Along the Way

On Top of the World
Rocky Mountain National Park

Along the way on our most recent road trip, I met perfect strangers, sojourners like me. One of my new acquaintances was a young tall handsome man with a lean physique like a runner named Adam who was on his honeymoon with his beautiful wife Stefanie. Although I didn't know Adam, he approached me while I was shooting at the top of the summit of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Adam seemed to be curious and interested by what I was doing. He didn't hesitate to come up to me a stranger. We struck up a conversation about cameras and photography. He also had a similar camera to mine and I told him about all of its wonderful features. On top of the mountain, Adam got a personal tutorial from me.

Actually there was more that happened on top of that mountain. My wife and his wife waited patiently in our respective cars as we lost track of time. We couldn't help it. Something happened to me on that mountain that day. Adam drew it out of me. I love photography. It's not only an obsession, but also a passion of mine. I also enjoy teaching others what I know and I enjoy learning from them too. This is not only what interests me but it's who I really am.

After what appeared to be minutes but I am sure was forever for our spouses, I returned to our vehicle. I was a new person. All my worries and cares about what was ahead of me vanished. My fears and phobias subsided as I thought about what just transpired. It was part of my satori experience.

The journey is filled with many similar encounters. We must be receptive and listen to our discoveries along the way. Two strangers met on a mountain top and became friends, sojourners on parallel paths. I gave him my card and since then he "friended" me on Facebook. I hope to meet him again; this time we will pick up where we left off and continue our friendship, no longer strangers.

Smiling Phases: Changing Faces

Put a child in front of a camera you get a complete show. There's no need to do any Photoshop manipulation. What I saw was exactly what I wanted to feel. Let's face it during the course of any one day in our lives in this economy, we feel all of these emotions. Our little cousin Kenna provided us with her version of a day in the life of a child.

The Blood Sweat and Tears tune quickly came to my mind this morning as I was putting together these images: Smiling Phases. The world might be a better place if we all dared to express ourselves like children. What would it hurt to try?

Mid-life Discovery

Reagan National Airport
iPhone Capture

During the early stages of life, children spend endless amounts of time discovering their world through play. Discovery seems to stop somewhere along the age when responsible jobs and marriage take hold. The focus gets interrupted and growth for most stops or is postponed indefinitely.

For nearly ten years, I've been in a new phase of my life. At first, I thought it was a "mid-life" crisis but I soon learned that it had nothing to do with either sport cars, women, pinky rings, piercings, and or tattoos. For me instead, I felt a deep seated restlessness. I felt that I had some other purpose for my life but I didn't know what is was. In Spanish this restlessness is called inquietud. 

In time, I learned to accept the feeling and that feeling lead to a tremendous desire to self discover and to explore my universe. My mid-life crisis became mid-life discovery. Each day, I feel now that I need to write something about my journey. I am driven by it in fact. In addition, I find myself wanting to explore my world more with my camera and even iPhone as if I want to capture each moment that I am awake. 

Life is meant to be lived. Its not meant to be spent on a couch watching what others have accomplished. Retirement is a fools dream. We were meant to create, do, and act. That's been the largest part of my discovery. I no longer wish my days away nor do I choose to postpone things for a later day. I want to live each day fully and get the most out of it. I write and I photograph and I will write and photograph until I can no longer do either. If that happens, then you will just have to listen to me tell you my stories and verbally paint my images.

Outstretched Hand

Outstretched Hand & Harbor
National Harbor, MD

My niece orchestrated her wonderful wedding at National Harbor, MD. It was a great opportunity for us to once again escape from the oppressive Texas heat. Sixty plus days of 100 degree weather takes its toll on the spirit. Sitting at the edge of pier staring at calm waters of the Potomac was a welcome respite.

On the shore, I noticed the outstretched arm and hand of Poseidon. The silhouette captivated my attention. The position of the hand implied stress of some sort. The events of the past week and even the past month quickly came to mind. Financial markets succumbed to crisis of sovereign debt and lapses of political resolve. Mother nature inflicted its own natural stress with both an earthquake and a hurricane along the northeast corridor. Already saturated soil enabled rivers to overflow and add more injury.

The hand, the stressed hand reaches toward the sky defiantly and almost in anger challenging nature and fate. We are not helpless. We control how we react. Nature continues and so does life. There is an eventual balance to all of the perceived madness. I look across the banks of the Potomac and the river continues its flow towards the sea.

Repost: The Future for Better or Worse

Hand and Universe
National Harbor, MD

An acquaintance of mine made a simple statement that troubled me. He stated that for the first time in our lives things were not going to be better for our children. He added that we needed to get rid of the debt burden this country faces. My friend is an intelligent man and by way of his vocation, a lawyer, has argued logically all his life.

Yes the future for our children does hold some legacy costs. There's no doubt about this fact. However, our children inherit a world that is no longer dominated by the threat of a nuclear war. Our children will not rehearse the fallout shelter drills we did as children. Nor will our children face the threat of global domination by either Russia or China. Their world could potentially be more peaceful, if we learn the lessons of consumption.

The period of change we now face is an opportunity to revisit how we consume and how we can reduce our consumption and reliance on non renewable energy. It's also about learning how to manage and recycle the resources which we have. One example that quickly comes to mind is the automobile. Since the '80's and after the energy crisis of the 70's, our vehicles have become larger and less efficient. The recent disruption of energy supplies served as an awakening to the automotive industry: change or lose business to competition. 

The overall weight of the automobile will have to come down in order to reduce fuel consumption. This means that manufactures will either have to use thinner gauge steel or use more aluminum parts to obtain energy efficiencies. This can be done now. This a lesson our children are learning right now. Aluminum by the way is one of the few metals that can be recycled indefinitely. High energy prices make this metal more attractive and a more viable substitute for steel. 

