Photo:Engage

  “ When I photograph, what I'm really doing is seeking answers to things. ”  - Wynn Bullock      Another path to happiness, an emotion you control, may be found in my post from November 19, 2022...      One can’t answer how to be happy by reciting some creed or pledge. Best to demonstrate by what one does. And the thing to do is to be discerning. Judging well about what we do is the whole point.      Discernment leads to happiness, the direct result of a balanced mind and a soul filled with inner peace. The path to these treasures comes from important questions we ask ourselves: of what do I have control? and what do I not? what is worth my time? what isn’t? what really matters? and who?      If answered honestly at each successive moment of choice, questions like these lead to clarity. And so it is with discernment. It answers the question about what to do and who to do it with in the face of so many options. With r...

  “ I think of photography like therapy. ”  - Harry Gruyaert      I doubt there's ever been a time I didn't feel refreshed after spending some time in the woods. Tired? Sure. Dirty? Almost always! Hungry and thirsty? Of course. But always better. Yes, always better. Although there are those moments you wonder why you're there. As I quoted from one of my favorite authors in my post from January 7, 2023...      “There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods. It’s where you were yesterday, where you will be tomorrow. The woods is one boundless singularity. Every bend in the path presents a prospect indistinguishable from every other, every glimpse into the trees the same tangled mass. For all you know, your route could describe a very large, pointless circle. In a way, it would hardly matter.” - Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods Clicking on the im...

  “ To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. ”  - Edward Weston      This image is the last of three making up my first triptych. In case you're still wondering what a triptych is, allow me to explain. Historically, it is a type of art composed of three related pieces, usually panel paintings, which were hinged together such that they could fold or be allowed to stand upright on their own, often for use at the altars of churches in the Middle Ages. The middle panel was generally the largest, although today that's not necessarily the case.      A modern triptych can mean anything composed of three parts, but in my case, it's three photographs that are related to each other and that together tell a story. The first part of this triptych is an image I called   Vertigo . The second is called Residuum . Here, then is photograph number three of my first t...

  “ A great photograph is a full expression about what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ”  - Ansel Adams     How strange to sense the presence of love while simply observing two trees on a hillside. But then, the forest, the mountains, and the mist can fill you with a sense of wonderment you might dismiss as folly were it not for the obvious intimacy and constancy those two trees share. And what marvelous lessons we might take with us from watching them resist the wind, one tree mostly full with branches and the other less so but still hanging on, still fully engaged. We could learn much about loyalty from such trees as these. As I wrote in my post on December 18, 2021...      Out by the edge of the forest on the hill, sits a tree that radiates pure magical energy. It’s a wizened old tree, bent but never broken by the wind, backed by the clouds...

  “ 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     I used to frequently approach life like a series of missions, tasks to complete and lists to check off as I maximized my efficiency, making the best time possible. The destination was of most importance, not the journey itself. I'm sure I picked up some of this life scripting from my father and probably learned the rest from my time in the Navy. Mission accomplishment was a Chief's job, plain and simple. But to go through life with this mindset certainly made me miss some happy moments along the way. It wasn't possible to savor the wonder of creation when I spent the journey, the real meat of the meal of life, chewing and swallowing as fast as I could so I could get to dessert, the destination.     That's not to say that I was always like this, but I did find myself in this mindset more...

  “ For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. ”  - Henri Cartier-Bresson     Sure hope the new year is starting out well for you! I thought I'd offer you a hope I have for you and a small bit of wisdom for the ages in this first post of 2022.     I want you to be happy. More specifically, I want you to choose to be happy, regardless of your circumstances.     That's a daring thing to hope for in the modern age, what with everyone's feelings controlling so much of what they are. But your feelings, if not managed properly, can really keep you from being happy.     Let me tell you a quick story... When the town I live in didn't pickup the leaves from the curb in our neighborhood like they announced they would, I was concerned about the possibility of leaves clogging our storm drains and about how the leaves were simply blowing back into our yards after many of us had spent much energy and mon...