The answer can be SO simple, you feel silly.

I found this quite a while ago from another blog I was reading and loved it instantly that I "ran" to the artist's website and bought it without the need to think twice.



Sorry, I tried looking, but I can't find the link to put up here to actually buy it. The blog and website has changed a lot since I had last been on there...and also it might possibly be because it's not available anymore. It was a limited edition print (if you want it bad enough, maybe you can find the link easier, if it exists, sorry). But the artist, Alex Koplin, is pretty awesome, so check out his other work. Support artist and BUY their work. Don't steal it, please...it's really sad when that happens.

It's what I'm aaaBOUT! - Taking a drive.

I kinda enjoy taking a casual drive.

Actually, I would take a lovely early evening stroll, walking around a neighborhood any day over driving, but there are safety issues involved with walking around at night, especially alone, darn it. Plus, I'm cute, so I'm an easy target for getting stolen...kiddddding! ;) So to suffice, I like to drive around.

Well, I don't get to do that very often lately. I've realized how much I miss it. I like it as a way to think about things going on in my life. I like to listen to music that is a part of my life at the moment and just drive and think. It calms me down. I am able to regroup. I am reminded of how blessed I am. Sometimes I do it just to get out of the house. I love going at sunset or late at night when the roads are a little more empty.

I also looooove driving with the windows down when the weather is just perfect. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

One night, I was driving home after visiting a friend of mine. We hadn't hung out in a while. We chatted, laughed, cried, smiled, and just remembered why we need to do this more often. We both had recently had big things happen in our lives and we just felt a commendatory that we didn't feel anyone else understood at that moment. It was nice. It was a beautiful night. The stars were super bright. And the weather was oddly really nice for it being "winter". So I drove with my window slightly down and listened to music. Drives are just that much better when I am able to think about the conversation I had just had with a good friend.

I took the above picture with my phone to remember that night.

I enjoy taking a casual drive.

Picture of the "Week"!

I love clouds and sunsets because they usually include lovely moments that make me grateful, hopeful and faithful of the things I have learned in life.



This picture is not from this week of rainy weather. I took it a year or two ago (while driving, of course). But the weather has made me think of this shot so I dug it up.


Happy rainy weather! :)

I'm addicted to sunsets.

Here is my new favorite sunset picture I took a few weeks ago.

I usually don't get sentimental and mushy gushy on my blog, but I have a memory attached to this photo of how I was feeling when I took it. I just want to express my gratitude for all those who have been a part of my life. This has been a crazy year for me of complete change and growth. I am so grateful to have had the love and support from some pretty amazing people, especially my family. I remember feeling completely blessed with where my life has taken me, even with all the struggles I have faced this year, because there were also some awesome and happy moments too.

I was getting into my car and I looked at the sunset just grateful for where I am at in my life. I took a deep breath and tried to take a mental picture of the sunset I was witnessing. I luckily remembered I had my camera on me...and I am so glad I did. So whenever I see this shot I can remember how I felt when I took it.

I am honestly blessed beyond what I deserve.

Inspiration...photographers that move me.

You've seen this photo before. It's extremely famous. It is by Steve McCurry; Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984

He works for National Geographics. He is an amazing photographer. I have a few dream jobs I'd like to have as a photographer. Working for Sports Illustrated. And working for National Geographics. I don't think there are many photographers who wouldn't want to work for one if not both of those magazines. I love looking at his work to feel inspiration to travel and to capture photos of complete strangers that just move you.

Here is his blog.

Here is his website.

Another photographer that I was lucky enough to go to a seminar of his, that also works for National Geographics is Sam Abell. This photo, Pears in a windowsill, National Hotel, Moscow,(June 1986) is one of many of his famous works publish by National Geographics. What he is best known for is his ability to have more than one scene in a photo. He is able to capture more than one subject/story line in a photo. His composition abilities are amazing.

