15 seconds

My last 3 weeks have been absolutely insane.  So insane that I now know what it's like to completely lose touch with almost every aspect of my life except work.  If someone were to ask me about notable news headlines since August 8th, I might know of 1 or 2.  Worst of all is the time spent away from my wife and kids as I labored to finish the first phase of a very big project at work.  I think I went 3-4 days without seeing my youngest daughter because I was gone before she woke up and came home long after she was in bed.  But, I managed to complete this first phase and am finally decompressing.

Yellow, Blue, and White

Obviously, I had very little time to think about photography, although I do believe it's continuously shuffling in and out of my subconscious even during my busiest moments.  So, during one of my many long, long days, I was rushing from one area of the plant to another and a quick glance to the sky stopped me in my tracks.  For the next 15 seconds I managed to think about nothing else except that one moment.  The sky was amazing and if there were some way I could've taken a picture of the entire expanse of its beauty, I would have.  I didn't have my trusty Nikon, but I did have the next best thing, my iPhone.  I snapped a picture and back to work I went.  Yep, 15 seconds.

1,000 Blog Views

Earlier today I happened to notice that my blog had surpassed 1,000 total pageviews, which is a cool milestone.  Somehow I've managed to hoodwink enough people into thinking I really have something important to say.  :)

In all honesty, I really appreciate anyone that visits this site and takes some time viewing my photography.  I remember writing my first couple posts thinking, "Nobody is ever going to read this stuff," mainly because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say.  Those first posts took quite some time to complete and post because I kept starting over from scratch.  In the end I had to remind myself on the reason I wanted to write a blog and why I got passionate about photography in the first place - it's my creative outlet to please myself.


A few years ago I realized that life continues to hand you more responsibilities in the form of marriage, children, work, mortgage and a hundred other things.  While all those things can be tremendously rewarding, I found that I wasn't a very creative person anymore and it bothered me.  I struggled with trying to figure out why I didn't really enjoy drawing, or painting, or making music like I used to when I was younger.  But, along came photography and I suddenly found my creativity again.  Most importantly, I didn't feel like I needed to please anyone with my photographs except me.  Why was this important?  Well, we all know how much time we spend in our daily lives trying to please other people and sometimes it gets overwhelming.

Bottom line is this:  I love taking pictures.  It's one of maybe 3-4 activities that I've found where I completely lose all sense of time - I'm simply off in my own little world.  The idea that other people (you!) might actually enjoy my photography and my thoughts is an added bonus of which I'm deeply grateful!

So, if you're not feeling creative go pick up a pencil or a paintbrush or, better yet, a camera and get busy creating something.  You never know what you might discover.