The Eye of Her Light by Bodhi Smith

May 22, 2020

"the eye of her light" a new impression from bodhi smith...

i hope you enjoy this new blog today, with my thoughts, my words, and the music selections herein...

"without her light, his eye has no beauty to behold, and no purpose in life...likewise, without his eye to see her light and understand her beauty, she has no meaning...without his eye, she is just emptiness glowing through the darkness..." ― bodhinku, the eye of her light

"images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe...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 " ― john lennon, across the universe

"forever he waits for her to shine down on his solitary existence, and when she finally does, he is no longer lonely. and it is then that she knows the real meaning giving her existence a purpose: his true love for her beauty" ― bodhinku, forever waiting for her

here is an absolutely beautiful love song to listen to as you read along, one that really echos the feelings i have projected onto ojo oro arch (pictured here) as his eye connects with the glowing light of the arch of the milky way above... "through the eyes of love" by britt nicole...perfect lyrics, so positive and hopeful, and so delicately balanced like the image i present to you today...this melody adds sweetly to the feeling, meaning, and mood i hope for you to gain from my photo today...(just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the any song in this entire blog)

"please, don't let this feeling end, it's everything i am. everything i wanna be. i can see what's mine now, finding out what's true since i've found you lookin' through the eyes of love. now i can take the time. i can see my life as it comes up shining now reachin' out to touch you, i can feel so much since i've found you lookin' through the eyes of love...and now, i do believe that even in a storm, we'll find some light knowin' you're beside me, i'm alright. please don't let this feeling end, it might not come again and i want to remember how it feels to touch you, how i feel so much since i've found you lookin' through the eyes of love...reaching out to touch you, i can feel so much since i've found you lookin' through the eyes of love" ― britt nicole, through the eyes of love

"goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. because for those who love with the heart and soul, there is no such thing as separation" ― jalaluddin rumi, in the arms of the beloved

"study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for i differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. put yourself behind my eyes and see me as i see myself, for i have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see”― jalaluddin rumi, the garden of the soul, the heart, and the spirit

“there's so much light that we cannot see, so open your eyes and see what you can with them, now, before they close forever"" ― bodhinku, the light we cannot see

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MEANING

"eternally each night, she glows down freely from the heavens, but without somebody to see her, she has no meaning... his eye is what interprets her impression. his eye sees and understands her for who she is...so, his eye creates the art of her light for all to see, and captures her beauty forever...he becomes the eye of her light, he becomes her meaning...and she becomes his purpose" ― bodhinku, his eye-her light

i love the starts, especially the milky way...and just like a beautiful soul-filled woman, i chase her light each night as she zooms across the sky. sometimes in my lucid dreams, other times literally out in the darkest of darkness. and there she is above me, and no place i would rather be...pulsing deep out in the middle of desert, or sparkling effervescently over the ocean, or simply being the crowning jewel atop the tallest of mountain peaks, i find her light through the darkness...and when I finally catch up to her, i see her, and i use my camera to show her beautiful glow to the rest of the world...she never disappoints...

pictured here is "ojo oro arch" nestled into its band of rocks...a few years ago in 2016, i got the opportunity to name this arch as such, since it was an unnamed arch in the wilderness of joshua tree national park...ojo oro is spanish and translates to "golden eye", as this arch is truly golden in color and strongly resembles the human eye...

and this arch with its golden eye gets to look up and see this glowing milky way each night, always viewing the galaxy's light though its own eye...so this is how the meaning to this new and unique impression is generated...i personified ojo oro arch as a man on the ground, and the milky way arch as a woman above him in the sky, shining down on him...

and here are a couple more quotes from bodhinku to help bring a little deeper meaning to this image and my deeper darker thoughts...

"i dream my photograph, and i photograph my dream..." ― bodhinku, my dream

"in photographing the milky way and all the stars over these mountains, i feel the celestial heights of my silence" ― bodhinku, celestial heights

"take in the stars, the milky way, the universe, everything in reflections of light and memories..breathe, let it be, for.this is true meaning right now, embrace it and fall in love with that celestial peace welling up inside you" ― bodhinku, celestial peace

"discover the celestial breeze you have inside you...quiet your mind and listen to your inner voice as it reflects the messages of the universe--those truths you know deep in your soul" ― bodhinku, inside

"quietly in silence, i adore the milky way...i have been obsessed with staring at her beauty for these past couple of years. i am amazed and fascinated by how beautiful she is, no matter what position in the sky, or location on this planet she is found. and i am further obsessed in trying to create photographic impressions of her to show the world just how much i am in love with everything about her...she is the most beautiful thing my eyes have ever witnessed, glowing and lighting up my sky like nothing ever has before, or ever will again. she speaks to me with her silence, so much clearer than any mere mortal words with her thoughts permeating into my own. i love being with her all night long, just humbled by her grace and majesty, so magical and mystical, as she sings her silent songs to me and blinks at me with a billions eyes full of love...i feel her, i see her, i listen to her, and then i simply breathe, and my spirit is wrapped up into the whispers of her sighs, and i exhale her love...i simply adore her. all of her" ― bodhinku, milky way silence

