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as my newest photographic impression, this was taken a few years ago on the north coast of the south island of new zealand from wharariki beach (pronounced FAR-a-rickey)...pictured here are two of the archway islands (situated just a couple hundred meters off the beach) reflecting in the wet beach sands ...so the meaning of the image is much clearer when you know how this maori word is properly pronounced, and can see the play on words in the meaning, however, the beach truly is pretty much far, far away...both metaphorically and in reality...on a beach, on an island, far far away, a great adventure took place...this is a fairytale of a place to visit...
this is my favorite beach in new zealand, so remote, so quiet, just the wind, sands, ocean, and waves...i cannot wait to revisit this magical place this upcoming spring...
to get to this beach, you need to walk a short sandy track through a grassy sheep grazing area with a few trees scattered about, into some more dense coastal trees, and then across an expanse of sand dunes...plus you need to have a decent sense of direction and some navigation skills (going beyond using your smartphone abilities), especially if you are there for low light or the stars...but this place is a playground of light, with all its rocks, dunes, arches, stone bridges, stone faces, caves, sea stacks, islands, sea life (seal colony), tidepools, and hundreds of meters of glassy, mirror-like, reflective wet sand...truly a dream for any photographer, a visual abondance overload of mother nature's purest beauty...
"come with me,
and we’ll leave it far and far away—
(only you and i, understand!)
but i come with a dream in my eyes tonight,
and knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart—
open to me!
for i will show you the places nobody knows,
and, if you like,
the perfect places of sleep.
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 milky way comes out of the sea.” ― e.e. cummings
spend all day here, this is photographic playground. go from before sunrise and stay until after sunset, it is a short walk, so pa a picnic along with your camera gear...and remember, so beautiful is the light that finally reaches your soul...
what you see here are two images merged together into one...in this composite, i combined two images taken in new zealand during my trip: one of the stars and one of the archway islands standing on wharariki beach at low tide about 25 minutes after sunset...for the stars image, i used no filters, but for the seascape of the archway islands, i used three filters...i used a couple gnd filters to balance out the exposure in camera, and also a 10-stop nd filter to give me the required effects i look for in all my images...
in the case here, i chose to use a 3-stop gnd filter in combination with an inverted 1-stop gnd, plus a 10-stop nd filter for the composition...the 10-stop nd filter was needed to smooth all the waves and water-flow across the sand to glass and mist and slow down time in order to permit for this ultra long 555 second exposure, and to also help over-saturate the colors and enhance the deep blues and reds in the image... i used the two gnd filters to help balance the brightness of the composition in-camera...
and truly this impression would not be possible without the use of my trusty dolica tripod to stabilize the camera for the ultra-long exposure, in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use...for this image i chose the 10-stop 3.0nd progrey genesis filter and the 3-stop 0.9 gnd and 1-stop 0.3 gnd progrey genesis filters to help balance down the brighter sky/clouds, plus their mirrored reflection in the wet beach sand in the foreground, and allow the archway islands on the horizon line to glow and stand out much brighter....
"remember that bedtime story from long ago? your favorite one, beginning with 'somewhere over the rainbow and far, far away'...a parable to happiness being possible, and dreams coming true...well, do not close the book, keep dreaming, holding on with childhood faith, and walking the path only you know in your heart, for it will lead you to your fairytale, truly just believe, and you will become one together" ― bodhinku, fairytale
“the words 'far, far away' had always a strange charm” ― alfred lord tennyson, in memoriam
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HISTORY
wharariki is the maori (native aboriginals) name given to a colorful flowering plant found indigenous to new zealand's islands...and wharariki beach is a beach west of cape farewell, the northernmost point of the south island of new zealand. this north-facing sandy beach is accessible only via a leisure sandy walking track off of wharariki road (at the archway cafe) to the water's edge a little less than 1km away. a campground is located along the road closeby to the trailhead, but the area surrounding the beach is devoid of any development.
i love the remoteness of wharariki, and the beach is bordered and more or less surrounded by the northern end of kahurangi national park. the beach is flanked to the east and west by cliffs, but due to the flat topology of the area behind it, the beach area and the grassy and sandy dunes behind it are quite exposed to winds, so plan on your visit being quite windy most of the time, but it is these winds that helped to create the beautiful scene here and keep on changing it as well.
wharariki beach is perhaps best known for the archway islands, featured frequently in photos in new zealand landscape publication. it is also the default lock screen image and one of desktop wallpapers on microsoft's windows 10 operating system. the archway islands are a group of four rock stacks or small islands, with even the largest one of them measuring only about 300 by 200 meters... the largest of the islands is closest to the mainland and adjoins wharariki beach; it is generally not cut off by the sea. the second island lies about 150 metres offshore and is relatively flat and vegetated. the remaining two islands are typical rock stacks, with the larger one 66 meters tall and containing two natural rock arches, giving rise to the naming of the group of islands
due to the fascinating sea stacks, islands, rock formations, seal colony, sea life, tidepools, caves, arches, endless sand dunes, long flat glassy beach (when wet), and phenomenal sunrises, sunsets, and stars...plus the fact there are so few people around (and the beach is huge), this is one of those really cool beaches to just visit, explore, soak in the mystique, and hang out. it is extremely spectacular, and i have yet to see any photos that do its breathtaking beauty justice, including my own....
