• grass,  Plants,  quotes

    …lived well.

    The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Driving to Red Feather Lakes to shoot senior portraits for a friend today. Haven’t been up in that area for quite some time. Have a wonderful Sunday!

  • leaves,  Plants,  quotes

    What is my intention today?

    The intention of a photographer is to capture the beauty in places, obvious or hidden, in which modern age and technology cause us to dismiss.

    Kassadi Collins

    I suspect that each of us could walk around our neighborhoods for a half hour and find a multitude of images that we would call keepers. For it is my belief that nature is creating scenes at all times, just for the joy of it. We just need to look and see, just for the joy of it. Yet we can walk through the day with our technology close at hand and miss much of the beauty this world offers. Maybe we need to ask ourselves the question that Kassidi is referring to; What is my intention today?

  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    I was not disappointed

    When I started my adventure in photography, I was suddenly introduced to the world around me. I can’t believe I have been so blind for too many years.

    Laura Tate Sutton

    I so relate to her quote. Anyway, the weather forecast is for rain beginning mid morning and continuing through the day. So with that forecast in mind I rose early and headed to Pineridge Natural Area. I sat on that same rock, the hard one, hoping nature would offer bright colors among clouds. I was not disappointed. I think of that old adage, Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning. Hope you have a wonderful day.

  • sports

    Action Photos

    A friend of mine is a new tennis coach in the Fort Collins area. He has now established a team of players and asked me if I’d shoot some action photos for his website. I’ve done my kids and grandkids sports but never anything on the high level these young people are. Anyway here are a couple of action photos I like. More to come.

  • horizons,  landscape,  rants,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Let’s try something else!

    Warning: Here comes a rant. Just over 22 years ago a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center began a devastating war, and I use the word war loosely here. This two decade long conflict has had a huge cost in money and lives. In this post I will set aside the money numbers with my rant focused on the human costs. In terms of human costs the numbers are staggering and these numbers are estimates. One report states the total number of deaths is 167,000 people killed by direct war violence in Afghanistan. I find that to be 167,000 too many. Which brings up my focus of this post: violence does not bring peace.

    I read from the Save the Children website that almost 33,000 children have been killed and maimed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, an average of one child every five hours. Even if that number was half as many it’s shockingly too high. Again: violence does not bring peace.

    September is National Suicide Prevention Month so I thought I’d mention a few numbers on suicides of veterans. Since Sept. 11, 2001, just over 30,000 veterans have died by suicide — four times more than the number of U.S. military personnel who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. That also comes out close to one veteran every five hours. I find it dumbfounding that we can support the idea of putting a uniform on a young person then training them to kill, placing them in combat situations and not expect them to have psychological trauma. Once again: violence does not bring peace.

    Even if the numbers presented here are incorrect by 90% they are way too high. They affect me at a deep level. Not sure it was a good idea to write this post but searching for these numbers has reinforced my conviction that: violence does not bring peace. Let’s try something else!

  • coffee life,  coffee shops,  fountain pens,  journal,  quotes,  writing/reading

    Depths of Meditation

    The truth is that we can venture into meditation only in our willingness to be, at times, perplexed. What is more, we must be willing to befriend our perplexity as a way of dying to our futile efforts to grasp the ungraspable depths that meditation invites us to discover.

    James Finley

    I’m heading out meet my daughter at a Greek restaurant and I’m assuming to over eat, again. Also, expecting rain later this afternoon. Let it begin.