The Captured Moment

Cascade
Platte Cove

There's a part of me that wants time stand still like a photograph captured as an elongated fraction of a second or two. I want to savor every aspect of it and have an opportunity to digest all of it and not simply have it slip through me.

Imagine getting to enjoy happy times with your family and friends in perpetuity. Wouldn't it be wonderful to pull those images from your mind and into your heart as you beckon them? That's what I am mentally trying to do now as the the measured strokes of time tick away always moving making the present slip away.

No sooner than I enunciate the present it too has vanished. I struggle to to fill it full of meaning: family, friends, and the fine art of the pursuit of happiness.

As a photographer, a professional sojourner and voyeur, I cherish all time and simply wish to capture and keep it still long enough to enjoy it and recall it as I see fit.

Harry Sandler
Still Life

No one lives in a vacuum to that extent our sources of inspiration come not only from what we see but also by the people whom we meet and get to know. Harry Sandler was that person for me.

Harry died last night after a short battle with pancreatic cancer and long life jammed pack with music memories, family, friends, and photography.

Everyone he met he touched in one form or another. To that extent when we met in 2009, I became a groupie, a disciple willing to learn something new, how to let go of some of my fears and just do.<

So I am grateful that he was able to share his life with me and his endless stories and phrases from lyrics and people that became a part of his persona.

To those of you in the music business, you will remember him as the guy who made it happen seamlessly. The guy who unwittingly wound up driving a bus and ended up at Woodstock. We heard the jaw dropping list of musicians he knew or worked with "Bruce", Stevie Nicks, John Mellencamp, The Eagles, Bon Jovi. His grand finally was Katy Perry's Prism tour. I have to admit that Harry left us all in awe. Oh the logistics... What a life! His life.

Harry leaves his friends the legacy of his friendship, its secret healing power, and its power to inspire self renewal. We honor his memory by embracing life fully, living it, and by loving our friends and family without restraints. We should have the courage to reinvent ourselves and when we get to that "fork in the road" just take it you might wind up at Woodstock. Harry did. Not bad for no formal education.