“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers — of persistence, concentration, and insight — to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.”
Susan Cain
For any photographer to return home with an image that we feel is a keeper, we must place ourselves in the right spot, at the right time, to find the right light. Photography as well as a spiritual practice have been the work I needed to help me to live life, solve problems, make art and think deeply. I think Susan is spot on. It’s 23 degrees this morning with clear skies and wind. They are predicting rain and snow this evening in the high country and a slight possibility for the foothills and plains. Hope you use your natural powers!
Tom and Kathy Dills with breakfast smiles at the Chicken Coop
No landscape images this morning. Instead I’m going to post a couple of images of Tom and Kathy Dills from the short visit we had. Pretty impressive smiles from both of them considering the road miles they have put in. Driving from North Carolina to the northwest coast and back is not the same as a jaunt to the grocery store. And, include a pandemic and the fact most of the west coast seems to be on fire and you can understand the task they took on. This was yesterday morning at the newly opened Chicken Coop, a American Mexican restaurant nearby.
Kathy checking out the uncomfortable rock
They arrived Sunday afternoon. After connecting up we drove to the Pineridge Natural Area and then to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area where we took a short walk to the rock. This is a location I enjoy because of the quiet and solitude I can experience. At the present time it’s not as quiet because they’re using the open field south of the natural area as a staging area for the helicopters battling the Cameron Peak fire. Kathy tried sitting on the uncomfortable rock and agreed it’s purpose is not long term sitting. They left yesterday morning and expect to arrive in Charlotte on Thursday. It was a short visit but hopefully there will be more opportunities.
I noticed the other day that John Strong had mentioned he was going to be displaying his Aspens in Autumn tiles at the Larkspur Art Show. After reading about it I decided to make the trip down, meet him and check out his booth. So, Saturday morning I awoke to 34 degrees and our first frost of Fall 2014. This may be a cold day for the show but after checking the weather I grabbed my backpack and headed down. It’s only about a two hour drive to Larkspur and turned into a nice drive. Some traffic in Denver on the way back but it was worth it. John has a nice setup and he’s done a good job printing and mounting his images.
Like many of us in the blogging world, John and I had never met. I found his booth right away and introduced myself. It took him a few seconds to register who I was since he was not expecting me. I any conversation would be interrupted as customers came in and out, and I was correct. Since I had my camera I wandered around and let John greet his prospective customers. Working shows like this requires the interaction and a positive part of doing it. I like the idea of handcrafted items since so many things we purchase are mass produced in some factory. Yes, that includes the material we make our crafts out of. 🙂 And, there was some nice handcrafted merchandise for sale. Some were working on their craft while at their booths so you got to watch them. Plenty of food was available. There was booth with these jars of apple/maple syrup for toast or pancakes and offering samples. I could just eat it right out the jar. They had a slide setup for the kids with several of us adults attempting to sneak on. Sorry, John we did not get as much talk time as would have liked but we do have the opportunity to setup a meeting. I think you have good work and liked how your booth looked. Hope the day went well for you.
