Friday, September 8, 2017

Sometimes Cost Gets In The Way---

But, other times, that cost getting in the way opens new doors. Welcome to our new home!

Over the years, I have not been shy to accepting change. In fact, I have always embraced change. Sometimes, more than at others admittedly, but all-in-all, change is a good thing.

It's been a very long summer for me. It's been one of the hardest summers in nearly a decade and a half. My goal this year was to not only become more creative with new material, but to also increase the number of images that get published. Those that chat with me daily on the road have often heard me say: " Once you created the beast now you must feed it."

 Some 57 years ago, when I pushed down that first shutter button, That beast was created. It  grew over time. Then, one day, when retirement set in, that beast finally reared its head and was more hungry than I had ever anticipated. My instincts should have known because I am a numbers kind of guy. If my goal was to sell 100 acorns this year. I didn't stop until I finally did. Then what ever that number was--next year, I was going to top it. And the following year, I was going to top that number. Over all when I retired, I paced myself for the first couple of year, but then, that Irish-Scottish blood running in my veins began to re-energize me again. Just as it was beginning to stir that need to not sit in a rocking chair anymore, I had a set back with a health issue, then I lost mom.That sidelined me for a bit but it gave me time to think---to focus---(I hate that word in how it is being used today). By the time that I was back to a more normal routine, doing what I loved all along was my guiding light and I picked back up that camera that I had set aside after loosing mom and began to take on that love of photography more seriously than ever before.

The joy. The satisfaction. The love of life. The beauty of nature. The evolution of urban engines continues to drive me until the bitter-sweet end of this life. When ever that may be.But know this: Life is worth every second on this old planet. Faith tells me that it will be even better afterwords. But for now, I look back at my portfolio of some 6,000 published images and I see the world in a much different light. A light of hope. A light of challenges. A light of giving. A light of sharing. A light of eternal salvation. Every single light beams from me when I pick up that camera and a glimpse from the corner of my eye draws me to a setting where the camera takes over and captures that image in the click of a shutter. I still find things in images that I took 16 years ago that I never saw the first time. A picture isn't just an image to look at and awe at. It's a story that is read over and over again and one that you learn life's lessons from. I often think what the bible would be like today if it were a collection of images that covered Genesis to Revelations. Changing how we look at things if we can look back and see things that we never saw the first time would be technology to the max.

So, explore the new pages and know that the taste of discovery is delicious. I'm in the early hours of doing that my self. I still have to relearn how to publish this thing!!

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