99 Yellow Balloons Go By...

Today I watched as teenagers let go of strings, and dozens of yellow balloons floated up and away into the sky...It looked so wonderful and photogenic.
Yellow polka dots against a background of white, blue and grey.
A perfect moment for a photographer.
If I wasn't driving...
If my camera was in hand...

If it wasn't so obvious to me where these plastic and string things end their journey.

I live next to the Atlantic Ocean.
Near streams and rivers and beautiful lakes.
There are wide open spaces,
tiny ones too.
Homes to many a precious creature...
On Earth, just as you.

These things we throw away end up somewhere...

Last month I was reading a favourite magazine of mine Spirituality and Health and came upon an article that is constantly in my mind...It was article about photographer and artist Chris Jordan's current project "Stations of the Albatross"...Jordan has concentrated on plastic pollution in the past and continued that theme in "Stations"....

If all works out, we’d like to go to Midway Island later this year, in the middle of the Pacific, and do something about the albatross. These birds are dying because of plastic pollution; they’re feeding their offspring with pieces of plastic found in the ocean, and the young birds die tragically.
-An Interview With Photographic Artist Chris Jordan by Simone Preuss at Environmental Graffiti

click on these and look what's been eaten.
I see a lighter in there...
Terrible beyond words.

“The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and chocking.” Jordan’s images document the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2,000 miles from the nearest continent. He hasn't added or taken anything away from the bodies but photographed each as it was found.
-Jordan, Chris, “Opening / A New Way of Seeing: Stations of the Albatross,” Spirituality & Health, January/February 2010.

As photographers and artists we see and usually appreciate the beauty around us.
The creations of nature fuel our creativity...
Remember not to compromise the environment for your art.
Future Artists and people need it too.

Oh and try not to lose your helium balloon!
Hold on tight!
xoxox
♥