (easter island)...this is the ahu nau-nau at anakena beach and is located on the far northeast shore of the island. this is the only ahu with more than one of the moai wearing a pukao (red hat), with four moai sporting a pukao on the ahu nau-nau...plus, these are really the only moai that are close to any palm trees, so i really wanted to be set up in a way to take advantage of that fact and include these palm trees in the frame of my composition, with the eclipse, and the moai at anakena as well...

in doing so, this impression is one that is quite minimalist and simple, very much the way i love to create my compositions...and, the palm trees, along with the ahu nau nau of seven moai (well, six and a half), and the partial solar eclipse in the clouds collectively creates a unique impression, and thus as well, one that uses the rule of odds in artistic composition very nicely with these three components...
 
“slowly blossomed, slowly ripened in siddhartha the realization, the knowledge, what wisdom actually was, what the goal of his long search was. it was nothing but a readiness of the soul, an ability, a secret art, to think every moment, while living his life, the thought of oneness, to be able to feel and inhale the oneness" ― hermann hesse, siddhartha  
 
“your own positive future begins in this moment. all you have is right now. every goal is possible from here" ― lao tzu
 
"i just keep on breathing
every moment
as much as i can
preserving it, in my body
for the day
i can’t" ― sanober khan, a touch a tear a tempest 
 
“do not worry about later, and don't waste time regretting the past. live life here, now, you'll be the child of the present moment, the young and old of now”” ― jalaluddin rumi, poems of ecstasy and longing
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HISTORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
"shhh, can you hear it? the silence of the eclipse? that moment as the moon covers up the sun in a rare spectacle you get to witness...other memories will be eclipsed by this eerie magical light that lets you know the heavens are truly real up there above us all" ― bodhinku, silence of the eclipse
 
this image was shot at anakena on the northeast corner of the solitary and remote island of rapa nui in the southern pacific ocean...
 
anakena is a white coral sand beach in rapa nui national park on la isla de pascua (easter island), a chilean island in the pacific ocean. anakena has two ahus; ahu ature has a single moai and ahu nau-nau has seven, two of which have deteriorated...it also has a palm grove...anakena is unusual for rapa nui in that it is one of only two small sandy beaches in an otherwise rocky coastline

according to island oral traditions, anakena was the landing place of hotu matu'a, a polynesian chief who led a two-canoe settlement party here and founded the first settlement on rapa nui...it was later a ceremonial centre where islanders read from rongorongo boards. anakena is featured in the tangata manu or birdman cult as in years when the new birdman was from the western clans, he would end his celebrations at anakena....

modern archaeology has found traces of human settlement at anakena as early as the year 300 ad, though linguistic and other analysis indicates a range of dates for first settlement of rapa nui between the years of 300 ad and 1200 ad.

anakena has been the site of several archaeological digs including those of katherine routledge in 1914 (the first on the island) and both william mulloy and thor heyerdahl in the 1950s who restored much of the moai to their original majestic states before the tribal wars overtook and devastated most of the island. and it was in those tribal wars of the 1800's where almost all of the island's ahus were severely damaged and their moai were knocked down and toppled over by the feuding tribes, including the ones at anakena, tahai, akivi, and tongariki. 
 
the american william mulloy and norwegian thor heyerdahl and their teams of acheologists are credited with returning easter island back to its glorious state of enchantment that now exists by repairing, restanding, and restoring many of the moai to their original glory...making easter island the unesco world heritage site it is today once again
 
william mulloy's rapa nui protege, sergio rapu haoa, completed his ba degree in anthropology at the university of wyoming and went on to graduate studies at the university of hawai'i. upon his return to the rapa nui, rapu directed the island's archaeology museum and conducted his own research and restoration projects, notably at ahu nau nau at anakena beach on the island. rapu would later become the island's first rapa nui governor...
 
both of anakena's ahus have been restored by rapu haoa as close as historically possible to their original states (with weathering taking its toll on the ahu nau-nau due to its unprotected aspect to the full force of all the abrasive ocean elements of erosion)   

total eclipses are extremely rare to be viewed on easter island, mainly due to the small size of the island itself limiting the possibilities that the path of a total solar eclipse crossing its land surface...partial solar eclipses happen usually every few years, but not often are they as full as 70% or better (maybe one every ten years or so)...so i was lucky to witness this 75% partial total eclipse in july 2019...
 
btw, there will be another partial eclipse happening over top of easter island again soon, and even the most rare, a total annular eclipse in a few years as well...the next event in december 2020 will be more closer to a total eclipse at about 90% than the one i just shot in this image here...and...having a five and a half minute long total annular eclipse is just going to be nothing shot of breathtaking on easter island in october 2024, this will not happen again over easter island in my lifetime, and not for at least another couple hundred years into the 2200's...so guess where i will be on those days?? easter island partial solar eclipse and easter island total annular eclipse
 
