Today I’m writing these short post to tell you about a experience that I had a few weeks ago. For years I’ve been a firm believer that there is a force or awareness that is inside of everything around us, lets call it “Divine Essence” that way we won’t give it any religious connotation. I believe that we can connect with this essence in some moments in our lives. Maybe during a hardship, a quick moment of inspiration or a moment where the minds stops and we are able to feel “something” beyond our physical senses. Ok after this not so short intro here is the story:

Durings the last 10 months I’ve been taking better care of myself, eating better, exercising when possible and in general trying to improve my physical and mental health. Inspired by all this one I decided that it could be a good idea to go walk in a park close to my home during the lunch break, of course I had to bring a camera with me :)

I did this for a few times and I found very satisfying and positive, until one day I wasn’t feeling that good. I took my camera went to the park and started walking. I put on my airpods and started listening to music and just walked around. I don’t know why I felt compelled to visit an area of the park that I hadn’t really stopped before. The day was windy, the clouds were passing by covering the sun every now and then. It was very peaceful and of course beautiful I was surrounded by cypress trees with a small pond that surrounded the area where I was standing.

I saw how the trees started dancing with the wind, it was hypnotical and surreal to see how every part of that area was following the same direction of the wind. I took out the camera and started taking photos, I was so focused on capturing this “feeling” that I forgot that I had my airpods on, until a powerful tune started playing. It was from a band called Wintersun, and it was powerful song called “Battle Against Time” with a group of men singing in a very distinct way, it was very primal.

Indeed I was in a battle against time, trying to capture this magnificent spectacle of wind, trees and grass. I started to feel this power, it was like I was connecting with the “Spirit of Nature” or whatever you want to call it. It was magic! It was peaceful and powerful at the same time. I was overwhelmed I couldn’t focus on the photos because of how I was feeling. I wanted to scream, cry and run like a caveman it was a powerful dialogue between me and nature, like it was telling me “HERE I AM! and I was HERE WE ARE!!!

Here is the photo that I took during those moments:

It was a good shot, but I felt I wasn’t able to capture what I was feeling, what I saw in front of me. It was haunting me I needed to go back and try again, hopefully I would have windy conditions again to be able to do it.

The next day came, with anticipation during lunch time I got ready and started walking in the park, we had wind! It was perfect conditions again, clouds coming and going creating some highlights from the sun passing. Went to the same spot and felt the same energy again, but this time I was prepared in my bed the previous night I couldn’t sleep so I started thinking what could I do to achieve the “impossible”. To capture this peaceful power.

I decided to bring my camera with a telephoto lens, close the aperture as much as possible f22 and lower the ISO to 64. This would allow me to capture long exposures during the day, because the idea was that by capturing long exposures I was going to be able to capture in camera how the leaves move trough out the exposure, and… it worked!!!

I had a blast taking photos that day, I was having so much fun that I stayed one hour over lunch just shooting and taking it all in, I was in heaven.

Then moment of truth was in front of me, I downloaded all the images to my mac and started looking at the shots, and after hours of culling and editing I came out with this photo:

Here I was able to capture that dance, the dance of tree, grass, water and wind. I decided to call it “Peaceful Power”.

There definitely is a peaceful power present in nature and I was a able to connect with it for a few moments, these moments where more than enough to inspire me to start walking again among trees, lakes and leaves and explore the world with a fresh perspective every day.

I’ve been doing it for over a month, bellow there are few examples of what I’ve been shooting with my camera after that week of wind and beauty.

Peaceful Power

Gentle Giant