This photo is also another famous piece of work by him that shows his "two-view concept". The photo on the bottom showing what he is best known for. Two views of the annual branding and castration
Ken Rosman Ranch, Utica, Montana

It had been awhile since that seminar I had attended, but when I saw this photo recently, I remembered his composition abilities and was awestruck yet again. Not only for his abilities to tell a story by a photograph but his actual story telling. I could have sat there for hours looking at his work and listening to him. I was engulfed in this romantic photographer glow and my mind was filling with so much inspiration I could have burst.

While searching online for the pear photo, I found a website where Sam Abell is recalling his life and this photo and story moved me. It made me miss working in a dark room....because it is so true.Mother and Daddy, Flower Hospital, Sylvania, Ohio, 1975

I continued recuperating at home in Ohio. Things weren't good there. My mother was dying of emphasema, which she only referred to as asthma. She was the strongest person I've known, an esteemed teacher of Latin and French who imposed high standards on both her students and sons. She just wasn't stronger than Lucky Strikes.

I still have the hammered copper ashtray that I emptied every morning as a boy. In it were stubs of cigarettes with her lipstick stains on them.

My dad lived alone when Mother was in the hospital, and after she died in 1981 he didn't move or remarry. He wasn't unhappy living alone so one time in the darkroom - where you could say such things - I asked him "When was the happiest time of your life?" After a silence he said "When your Mother and I were courting."

And one last one that I couldn't help but share...go to the website and you will see what I mean by his story telling. Amazing.
My Dad and I,
International Center of Photography,
New York City, November, 1990
I suppose everyone has a moment in their lives they wish could 'stay'. This would be mine. I'm with my dad at an opening of my work at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. My dad is the guest of honor. I've asked him to stand. The applause makes him emotional and to keep from crying myself I grip his shoulder, smile and look down. We are a long way from our tiny darkroom in Sylvania, Ohio.

The title "Stay This Moment" is drawn from a diary entry of Virginia Woolf written on New Year's eve 1932. She writes "If one does not lie back and sum up and say to the moment, this very moment, stay you are so fair, what will be one's gain, dying? No: stay this moment. No one ever says that enough."
But photographers say it when they make a heartfelt photograph, as this one by my friend David Alan Harvey proves.

Dear Winter: Sorry, but I'm Falling in love with Spring.

Today is GORGEOUS!!!

I hope that you were all able to enjoy at least some of this day. I sat out on my balcony for a little while to breathe in some of the beginnings of spring. I hope that I can get off the photo editing train soon and get out side to enjoy the sweet slight breeze and cozy warm sun!!

Freedom is Never Free.

Fourth of July last year a boy scout was earning his Eagle, which is the highest rank you can achieve as a boy scout.

He collected the names of soilders that had lost their lives in the war in Iraq and placed their names on tags. He also told how they lost their lives while defending ours and others rights and freedoms as well. Then attached it to these flags. He called the memorial "Freedom is Never Free". I can't remember the exact number of flags that he had flying that day in the park but it was just rows and rows. It was at least 3-6 names per flag that was honored. It was amazing.

I can't even begin to describe the peace and quite that was on top of that hill that day in the park. I felt like I was stepping on sacred ground. The only noise you heard was the flags flipping back and forth in the wind. I had a moment when I walked pretty far away from everyone to take pictures of the whole memorial and I just remember watching those flags waving back and forth. I was overcome with gratitude for the priviledge that I am blessed with to live in this country and how often I take it for granted.

I was there at 6:30am taking pictures. It was cloudy most that day unfortunately, but that did not stop people from coming. Anyone that came that day was respectful and walked quietly through the flags. I was told later that many family members came and that boy scout gave them that flag that their son, daughter, brother, sister, mother or father's name hung.

I was thinking about this because of the recent decision to deploy soilders for a longer tour. How hard it must be for family members and the soilders themselves, of course, to be away even longer from their loved ones.

Freedom IS Never Free.