Photographing the Environment – Portraits of Mother Nature
Capturing Mother Nature at its worst and at its best
The other night I watched the CNN town hall meeting with former Vice President Al Gore. I had watched Al Gore’s first documentary An Inconvenient Truth (and read the book), and so I couldn’t wait to hear more about the sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel. The CNN town hall meeting turned out to provide an eye-opening discussion, and so did Al Gore’s appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher.
Truth is that no matter what side of the aisle we find ourselves on when it comes to the environment we’ve all experienced Mother Nature at its worst, as well as at its best.
At its best (or should I say at her best) Mother Nature can be dazzling, magnificent, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring. Each day we see its beauty in the glorious golden hour light or sometimes in majestic rainbows arching across the sky. We feel her touch in the summer breeze brushing through our hair or in the salty spray of the ocean landing on our skin.
Mother Nature at its worst is a whole other story–Katrina, Sandy, and other storms and floods and fires that remain nameless, yet not less devastating.
Sometimes, somewhere in between its worst and its best, we get to witness the powerful Mother Nature in all its everyday glory. The experience helps us reconsider our place on this planet we call home, our relationship with the planet and Mother Nature, and maybe it helps put things into perspective. Here are a few images capturing us vs nature:
- a helicopter flying over a dormant volcano in Hawaii
- trucks facing the incoming storm on a remote Hawaiian beach
- a car, engulfed by nature, on its way to the top of Haleakala, in Maui, Hawaii
- a boat reaching the Colorado River shore, at the Horseshoe Canyon
- yours truly in Allerton Gardens, in Hawaii, next to the Jurassic Park tree (where the dinosaur eggs were “found” in the movie Jurassic Park)
Only when we allow ourselves to get lost in nature and see Mother Nature in action–its power, its rage, and also its splendor–we begin to realize how important it is to respect Mother Nature and to protect the environment.
So why not work with Mother Nature, rather than against it?
Germany, for example, has fields and fields of wind turbines. They are majestic in their own way. There’s a surreal element, I find, surrounding the wind turbines.
Solar panels cover the roofs of many buildings in Germany and in Europe, in general, and also in Hawaii, sometimes in the most remote locations.
Perhaps the idea here is to “think different” and work with Mother Nature to safeguard our home, the Blue Planet.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Alina Oswald 