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STORY BEHIND THIS IMAGE

"and just like a beautiful soul-filled woman, i chase her light each night as she zooms across the sky. sometimes in my lucid dreams, other times literally out in the darkest of darkness. and there she is above me, and no place i would rather be...pulsing deep out in the middle of desert, or sparkling effervescently over the ocean, or simply being the crowning jewel atop the tallest of mountain peaks, i find her light through the darkness...and when i finally catch up to her, i see her, and i use my camera to show her beautiful glow to the rest of the world...she never disappoints" ― bodhinku, chasing her

pictured here is the full arch of the milky way over ojo oro arch in the joshua tree national park wilderness, deep in the high mojave desert of california...you can also see the planet venus (the very bright white orb), and sirius the bright blue star, and also as the brightest star in the night sky as seen from earth...sirius is 25x brighter than the sun, and its name is derived from the greek word, seirios, meaning"scorching glow"...

after a couple scouting trips, plus a couple photo shoots to this location, i finally got a panoramic composition of ojo oro arch and the full arch of the milky way to compliment it, finally on a trip this may 16th, 2020...along with me was, good friend chip morton and new friend ken lee...and amazingly, the three of us captured three uniquely different compositions from this night, even with each of us positioned within a only few mere feet of each other...

what i wanted was to have the milky way as an arch in the sky compliment ojo oro as an arch on the ground...

in my impression, the ground and the sky are meant to compliment and mimic each other artistically, as the back glow is highlighting ojo oro arch with the glowing milky way like a halo overhead. in other words, the full arch of the milky way is meant to accent and compliment by mimicking the band of rocks with ojo oro arch glowing brightly in the golden light pollution below it...and by flowing from right to the left (as a lefty such as myself views photos) i continue to remain true to myself...

plus, this spot is unknown and unique, so each image taken here is something special nobody has seen before. which is one of my new goals and obsessions with my photography: capturing images never seen before, and/or images that others cannot have the ability to copy... and this is such a special place where only three other photographers other than myself have taken pictures, it's a beautiful remote location with a wonderful subject of ojo oro arch to have the stars compliment....another fact i love

"close both eyes, to see with the other eye" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi

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MORE QUOTES FOR EXTRA MEANING

more music you can listen to as you read on with my blog, "across the universe" by john lennon...this classic song by the beatles (john lennon solo in this version) and written by the late john lennon, this is a bit more moody, but fits nicely into this blog's mood i feel...

"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..." ― john lennon, across the universe

"he who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings, and all beings in his own self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye" ― siddhartha gautama buddha, the dhammapada

"eyes look but cannot see it...ears listen but cannot hear it...hands grasp but cannot touch it...beyond the senses, lies the great unity of invisible, inaudible, intangible" ― lao tzu, tao te ching

"i’m not looking for somebody who will
whisper sweet nothings into my ear to feed the
ravenous ego of my heart. but someone who
can look me straight in the eye and say, i love
you, whether you fail or fall, just as you are" ― beau taplin, the blueprint

"life, like photography, is a series of moments which capture our attention...these moments seduce us out of our normal routine, tantalizing our senses. for a brief pause in time, the stars align perfectly and a once in a million shot presents itself to our eyes, to our experience alone. we become a privileged private audience, beholding the magic and the mystery of the universe unfolding before us...life is much the same way, offering us the opportunity to look past the mundane and into the beauty that the world has to offer. it whispers to find the shot, find what is calling to our soul and move towards the expression of it. though sometimes harder than others, we are tasked with opening our eyes in order to see the best way towards this that we desire...look for the shot and take it. go after what you want. take the risk. in life, love, and photography" ― c. ara campbell, look for the shot

"i can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

write, for instance: "the night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."
the night wind whirls in the sky and sings.
i can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
i loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
on nights like this, i held her in my arms.
i kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.
she loved me, sometimes i loved her.
how could i not have loved her large, still eyes?
i can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
to think i don't have her. to feel that i've lost her.
to hear the immense night, more immense without her.
and the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.
what does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
the night is full of stars and she is not with me.
that's all. far away, someone sings. far away.
my soul is lost without her.
as if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
my heart searches for her and she is not with me.
the same night that whitens the same trees.
we, we who were, we are the same no longer.
i no longer love her, true, but how much i loved her.
my voice searched the wind to touch her ear.
someone else's. she will be someone else's. as she once
belonged to my kisses.
her voice, her light body. her infinite eyes.
i no longer love her, true, but perhaps i love her.
love is so short and oblivion so long.
because on nights like this i held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.
although this may be the last pain she causes me,

and this may be the last poem i write for her." ― pablo neruda, the saddest poem of all

"ever since time began, people have recognized their true love by the light in their eye" ― paulo coelho, the alchemist

"look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. everything is simply happy" ― osho, the buddha said...

