Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert

I would encourage anyone reading this post to watch the video that I posted a url for below. I know you probably all have a kazillion other things to do, ...but being that you're here, reading my blog, PLEASE take a few minutes out of your day and watch this. It's so amazingly beautifully breathtaking and inspiring,.... a much better use of your time than reading my online blog. I promise you that your heart will smile; and I truly hope that some part of this beautiful work of art will in some way inspire you and renew a passion and love for nature. So without further ado......


http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/15


P.S.
None of the images are computer generated or digitally collaged. If you want to skip the introduction, skip to 2 minutes and 10 seconds. This is beautiful.

Part of the Introdution.
"To the past 14 years I've been an apprentice to nature. Over the course of 34 expeditions, I've collaborated with over 45 species. They come together in the form of a 21st century bestiary called Ashes and snow that is now being exhibited at the nomadic museum in Santa Monica. It was previously shown in New York City and Venice Italy. This exhibition includes 3 films, and over 100 large scale photographs on Japanese paper. Like all bestiary's it is not designed to provide an intellectual understanding of nature. Ashes and Snow attempts to inspire an emotional understanding of nature, and our place within it. Over the next 10 years, this exhibition will travel to Asia, Europe, and the middle East. Now before I show you some excerpts of the film, I should clarify my use of the term 'bestiary' because the world has disappeared in Western culture. In most societies a bestiary expressed a poetic understanding of mans relationship to animals in their environment. The jaguars resonated with the Maya, the falcons with the Egyptians, the buffalo with the native americans...."