only caution here is the fact that once the sun goes down, or if you are hiking in the dark, you need to exit the beach via and across the sand dunes, do not get lost, as it is easy to do wne in the bottoms of the dunes, and with the wind, most footprints will be erased already...and there is a light beacon at the spot where the sand track ended at the southern end of the dunes at the tree line to help, but use your navigational skills to ensure you safely find your way...
truly an amazing world destination, i am lucky to have walked this beach and have its memories in my mind anytime i want to recall it...
“staring at the stars was like staring backward in time, since some stars are so far away that their light takes millions of years just to reach us. that we see stars not as they look now, but as they were when dinosaurs roamed the earth. the whole concept just struck me as…amazing somehow.” ― nicholas sparks, the choice
"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 far away.
my soul is lost without her" ― pablo neruda, 100 love sonnets
“if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away” ― henry david thoreau, walden
“if you believe in something, believe in it all the way. here is the world of imagination, hopes, and dreams. in this timeless land of enchantment, the age of chivalry, magic and make-believe are reborn...and fairy tales come true...a land dedicated to the young-in-heart, to those of you who wish upon a star, and keep on believing, your dreams really do come true.” ― walt disney, twelve princess stories
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AND LOTS OF MORE QUOTES FOR EVEN MORE MEANING
"forgive me, o gracious one; for i have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. i have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. i am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe” ― suzy kassem, rise up and salute the sun
“the stars are but tears
"if i were the ocean ...
i would raise you onto my gentle waves and carry you across the seas to swim with the whales and the dolphins in the moonlit waters,
so you might know peace.
if i were the stars ...
i would sparkle like never before and fall from the sky as gentle rain,
so that you would always look towards heaven and know that you can reach the stars” ― camron wright, love forever
“far far away, there in the starlight are my highest aspirations. i may not reach them, but i can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead” ― louisa may alcott, the abbot's ghost
“we laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far far away: right now we are here, and nothing can stain our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment”― audrey niffennegger, the time traveler's wife
“you seemed so far away, she whispered, awestruck...oh, i was. i was flying past the stars on silver wings, it was wonderful” ― roald dahl, matilda
“fly me up to where you are beyond the distant star. i wish upon tonight to see you smile, if only for a while to know you're there. a breath away's not far to where you are.” ― josh groban, awake
"a fairy-tale...lived, written, photographed, or dreamed...has many unique beings. you see, uniqueness never breeds hierarchy or inequality of life. it is built on the most beautiful premise of true, magical living" ― cheri bauer, the spark of a muse
"i like for you to be still
it is as though you are absent
and you hear me from far away
and my voice does not touch you
it seems as though your eyes had flown away
and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth
as all things are filled with my soul
you emerge from the things
filled with my soul
you are like my soul
a butterfly of dream
and you are like the word: melancholy
i like for you to be still
and you seem far away
it sounds as though you are lamenting
a butterfly cooing like a dove
and you hear me from far away
and my voice does not reach you
let me come to be still in your silence
and let me talk to you with your silence
that is bright as a lamp
simple, as a ring
you are like the night
with its stillness and constellations
your silence is that of a star
as remote and candid
i like for you to be still
it is as though you are absent
distant and full of sorrow
so you would've died
one word then, one smile is enough
and i'm happy;
happy that it's not true” ― pablo neruda, 100 love sonnets
“behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet earth....now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the milky way. so for every man who has ever lived, in this universe there shines a star....but every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. and many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. so almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell....how many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than mars or venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. but the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars....men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. increasing numbers, however are asking; 'why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'why not, indeed? here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. but please remember: this is only a work of fiction. the truth, as always, will be far stranger.” ― arthur c. clarke, 2001: a space odyssey
“ when you come back inside my chest
no matter how far i've wandered off,
i look around and see the way.
at the end of my life, with just one breath left,
if you come then, i'll sit up and sing.
i placed one foot on the wide plain
of far, far away, and some grand
immensity sounded on the emptiness.
i have felt nothing ever
like the wild wonder of that moment.
longing is the core of mystery.
longing itself brings the cure.
the only rule is, suffer the pain.
your desire must be disciplined,
and what you want to happen
in time, sacrificed” ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi
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"i am the reflection of the milky way, finally seeing myself, mirroring through and into my core, from within, reflecting both within and far, far way, onto the wet sands of the beach, like time on space" ― bodhinku, time on spacc
"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 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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