Nature Photography Archives

The Infinite

By Simone Lipscomb | September 17, 2025

Earlier this week, I gave myself an assignment to contemplate the Infinite…the Cosmic Soup…the Universe. All through the week, simply to envision pure, unlimited potential in my life.

Only a few days later, and the shift is amazing. Mostly due to getting circulating thoughts, that form neural grooves in my brain, halted and replaced with something bountiful and immense—the Infinite.

I started by mentally listing possibilities in given circumstances and this helped me realize how limiting my thoughts really were, even the positive ones. In a given situation, I’d conjure up as many possibilities as I could think of and come up with only five or six…out of a Universe filled with possibilities. I’d laugh and then imagine the vast night sky or a massive cauldron of stars and planets and galaxies pouring onto me and filling me with massive potential.

The results have been amazing…unexpected money arriving, me advocating for a raise for myself in a new grant, musical creativity rising. But most important, a sense of openness to life, energy, and clarity has arisen within me. My entire body feels more electric, more alive.

It’s easy to become trapped in the physical manifestation of life; however, most of the ‘physical’ is space…energy vibrating. The form we see is the smallest result of the creative process. Imagine that for a moment. Everything we see with our eyes is just a fraction of what’s really there. Like the neural grooves that form in our brains from repetitive thoughts, our lives become smaller when we limit ourselves to the physical manifestation of the creative process.

To simplify, imagine that you are in outer space in a spaceship. Stars, planets, nebula extend in all directions endlessly, yet you only see the contents of the spaceship and don’t realize how vast the world really is. You limit yourself to a very small existence.

So, how do we change our limiting thoughts? Imagine something more, but without limits. Whatever your process is, begin to contemplate the Infinite, or the Great Cosmic Soup as I call It. All possibilities, unlimited potential. This then is freeing the mind, a powerful tool, especially when combined with the energy of the heart.

*(Thanks, Pam Wooten, for the photograph)*

It’s not about how the rest of the world sees me…or how the world sees you. It’s how we see ourselves. Are we limiting ourselves, seeing only the small spaceship? Or are we seeing the unlimited Universe? Are we willing to dip our ladle into the Cosmic Cauldron and drink from it? Or pour it over our heads, filling ourselves with boundless potential, unlimited possibilities.

Do I limit my world to inside my home? Or, do I step outside and see the beauty, that is Infinite?

The Grating Expanse of Stillness

By Simone Lipscomb | July 6, 2025

I set my alarm for 4.30am so I could go hike my favorite trail today. I had mixed feelings because it’s busy on a regular summer day, but the 4^th of July weekend…I wasn’t sure.

Then, I woke up at 1.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so turned off the alarm and decided if I woke up early enough to get a parking space, I’d go and if not, I’d just stay home and skip the stress of the throngs of people.

I finally went back to sleep and slept until 6.09am, about the time I needed to be pulling into a parking space at the trail head. Whatever. I didn’t want to be around a ga-zillon people anyway and drive through the park with the insanity of traffic on this busy weekend.

But I miss the trail and miss the full day it takes to hike it….considering the day starts at 4.30 when I wake and then the hour long drive to the trail head, the 3 hours up and 2.5 hours down and then trying to pull out on the highway that runs through the park and the inevitable stoppage of traffic if someone takes a curve too fast. Two…three hours waiting for wreckers, rangers, and ambulances isn’t that unusual. So…gardening for me today.

I’m an active person who finds hiking in these mountains a wonderful way to engage with Nature and burn off my inner crazy. Stillness isn’t easy for me…at least on a meditation cushion.

I enjoy stillness through yoga…a sort of moving stillness that is at the same time grounding and expansive. But perhaps my most still moments are when I’m hiking the steep trails through upper elevation forests of fir and spruce trees. I’m physically exerting myself significantly, yet the trees and rocks and moss ground me deeply into their place so I can soar.

Traditionally we think of stillness as sitting and ‘doing nothing’ and letting our mind still. My mind is at its stillest point when I am in Nature, connecting viscerally with everything around me. That’s when everything aligns and calms within me. But sit me on a cushion and tell me to be still and silent and my mind screams at the grating expanse of stillness.

Breaking Free

By Simone Lipscomb | May 26, 2025

A primeval-feeling forest of red spruce and Fraser fir trees lined the trail. I had just turned off the Appalachian Trail onto a less traveled trail and was enjoying solitude. A few minutes prior I had put out a request to the Universe to help me learn how to regain emotional sovereignty during these times of intense turmoil in the world. I asked to be shown a key to understanding how to regain my joy amidst the insanity of the times.

I hadn’t gone but maybe a quarter mile up the trail when I saw a beautiful owl feather laying perfectly positioned beside the trail. As I touched it, I heard… ‘so you can fly without noise.’ I always think of the ability to see in the dark as being owl’s greatest gift, but noiseless flight was what Owl presented.

I recalled a large owl flying within a few feet of me and not making one sound…not a whoosh, or swish….totally silent flight. Decades have passed and I still vividly remember that experience.

As I continued up the trail, I pondered the answer that Owl brought to me. Two miles I walked, down 1000 feet of elevation and back up 1000 feet of elevation, allowing my mind to piece together the answer to my question….how can I gain emotional sovereignty during these trying times.