How we illuminate our homes, schools, work places, and highways is also changing. LED lighting like we are already using in our TV's and computer monitors, and smart phones will also reduce the amount of energy we consume. If what my friend means that his children wont have an 18,000 square ft home, then he is correct. He will be correct because it doesnot make sense to consume resources with disregard to the energy costs. The generation coming up will be very cognizant of their energy footprint. 

By changing how we consume now, we can in fact prepare ourselves and our children for a more efficient future. I would rather have both peace and a greener environment for our children. If this comes at the expense of reduced consumption and pollution so be it. As for the debt, think about what we have paid for and quietly start paying for it. In the process we need to wean ourselves from non renewable sources of energy. The costs are high but its time to use our ingenuity to conserve and look for ways to change our lifestyles and make productive living and cities our top priorities. We can and need to change. Our future depends on it. Insulate your home, check your thermostats, recycle, choose wisely your method of transportation, and protect your water. Our children can in fact have better futures by consuming less.

Since 9/11, few of us have sacrificed anything or anyone, for the sake of our future and our children we should reconsider consumption and growth. We cannot sustain nor afford our prior trajectory. The world has changed and requires that we share more of dwindling natural resources. This requires more ingenuity not less. It also requires the vision of sacrifice. That's a reasonable burden we should all be willing to share unless we choose to sacrifice more youth in wars that cannot be won.

The Future: Better or Worse?

Hand and Universe
National Harbor, MD

An acquaintance of mine made a simple statement that troubled me. He stated that for the first time in our lives things were not going to be better for our children. He added that we needed to get rid of the debt burden this country faces. My friend is an intelligent man and by way of his vocation, a lawyer, has argued logically all his life.


Yes the future for our children does hold some legacy costs. There's no doubt about this fact. However, our children inherit a world that is no longer dominated by the threat of a nuclear war. Our children will not rehearse the fallout shelter drills we did as children. Nor will our children face the threat of global domination by either Russia or China. Their world could potentially be more peaceful, if we learn the lessons of consumption.


The period of change we now face is an opportunity to revisit how we consume and how we can reduce our consumption and reliance on non renewable energy. It's also about learning how to manage and recycle the resources which we have. One example that quickly comes to mind is the automobile. Since the '80's and after the energy crisis of the 70's, our vehicles have become larger and less efficient. The recent disruption of energy supplies served as an awakening to the automotive industry: change or lose business to competition. 


The overall weight of the automobile will have to come down in order to reduce fuel consumption. This means that manufactures will either have to use thinner gauge steel or use more aluminum parts to obtain energy efficiencies. This can be done now. This a lesson our children are learning right now. Aluminum by the way is one of the few metals that can be recycled indefinitely. High energy prices make this metal more attractive and a more viable substitute for steel. 


How we illuminate our homes, schools, work places, and highways is also changing. LED lighting like we are already using in our TV's and computer monitors, and smart phones will also reduce the amount of energy we consume. If what my friend means that his children wont have an 18,000 square ft home, then he is correct. He will be correct because it doesnot make sense to consume resources with disregard to the energy costs. The generation coming up will be very cognizant of their energy footprint. 


By changing how we consume now, we can in fact prepare ourselves and our children for a more efficient future. I would rather have both peace and a greener environment for our children. If this comes at the expense of reduced consumption and pollution so be it. As for the debt, think about what we have paid for and quietly start paying for it. In the process we need to wean ourselves from non renewable sources of energy. The costs are high but its time to use our ingenuity to conserve and look for ways to change our lifestyles and make productive living and cities our top priorities. We can and need to change. Our future depends on it. Insulate your home, check your thermostats, recycle, choose wisely your method of transportation, and protect your water. Our children can in fact have better futures by consuming less.


Since 9/11, few of us have sacrificed anything or anyone, for the sake of our future and our children we should reconsider consumption and growth. We cannot sustain nor afford our prior trajectory. The world has changed and requires that we share more of dwindling natural resources. This requires more ingenuity not less. It also requires the vision of sacrifice. That's a reasonable burden we should all be willing to share unless we choose to sacrifice more youth in wars that cannot be won.

Always on My Mind

Buffalos Grazing
North of Raton, NM

Sometimes life gets in the way. I get busy but I've a confession: "You are always on my mind". That's right I think about all of you. Recently, I have had so many positive things going on in my life that for a moment I got too busy, but I've not forgotten you. So from my heart, I want to let you know that I love sharing with you my experiences. I believe that life is meant to be enjoyed and shared. My promise is this: as long as I can breathe, speak, write, and photograph, I will share with you. This is my journey and I have not reached my final destination yet. Please continue to join my sojourn with me.

Buffalo Dust Bath

This past couple of weeks my journey took me 2,200 miles from the high plains of Amarillo to the Rocky Mountains of Estes Park and back down the Santa Fe trail through Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico and through mesa and plain home again. All that time all of you were always on my mind. There were so many things to see and simply not enough time to absorb all of it.

For many years, I believed that we had our thinking all reversed. We really should "retire" early and start working when we are around seventy and ready to sit down. If you postpone the things that require physical activity you may never get to do them. Do it now. Live now!!

My journey took a different turn last year but now I am grateful for what transpired. I now have an opportunity to practice my hidden crafts writing and photography. This is who I am. I am a photographer and a writer. My job is to simply improve and tell the stories.

Now I choose to print more of my images and sell them. This is my vocation and my calling. I shoot commercial work and weddings too  but my passion lies with creating fine art images. I do both with my passion and art in mind. This is truly who I am and I can't fight my calling.