MEANING
"magical is just a word, but the vision it represents in our mind's eye is a memory, or a dream, or a love of something that is just too magical to describe with merely a word" ― bodhinku, magical
easter island is one of those places that is just to0 magical to describe with one word...but if i had to, and could only use one word, one word only, then that one word would be "magical" for me...
my first visit in 2015 was special, and i left the island in awe, not wanting to leave...so i returned, twice more, once in 2018 and again in 2019...and each time i arrive i always have to leave, and i leave, but i leave wanting more, i'm not done yet, not even close...i want to go back again because i know i still have things i want to do, and unfinished moments there to spend, to live, to just be...i am not even close to being done with easter island in my life, i feel like this is all just only the beginning for me, my relationship with rapa nui is only just starting to develop like a grand and epic love story...for greater adventures and so many more beautiful moments still lie ahead of me the rest of my life, together this island and me...
however, i have noticed regrettably now-a-days, that most people create a "bucket list" of places to go, and it also seems more and more people are adding easter island to their list... but personally i hate the term, because it means you are going to visit somewhere you have always wanted to go before you die or "kick the bucket," then check it off your list as a "been there, done that" item, and move on to the next item on the list, and then never go back again...
but to me, this is crazy, for after that initial magical romantic "first kiss" visit to a place, it is all the revisiting moments that are my best times, and much more meaningful and magical moments always happen during the times when i revisit places i have already been... especially as a photographer when my best impressions happen after i go to a location numerous times...i can relate more of myself to the place with more visits, plus i do not have pressure that i "must capture that image now" for fear i will never get another chance...going back over and over just makes a place more familiar, more personal, more beautiful as you discover more each time about yourself and the place, discoveries which you did not notice the first time...
this past summer in june-july 2019, like i said above, i made the trip to easter island (rapa nui) for my third time in a span of four years...but why in the world would anyone travel to one of the most remote places on our planet, spending a nice sum of money to get there once again, when they have already been there twice already? simply put, and as i alluded to it above, it is the meaning behind the title of this image you see before you today, the place to me is purely "magical" to me ("magique" is the french word for "magical")...and i will be going back again very soon...
rapa nui, isla de pascua (a.k.a. easter island) is one of my favorite places to go on this earth, i have such a strong affinity for it...there is just something about it that draws me in, draws me back to it time and time again, i truly love it there...a mystique that i just cannot stay away from no matter how hard i try, and i find again and again, that i am compelled to travel to this tiny and remote south pacific island, returning over and over and over, so strangely beautiful, captivating, fascinating, and magical for my soul...ella esta mi isla de suenos...
when asked about easter island, i always tell people that if you want to travel to a tropical island, sit under a palm tree on a sandy beach and drink a frozen margarita, then this is not the island for you...easter island is tropical, but there are few palm trees, even fewer sandy beaches as it mostly volcanic rock, and no ice or blenders to make a frozen concoction on the island...this is not a resort island where a beautiful location is combined with modern luxuries of comfort and convenience...it is none of that..
and this island is my favorite because it does not have those kind of amenities, so it still keeps away many people who would not appreciate it for being such an unspoiled place on this planet, a true breath of fresh air and peace...the whole island is considered a national park by its parent country of chile, so it is protected by legislation to keep out development and exploiting commerce...i just hope it stays that way...
what is missing from rapa nui (easter island) is what makes it so appealing, so beautiful to me...there are no neon signs, no billboards of advertisements, no city lights, no freeways or speeding cars (maximum speed limit on island is 60 km/hr), no commutes or road rage...no buildings taller than 10 meters high, no corporate parks or warehouses, no mcdonalds or fast food chains, no starbucks or walmart or department stores or giant supermarkets with huge parking lots, no cell phone towers and satellite dishes, no drones flying around...no western corporatocracy, no traffic lights or smog, no drive-thrus or 7-11 convenience stores, no beggars or homeless people on the streets or trash and litter anywhere, no graffiti spray painted about...no condos and apartment complexes or housing developments, no big luxury resorts or even any hotel chains, no outlet stores and auto malls...no amusement park, zip-lines, wax museums or red-light district, no crazy noise and street corners full of protestors...always so very few people scattered out on this tiny island that is only 23km across...
...but unfortunately it seems more and more tourists are on the island as i have been noticing with each subsequent trip that i make to the island...now latam air is offering two flights a day to isla de pascua (easter island) from santiago chile, instead of only one in the past, which is opening up more and more access to tourism...just hope the extra influx of tourists do not spoil, corrupt, and ruin the island's beauty and rusticness...but still, even with all the extra people flying in with the added flight, it is only 200 or so extra a day, with 200 or so extra leaving a day, compared to all the other places in the world, there are still so few people traveling to this island...
still, no matter what, rapa nui, a.k.a. easter island, a.k.a. isla de pascua, is simply magical always to me...
