cute little lizard

welcome to my dreams

grasshopper

inside looking outside

All-Time Office Battle Champion

This is a picture of my good friend Stephen Donaldson. He was also (allegedly) my student worker for, I believe, some seven or eight years of his undergraduate ….“experience.” Stephen is the all-time reigning champion of the office battle, though my guess is he never once received more points than Diane Land. But he won on a technicality—he is a tremendous mimic and can make excellent noises. Also, like Strom Thurmond demonstrated, longevity has its own rewards. Stephen also does a "killer" impression of a bubonic plague victim. Ah, good times. Now admittedly that’s not the only reason I love him. But…I won’t lie, it’s pretty important.

Note this picture. Stephen is shooting me, his “boss,” with a nerf bullet. Now I’m not saying I didn’t ask him to do it, but COME ON, who actually honors such a request?! Especially since he had already blinded me in one eye! And note the bullet in mid-air directly above his nose. This is the picture that once-and-for all demonstrated to me that I missed my calling as a war photojournalist. And that Stephen missed his calling as a soldier in the nerf wars.

I’m just saying….

daughter

Taken at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO.

daughter

daughter

The Chef's Foot

I took this in Montreal. A lot of restaurants were below street level. As we walked back to our car at night, we could look down into the kitchen entrances, many of which were open, presumbably for air. I felt more than a little voyeuristic taking this picture. Double click on the picture and it shows up a bit better.

It just occurred to me that I’ve taken quite a lot of picture in the past two years.

In the rubble

Big Ants

Taken at Powell Gardens, just outside of Kansas City, MO.

we see through a glass, darkly

1 Corinthians 13:12

Night's shadows of a tree's branches on a church window.

But.....

...sometimes we see through a window, not at all.

hanging feet

Kafka's buddy

Untitled

"...the whole creation groans..." --The Book of Romans

5 or 20?

A school assignment my oldest daughter received yesterday. Take an index card and write the name of a family member on one side. On the other side, briefly describe that person with enough detail that one could read the description and accurately guess who you are describing. Do this for all the members of the family. Here's what she wrote. Pretty accurate, if you ask me.

"This person is kind and a good reader, and is great at piano. She has lots of stuffed animals and is going into a new girl scout troop.

This person is funny and cute, sometimes demanding. She likes to go first. This person's cheeks never stop.

This person is tall, crazy and nice, loving, but is sometimes a worry bug.

This person likes candy and princes and princesses, laughs a lot. This person makes friends quickly and is sweet.

This person is silly, good at math, a good cook, and pretty and generous, not to mention giving. This person is great."

blue sky

standing out

The very bad stick figure

my children's chalk

rainbow

It's pretty cheesy by itself, but it goes with the story below.

rain on windshield

I walked out of my building yesterday evening after work, and it was pouring rain. In the western sky, the sun shone brightly. I pulled my car into a nearby field, pointed the car toward the sun, and turned off the windshield wipers. I took a close up of the droplets on the windshield as the sun shone through. I guessed that there might be a rainbow behind me, given the conditions. Sure enough, when I drove away I saw the tallest and largest full rainbow of my life. The picture above does it no justice whatsoever.

Play Time!

This blog needed something cheery!

windows

steps and door with vase

Leaf on tomb

Cemetary

Graveyard

untitled

vase

night

Light through the woodwork

steps and sky

self-portrait in mirror

straws

There’s something just hideous about this picture. The colors are so garish I have to look away. But, hey, you go ahead and enjoy!

empty room

water plants

sunflower

spider

Most of my pictures attempt to capture a mood rather than capture visual reality as we typically experience it. In other words,I am a poor photojournalist. Here I think I caputre both visual reality and a mood. The mood? Oooohh!

lamp and arch

Dead leaf

I assume it is dead. It’s actually hard to tell.

Consider a beautiful rose in a vase on your kitchen table. Lovely at first, slowly it begins to droop and wither, and eventually its petals dry up and drop. At that point surely it is dead. But was it alive when it looked so healthy? Was it not dead as soon as it was cut? How could it remain alive after it had been severed from its branch?

Or consider a tree that bears no leaves and looks as dead as dead can be. But then an arborist discovers that the core is still producing sap. It won’t recover, it looks dead, but is it? Does it make any difference?

It may be that death may be more like a light dimmer than a light switch, a process rather than a single event. Even human beings die slowly, with lots of functions and organs failing slowly and, I guess, in pretty predictable sequence.

When does a person start dying? Is it when irremediable sickness kicks in? Is it when we reach that age (what? Middle-age? Earlier?) when cells begin to repair themselves more slowly and less efficiently or not at all? Does it begin when we stop growing? Can it be that death begins at birth?

droplets on leaf

More magic blue picnic table

Flower Girls Before the Wedding

Water fun in Chicago

Twilight on Lake Champlain

The Warrior

I don't do political commentary with my photography. My life is too short to argue with images; I'd much rather just conjure up a mood. But this photo strikes me as such a sadly telling commentary on our history I couldn't help pass up the opportunity to post it.

portrait

husk