“earth’s moon is about 1/ 400th the diameter of the sun, but it is also 1/ 400th as far from us, making the sun and the moon the same size on the sky—a coincidence not shared by any other planet–moon combination in the solar system, allowing for uniquely photogenic total solar eclipses" ― neil degrasse tyson, astrophysics for people in a hurry  
 
“the term “solar eclipse” is in fact a misnomer. an eclipse occurs when one object passes into a shadow cast by another. in a solar eclipse, the moon does not pass into the sun’s shadow, but instead passes between the sun and the earth, obscuring the sun" ― guillermo del toro, the strain
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MORE MEANINGFUL QUOTES
“the world is not imperfect, or confined at a point somewhere along a gradual pathway toward perfection. no, it is perfect at every moment" ― gautama siddhartha buddha, sayings of buddha  
 
“there is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment" ― lao tzu
 
"for me, i’ve reached the part in my life where i need to embrace giving myself full permission to do what i want. this includes not only speaking my truth, and living in each moment, making each precious moment count...but also in wandering around more and experiencing what life has to offer. journeys offer transformation and a different perspective. and they can shake up the dusty parts of our souls and aid us in seeing the bigger picture. they can inspire us and help us to move towards something that may be missing. we often spend a lifetime playing the rolls that we are thought we must, ignoring what we wish. and then the time comes to expand horizons and it is an offer that we can no longer ignore. a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say. or as the late anthony bourdain says: travel isn’t always pretty. it isn’t always comfortable. sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. but that’s okay. the journey changes you; it should change you. it leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. you take something with you. hopefully, you leave something good behind" ― c. ara campbell, what anthony bourdain taught me
 
"remember who you are, remember past the lies that they taught you that you needed to be. remember the sacred lineage that flows within you. remember the silent truth of who you are deep down in the core of your being, and awaken. the silent winds are calling you and stirring deep your blood. without speaking, the ancients whisper wisdom into your veins, do you hear their sage words? are you ready to bear sacred witness to your own unfolding? the time has come to usher in the alchemy of your rebirth. are you ready? there is so much more that exists beyond the rules and regulations that have been created to hold you prisoner. a vast, lush forest tangled with truth and promise waits to welcome you home. it is there that i witness the truth of you, deep within the arms of the silence; never can they tear us apart, my king, warrior and muse, primal, naked and raw. adoring teacher, nurturing lover and gaia’s eternal son”  ― c. ara campbell, silent winds (modified by bodhinku)  

"the difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life is only a matter of perspective. pull the blinds. look around you. it is a mad, mad world and you do not require ten digit bank accounts to immerse yourself in it. travel down dusty roads without a destination in mind. climb a mountain and scream out into the void. kiss the hell out of a lover. skinny dip in a lake. get lost and lose yourself (they are two separate things). explore the wilderness (especially the one within). think less of destiny and more of the moment right here. because when you are old and ill with your loved ones around you, fame won't matter, nor will the extent of your wealth. you are the sum of the stories you have lived." ― beau taplin, bright eyes

"oh, may your silhouette never dissolve
on the beach, may your eyelids never flutter
into the empty distance. don't leave me for
a second, my dearest, because in that moment you'll
have gone so far i'll wander mazily
over all the earth, asking, will you
come back?” ― pablo neruda, on the blue shore of silence

"these are just moments. i struggle with the in-betweens. i just want to never stop loving like there is nothing else to do, because what else is there to do?” ― pablo neruda, the book of questions 
 
“the two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter" ― paulo coelho, veronika decides to die  
 
“we are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. life is eternal. we have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. this is a precious moment. it is a little parenthesis in eternity” ― paulo coelho, the alchemist
 
“i don’t live in either my past or my future. i’m interested only in the present. if you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now" ― paulo coelho, the alchemist  
 
“here, start living moment to moment totally and intensely, joyfully and playfully—and you will see that nothing goes out of control; that your intelligence becomes sharper; that you become younger; that your love becomes deeper. and when you go out into the world, wherever you go, spread life, playfulness, joy, as far away as possible—to every nook and corner of the earth" ― osho, the voice of silence
 
“there are moments when i wish i could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but i have a feeling that if i did, the joy would be gone as well. so i take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever i can" ― nicholas sparks, dear john 
 
“the real you is still a little child who never grew up. sometimes that little child comes out when you are having fun or playing, when you feel happy, when you are painting, or writing poetry, or playing the piano, or expressing yourself in some way. these are the happiest moments of your life, when the real you comes out, when you don't care about the past and you don't worry about the future. you are childlike." ― don miguel ruiz, the four agreements  
 
“the butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough” ― rabindranath tagore, collected poems and plays
 
