Photo:Engage

  “ I find it some of the hardest photography and the most challenging photography I've ever done. It's a real challenge to work with the natural features and the natural light. ”  - Galen Rowell     I love taking the long way on road trips, avoiding the highway and choosing the backroads when possible. And off those backroads are often the most amazing natural places to stop and visit. So many of these places can be reached quickly from the vehicle making them accessible to almost anyone. And some of my favorite places are the marshes common along the east coast of the United States. As I wrote in my post on May 7, 2022...     What fondness for the marshy junction of sea and land I feel! Whether it be along the shores of the inland bays of southern Delaware, or the Lowcountry of South Carolina, or here, in the wonder of the eastern shore of Virginia, they all hold me enthralled in their great natural beauty. I feel the warmth of the setting sun on my skin ...

  “ For most people to be happy, there has to be a person, place, or thing involved in their happiness. In true happiness, there are no things involved. It's a natural state. You will abide in that state forever. ”  - Robert Adams     Forgive the long gap since my last blog post, dear readers. The topic involved in that June post was absolutely dreadful and required me to take some time to recommit to my purpose. But I'm back now, although in truth I never really left. I continued to photograph and write. And found happiness again. Here is work from my post on April 30, 2022... Happiness Is When by William Arthur Ward Happiness is our heritage when Faith becomes our constant companion; Self-discipline our tireless teacher; Integrity our competent coach; Truth our trusted tutor; Discernment our careful critic; Optimism our able advisor; Goodness our gifted guide; Beauty our infallible inspiration; And love our blissful benediction. Clicking on the image will open it ...

  “ The eye should learn to listen before it looks. ”  - Robert Frank     Mahatma Gandhi, best known for his contribution to the Indian Independence Movement through non-violent resistance, once taught us to,  “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”      Stunning as it seems, Gandhi speaks two Stoic truths here. The first is memento mori, to remember our deaths are inevitable and unpredictable, so we should live as though it's our last moments on earth, with our words and actions fitting how we desire to be remembered.     The second is that we need to keep learning all through our days. As soon as we either think we know it all or that we cease being intellectually curious, we are essentially done. We will progress no further. And sadly, I almost fell into that trap with this this week's photograph. Fortunately, I remembered my Epictetus, as I wrote about in my post from March 26, 2022... ...

  “ Without vision, the photographer perishes. ”  - David duChemin     How do you see the world? You probably think you see the world objectively, as basically the way it actually is. And in some ways, you might. But in other ways, the way you see things is determined by your paradigm at the moment.      For instance, imagine you're on a busy train headed home from work after a long day and, with several more stops to go, a father and two young kids board the train. You watch the father slump in his seat but the children are restless and begin to bother the other passengers by yelling back and forth, and even running up and down the aisle a little, bumping into people. It's hard to imagine how this father can just let his kids run wild this way! You can see the other riders are growing irritated with the kid's behavior and eventually, and with great restraint you might add, you finally get the father's attention and ask him if he might not be able to c...