"i know the secret magic of a rainbow...rainbows were meant to remind me that you are that magical treasure at the end of my rainbow" ― bodhinku, magic of a rainbow
"love's my miracle, a magical segment of a rainbow, so pure, which i hold within these arms of mine, giving me hope, joy, and peace in a better life" ― bodhinku, rainbow segment
“two bubbles found they had rainbows on their curves. they flickered out saying: it was worth being a bubble, just to have held that rainbow for thirty magical seconds” ― carl sandburg
“magic exists. who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. it is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live” ― nora roberts, vision in white
“love is the very magic of life. it is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. yet it is not found only at the end of the rainbow. love is at the beginning also, and from it springs the beauty that arched across the sky on a stormy day”― gordon b. hinckley, standing for something
“into this new love,
die the old ways
your path begins
on the other side
become the sky
take an axe to the prison wall,
escape
walk out like someone
suddenly born into
the color of the rainbow,
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STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
the original name for easter island is te pito te henua...in rapanuian this means "the end of the world"...and again, one thing that attracts me for more future returns to the island is its remoteness, keeping the entire small island relatively unspoiled from the reaches of greedy capitalism and destructive corruption...
so, last july 3rd there was a partial solar eclipse (about 85%) on easter island, and i wanted to see it for myself, and capture impressions with my camera as well, so i booked my third trip to rapa nui and paid the island another visit...i did manage to get some very unique images of the eclipse from the rano raraku quarry, as well as numerous new star images around the island (of course, if you know me), and some beautiful and unique sunrises over the lava rocks and surf...but i think my best image of the trip was this one of a rainbow over the ahu tahai complex (which translates to "stands alone with") a few days earlier on june 29th...
and pictured here is the ahu ko te riku (translates to "eyes looking to heaven") which is the only moai on the island with eyes, they are made of white coral and black obsidian...and at this location there are three separate ceremonial ahu (not seen in my image, just out of frame), along with the tomb of william mulloy who helped restore the fallen moai around the island (and his wife) and collectively the location is named ahu tahai and these are the the closet ahu to the main town on the island, hanga roa, just a short walking distance north of the village center...
this image was captured in the morning during a rain shower with the sun magically breaking through to create a magical rainbow, and i got totally soaked by the warm rain, but i did not care for it was a treat to witness this scene with my own eyes, and my camera (and also shot a video of this - see link in section below)...and as i have stated in previous blogs about easter island, i love how the statues, called moai, face inland, with their backs to the ocean, watching over the people of the town of hanga roa, guardians of the island...and in this case, the addition of their rainbow to their station just makes things more so magical...
“there is no envy, jealousy, or hatred between the different colors of the rainbow. and no fear either. because each one exists to make the others’ love more magical and more beautiful” ― aberjhani
“my heart leaps up when i behold
a rainbow in the sky:
so was it when my life began;
so is it now i am a man” ― william wordsworth
“be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. the evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray” ― lord george byron
"the true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the magical tints of morning or evening. it simply is a segment of the rainbow which i have clutched”― henry david thoreau, walden
"if you go looking for magic, you will never find it..for it has been inside you all along, waiting for you to believe" ― bodhinku, believe in magic
"the moment that
the rainbow disappears,
that is the moment you know,
you know exactly
what you will miss" ― bodhinku, missing rainbows
"what is magical, really? i think magical is somebody to hold. someone to be held by. to be treasured by a treasure and weather all storms. and trust everything is going to be alright as the rainbows appear...somebody magical to notice birds with. to catch flashes of blue and green and purple and brown, and to feel the excitement of soaring little wonders. to see life as it is, not as it seems...somebody magical to stare at in wonder, with hearts bursting between eyes, and admire their magic and to think, “that heart loves mine” ― bodhinku, somebody magical
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MORE MEANINGFUL QUOTES
"when you create a piece of art, you can stop at any time. you can reach a point where it starts to look all right, where the canvas starts to take shape and begins to look like something. you can put down the brush and you can step away from the easel any time you want. you could keep going. you could keep playing with it, keep layering the paint and seeing where it takes you. maybe into a rainbow love and of what your dreams are made, pure joy. "but what if i wreck it", the cautious little voice inside says. "maybe i should stay where it is and not mess it up. i mean it’s all right, right?" art is sort of like life. sometimes we don’t move for fear that what we have is good enough and if we make a false step we’re going to wreck it. sometimes we have a hard time imagining anything other than what we see in front of us. sometimes our experiences have taught us not to hope for anything other than the basic whitewash on canvas. life is always going to make your horizons stretch. with every breath you are expanding. with every day you are being called to pick up the brush and touch up what it is you are wanting to see on your canvas. there’s nothing wrong with it. that’s life. but you aren’t going to wreck anything. this is all your path. the stuck bits, the busy parts. the decisions, the contrast, the change and all the stuff in between. it’s all our road. on the easel of life, you can put the brush down at any time. you can step back and take a long hard look at your canvas. you can sit there and stare at it as long as you need. it’s not going anywhere. and you are always able to pick that palette back up, put the bristles to the canvas and recolor the surface at any time. that’s the beauty of art and life. there really is no end, only blending from one hue to the next, like with the colors in a rainbow. it’s always a work in progress. and life can be a rainbow if you take the chance and let it." ― c. ara campbell