"for it is up to you and me to take solace in nostalgia's arms and our ability to create the everlasting from fleeting moments" ― sanober khan, turquoise silence
 
“i will live this day as if it is my last. …i will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad? i will live this day as if it is my last. this day is all i have and these hours are now my eternity. i greet this sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death. i lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day. so too, i will beat upon my heart with gratitude as i consider all who greeted yesterday’s sunrise who are no longer with the living today. i am indeed a fortunate man and today’s hours are but a bonus, undeserved. why have i been allowed to live this extra day when others, far better than i, have departed? is it that they have accomplished their purpose while mine is yet to be achieved? is this another opportunity for me to become the man i know i can be?” ― og mandino, the greatest salesman
 
“people, like stars, are entitled to an eclipse. all is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. dawn and resurrection are synonymous. the reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul" ― victor hugo, les miserables  
 
“nothing can be sadder or more profound than to see a thousand things for the first and last time. to journey is to be born and die each minute...all the elements of life are in constant flight from us, with darkness and clarity intermingled, the vision and the eclipse..." ― victor hugo, les miserables
 
“the reappearance of the crescent moon after the new moon; the return of the sun after a total eclipse, the rising of the sun in the morning after its troublesome absence at night were noted by people around the world; these phenomena spoke to our ancestors of the possibility of surviving death. up there in the skies was also a metaphor of immortality" ― carl sagan, cosmos  
 
"if ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion, why do you not believe in materialistic science, which has an unparalleled record of fulfilled prophecy? consider, for example, eclipses" ― carl sagan, cosmos
 
“at that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever. that was the last shudder of his awakening, the last pains of birth. immediately he moved on again and began to walk quickly and impatiently, no longer homewards, no longer to his father, no longer looking backwards.” ― hermann hesse, siddhartha  
 
“we should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. we should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. we should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth" ― g.k. chesterton 
 
“for human nature is so made that only what is unusual and infrequent excites wonder or is regarded as of value. we make no wonder of the rising and the setting of the sun which we see every day; and yet there is nothing in the universe more beautiful, or worthy of wonder. when, however, an eclipse of the sun takes place, everyone is amazed - because it happens rarely" ― gerald of wales, the history ireland  
 
“when does real love begin? ...at first it was a fire, eclipses, short circuits, lightning and fireworks; the incense, hammocks, drugs, wines, perfumes; then spasm and honey, fever, fatigue, warmth, currents of liquid fire, feast and over-indulgence; then dreams, visions, candlelight, flowers, pictures; then images out of the past, fairy tales, stories, then pages out of a book, a poem; then laughter, then chastity....at what moment does the knife wound sink so deep that the flesh begins to weep with love?" ― anais nin, fire: a journal of love
 
“insecure people only eclipse your sun because they’re jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights" ― shannon l. adler
 
“i loved you before i even knew the name for it. everyday i'd sit beside you, inhaling your scent, looking at your beautiful face. every night, dreaming about you. you eclipsed everything else. it was you. always you" ― heather anastasiu, glitch 
 
“don’t let what he wants eclipse what you need. he is very dreamy, but he is not the sun. you are" ― shonda rhimes, year of yes
 
"each morning, i wake invisible. i almost know what it is to be seen...my heart a hole the size of the sun's eclipse. i push through the dark circle's tattered edge of light. all day i struggle until the moon moves from the face of the sun, and there is a strange light, as though from a kerosene lamp in a cabin...now i know i am seen. i have a shadow. i extend my arms, and dance and chant in the sun's new light” ― diane glancy
 
“love is like a unique comet that appears rarely in the sky, shining as bright as a thousand stars as it flies through our galaxy creating light during an eclipse" ― leesa abbott
 
“depression is the flaw in love. to be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair. when it comes, it degrades one's self and ultimately eclipses the capacity to give or receive affection. it is the aloneness within us made manifest, and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself. love, though it is no prophylactic against depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself. medications and psychotherapy can renew that protection, making it easier to love and be loved, and that is why they work. in good spirits, some love themselves and some love others and some love work and some love god: any of these passions can furnish that vital sense of purpose that is the opposite of depression. love forsakes us from time to time, and we forsake love. in depression, the meaninglessness of every enterprise and every emotion, the meaninglessness of life itself, becomes self-evident. the only feeling left in this loveless state is insignificance.” ― andrew solomon, the noonday demon
 
“i longed to know what it felt like to have one person eclipse everything bad in your life - be a place of pure joy" ― cara lynn shultz, spellbound
 
"in the wake of a human being's death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective minds of those who were dearest to them... though the primary mind has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain, a collective corona that still glows" ― douglas r. hofstadter, i am a strange loop   
 
