The Intersection of Nature and Technology Through the many decades that I’ve been photographing landscapes, utility poles of all kinds, sizes and wires have been a nuisance. Their placement often interfered with rural settings, and in cities the lines tended to be a mess. I don’t like being critical, but when I see these, the […]
Seeing the Divine as Relationship While researching for my post “What Makes a True Leader” (October 19, 2025), it became apparent that “dominators” historically created and thrived due to a hierarchical social structure. Thinking about it, I began to realize that hierarchies are pervasive; we take them for granted. In Western religious traditions, the spiritual […]
Are They “Individuals” or “Persons?” In the early 1960s I was photographing quite a lot in Cincinnati’s Findley Market downtown. This woman turned and saw that was pointing my camera at her, so she turned and posed. I took the shot, thanked her and we moved on. After writing my post, “The Typewriter and Authenticity,” […]
Those in Alignment with Self (Soul) Let’s begin at the beginning. Oh, actually we can’t—the soul is immortal, so there was/is no beginning. Okay, so I’ll fast-forward, ignore previous incarnations and just focus on this one. There too, the word “beginning” needs to be qualified, because decision-making—if it’s to be “authentic”—begins prior to assuming a […]
Every Page a Lasting Fingerprint Browsing at an antique fair, I was attracted to this typewriter with crooked letters, yellowed keys and options no longer used on computer keyboards (ribbon, margin release, fractions, cent-sign). In 1575 an Italian printmaker named Francesco Rampazetto built a machine that impressed letters on paper. Centuries later, variations on his […]
What can we do in the face of unsettling change, eroding confidence and civility? The world has tilted in the direction of uncertainty. Social, economic and cultural norms are shifting and many are being dismantled.[1] Droughts, tornados, fires and flooding are becoming more frequent and severe. Technologies are evolving faster than the wisdom to manage […]
Chapter 14: Pattern (The final in this series) Through repetition, patterns create visual harmony, rhythm and order, all of which can contribute to meaning and create a sense of stability and symmetry which is pleasing to the eye. Patterns are apparent in the energy fields within atoms, the immensity of the cosmos and the way […]
Chapter 13: Line Harrold, South Dakota Lines serve to define length, distance and shape, indicating boundaries and separate forms, textures and colors that move the eye and create the illusion of depth—like railroad tracks to the horizon. Physically, they can be many or few, take many shapes, have thickness and depth, length and texture with […]
Chapter 11: Key The terms “low key” and “high key” are often used in photography. They refer to photographs that are overall bright or dark. “High Key” images are predominately light or white, like a white cat sitting on a white sofa. “Low Key” is dark and somber, a black dog in a dark tunnel. […]
Chapter 10: Gradation Aesthetically speaking, “gradation” refers to a gradual or graded change of tone over a surface. Artists refer to it as a grading of “values.” In color photography, gradation can be a transition from one hue to another or to a different level of saturation or brightness. In black and white, it’s the […]
Contemplative Photography 