"just look at life with more playful eyes. don’t be serious. seriousness becomes like a blindness. don’t pretend to be a thinker, a philosopher. just simply be a human being. the whole world is showering its joy on you in so many ways, but you are too serious, you cannot open your heart" ― osho, the buddha said...

"i held her close to me with my eyes closed, wondering if anything in my life had ever been this perfect and knowing at the same time that it hadn't. i was in love, and the feeling was even more wonderful than i ever imagined it could be" ― nicholas sparks, the choice

"at present, i absolutely want to paint a starry sky. it often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. if only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. and without my expatiating on this theme, it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky" ― vincent van gogh, letters to theo

"for my part, i know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me want to dream" ― vincent van gogh, starry night notebook

"he was there alone with himself, collected, tranquil, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the skies, moved in the darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations, and the invisible splendor of god, opening his soul to the thoughts which fall from the unknown. in such moments, offering up his heart at the hour when the flowers of night inhale their perfume, lighted like a lamp in the center of the starry night, expanding his soul in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could not himself perhaps have told what was passing in his own mind; he felt something depart from him, and something descend upon him, mysterious interchanges of the depths of the soul with the depths of the universe" ― victor hugo, les miserables

"long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, now i wash the gum from your eyes, you must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life" ― walt whitman, leaves of grass

"i will rain down silver and gold for you. i will shatter the black night, break it open, and pour out a million stars. turn away from the darkness, the madness, the pain. open your eyes and know that i am here. that i remember and hope. open your eyes and look at the light" ― jennifer donnelly, revolution

“the eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say" ― gregory maguire, mirror mirror

"unable to perceive the shape of you, i find you all around me. your presence fills my eye with your love, it humbles my heart, for you are everywhere ― guillermo del toro, the shape of water

"when the eye is turned toward the light of divinity. what thing could remain hidden under such light?" ― meghan nuttail savres, anahita's woven riddle

“this is a man in need. his fear is naked and obvious, but he's lost...somewhere in his darkness, his eyes wide and bleak and tortured. i can soothe him. (she said) join him briefly in the darkness and bring him into the light”― e.l. james, fifty shades of grey

"poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars...mere globs of gas atoms. i too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. but do i see less or more? the vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination...stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one...million-year-old light. a vast pattern, of which i am a part...what is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? it does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. for far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. why do the poets of the present not speak of it? what men are poets who can speak of jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?" ― richard feynman

"actually falling in love with yourself is realizing that you're gorgeous, you're fearless and unpredictable, you're a firecracker spitting light, entrancing a hundred faces that stare up at you with starry eyes" ― leah raeder, unteachable

“vincent van gogh couldn't have painted the stars in your eyes" ― nina mouawad, blue sun

“when van gogh painted the starry night as a swirling mass of cosmic energy, he may have been painting what he saw with neurotic eyes, but he was also painting what he saw with transcendent eyes. the first gave his painting mere form, the second gave it formless, universal emotion that connects directly to the viewer" ― amit goswami, quantum creativity

"if you looked up and truly saw the starry night, you would realize that van gogh was a realist painter" ― michael chabon, moonglow

"you have breathed new life into me. i have become your sunshine and also your shadow. my soul is screaming in ecstasy, every fiber of my being is in love with you...your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart and you have made radiant for me both the earth and the sky" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi

“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

"love is the cure, for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain until your eyes constantly exhale love as effortlessly as your body yields its scent" ― jalaluddin rumi, in the arms of the beloved

"o my choice beauty, you've gone. but your love remains in my heart. your image in my eye. o guide on my winding road i keep turning round and round in the hopes of finding you" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi

"shut your eyes, so the heart may become your eye...and with that vision, look upon another world. if you can step away from your need for self-approval, all that you do, top to bottom, will be approved" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi

"everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees"― jalaluddin rumi, hush don't say anything to god

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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION

"his eye and her light: a match made in the heavens" ― bodhinku, the perfect two

what you see here is 11 vertical images shot consecutively using a panhead tripod mount on my dolica tripod legs, and then stitched together using photomerge in adobe photoshop creative cloud...the lighting is all ambient glow from the stars and light pollution combined with the great dynamic range on my nikon d810...captured on may 17, 2020 at 1:38am

...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...to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i used one filter here...for this, i chose to use the 0.3gnd progrey g120 aurora filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, to drop the sky down one stop and balance it with the darkness in the rocks, while at the same time allow the light pollution behind ojo oro arch to really glow, and make the arch truly stand out and help it appear even more golden...

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 tripods in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...

"in sweet silence of the star light, i see her radiance glowing bright above, i feel her angelic innocence, i play in her magical wilderness...i know my focus is always up to her" ― bodhinku, bright above

"contemplate without thinking. stop the world. slow down everything. shut off the noise. 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. now discover your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith with all your senses. this is my world. awaken!" ― bodhinku, my world

above all else as always, i hope this message and impression find you well.

namaste,
bodhi

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