“this is me saying that i would set myself on fire to bring a rainbow of colors to all of the dark places within you”
“love is a feeling completely bound up with color, like thousands of rainbows superimposed one on top of the other” ― paulo coelho
“magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated ... always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible” ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes
"no one can posses the beautiful things of this earth, but we can know them and love them. it is through such magical moments that god reveals himself to mankind.”― paulo coelho, brida
“every moment should be lived with feeling and emotion because if we try to decipher it and understand it, the magic disappears”― paulo coelho, the spy
“no one day is like another, each tomorrow has its special miracle, its a magical moment in which old universes are destroyed and new stars and rainbows are created” ― paulo coelho, hippie
“we must listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. that child understands magical moments. we can stifle its cries, but we can not silence its voice. the child we once were is still there, inside. blessed are the children, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. if we are not reborn, if we can not learn to look at life with the innocence and the enthusiasm of childhood, it makes no sense to go on living” ― paulo coelho, the alchemist
“a man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in pursuit of some unknown treasure over the rainbow. at the end of his journey, the man realizes that the treasure was with him the entire time” ― paulo coelho, the alchemist
"once upon a time, i met a boy, and thought we could have so much fun. he held his hands in his pockets, and we made up stories, and for the first time in a while, i didn’t want to leave even though i was shivering cold. when he touched my cheek, i blushed, and no one makes me blush. i was thinking we could play. i was hoping we could be magical...when he kissed me, it felt like warm mercury slipping into my veins, and i wanted to kiss him for an hour on the sidewalk as though there was nothing else. with him, i tried to be my better self. but i was new at it, and we humans don’t do anything perfectly. we fumbled along this weird little path. we missed each other often along the trail. i thought, why can’t we just be kids in love, and laughed with a string of sadness...people are simple. people are complicated. we do our best. in him, i felt a familiar darkness and a brilliant light. he was the sound of the ocean at night crashing on the shore, of sunrise in the distance, miles of open road, and hands i craved all over me painting me with music. he felt like a roller coaster in the dark, the one at disneyland with stars flying past, with flips and turns, abrupt stops and starts....he taught me of hope and expectation, and to firmly root myself in me. he taught me that you, or your love, can be misunderstood, that not everyone will see you but it’s okay to keep your heart open. it’s okay to leave. that loving someone isn’t weakness, even if they don’t love you the same. he taught me that people can care enough to hurt you just enough to keep you away. and that too is a weird little gift. i grew so much in so many ways. i know who i am, and i love me. sometimes the things that never were, pull at us, because they feel incomplete, but maybe they are imperfectly perfect as they are, exactly the way they were always meant to be. we can be ourselves. we are alive" ― c. ara campbell
“you have to take risks, we will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. every day, god gives us the sun...and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist...that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. but if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. it may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. but that moment exists...a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles" ― paulo coelho, by the river piedra i sat down and wept
“a bridge of silver wings like a rainbow stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare to the jeweled vision of a life started anew” ― aberjhani
“shine your soul with the same
egoless humility as the rainbow
and no matter where you go
in this world or the next,
your beloved will find you,
attend you, and bless you” ― aberjhani
“and above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. those who don't believe in magic, will never find it”― roald dahl, charlie and the chocolate factory
"call it magic, cut me into two...and with all your magic, i disappear from view. and i can't get over, can't get over you...still, i call it magic, such a precious truth" ― coldplay, magic
“wishes are false. hope is true. hope makes its own magic" ― laini taylor, daughter of smoke & bone
“just because something isn't practical, doesn't mean it's not worth creating. sometimes beauty and real-life magic are enough" ― stephanie perkins, lola and the boy next door
“i want to be magic. i want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile. i want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. or under a hill. i want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing. i don't want to pretend at magic anymore. i want to be magic" ― charles de lint, moonheart
"come take my hand, you should know me, i've always been in your mind. you know that i'll be kind, i'll be guiding you...building your dream has to start now, there's no other road to take, you won't make a mistake, i'll be guiding you...you have to believe we are magic, nothing can stand in our way. you have to believe we are magic, don't let your aim ever stray. and if all your hopes survive, destiny will arrive, and i'll bring all your dreams alive for you...from where i stand, you are home free. the planets align so rare, there's promise in the air, and i'm guiding you...through every turn i'll be near you. i'll come anytime you call. i'll catch you when you fall. i'll be guiding you...you have to believe we are magic, nothing can stand in our way. you have to believe we are magic, don't let your aim ever stray. and if all your hopes survive, destiny will arrive, and i'll bring all your dreams alive for you..." ― olivia newton john, magic
“somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” ― e.y. harburg
“unless you are here: this garden refuses to exist.
