Miflor by Bodhi Smith

Nov 01, 2019

"miflor" a new impression from bodhi smith...
 
"there she was, standing out, wildly regal, so eminent from all the others, rising above the crown of royalty...so much more colorful, more luscious, more luminous...so much more beautiful than anything else he had ever seen, all he could do was smile and cry..." ― bodhinku, mi flor
 
“if we could see the miracle of a single flower, clearly our whole life would change" ― gautama buddha  
 
“just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”― hans christian anderson, the complete fairy tales
 
“the small flower is as total as the sun" ― osho, book of wisdom  
 
just as a flower blooms and blossoms, it unfortunately also fades and passes on, so temporary, yet so complete...we always want to remember that one particular flower when it was in full bloom, and stood out so impressively from everything else around it...we always desire to remember our flowers that way, no matter what...and this new impression of mine helps me to remember mi flor, my flower, here just that way, as a beautiful rising star shining above all the others to my eyes...and here is a song by lady gaga from the newest movie version of "a star is born" which embodies that sentiment better than any song i have ever heard before, sometimes the most beautiful things are not always able to be with us as long as we hope, so we need to make every moment count and enjoy every moment we get... it is a beautiful love song and one i think goes so beautifully, perfectly with this impression of mine...the beautiful yellow flower standing out high above all the other flowers in a way just so stellar...just click on the song title or artist here to listen to this song as you read my blog and enjoy my new impression..."always remember us this way" by lady gaga, a star is born

"that arizona sky burning in your eyes
you look at me and, babe, i wanna catch on fire
it's buried in my soul like california gold
you found the light in me that i couldn't find
so when i'm all choked up
but i can't find the words
every time we say goodbye
baby, it hurts
when the sun goes down
and the band won't play
i'll always remember us this way" ― lady gaga, always remember us this way
 
"i will wade out
till my thighs are steeped in
blooming flowers
i will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
alive
with closed eyes" ― e.e. cummings, selected poems  
 
"a yellow flower grows in the silence. let your tongue become that flower. let your love become you" ― jalaluddin rumi
 
"as a flower, she knew he was no god, because he existed. he just was. and he was always there for her. his being was the heart-shaped light from the way-beyond. and when she saw his glow, felt his warmth, and absorbed his energy into her delicate petals, she now touched magic. and she knew with such a certainty, finally, what love truly was" ― bodhinku, the flower and her light     
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MEANING
"i found my flower, there she was, she caught my eye and captured my heart. i listened to her...she called out to me with her colors and warmth, held me with her softness and beauty, silently asking only that i let her grow, and let her be, and love her for who she was: my flower" ― bodhinku, my flower 
 
"miflor" is actually "mi flor", which in spanish means "my flower"...and the deeper meaning behind this image is pretty evident, especially if you read all of the quotes up to this point...the flower is a metaphor of my heart's love, the beauty that i want to shine all of my light upon one day, and allow to grow, and flourish, and continue to be beautiful, yet fully blossom and be as different as can be... 
 
"once upon a time, i met a flower. she was so innocent, yet so wise. she was glitter and wildness. softness and sweet fragrance. she was a flock of fireflies that danced through the forest and swam naked in moonlight. she was the first soul i bared myself to, only one i was completely honest with about the things that shamed me...we wandered through the world in a bubble of our own making, floating free, full of pastels so colorful, full of fairy dust, sunbeams, and feathers. we drew people towards us like sirens in the water, wanting what we had. but we fluttered away like butterflies hopping from lily pad to lily pad, giggling all the while. we told each other the real hard truth, and listened, and laughed and cried out our hearts. when i was going through a tough time, she once told me to pick a place, anywhere in the world, and she’d be there with me, even if she couldn't be...she was my flower. she taught me about generosity, about giving with deep trust that it would return somehow somewhere. and it always does. she taught me to love people for who they are, and to just let them be, in their own flower field. i met a flower. she taught me to live in love. to bloom, and listen. now i am alive, in love" ― bodhinku, i met a flower     
 
"without your colors, my world would always be like night, it would be so much colder, so dark and colorless...i'd be living in a black and white picture where all the flowers have closed up" ― bodhinku, without your colors
 
"he could smell her petals, with their warming colors. and hear her silent wisdom as he listened to those colors...and her beauty, behold! wow; oh, how he wanted so badly to keep her and cherish her...but he dare not take her away from the other purple flowers, she was not his to take. because it was there that she was needed, and there he would let her be, standing out above the crowd, where she belonged"― bodhinku, the yellow flower  
 
"thank you, flower...for showing me how to grow even while being blocked from the sun by the tall redwoods, having to find ways around and through, so my sunshine heart could glow into me, becoming the blossom that is watered and needed, and listened to, and sung to sleep in peaceful, loving arms. thank you for awakening me to my life" ― bodhinku, thank you flower
 
