Photo:Engage

  “ Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer and often the supreme disappointment. ”  - Ansel Adams How often we flail about trying to influence things we have no control over. What a great waste of our energy and time. Better to focus on the things we do control: our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Imagine how effective we can be then! As I wrote in a poem of my own in my post on February 11, 2023... I saw a twisted tree today with branches in every direction and thought how like some people it is. Unlike, I thought, most trees that grow naturally true and tall or animals that behave instinctively  like the particular animal they are.  People, gloriously infuriating and wonderfully complicated and emotional, wave about like fan-powered air dancers seeking to grab attention. The tree, limbs flailing about, is how like so many we folk are still seeking a direction in life as the tree searches for the sun. Clicking on the image will...

“ The world moves fast, changing everything around us with each new day. Photography is a gift that can keep us in a moment forever, blissfully eternal. ”  - Ali Novak     Our world does move fast, with events sometimes overwhelming us with their speed and ferocity and urgency. So much is happening that it's all too easy to lose focus of what it is we want to do with our limited time. The events of the world outside ourselves pierce our attention and compete for our emotional energy, but are usually well outside of what we can actually control. So I ask you to think about what you're focused on, for that will let you know what you truly value.  As I wrote in my post on February 5, 2022...      Taking the liberty of translating into a modern voice the timeless wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, who was both emperor of ancient Rome and a moral man, he wrote in his personal journal the following lesson about focus:      “Concentrate every minute on...

  “ The camera is much more than a recording apparatus; it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world. ”  - Orson Welles     This image is part of a triptych. It's my first one. What's a triptych, you may ask? Well, historically, it denoted a type of art composed of three related pieces, usually wood panel paintings which were hinged together such that they could fold or be allowed to stand upright on their own. The middle panel was usually the largest, although today that's not necessarily the case. Nowadays, a triptych can mean anything composed of three parts, but in my case, it's three images that are related to each other and that together tell an interesting story. Here, then is image number one of my first triptych, as I shared in my post from January 15, 2022...      Have you ever felt like you were emotionally falling? That everything happening in your life was just too much? More often than we might admit, many of us have that...