Photograph: West Pawlet Quarry

 This is the old slate quarry in West Pawlet, Vermont. Taken in the late afternoon earlier today. You can click on it for a larger version.

Tom

Pictures: Vermont in Winter

 Taken in Pawlet and West Pawlet, Vermont. You click on each image for larger version.

Tom

Photographs: Historical Places

These are all photographs of historical places that I have taken, just a sampling of what is my favorite kind of photography to do.

You can click on them for larger versions, and you can see more on the Quarry House web site.

Tom

It's Never Too Late

I was reading CS Lewis' Mere Christianity last night, and in the chapter I was reading, there was a section where he talked about going back. He was commenting how sometimes, to go forward, we have to go backwards. Like when we are lost, and going backwards a ways is the best way to make progress. In our progress obsessed world, we often don't see this. We think that progress, growth, the path to ________________ (fill in your own blank) is always full steam ahead forward. But what if that forward progress is taking you to the wrong place?

It's been my experience that more people feel they have lost their way, lost something essential, and want to find their way back to that earlier path. They were more creative, or peaceful, or productive or had better relationships, or.... __________________ (yes, fill in your own blank again.). Why then would we, in coaching or counseling or in self examination, want to keep going forward? Why would we not want to go back to where we strayed off the path, and then look at picking a different path?

I've been there. At times in my life I lost my spiritual way. At other times, I lost my creative way. And at other times, I lost my relational way. It's easier than most people realize to move off a track that is important to us. Life tends to chip those important things away so slowly we don't even realize it sometimes. And then, somewhere down the road, we realize.... we've lost something.

My favorite book on creative recovery is Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way."  In it an older man said it was too late to take up the violin. She asked him what he would be if he started - a 70 year old man who was a beginner on the violin. And if he didn't start - he'd be a seventy year old man who never played the violin, and regretted it. I have been writing poetry sporadically for 30 years. A few weeks ago my son was up here in Vermont and we went to the Bennington Museum, where we saw a Grandma Moses exhibition. She was ancient when she began painting, way past "retirement" age. But managed to paint thousands of paintings. When I was at Hollins getting a creative writing masters, I wrote it constantly. But I feel away from it, and did not take it up regularly again until my divorce a few years ago. I didn't publish my first book of poems until I was 55.  And trust me, you can do the same, whether it's a book, painting, music.... whatever it is you want to accomplish.

I have a metal bookmark that is on my desk, with a quote from George Eliot: It is never too late to become what you might have been."

Amen and Amen.

Tom

PS - the picture was taken in Times Square in New York City.

Photographs: Vermont in the Fall

A few pictures of Vermont in the fall. These were taken at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, VT, about 20 miles from my house. As always, you can click on the image for a larger version.

Tom

Stock Photo Index

As a marketer, I am always looking for just the right photograph for an ad campaign. At times this may mean taking them myself, but very often, it's a matter of finding the right photograph in a stock photo company.

There are so many! Some like my favorite, istockphoto, are general warehouses of photographs on every subject. Others are very, very specialized. How magazine has an annual index of stock photo companies, and the last one was published in their July issue. If you use photographs a lot in your work, or want to, I'd suggest you go get it here. It's comprehensive, and all on one page.

Very handy!

Tom

Poem: The Power

The Power

When you see the picture,
long after the lessons,
and you see with your own eyes
how your words

stayed with him,
how a few brief phrases
passed from you to another
to create such beauty;

you realize the power
and the importance,
of each word, and the understanding
delights, and frightens you, both.

==========

My 10 year old son took this picture a couple of weeks ago, after sitting in on a photography class I was teaching college kids at my church. In this one shot, he synthesized most everything I packed into a 30 minute lecture. Who knew they actually listened? You can click on it for a larger version.

Tom

Photography: Fire Art

Last night my small group from church met on the church property. We had been clearing brush and trees and there were four large piles of logs, brush and sticks, which we set ablaze with diesel fuel. People brought their families and there were marshmallows, lots of conversation, and just a wonderful impromptu fellowship by the blaze of four bonfires.

I took my camera, and while I got some good pictures of the gathering, some were blurred because I did not use a tripod to stabilize the shots. In some cases however, that was good, because I got a whole series of found art (or fire art) shots, that were actually more interesting than the "good" pictures.

That's the way creativity works sometimes. You set out to do X, fail miserably and end up with something entirely different, and better!

You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

Tom

Thoughts

Regular readers know that more often than not, I publish poetry here, using it to help express feelings and thoughts. Very often, I use scenes and images from nature or gardens to illustrate those feelings. So I when I walk though the woods, or dig in my little flower beds, or capture some image on my camera, I am often both seeing the image, and thinking of what it touches and what it makes me think about and what feelings are flowing as a result of what I am seeing and experiencing.

But sometimes the beauty of what is around me just leaves me just so appreciative and overcome by the gift of that beauty, that I don't think about anything else at all. Yesterday was one of those days.

November 1st and a sunny day with temperatures around 70. The mountains here in Virginia are near their peak, vibrant with fall color. I drove up to Paint Bank, through mountainous Craig Country with the top down on the car, just surrounded by color, and spent the afternoon there, simply soaking it all in. No thinking, just getting lost in it all.


These pictures are from yesterday. You can click on them for a larger version.

Tom

Thoughts: Driving

I drive a lot in my work. I run an office 3 and a half hours away in Washington DC and I am back and forth there all the time. This week was typical - I drive to PA Sunday, then to DC Monday, back here Wednesday night. That may seem crazy to some, but I've done it so long it seems normal.

And sometimes, very nice. It's fall here in the mountains and they are full of color. The skies at sunset are beautiful. On days like yesterday, driving is not a toil, but a blessing.

It's a blessing to be home too though, and sleep in my own bed, and rattle around in my own home. So I guess that makes it a blessing both ways!

Tom

PS - the pictures are from this week's driving. You can click on them for a larger version.

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures

I went to a church picnic yesterday with my kids and snapped some pictures of the people there. The collection of faces and expressions, and the people they represent are a good reminder of what's good in our country and our world, and are something to remember when we are seeing all the bad news in the newspaper and television. People like these are at the heart of what's good in our country.

You can click on the pictures for a larger version.

Tom

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday started as a way for bloggers to post a single picture on Wednesdays, without words, then link back to other bloggers who were doing the same thing. It made for a great way to see some amazing photographs from all around the world. Now the idea has grown so much they are wordless all week long, and that makes it an even better way to see the work of some great photographers. Interested? Go here.

Tom

PS - The photograph here was taken in the Roanoke rail yards. You can click on it for a larger version.