"if you were a blade of grass or a tiny flower, i will pitch my tent in your shadow. only your presence revives my withered heart. you are the candle that lights the whole world, and i am an empty vessel for your light" ― jalaluddin rumi  
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MORE MEANINGFUL QUOTES
“always try to live in a wonderful world where the sun is always shining, flowers are always blooming, birds are always singing, and you are always busy with a joyful life" ― siddhartha gautama buddha, sayings of buddha
 
“you throw thorns, falling in my silence they become flowers.”― gautama buddha
 
“when you like a flower, you just pluck it. but when you love a flower, you water it daily." ― gautama buddha, sayings of buddha
 
“normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it” ― vincent van gogh

"ah, come with me!
i’ll blow you that wonderful bubble, the moon,
that floats forever and a day;
i’ll sing you the jacinth song
of the probable stars;
i will attempt the unstartled steppes of dream,
until i find the only flower,
which shall keep (i think) your little heart
while the sun comes out of the sea.”   ― e.e. cummings, selected poems    

"the voice of your eyes is deeper than all flowers” ― e.e. cummings  
 
"her heart is worth it. her love is a flower full of beautiful color. it is a once-in-a-lifetime, out of this world, rare and mystical power to behold and be enfolded by. her heart and her love is one of the most courageous, beautiful, passionate and powerful things you will ever encounter on this planet. true, it’s not for the faint of heart, but it is worth it. she will make every single moment count, every heartbeat, always, this i promise you" ― c. ara campbell
 
"but above all else, i only wish for your happiness, even if you require my absence to find it" ― beau taplin
 
“there are no half measures in love, only all or nothing, and if it doesn’t make you tremble or go mad at the very thought of its absence, it is not love” 

"my life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
i love what i do not have. you are so far.
my loathing wrestles with the slow twilights.
but night comes. stars and flowers start to sing to me.” ― pablo neruda, i explain a few colorful things

“our love was born outside the walls...in the wind, in the night, in the earth. and that's why the clay and the flower, the mud and the roots, the sun and the rain, know your name” ― pablo neruda  

of everything i have seen,
it's you i want to go on seeing:
of everything i've touched,
it's your petals i want to go on touching.
i love your orange laughter.
i am moved by the sight of you sleeping.

what am i to do, love, loved one?
i don't know how others love
or how people loved in the past.
i live, watching you, loving you.
being in love is my nature.

that's why i love you and yet not why.
there are so many reasons, and yet so few,
for love has to be so,
involving and general,
particular and terrifying,
joyful and grieving,
flowering like the stars,
and measureless as a kiss.” ― pablo neruda, intimacies  

“people give flowers as presents because they feel flowers contain the true meaning of love. but anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading away. so instead, if you simply look at a flower in the field, you'll keep it forever. that is what the forest taught me. that you will never be mine, and that is why i will never lose you.” ― paulo coehlo, brida

“a flower is not better when it blooms than when it is merely a bud; at each stage it is the same thing...a flower in the process of expressing its potential” ― paulo coelho, warrior of the light
 
“these seeds will always be tulips, even if at the moment you cannot tell them apart from other flowers. they will never turn into roses or sunflowers, no matter how much they might desire to. and if they try to deny their own existence, they will live life bitter and die”― paulo coelho, the spy
 
“flowers teach us that nothing is permanent: not their beauty, not even the fact that they will inevitably wilt, because they will still give new seeds. remember this when you feel joy, pain, or sadness. everything passes, grows old, dies, and is reborn.”― paulo coelho, the spy
 
“if you go to a tree and start talking, or to a flower, a rose, people will think you are mad. if you go to the church and talk to the cross or to an image, nobody will think you are mad, they will think you are religious” ― osho, courage: the joy of living dangerously
 
"if you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
because if you pick it up, it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
so if you love a flower, let it be.
love is not about possession" ― osho, book of wisdom 
  
“remain in the world, act in the world, do whatsoever is needful, and yet remain transcendental, aloof, detached, a lotus flower in the pond” ― osho, the secret of secrets
  
“love is wild; its whole beauty is in its wildness. it comes like a breeze with great fragrance, fills your heart, and suddenly where there was a desert, there is a garden full of flowers" ― osho, intimacy  
 
“your mind is a garden,
your thoughts are the seeds.
you can grow flowers
or weeds...” ― osho, book of wisdom  
 
“that is the difference between a botanist and a poet: a botanist knows about the flower, the poet knows the flower”― osho, the mustard seed
  
“meditation is a flower, and compassion is its fragrance" ― osho, ancient music in the pines  
 
"each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. that a day spent with dreaming and sunrises, and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered" ― nicholas sparks, the notebook
 
“if you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. all the stars are a-bloom with flowers...” ― antoine de saint-exupery, the little prince 
 
“and then i feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire --
clearly i'm not needed,
yet i feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value”― mary oliver, new and selected poems

