No Looking Back

A Few Jagged Edges
Pima Canyon
Tucson, AZ

Seems like yesterday that I was frequenting Pima Canyon either on the weekends or for a quick escape during the week. It really was the reward for taking on a job that failed expectations from the beginning. I tried not to show my elation but the location was excellent for what I needed 90% of the time.

Nature fills the voids that money can't fill. It furnishes the art that you can't buy nor the lodging you can afford. It envelops you in its own luxury and makes you wealthy beyond measure.

Yes my images are hyperboles of what I've seen. However they reflect and convey the harmonic tones enriched by my soul after numerous vibrations. In short its how I see it and how I've experienced it. Others, I am sure will see it and express it differently.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com
represented by Simon Gallery of Fine Art

Desert Solitude

Adobe Fixings
Near Drexel Heights
Tucson, AZ

What makes the desert beautiful

is that somewhere it hides a well.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Was reminiscing about my brief oasis in the desert which I enjoyed for nearly a month last year. It was a modest but quaint adobe home nestled between two magnificent landmarks in Drexel Heights just southwest of theTucson city limits.  For the first time in a long time, I had solitude and plenty of time to think clearly free from the noise of suburban life.

Photographer: Desert Shadows

The barren landscape was filled with gentle giant saguaros and shapely rocks hewn by nature into magnificent shapes all shades of reds to browns. At night the stars provided a bejeweled blanket of twinkling cosmic LED lighting interspersed with an even brighter moonlight. Occasionally I would be awakened by the howling and barking of coyote pups playing before their meals.

This was home. I was inspired even though I was terribly alone. However, even though I had to work, it was not unusual for me to steal time away and come home before the sunset so that I could walk the countryside and catch a glimpse of the daily splendor which surrounded me. It sharpened my senses and I was keenly aware of my surroundings.

Alone is not bad if you can be left to create and explore the companion that lies within. If you can study what is around you and begin to interact with life itself, you will find your role to play. We were meant to participate in life not merely be voyeurs of someone else's journey that makes no sense at all. We were meant to study it all to participate/partake.

From shadows to textures, the desert provided me the spiritual refreshment and renewal I longed for. If it had not been for a financial derailment, none of this would have ever materialized. My journey would never have been as interesting. Despite the unpleasant agony realized, something special happened to me. It was an awakening and a spiritual baptism.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

represented by Simon Gallery of Fine Art

A Rockwell Moment

Siblings at Play in Store
Southlake, TX

"The soul is healed by being with children"

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Spent some time browsing at a local store. It's the tail end of the shopping season. All I am sure are weary of the commotion. I happened to glance over in a nook of this beautiful warm store when I saw a composition which seemed to me straight from a Norman Rockwell painting; two children, a brother and sister transfixed with a game on their iPhone, entertaining themselves while mom shopped.

My day changed after that moment. I knew I had captured something ; a piece of life that I had forgotten about. Spent some time wondering how to be render this image while preserving its simplicity and message. Think I nailed it. Sometimes you just have to keep your eyes wide open.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com