Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Where Sunshine Gatherers” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Sunshine gatherers where smiles are born and eyes connect.
With each shared laugh a sunbeam is created and a shadow is defeated.
Where the warmth of a heart is given in pure joy the light lingers.
In these places where the spirit of love is grown the sunshine is sewn.
This happiness takes form and reaches towards the sky, as bright yellow flowers that catch the eye.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Quiet Reflections” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The Greeks had a saying that “In wine there is truth, in water there is health. ” I have always understood that the first half of the proverb related to how one who has indulged himself with a bit too much grape loses inhibition and blurts out whatever he’s thinking. The fullness of the proverb’s meaning impacted my mind when a college roommate stumbled in after a night on the town. He weaved and bobbed his way to the bed and fell into it face first. As the alcohol took away his sense of equilibrium he slowly rolled over and said “Stop the world. I want to get off.” Of course he was creatively referring to the room spinning but his expression kinda stuck with me all these years.
The pace that we keep in the modern world is definitely a dizzying experience. The pattern that I’ve noticed is that we binge on experience. We work long hours and come home to eat, watch T.V. and surf the web. Even when we get a chance to stop and catch a breath, relaxation is done with a counterproductive sense of urgency. It’s like we have never left the rat race at all.
The fishing pier in tonight’s feature image is set in the exact same place where I used to go and just sit by the water. I typically had a Zebco 33 rod and reel with an artificial bait. I didn’t really care if I caught any fish because the gear was just an excuse to be there and watch the water. It was my way of stopping the outside world and exiting the pace for a little while. More often than not I wound up playing with the local bluegills by allowing them to chase the lure all the way to shore. The simplicity of the action allowed me to be distracted just enough to allow deeper thoughts to come to the surface. I could have a conversation with God instead of reciting a wish list and calling it a prayer. It was a way to hit the reset button in my mind and clear all the programs that had locked up in mid process.
Today I don’t really do is much fishing as I do just setting by the water and listening to the birds or watching the butterflies play in breeze. The important thing is to sequester myself away from the pace of the outside world and recharge my batteries.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends!Tonight’s feature image is titled “Fire Cloud 101008” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Once upon a time a young boy stood on top of a windy ridge and opened his jacket. He placed his hands firmly into the pockets and held the jacket out as tightly as his little arms could muster. He was convinced that he could become a living kite. He didn’t fly of course. Even if he jumped as high as he could the wind simply refused to carry him.
I suppose that I’ve been obsessed with flight ever since I can remember. I tried everything that my imagination could conceive. I would run down the hallway as fast as I could and launch myself into the air Superman style arching my back in order to create more lift. I was less than ten years old and every time that we had library days at school I would look for books on airplanes. By the time I was leaping into my bed I already knew about the Bernoulli principle for lift and wing warping for steering. I didn’t really understand the mathematical formulas involved in the books but I figured I’d get the hang of it once airborne.
If you want to learn how to fly like a super hero you need to practice. At one point we had access to some old mattresses. We piled them up a few feet from the porch and would jump into them. Each jump was an effort to expiriment with a new flight technique. I even tried holding onto a couple of balloons. No dice. The mattress stack won again.
The next best thing to flying in the air is flying in water. I knew that because I saw astronauts on T.V. practice weightlessness in a pool. I didn’t have a pool but I did have a lake. There was a high embankment near the official swimming hole with more than enough room to get a run at the edge. I tried everything. The three step and leap into air, the dead run and leaping from a fishing pier. Finally out of desperation I stumbled upon the secret. The combination of a cape and goggles. The beach towel was about the right length so I tied the corners around my neck and lowered my goggles into place. I took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Then a second breath without exhaling. I was inflating myself like a balloon. I backed up into the hot, sharp gravel of the parking lot and ignored the pain as I exploded forward. As I got the wind at the edge of the embankment I arched my back and felt gravity forget me. I was flying! In my initial excitement I lost concentration and gravity found me again but I know that for at least a half of a second I was flying not falling! Overjoyed with my success I giggled and lost the balloon effect. The splashdown not only dislodged my goggles but ripped my makeshift cape from my neck. Thankfully the water wasn’t too deep and after catching my breath I was able to retrieve the towel. Subsequent attempts to duplicate a split second of flight were unsuccessful and I knew it was because the cape got wet and heavy.
The real magic of childhood is not believing that impossible exists. As adults we accept that certain things cannot be accomplished and we give up rather than waste time. As a young boy I worked with what I had to achieve a goal and refused to give up because I believed in the dream. As an adult I know it takes a machine to get airborne but the point is that if a person wants to achieve a goal they’ll find a way to make it happen as long as they don’t know that it’s impossible. They will study and practice and improvise until it happens.