pink dragonflies fall from the air
and become scorpions scratching blood out of rocks.
the rainbows that dangle upon this mist: shatter.
like the smile of a child separated
from his mother’s milk for the very first time" ― aberjhani
“oh,
god of dust
and rainbows,
help us to see
that without the dust,
the rainbow
would not be” ― langston hughes
“magic exists. who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. it is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live.” ― nora roberts
“i am a flawed person. a brook with many stones, a clear blue sky with many blackbirds. i have many shortcomings. a rainbow that’s not long enough, a starry night with clouds. but i can only be thankful to my beloved, who loves me just this way, and i can be grateful to the people in my life who accept the clear blue sky with many blackbirds and who are patient with the rainbow that isn’t long enough. and because of this, i am taught love, because of this i am loved, and i love and live.” ― c. joybell c.
“love is being happy for the other person when they are happy, being sad for the person when they are sad, being together in good times, and being together in bad times. love is...the calm in the rainbow.” ― karen marie moning, iced
“john keats mourned that the rainbow, which as a boy had been for him a magic thing, had lost its glory because sir isaac newton had found it resulted merely from the refraction of the sunlight by the raindrops. yet knowledge of its causation could not spoil the rainbow for me. i am sure that it is not given to man to be omniscient. there will always be something left to know, something to excite the imagination of the poet and those attuned to the great world in which they live”― robert frost, interviews
"you know, i do believe in magic....i was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. but i knew it all along. when i was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow i saw the past, the present and into the future. you probably did too; you just don’t recall it. see, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. we are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, rainbows, and comets inside us. we are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand....but then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. we get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. we get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. told to act our age. told to grow up, for god’s sake. and you know why we were told that? because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves....after you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. you can have seconds of it. just seconds of knowing and remembering. when people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heart-sad and not knowing why. when a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. for the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm....that’s what i believe....the truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. we get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. things happen to us. loved ones die. people get in wrecks and get crippled. people lose their way, for one reason or another. it’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. you don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is. it’s like smiling at a pretty girl and she calls you “sir.” it just happens....these memories of who i was and where i lived are important to me. they make up a large part of who i’m going to be when my journey winds down. i need the memory of magic, if i am ever going to conjure magic again. i need to know and remember, and i want to tell you" ― robert r. mccammon, boy's life
"i looked behind a silver cloud, I found a pretty rainbow there
i walked out to the rainbow's end and found a rainbow love
the one that i was looking for, the dream that i was dreaming of
there, down at the rainbow's end i found a rainbow love
i found my pot of gold, my rainbow love
just you and all your loving, charming rainbow love
i searched, hoped someday I'd find someone to bring me peace of mind
i found what i've been dreaming of when i found my rainbow love"
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
this is a single frame image composition of a semi-long exposure time, so a stable and sturdy tripod was an absolute necessity in order to keep the image sharp in the places i wanted sharpness (i use selective focus on most of my images, similar to the way our eyes see things)...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, i used filters, and to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i needed to use two 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 to 25 seconds and totally smooth out the wave on the ocean and clouds in the sky, plus saturate all the blues, greens, and reds more (especially naturally saturate the rainbow colors) plus in combination with the 0.9gnd progrey genesis filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, as the sky was considerably brighter than the foreground around the moai...about 3 stops brighter than the rest of the darker parts of the image composition...
btw...if you would like to see the promotional video i shot of this beautiful scene as i was capturing this image with the rainbow using my dolica tripod and progrey filters with magnetic holder for the antarctica filters, please watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/progreyusa/videos/1440302302783970/
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...
"paulo coelho once said that 'magic is a bridge that allows you to walk from the visible world over into the invisible world, and to learn the lessons of both those worlds'...well, i believe that a rainbow is exactly that magical bridge" ― bodhinku, magical bridge
"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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http://www.bodhismith.com
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