Open minds and unconditional love My posted contemplations are primarily about appreciation, gratitude and perception. While fear is generally an undesirable sensation, I appreciate it as one of the primary forces that affects human behavior universally. Fear has survival value for individuals, and socially it’s an evolutionary driver. I also appreciate it’s significance as one […]
A unique entity with the potential to do more and be more through engagement The image of this drop of water on a stem reminds me of a common metaphor used to describe the nature of the human-divine relationship. While each drop of water is singular, unique, individual and ever changing regardless of its size, shape […]
The value, precautions and prospects of machine-made images Inspired by Jerry Uelsmann‘s photomontages in 1975, I spent the better part of a day searching through my proofs to find images that might work together to make an intriguing composite. On another day, I did the actual printing in the darkroom with a variety of masks, […]
Wisdom teachers are putting the abuses of freedom in check. The iris symbolizes hope, wisdom, faith, trust, and bravery. The biosphere has hit a limit, delivering a constant stream of evidence in the form of more frequent and increasingly destructive fires, flooding, droughts, tornadoes and earthquakes. At the same time, and probably related at some […]
It makes a huge difference where we’re planted “Going with the flow” is an expression that suggests it’s a better life strategy is to align with rather than resist what’s happening. As guidance for individual behavior, paddling with the “current”—in the context of home, work and relationships—is certainly easier than paddling against it. In this […]
Metaphysical gravity Something we are? Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J., wrote that love is “The affinity of being for being.” Affinity recognizes love as an energy that’s not only a human experience, it’s also intrinsic to the universe. In support of this, engineer and futurist, R. Buckminster Fuller, often said […]
Human activity: Toward what end? This image reminds me to appreciate and not take for granted the opportunities I had along the way to choose work that I enjoyed doing. My parents didn’t have that luxury. I think of the difficulties people had in finding jobs during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era, […]
Forces and processes that optimize human potential Take the full range of individual piano tuning forks and stand up them in a row. Take another one, unmarked, and strike it with a mallet. Of the many forks, the one that sounds will match the unmarked fork—and identify it. For instance, f-sharp only sounds when it […]
Personally taking responsibility for the whole I always enjoy seeing how birds space themselves along a wire. How do they know when close is too close? I’ve watched them land in a space that seems wide enough to maintain a proper distance between them and their neighbors, but if it isn’t enough they’ll adjust. And […]
Paying attention to that which attracts There are many ways that photography can feed the soul. As the print of this image was taking shape in the developer, my heart was activated before I even had a chance to reflect on the subject matter. Later, I decided to contemplate the impulse of heart activation, what […]
Contemplative Photography 