Thanks for visiting. I wish to share with you some of the photographs I have captured over the past several months. Perhaps one of the reasons I enjoy photography is because it gives me an excuse to slow down and really 'see' the world that is all around me. All too often I am distracted or moving too quickly through life to notice the beauty which is all around me.
Hopefully, these pictures will provide you with some small sense of enjoyment of the beauty which is everywhere if we take the time to look.

I'd like to share with you something written by Mike Mason in his book, Champagne for the Soul.

'On a drive in the country I gazed with wonder at the sun-bathed landscapes. Though the fields were bare and wintry, the colors of the earth and dry grasses were subtly glorious, shining translucently beneath veils of mist that seemed about to lift on a new creation.
That evening, as I wrote about joy in my journal, I was surprised to discover that seeing the delicate coloring of the sunlit fields was the high point of my day, the thing that gave me the deepest joy. The day held other joys, but the sight of those colors stood far above all else. Seeing them again in my mind, once again I drank deeply of their joy.
The exercise of examining my life to see where joy lies hidden often yields surprises. It seems I do not know myself, or what makes me happy, as well as I might think. As I look back over a day, slight details, all but unnoticed at the time, may rise to the surface. Surveying these unexpected treasures, I ask myself why they come to mind, why they pique joy inme. After identifying the source of pleasure, I immerse myself in the sensation and let it grow within me. In this way I come to know myself better, to understand what is truly life-giving for me.
The process just described circumvents artificial pleasures to uncover real ones. I believe anyone who honestly follows this process will be surprised at how much hidden joy is already present in a life that may seem humdrum, hectic, or even depressed. Since Jesus is a king in exile, the realities of His kingdom are present incognito, making it necessary for God to smuggle them into our lives almost when we aren't looking. If joy came to us too obviously, through the grand and official channels touted by the world, we'd immediately set to work analyzing and bureaucratizing the life out of it.
Yet why are we so slow to appreciate, why do we even studiously ignore, the very things that bring us deep joy? No doubt it's because the moment we awaken to joy we feel (rightly) responsible to give it expression, to allow more opportunities for its release. This can be unsettling to our cherished routines. If driving in the country makes me happy, I may need to do more of it. If I love the colors of nature, why not spend more time looking? Do I esteem joy so little that I won't cross the street to get some?
Sadly, we have our own stubborn ideas of what should make us happy, and these ideas we pursue with astonishing persistence, however poorly they work. A decision to align our lives with what actually makes us happy, rather than with what we think makes us happy, requires courage, discipline, and a docile spirit. It requires listening to the quiet, lovely voice of the Joy Giver in our hearts and falling into harmony with Him.
Joy need not be sought outside of the lives we already have. No, it lies right under our noses, often in the most ordinary experiences. If we spent the next year simply enjoying who we are and what we have, we'd be much further ahead than by striving for more. What we need most, more than somethng dramatically new, is a quiet realization of what already is.'