Lens-Artists Challenge #89: RIVER

CAST AWAY

“I wish I had a river I could float away on.”

Joni Mitchell

The quote I’ve included with my opening image seems particularly apropos for these troubled times. It’s from the song “River” which has always been among my favorites. Right now I think many of us wish we could just float away from today’s issues. Alas there’s not much chance of that, but at least we can do it mentally, right?  The image shows my husband and brother happily casting away on a river near my brother’s home in Colorado. Little did we know on that peaceful afternoon the chaos that would follow a few short months later.

ROCK ON!

“Love is a river. Drink from it.”

Rumi

In Colorado there are many streams such as the one above, where the crystal-clear water flows between rocky shores before feeding into larger rivers. One of the things I love about visiting the area is that it is so totally different from anything we see here in our low-lying oceanside community.

RIVER POWER

“There’s hope at the bottom of the biggest waterfall.”

Patrick Ness

At the other end of the world, glorious Victoria Falls follows the meandering Zambezi River in southern Africa. It is considered the world’s largest waterfall at 5,604 feet (1,708 meters) wide. The falls were very impressive when we reached them from a short hike, covering us in mist and making their presence known with a might roar.  They were even more incredible from the air where we were fortunate to have also seen them from a helicopter. 

STRANDING RIVER DOLPHINS

“If the earth is a mother then rivers are her veins.”

Amit Kalantri

Here on the Kiawah River, we are always on the lookout for our beautiful river dolphins. In the image above they are in the process of stranding – pushing baitfish to the shore and then swimming onto the shore themselves to chase the fish. It’s a very rare behavior seen only in the rivers of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Below, they entertain one of our many visitors with their “spy-hopping”, peeking out from below the water to see what’s happening above.

SPY-HOPPING, KIAWAH RIVER

“The care of rivers is not a question of rivers but of the human heart.”

Shozo Tanaka

We’ve done many kayak and motorboat forays on the Kiawah River and it is actually rare that we don’t see at least a few dolphins along the way. They are curious creatures and seem to “enjoy” the company of their human counterparts.  It’s a bit more rare to see their stranding behavior but we have been fortunate to have seen it many times as well. 

Thanks to Amy for this week’s challenge. Click here to see and link to her original post, and as always please remember to use the Lens-Artists tag.  We appreciate all of our followers’  creative and interesting responses to last week’s CHAOS challenge. We sincerely hope everyone is practicing Social Distancing to protect themselves and others from the continuing spread of COVID-19. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you right here next week for Challenge #90.

 

 

 

 

Tags: LENS-ARTISTS

• March 21, 2020
• Africa, Colorado, Dolphin, Nature, Photography, Strand Feeding
• 112 Comments