Time in New England

It has been a while since my last post.  I have found that life situations can arise and has a way of taking us in directions we hadn't planned on.  My photography has seen some success in the past few months. Some of my work is being published in a couple of fine magazines this month.  I have won a couple of photography contests that had very substantial cash and equipment awards.  All these things are rewarding, but being out making new images is the most satisfying for me.  It is nice to have your work recognized and appreciated but the process of creating is the thing that touches my inter being.  The times that I am distracted and unfocused are the most difficult for me.  I feel that precious time is wasted on meaningless and mundane task that yield little returns.  This is probably faulty thinking on my part because if you are applying yourself to something it is still a step forward.  I recently made a two week trip to Maine.  The weather was perfect for vacationers but terrible for photography.  The sky was cloudless the entire time I was there, and being around the ocean with a blank sky can pose a challenge.  I found myself shifting my expectations from scenic ocean views to architectural and abstract compositions.  This image of a church roof reminds me of a photographer I use to study when I was starting out with photography.  His name was Fred Picker and he lived in the Northeast and made many fine black and white images of New England clapboard buildings and churches.  His style and informative writings had an influence to my early work and it was rewarding to revisit some of the things that helped shape my early years with photography.