People ask me… “What do you take pictures of?” or “Why are you taking a picture of that thing?”

There is no good answer to either question, really.  I photograph whatever strikes me at the moment.  It could be anything.  Anywhere.

The thing that happens in my little brain, prior to capturing an image on film, is quite simple.   I equate it to the rudimentary  response of the common crow.  It goes like this.  “Ohhhhhhhh  Looooook.  Shiny Object!  Shiny object, shiny object, shiny object.”

And that is all.

I see something that strikes me.  And I shoot.  I am sometimes driven by it… and it becomes important to me.

But here is the mockery of it all.  I don’t think that we can ever make a true recording of what is before us.  The image, the scene, the sound, the song.  Life events…. are…. life events.  It doesn’t seem to me that it can be captured in its wholeness.  No… the experience is unmistakably real.

The sound of a infant, laughing from the belly.  The magnitude and majesty of the vast red canyon.  The first light of sunrise.  The soulful song of a wolf’s cry.

Oh yes.  Technology is amazing.  The devices are clearer and more precise when it comes to the act of recording.  The scratchy banter of the old LPs has long been replaced by digital prowess.  The grain and blur of the old negatives, has fallen way to the digital sensors of movies and photos.

We are surrounded by Dolby and 3-D and Panorama and Surround Sound.  But none of it can compare to the real thing.

None of it comes close to actually being there.
Being there…. in the moment.  The most precious thing of all.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West

“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” – Emily Dickinson