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Category: Thoughts and Musings

Wildness and Wilderness

Wildness and Wilderness

| May 8, 2013 | 4 Replies

Rain came today, a harbinger of monsoon season. Lightning and thunder and gentle drops shining like precious gems on tree branches and the radiant green of new foliage. I went out for a drive, not so much for photography but to revel in the scents of wet earth, sagebrush and pine. I hiked to a [...]

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Creating in Isolation

Creating in Isolation

| April 24, 2013 | 9 Replies

“A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.” –Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Toward the end of a recent workshop, while hiking through one of the canyons outside of Moab, a participant approached me and commented that he didn’t see me expose a single image [...]

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No New Label Necessary

No New Label Necessary

| April 9, 2013 | 10 Replies

This secret spoke Life herself unto me: “Behold,” said she, “I am that which must ever surpass itself.” –Friedrich Nietzsche I write these words on the edge of a storm. To the east, a wall of slate-grey sky is slowly making its way into the canyon country and toward Colorado; to the west the Mummy [...]

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The Grateful Mind

The Grateful Mind

| April 2, 2013 | 11 Replies

This essay originally appeared in Landscape Photography Magazine. ~~~ Friedrich Nietzsche is perhaps the most prolific of Western philosophers on the topic of art. In his mind, art is a means of coping with the chaos, tragedy and imperfection that are the true nature of reality and, as such, makes life itself not only tolerable, [...]

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The Image and the Experience

The Image and the Experience

| March 30, 2013 | 7 Replies

My first “nature photography” experience occurred nearly thirty years ago, when for reasons I can’t even remember I borrowed my father’s old Minolta and went to play outside. Not a single image from that roll of film turned out, but the joy of seeking photogenic subjects and fitting them into the finder frame was intoxicating. [...]

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Attention Overload

Attention Overload

| March 26, 2013 | 18 Replies

I recently parked at a roadside pullout to retrieve a cold drink from the ice chest in the back of my truck. I turned the engine off , thinking that this will be a good place to perch on the tailgate for a bit and appreciate the beauty of the day and the place. I [...]

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The Wonderful Lightness of Being

The Wonderful Lightness of Being

| March 9, 2013 | 11 Replies

Every so often, I receive inquiries from High School students charged with writing about an artist of their choice. It  warms my heart to know that even at that early age, some already have an appreciation for beauty and art. My own High School experiences are, for the most part, best relegated to the dusty [...]

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Balancing Breadth and Depth

Balancing Breadth and Depth

| February 15, 2013 | 6 Replies

A strange thing happened recently when the social media site LinkedIn introduced its new skill endorsement function. Among other skills, some well-meaning connections endorsed me for Travel Photography – a skill I have often claimed not to have, for reasons I explain here. As I mentioned to editor Brooks Jensen in a recent interview for [...]

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Course Corrections

Course Corrections

| January 28, 2013 | 31 Replies

In my earlier post recounting some thoughts about the year that was, I mentioned realizing that my thoughts on photography and art required a few course corrections last year. This is certainly not the first time and I thought it might be helpful to further elaborate on some of the ones that made a significant [...]

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The Concept

The Concept

| January 13, 2013 | 8 Replies

The following essay was originally published in Landscape Photography Magazine. ~~~ When teaching photography workshops I always emphasize the importance of starting an image with a concept – the thing that stops you in your tracks and whispers in your ear “there’s something here worth photographing.” A concept has no visual characteristics, and the role [...]

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