Early morning silence

I cherish the quiet hours of the very early morning.  It is a mysterious time when the night time darkness is overtaken by the first awakening light from the sky.  There is a feeling of newness and hope during this peaceful time.  The quietness lets the mind think and reflect before the rush of noise and busyness invades our lives.   For most of us we pack as much as we can into each day thinking that our lives will be more complete with numerous accomplishments.  Most of the time we are surrounded by a blaring fast moving world that is harsh when compared to the quiet moments of early dawn.  Sadly our culture has become a maddening rage of who can scream and protest the loudest to be heard above the noise of others.  Nobody is really listening because you can't hear when everyone is talking.  I quote lyric from an old Buffalo Springfield song, " Nobody is right, if everybody's wrong".   Give me the quiet of the early morning before the air is filled with the blare of the world.

 

Living my memories through photography

 

      

 My many years of travel are never far from me.  I live my memories through the images I have taken over the past 50 years of photographing.  When I first started photographing I never thought that later in life I would be able to vividly recall so many days and events in my life through my photography.  Our current home is like a gallery with the images I have made all over the world in our travels.  The wonderful thing is when I view an image I can recall much of the day when I made the image.  In this image I remember my wife and I traveled out on a cold and rainy day in northern Iceland.  We found a road that dead ended at an old farm house with sheep and other livestock running around.  In the distance I could see a small church down behind the farm house.  I parked our vehicle and walked through the mud and up to the house.  I was greeted by a lady and an older man at the door and asked if it was possible to take a photograph of the little church on their property.  We were granted permission but were told we had to walk to the location. I remember the feeling of excitement with finding a new subject to photograph as we packed up my gear and made out way down the muddy cow path to the church.  The wind and the rain was blowing in off the ocean with a damp chill to the air.  It was a mood I wanted to present in my finished photograph and knew that a black and white image would do this best.  After making the image we proceeded to travel around the small villages and stopped in a little restaurant in the fishing village of Stykkisholmur  (pronounced like- Sticky-shoe mer). The cold rain was coming down hard as we sat with the locals and listen to the talk of the fisherman while having a wonderful meal.    Photography has blessed us with the ability to recall the special times in our lives.  No other medium is able to freeze a moment in time like a photograph. It is simple yet so powerful.