I thought of the quality of owl feathers, their softness and velvety texture. I also thought of using inner vision to fly within myself to see in the dark, but with gentleness and softness…like owl feathers…. not a wrecking ball of clearing uncomfortable emotions. As I imagined the gentle, soundless flight into myself, a surge of emotion arose within me and tears came. Along with the clarity I had asked for in my earlier request.

I’m only a victim as long as I am willing to allow the chaos of the world to make its way into me and ‘plug’ into me. Victimization happens when we allow what’s happening around us to determine how we feel, think, and act. Freedom comes from unplugging from the chaos outside ourself, to regain a sense of personal power.

It isn’t only claiming sovereignty—personal power—over my emotional triggers. It’s also about having agency…knowing that I have the capacity to act independently and to exercise free will. And therein lies the key to freedom from victimization.

I have a choice in how much I allow what’s happening outside of me to influence what’s happening within me. One way of looking at this is like a loving and strong inner guardian setting boundaries that keeps harmful bullies from hurting me. This guardian doesn’t block everything from touching me, only the hate, the meanness and everything that goes with those intentions.

After retracing my steps, I turned back onto the Appalachian Trail and within a few minutes saw a beautiful doe grazing on ferns, just off the trail. She looked up at me as I paused. Deer brings gentleness into our lives. She was a reminder to be gentle with myself, to be soft in my inner explorations, and to know that I have choice. I can choose to be free.

And a closing thought….colonizers, dictators, and authoritarians try to take away sovereignty by limiting rights and freedoms, and they try to take away agency as well. They don’t want the people they are trying to control to think they have the ability to act independently and exercise free will. We will do well to remember that nobody can take away our power over ourselves and our ability to think, feel, and act independently of anyone’s approval. We always have choice with our inner freedoms.

Finding Polaris

By Simone Lipscomb | May 23, 2025

The nervous system was never meant to deal with the amount of information overload we are faced with every day. The mind is constantly spinning and the body becomes more and more stressed as the nervous system has no time to rest and unwind.

Last night, while standing under a sky filled with brilliant stars, galaxies, planets, and nebula, I reflected on how much star gazing—in particular photographing deep space objects and landscape astrophotography–has helped me learn to slow down. Several weeks of cloudy skies has taken away that meditative time in the dark outdoors and left me with an uncomfortable angst.

When I started photographing deep sky objects, I would jump from one amazing galaxy to a beautiful nebula or luminous star cluster, rarely allowing the telescope time to capture the long exposures needed as it gathered more light. I recall sitting outside under crystal clear winter skies feeling antsy and impatient at waiting. And waiting. And waiting for images to appear.

Finally, I understood the stars and all that deep space deliciousness was healing my nervous system. They were attuning me to a natural pace—the rhythm of Nature. Since we are all part of Nature, it’s odd that we are so disconnected from the rhythms of It.

While under the night sky observing, it’s impossible to see the stars and planets moving. But as you pair stars with earthly landmarks and continue watching, you will notice they have moved. Or if you place an object in a telescope view finder to see it, eventually it waltzes out of the field of view and you must reposition the telescope. The most telling sign of movement of sky objects is star trail images.

How lucky are we to have one object in the sky that doesn’t move…Polaris, or the North Star. Everything revolves around Polaris. If you set up a camera on a tripod facing this stillpoint and take a series of long exposures, and then stack them while processing, you see amazing movement. How can anything that appears to not be moving, move SO MUCH!?! That’s the magic of Nature.

When we allow ourselves to sync with Nature’s rhythms, we slow down, but that doesn’t mean we stop. We simply go at a more natural pace that allows the nervous system to function normally…we sleep better, feel better, have more energy.

During these challenging times, never has it been so important to pause and allow the nervous system—the body system—to be in neutral stillness. Attuning to the rhythms of Nature aligns us with home, with our own North Star within. When we connect and live from that place of perceived non-movement and stillness within, we allow life to move around us instead of us trying to keep up at a frenetic pace. Let us find Polaris within ourselves and learn to be observers of the chaos instead of participants in it.

Cycles

By Simone Lipscomb | April 17, 2025

Laughter erupted spontaneously as the stars witnessed my sudden understanding. Photographing the night sky, whether through a camera and tripod or a telescope, is a master course in patience. You cannot force the stars to move any faster, if you are wanting to capture their movement to create a star trails image. You can’t stop clouds from moving in to obscure the galaxy the telescope is imaging. The moon won’t slow its rising to give another 10 minutes of dark sky. The sun won’t go down any faster to help you start the imaging session sooner. The laughter emerged when I realized I was having to embody the cycles and timing of Nature…to S L O W down and be present. A nearly constant message coming from every direction these days.

For months I’ve been ‘listening’ to trees. Or feeling trees. However a human might interpret that idea. To me, it’s listening to them. Why do humans go so fast? That’s the question I hear when I’m hiking among the old ones on the high trails. My answers have varied. Snow’s moving in, gotta make it to my car before the road closes. Wind’s picking up, don’t wanna be hit by a falling branch. It’s raining. I’m hungry. The list grows.

But when I take the time to sit on the moss-covered, fallen tree, I meld into the forest. I slow down. I remember cycles. I remember to breathe.

The stars teach me this, too. Inhale………..exhale. Pause. Inhale………exhale. Pause. Let go. Remember.

I am the cycles of Nature. I am the stars, the moon, the galaxies. They are me. We are part of a whole. Separation no longer exists. Peace comes….and then? The clouds creep in. And it’s okay.