~Beauty is in the eye of the beholder~ and I have been blest to be an eye........ and a beholder. I speak of the beauty of nature and the gift of photograpy. |
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| Favorite animal--the elegant girafe-an amazing creature. |
| Baby grandaughters in the snow--- |
| Grandson and friend--- Mr. Fuddbunny--- |
| My wife of 40 years--- Yup, she's still here!! |
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| The last family portrait--- |
| My personal faith is "Relaxed Christianity" All of us have a purpose to fullfill during our time here and many of us never know what it is---most of us don't have a huge calling with clearcut edges, dramatic impact and a sense of destiny. Who I am..... and who I think I am...... and who I want to be...... are always in conflict. I believe this to be true of most of us. I am a Gemini--a multi personality sign and I've lived up to that designation all my life! Like the girafe, I feel sometimes I am above it all--lost in my own larger than life world. The next moment, I am looking through the lens of my camera at an infinitely tiny and perfect flower that many people never see. I learned my camera skills from the US Navy--my wife taught me how to look at what was around me--the world, Creator's masterpiece. No matter how skillfull I might become at my craft, I will never be able to duplicate what God has created. Once I had a butterfly visit me and pose while I took up a roll of film. The delicate creature flitted from bloom to bloom in my wife's flowerbed, showing all its beauty from every angle. When I took the last shot, it lazily flapped away in serenity and with purpose. I stood with tears in my eyes as I thanked it for the session. This was God's creature--not mine--I was lent the moment in time to capture. At their best this is what a camera --and a photographer-- are for. We are here for a reason--and things happen for a cause. We might not figure out all the answers in this life but we will know all things one day. And strangely enough, it probably won't matter then--the things that trouble us so much in this life will turn out to be trifles in the great scheme of things. In my better moments, I know there is a Power in control~at other times I am racing full tilt down a steep hill with no brakes--and there's a busy intersection at the bottom. Mankind seems to have destruction in his DNA--and the sad thing is that he also has the power and the will to kill. When the last lifeform is erased from this world it will be our own--and that will be following the extinction of the wonderful land animals, plants, and sea life of this planet. I wish everyone could have the vision of beauty I have been granted as seen through the lens of my camera--perhaps then the rush to destruction could be stemmed. Remove some of the greed, and progress and sanity can co-exisit in this world. The drive for wealth and its privilege is the engine that drives the destruction we see in our natural world. I say: STOP! Watch a cloud float past the face of the moon--observe a tiny flower on a weed stem--listen to the mastery of music in a bird's trill---choose life and not destruction. This is my religion--my path is creation. |
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| "OK, kids, Momma keeps the peanut butter where???" |