Ontos's Photos

[ontos]

Some storm clouds that came over yesterday, we were at 111 degrees then this rolled in from the hurricane in Mexico.

 

[Shinpachi]

Powerful clouds there

 

[Gnomey]

Good shot Merv!

 

[Wurger]

Agreed.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

More excellent shots Merv! Thank you for sharing sir.

 

[GrauGeist]

Love the Cumulus shots...I could fill an entire memory card full of those things (well...actually, I have)

Nature's fractals...

 

[ontos]

Thanks guys for taking a look. I'm looking forward to the Apple Valley Air show next month, finally some picture of aircraft

 

[ontos]

Douglas DC-3 and a Spirit Feather. Playing around with the feather.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nice! You are another one with natural talent.

 

[GrauGeist]

Great shots, Merv and that's an interesting feather. How did you happen to come by it?

I used to have a "Talking Feather" that's been in my family for ages (Oglala Sioux). A Golden Eagle feather with the appropriate "Peyote" beading and leather work. When I had to have the beads and leather repaired, a local Wintu medicine Woman accepted the job, but she was upset with it and called on another medicine woman to assist. The reason for that, was this feather had some heavy attributes: if the feather was laid on it's side (facing to the left), it showed a pheonix with it's flaming wings upraised. If the feather was laid on it's side (facing to the right), the Pheonix had it's flaming wings down and if you held the feather upright, the pheonix became a screaming skull.

Lots of Medicine, there.

 

[Shinpachi]

Beautiful shots, Merv!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Top shots Merv!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots Merv!

 

[ontos]

Great shots, Merv and that's an interesting feather. How did you happen to come by it?

I used to have a "Talking Feather" that's been in my family for ages (Oglala Sioux). A Golden Eagle feather with the appropriate "Peyote" beading and leather work. When I had to have the beads and leather repaired, a local Wintu medicine Woman accepted the job, but she was upset with it and called on another medicine woman to assist. The reason for that, was this feather had some heavy attributes: if the feather was laid on it's side (facing to the left), it showed a pheonix with it's flaming wings upraised. If the feather was laid on it's side (facing to the right), the Pheonix had it's flaming wings down and if you held the feather upright, the pheonix became a screaming skull.

Lots of Medicine, there.

Very interesting story on the "Talking Feather", I take it you no longer have the feather, ii would be a most precious thing to maintain. The talking feather comes from a old Native American legend about a Crow and a Magpie in a very loud argument, long story short, neither the Crow or Magpie could get a word in edgewise so the Eagle which is next to the creator broke up the argument, and lost a feather doing so, the Crow caught the feather and apologized to the Eagle for being so loud and rude and causing the Eagle to loose his feather, then the Magpie took the feather from the Crow and also apologized to the Eagle . It came to pass that the Eagle feather became a symbol of respect and courtesy to speakers during tribal meetings, the feather was passed around during tribal meetings or whenever two or more people were talking together, who ever had the feather was the only one who could talk, all others had to listen and think about what was said, then the feather was passed to the next person. I paraphrased the story to cut it pretty short.

The feather in the picture was made by my brother, he was adopted by a Oglala Sioux family after they found him in a car that went off a cliff during a snow storm, the family nursed him back to health and taught him the ways of the Sioux and their arts. He became well versed in Native American History and causes. He was greatly skilled in Porcupine Quill work, and all forms of feather, bead and leather works winning several first place ribbons at pow-wows across the country. I have several pieces he made that I still want to photograph, I have a picture of Steven Seagal wearing a Native American jacket he made for him. I guess you can tell I am very proud of my brother. Sorry for all my rambling.

It was kind of strange that he joined a Sioux family in that we are Choctaw.

 

[ontos]

Thanks VB, Dave, Shinpachi, Aaron Wurger and Hugh for your kind comments.

 

[ontos]

While I was in my wife's sewing room, I noticed a quilt she was working on laying on her sewing table. All the pins holding it together got my somewhat creative cells in my brain working, why not try a macro shot of the safety pin, sounds kind of nuts, but I gave it a shot and this is what I came up with. Second shot is another one of Aarons pictures taken of a old mill I turned into a burn, I think I will darken the grass a little more.

 

[Shinpachi]

I envy, Merv, you can enjoy macro to produce awesome images
Great work.

 

[ontos]

Thank you Shinpachi, I appreciate your comment and that you like the picture. I enjoy taking these pictures and sharing them with my friends.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very nice!