"each day is born with a sunrise
and ends in a sunset, the same way we
open our eyes to see the light, 
and close them to hear the dark.
you have no control over
how your story begins or ends.
but by now, you should know that
all things have an ending.
every spark returns to darkness.
every sound returns to silence.
and every flower returns to sleep
with the earth.
the journey of the sun
and moon is predictable.
but yours, 
is your ultimate
art”  ― suzy kassem, rise up and salute the sun    
 
“the earth laughs in flowers”― ralph waldo emerson, self reliance    
 
“the flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all" ― walt disney, mulan  
 
“i've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are!”― patrick rothfuss, the wise man's fear
 
"around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. if you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere” ― thich nhat hahn
 
"i dreamed that i was a flower
beneath the sunshine and the shower
i grew and waited there apart,
gathering perfume hour by hour,
and storing it within my heart,
yet, never knew,
just why i waited there and grew.

i dreamed you brushed my petals with a kiss,
i woke to gladness with a start,
and yielded up to you in bliss
the treasured fragrance of my heart;
and then i knew
that i had waited there for you" ― james weldon johnson  
 
"the flowers overjoyed with love
love is forever coming
just mine and sometimes, for her
she's the blossom blessed
desire is branded permanently
wanting takes over my thoughts
good memories endlessly run through my being
my person is attentive to the voices
that are sounded by the birds of the upland
it was she who dammed up the springs and wells
water just overflowed over the cliffs
the story is told
about the flowers overjoyed with love" ― paulo kamealoha,  kaʻanoʻi 
 
“now if only i may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer" ― dag hammarskjold, markings
 
“may your love for me be 
like
the scent of the morning breeze
drifting through 
a quiet field of flowers
so i do not have to run
or chase or fall
... to feel you
all i have to do
is 
breathe.” ― sanober khan, a thousand flamingos
 
"even when you're gone, somehow you come along just like a flower poking through the sidewalk crack. and just like that, you steal away the rain...and just like that, don't know how i lived without you, because every time that i get around you, i see the best of me inside your eyes...you make me smile" ― uncle kracker, you make me smile

"and if i kiss you in the garden
in the moonlight, will you pardon me?
and tip-toe through the tulips with me
knee deep in flowers we'll stray
we'll keep the showers away" ― tiny tim, tip toe thru the tulips    
 
“to wander in the fields of flowers, pull the thorns from your own heart" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
“darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes, but it cannot hide
love from the soul.” ― jalaluddin rumi, the big red book
 
“you are my flower
i am your sun and your moonlight too
i am your flower garden and your water too
i have come all this way, eager for you
without shoes or shawl
i want you to laugh
to kill all your worries
to love you
to nourish you" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"being in nature is my nature...i was born to drink the dew from her flower and walk barefoot in the sands of her sunshine days” ― bodhinku, in my nature 
 
this is a very minimalist impression...and in this image, i am blurring almost the entire image shooting at a very long focal length (200mm) with a very large aperture (f2.8), 95% of it is blurred to create the effects you see...so very little of this image is in actual focus...and in the original image, the sun had a little cloud naturally covering the top middle of it, and that little cloud made the sun look kinda like a heart, so i took a little bit extra artistic liberty and made the sun look even more like a heart, since my flower here truly has my heart and all my attention...
 
this photographic impression is comprised of 2 separate images, both shot at the same focal length and at the same f/stop, both taken in landscape orientation and then blended together into a single 3:4 portrait orientation composition using adobe photoshop cc...and with each of the exposures being shot at a long focal length and at a mildly long shutter speed, a stable and sturdy tripod was an absolute necessity in order to keep each image aligned to one another on a plain as well as sharp in focus 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....for me, this shot would never have been possible without my friends daniel and april at dolica tripods.

in my photography i always use neutral density 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 3 filters in order to get the effects and balance i was looking for...

as always, i used both neutral density (nd) filters, and graduated neutral density (gnd) filters for each image of this composition...one nd filter (6-stop) was needed to soften the flower field bokah of the background and foreground (up to the sky) with the available morning light, and to also help oversaturate the colors and enhance the orange and purple in the image...plus, two gnd filters (4-stop and an inverted 2-stop) were needed to help balance the composition in-camera overall for the image the way i envisioned it, as well as create a natural vignette...

and, to hold the filters and mount them onto my lens, i selected the progrey three slot g-120 filter holder...on each of the two exposures in the final composition, i used the 1.6nd progrey genesis filter combined with two gnd filters: one on top 1.2gnd progrey genesis filter and one on bottom 0.6gnd progrey genesis filter ......thank you to progrey for being one of my most valuable sponsors, none of my images would be possible without their support and their filters which are the best on the market, the only filters i trust to use on every single impression that i capture ...
 
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 would not be possible without the use of my trusty dolica tripod in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use...

"i dreamed, to 
breath, to 
sigh, to 
float, above 
clouds, over
watertops, through
fields of flowers, across
sunrise and sunset
painting romance
impressions, all throughout
my every atom.

for the longest time, i
waited, for 
my dream flower" ― bodhinku, my dream flower
 
"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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