Pleasant Discoveries.

Walked out the door this morning, about to head off to Chesapeake beach for a short photo shoot of a water treatment plant (Yes...I know, you're jealous!) but for some reason decided to first take a look in the backyard. Sometimes I'll see deer back there. Birds, of course. Occasionally a fox--ah, make that rarely a fox. (I've seen one!) Whatever it was, I took a short stroll across the deck and saw this.

Pretty cool, eh? Nice light. Strong shadows. Interesting lines. Sometimes it just comes together. Good luck, chance, serendipity...whatever. When you see these kinds of things, make that extra effort to capture it. It's worth it.

Peace.

Gone Fishin'!

Had an opportunity for a mini photo essay the other day. Text message said: "I'll be at the canal at ten." Cool. Grabbed my 70-200 and 17-35, a flash, and tons of memory. It was nice and overcast when I first arrived. Though, later, the sun peeked through the clouds and wreaked serious contrast havoc. No choice but to just go with it. Strong contrast tempered with a little fill flash. Anyway, here's a small sampling of those few short hours.

Indelible.

Journalists Memorial.

Arlington.

Vietnam.

Korea.

Omaha Beach, Normandy.

Normandie

A fellow named Mark Morford once wrote about Macintosh packaging...yes, packaging...the following:

"Could this be, in short, something that actually adds a modicum of refined grace and simplicity and aesthetic warmth to the world, instead of sucking it away like so many disposable DVD players and garish LED-spasming boom boxes and 10-gallon drums of spaghetti sauce from Costco?"

The answer, quite clearly, is yes! Though, in this case I'm talking about France. Paris in particular. Great care seems to have been taken in presentation. Little touches here and there remind you you are in a special place. You can walk miles every day, wear yourself down, blisters on your feet and everywhere you turn there is beauty and refined grace. Even the benches, numbering in the thousands, are graceful and inviting! This city was created by humanists for humans.

There will be many return trips to this enlightened country. City of Light indeed.

Here are few last images. They are from the northeast regions of Brittany and Normandie.

Merci beaucoup, belles pays!

One More Post Before Normandy.

We're off to Normandy tomorrow. Will try to post one more time before we get back in the next couple days. Thanks to everyone who's emailed or posted in here. I'll touch base with you all personally in a week or so.

Peace and love to all! Gotta sleep now...bonne nuit.

One very important point about one the Eiffel Tower photo...composition by Matt Hood! The man's a genius!

A Little More Paris Flavor.

Words cannot describe the city, nor the time we are having. So we'll just stick to photos. Enjoy.

Bonjour de Paris!

A few peekchurs for zee Americains!

Sometimes It Just Happens.

Sometimes--most times, actually!-- you have to go find the image. You need to be proactive. That often means scouting out a location, finding the right angle, the best composition, then going back at a better time for that really good light. Sometimes the image just presents itself. You see it immediately in the viewfinder. Very exciting! When it happens, though, you better be ready. No futzing with the f-stop or fumbling with focus points.

Anyway, this is one of those photos. It just has that certain je ne sais quoi. Hard to define but very satisfying. No unnecessary, extraneous elements. Balance.

The little dude in this shot, that's my buddy Talan.

And, yes, that's right, I said, je ne sais quoi!

Paris baby!