Fallen Man

 I call this image the Fallen Man because it symbolizes our cuture during this world wide pandemic.  Life as we knew it has fallen flat on its face.  We all hope for a quick cure, but find ourselves growing deeper in fear of general human contact with each passing day.  When will we sit comfortable in a crowed stadium or make an international flight to a foreign country?  Fear is a strong motivator and can change and distort our minds for a lifetime.  It is hard to overcome once fear has had time to penetrate deeply into a life.  Fear breeds dependency and it is easy to give up control of your life freedoms to get a sense of security.  Much like a child depends on their parent to comfort them during the night from a bad dream, some will seek comfort and security from a large central government to shelter their lives from fear of bad things happening.  Giving up personal freedoms for the general good sounds accepting but there is a down side to such thinking.  I feel fortunate to have lived all of my life choosing what I want for my life and to pursue my dreams and passions.  The world works best with people living free and pursuing their dreams.  What will the condition of our freedoms look like after this pandemic?  I guess it all depends on how much we are willing to surrender and to whom. 

Foot Steps in Stone

I was going through some old digital files of images I made in Italy back a few of years ago.
I came across this image and realized I had never really seen it before.  The more I looked at the image the more I was drawn into it.  The steps are in an old midevil castle, and are made from marble.  As I worked on this photo I started thinking about the numerous footsteps and the lives of the people that walked these steps over the centuries to wear down the stone.  Lives lived in one place, with daily demands to meet, and a purpose to fulfill.  Their foot steps left in stones.

The Grottos

I traveled through Colorado last fall and stopped by an area that I had photographed at thirty years ago.  It is just off of the continental divide when going over Independence Pass.  The Grottos trail with the ice caves are located in the White River National Forest.  I am always amazed when I return to an area that I had previously photographed, and realize how different it really looks as to what I remembered it to be.  On my first trip many years ago I hiked down into this area with a heavy large format camera and a sturdy tripod.  This time I was equipped with a lighter digital camera and tripod, but found the climb out much more strenuous than on the first visit.  The area around the ice caves has some great hiking trails that take you to some wonderful waterfalls.  When I first visited this location in 1990 there no people in the area when I was photographing.  On this trip I couldn't find a place to park and decided to come back at a later time to have more quiet space to hike around and relive some old memories of a special place.

https://liveandlethike.com/2015/09/12/grottos-trail-white-river-national-forest-co/

Fogo Island-NL

I am always in search of remote place that's kind of frozen in time.  A place where technology hasn't erased the traditional culture of the area.  It is getting difficult to find places where our modern technology hasn't changed a long history of culture in one generation.  Currently big tech companies are launching over 3,300 internet satellites to cover every square inch of the world.  A drastic change will come to places that are not part of the culture of high tech and social media.  I question what effect this will have when all humans are walking around with their necks bend over looking into a 3"x5" screen.  Who will control the world and what information will be inputted to our devices to feed our minds and form our beliefs.  The above image was made on Fogo Island.  It is a place in transition but still reflects the culture of the people that migrated here to fish in the cold arctic seas.  The place is quiet and much of the old fishing industry is still evident with the wooden boats and stages on the shorelines.  The people that live here come from a long history of the hard work of fishing at sea that forms a deep bond with their neighbors.  These places with the people that live there are special to me.  How long it will remain is uncertain.  Change is inevitable but not always good.  

2019

If I had an image to describe the year 2019, this would be it.  It may have not been the worst year I have experienced in my lifetime but it certainly came close.  We all experience struggles in our lives and it is how we cope with them that determines if we can overcome them.  Health issues complicate our lives and takes patience to deal with.  They can zap us of our desire to do our routine things and dampens our enthusiasm and ability to dream.   Despite dealing with these issues I managed to still get out and explore some new locations and meet some nice people along the way.  The hardest thing this past year has been staying organized with my photography.  I have always had a clear vision of my goals and what direction I wanted to take with my photography.  I have created some wonderful images  this past year but somehow few of them have given me the satisfaction I desire.  I decided to give up all social media because it has a negative effect on my creative abilities.  I found that I spent time thinking about what others thought of my work more than usual.  As with all new years we make promises to ourselves how we are going improve things over the previous year.  That is all well and good but little of your energy should be spent there.  The most effective thing a person can do is be honest with themselves and deal with the essential things in life and let the good things come freely and on their own. 

Under the Night Sky

We recently made a trip to Colorado and rented a camper for two weeks.  When we travel we always find ourselves in the lonely places away from crowds, TV, and internet.  We were able to dry camp most every night of our trip and stayed at high elevations of 10,000 and higher.  The clear night skies were filled with stars and I found myself out hiking around in the dark well after midnight with my camera.  I must admit that the yipping of the coyotes all around was a bit unnerving.  The thing that struck me the most from my night time hikes was how much beauty we have lost of our night skies with light pollution.  It is very difficult to find a place where the lights from a city hasn't spoiled viewing the starlit night.  Being in these remote locations puts me back in touch with reality and the realization of how we have built a wall of technology around us.  Technical Notes:  This image was made by stacking 12 sky exposures at 15 seconds with an ISO setting of 6400 with 12 dark (black) exposures.  The process of stacking exposures greatly reduces the noise in the image. 

The SS Charcot

I recently traveled to Newfoundland and found it to be a fascinating place to photograph.  The weather was constantly changing and the wind never stopped blowing.  It was a challenge to photograph in these conditions but the unsettled weather created a moodiness to the land and sea.  I came across the old wreckage on my first day of travel.  As I was photographing and elder man appeared and told me the story about the boat.  It was an old whaling ship called the SS Charcot.  It ran around when it lost it's mooring in a storm back in the early 70's.  It was a fairly quiet evening when I made this image and this old hulk had an eerie feeling about it.