"do they hide the light so that i cannot see it or do they filter it so that its blaze will not blind me? can a man see his god face to face and live? can i not see an eclipse better through a pinhole in a paper than without it? we can't so much see light as we can see things...because of it in a world of events and of places, of history (time and space), in a world of lives of people and their records of their encounters. i meet my god in this world" ― rich mullins
 
“comparing what you see during an eclipse to the darkness at night is like comparing an ocean to a teardrop" ― wendy mass, every soul a star  
 
“i love the hint of copper in your eyes, radiating out like the sun, turning your pupils into an eclipse" ― anastasia hopcus
 
“the moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever" ― carlos ruiz zafon, the shadow of the wind  
 
"all that you touch, all that you see. all that you taste, all you feel. all that you love, all that you hate, all you distrust, all you save. all that you give, all that you deal, all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal. all you create, all you destroy. all that you do, all that you say. all that you eat, and everyone you meet. all that you slight, and everyone you fight. all that is now, all that is gone, all that's to come, and everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon" ― roger waters  

“every now and then i get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around (turn around)...every now and then i get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears (turn around)...every now and then i get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by (turn around)...every now and then i get a little bit terrified and then i see the look in your eyes (turn around, bright eyes)...every now and then i fall apart (turn around, bright eyes), every now and then i fall apart...and i need you now, tonight. and i need you more than ever. and if you only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever. and we'll only be making it right. because we'll never be wrong. together we can take it to the end of the line. your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time). i don't know what to do, and i'm always in the dark. we're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks...i really need you tonight, forever's gonna start tonight, forever's gonna start tonight...once upon a time i was falling in love, but now i only falling apart. there's nothing i can do, a total eclipse of the heart...once upon a time there was light in my life, but now there's only love in the dark. nothing i can say, a total eclipse of the heart, a total eclipse of the heart...turn around, bright eyes" ― bonnie tyler, total eclipse of the heart
 
"i tried to remember in my heart what i’d dreamed about during the night before i became aware of this moving of life. i found my dreams, things were happening which slowly slowly made me recall everything...you amaze me with your touch, although i can’t see your hands. you have kissed me with tenderness, although i haven’t seen your lips. you are hidden from me, but it is you who keeps me alive” ― jalaluddin rumi, the music and silence of the heart
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"take this metaphor of a solar eclipse: do not regret how the light was before the eclipse, or what it will be like afterwards...live in the infinity of the moment before you now, in the glowing light of the umbra created by the sun and moon together as one. make this light we call life count, every single second, living in each moment...because before you know it,  just like an eclipse, it will all be gone just as fast as it came"  ― bodhinku, metaphor of an eclipse 

this is a merged image composition of two exposures in the same frame... so a stable and sturdy tripod was an absolute necessity in order to keep both exposed images sharp in the places i wanted sharpness (i use selective focus on most of my images, similar to the way our eyes see things) as well as keep both images aligned in the same frame without moving the camera in space or the perspective would be out of whack...for this i used a dolica 70" carbon fiber tripod, because it is sturdy, tall, and perfectly compact for travel to remote places on the planet such as easter island where how much luggage and equipment you can travel with is limited....for me, this shot would never have been possible without my friends daniel and april at dolica tripods.

in my photography i always use filters to create longer exposure effects and to 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 the case with this image, to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i needed to use two filters for the ultra long exposure that was to be the foreground and middle ground part of the photo merge (the shorter exposure of the solar eclipse and surrounding clouds creating the background did not need any filters)...and for this, i chose to use the amazing 3.0nd progrey antarctica magnetic filter (and holder) to slow down the exposure 10 stops and totally smooth out the clouds in the sky (easier to blend with the much shorter eclipse exposure), plus really saturate all the purples and greens in the light of the eclipse, allot more than would be possible with a short exposure time, plus in combination with the 1.2gnd progrey genesis filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, as the sky/eclipse above the ahu nau nau was exceptionally brighter (about 4 stops brighter than the rest of the darker parts of the image composition), especially the foreground/middle-ground a few feet in front of me all the way to the statues being put into the shadows from the diffused sunlight from the eclipse...

i wish to openly thank my sponsors who have always supported me through both the good and bad times...for truly this semi-long exposure impression would not be possible without the use of my trusty dolica tripod in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...
 
"contemplate without thinking. stop the world. slow down everything. shut off the noise. breathe in. breathe out. relax. seize this moment. reconnect. feel and sense what surrounds you. listen to all the colors of light that envelope you. see the melody and harmony that floats about unnoticed. taste the solitude of all this wonderment. smell the beautiful silence within your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith. this is my world. awaken." ― bodhinku, my world
 
above all else as always, i hope this message and image find you well.
 
namaste,
bodhi
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please visit me at:
http://www.bodhismith.com
http://www.instagram.com/bodhismith
http://www.facebook.com/Bodhi.Impressions

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