Reflections

Lily, Descanso Gardens

Most deluded fools who consider themselves artists, a class I occasionally inhabit, fall victim to the same failing, which is principally an inability to self edit.

Red fox in sunlight, Yellowstone

You see, we fall victim to a siren's call which tickles our narcissistic funny bone and cries out to us the deluded message that everything we do is, well, good. Which it simply, isn't.

Soul surfer, Swamis

I had an art teacher in college who could sense this sort of excessive self love for our pet artistic creations a mile away. Jim Hulbert would say "Fine, it's okay, draw me 200 alternative thumbnails by tomorrow morning." This was a major pain in the ass and also a lifelong lesson which taught me not to fall too deeply in love with my own output.

Snake River Overlook

Having said that, with well over 100k images currently on my hard drive, you miss stuff sometimes that was decent on your first or second cull. The truth is that I have not ever looked at a significant percentage of my photographs.

fungus, San Juan Island

My brother had a cardiac incident of some kind after his kidney transplant last night. I think he is okay but I don't have a lot of information. I will be worthless today.

Sandhill Cranes, Bosque

So I decided to look back at some of the wonderful photographic opportunities of the last twelve months and look around for something I may have missed.

The question is, it it safe to trust your first instinct? Is anything of the second or third gleaning up to the level of the first? Maybe, sometimes it is better, sometimes worse. Depends if the editor was conscious in the first place, I suppose.

In any case, think good thoughts for Buzz and hopefully enjoy some of the photographs of the last year. None of these have been ever processed before, although you may have seen their siblings.

Oncoming, Seligman

The waterfall was taken at Jemez Falls on a road trip with Steve Saylor last year.

Never looked at it until this morning.

Never noticed the woman of the pool before.

I am thankful for having the opportunity to take and share pictures from so many wonderful places this year.

Tree, La Jolla