I hope you have enjoyed tonight’s semi-fictional story but more importantly I hope that you continue to work on making your dreams a reality. Even if it means buying an airline ticket and leaving the cape behind. It was only a few short years after leaping into Summersville Lake with a towel for a cape that I achieved my goal of flying by taking the yoke of a Cessna 152. A flight that actually passed over the spot that I used to leap from.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “The Singer” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Near the boat launch below Kanawha Falls is wonderful old sycamore tree with a hollow base. The old tree has survived a multitude of floods and it roots are exposed so naturally I’m looking down as I pass beneath it’s beaches. Just a few feet above my head I heard the rustling sounds of something moving through the leaves. A tiny hunter soon emerged from a clump of leaves and began to watch me with a serious intensity. Apparently I was encroaching upon his hunting grounds. In an effort to point out that I was being very rude he flitted and fluttered from twig to twig and each time he paused to check my reaction. I snapped the feature image during one of those pauses. However, the thrush remained unimpressed and continued his nonverbal rant. Not being one to hang around when I’m unwanted I continued on to the edge of the launch to capture the falls and hydroelectric plant in my lens.
The falls and hydroelectric plant on 7-11-19
I wasn’t out of the thrush’s territory for long when I thanked with a beautiful song from his his branches
There are times when I wish that I had a full range of audiovisual equipment and could fully immerse you the experience. There’s something about a thrush’s song that just exudes happiness. I was able to find a decent YouTube video of a thrush’s song for you.
Waking up to the thrush’s song is one of the best things about the warm months. There’s was a time when I preferred to sleep with the windows open because there was no air conditioning. I would fall asleep to the Whip-poor-will and wake up to the thrush. It always seemed to herald a good day to hear those joyful notes.
As I made my way back to the big blue truck I was careful not to disturb my little friend among the branches.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Thunderhead 7519″and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The humid summer air made the mountain forests feel like a jungle as I stepped out of the house this morning. On my way to the big blue truck I paused to check the grass. No dew this morning. As I placed my pack in the front seat I double checked the outside pocket to make sure that I had some rain gear with me. My poncho was snuggly rolled up in it’s place. As I made my way around to the driver’s side the lonely cry of a Mourning Dove confirmed my suspicion that rain was on the way.
It wasn’t really that long ago that the weather report wasn’t really as easy as checking your phone or smart watch. The prognosticators would study their instruments and give their best guess. There was no Doppler radar or 3D modeling to aid them but still they managed to be right. Well, sometimes. Before that the real old timers would read the signs in nature. Guessing the weather predictions was as much of an art as it was a science so tonight I wanted to share a few of the weather signs that I know with you.
Red skies at night. Sailor’s delight is probably the most well-known weather sign in the western world.
The photo on the right shows the red sky above my home. There’s a bunch of complicated science that explains why the sky turns red but what it meant to the old timers was that fair weather was on its way. This was of particular interest to those at sea. I have forgotten most of spectrum but there’s a whole range of colors that are old time weather indicators. The system takes into account the time of day and the season to fortell the type of weather.
Dew on the grass means that weather will be dry.
Farmers and outdoorsman would check the grass in morning to see if was wet with dew. The Bible says that in the days before Noah a mist rose from the ground and watered the soil. I have found it to accurate that a wet lawn in morning means no rain. And that when there’s no dew the rain will happen within a couple of days of not a few hours.
The Mourning Dove is also a pretty useful weather sign. Like the frogs they always seem to sing the most prior to rain. I have no explanation for how they know what the weather will be but I suspect that at least part of it has to do with their ability to sense magnet fields. I downloaded a scientific sensor app for my phone and one of things that I like to pay attention to is the ambient magnetic fields. There always seems to be a spike before a storm. One of really strange things is how livestock seems to understand the intensity and length of the storm. If the cattle huddle together under cover then the rain storm tends to be short but if the they continue graze during the rain storm then it will last all day.
Is it possible that cattle are masters of meteorology?
A few miscellaneous indicators of are aches and pains in joints, condensation on drinks and pipes, moon dogs ( a halo around the moon ), the number chirps of crickets and where I live the leaves of the trees turn upside down.
I’m sure that if I thought about it for a while I could come up with a pretty extensive list but I want to hear about your weather signs. What do you look for other than technology to know what it’s going to be in your area?
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 