Within my Gaze

Simplicity

So it's occurred to me I haven't done a photo blog this year. So its time to amend that. All of these were taken with the mobile.

Beautiful Distortion

Sea and Sky

Advent of the Day

Loft

Edge of Light

Every Sunny Day

White Oak Creek

Apple Creek

Castor River

Wings

Monet by Roadside

As Ignites the Autumn

Keyhole Falls

Indian Creek

4AM...

"There's a fire in my soul"--Ridgely

4Am and I'm sitting in Waffle House by the St. Louis airport waiting for a 7am flight. I was at this Waffle House the first day of Urbana09 just before my tribe came in.

Victor Hugo just said to me, "The only spectacle greater than the sky is the interior of the soul."

Its humbling to look at the sky, especially at night. The psalmist tells us, "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord."

I dream of flying to the Pleiades. I long to soar through the supernovae. To delve the mysteries of dark matter.

It is nothing short of epic.

It would be devastating and dehumanizing to look into the sky and feel dwarfed without the knowledge that it was created by a loving God. As grand as the stars are, as brilliant and magnificent, and as immeasurable and vast and countless as they are, God still loves us more.

It was you and I created in His image, not the Orion Nebula.

It was us He chose to love, redeem, and sanctify not Eta Carina.

It is our souls that He binds together with an even tighter bond than the gravity that binds the Pleiades.

What deeper connection than two souls bound together in their Creator.

For the soul is that kindle of the imperishable Secret Fire ignited within us and love is the warmth and light that connection makes. As the great Bill Mallonee sings:

"Love's the little bit of God there for all to know.

Love's the everlasting arms, that never do let go."

It was in love that God promised us to reign with Him likes the stars above, and provided the means for us to do so, and that is by His own body and blood. His very own Son.

"To write the poem of the human consciousness," continues Hugo, "of one only man, even the most insignificant of men, would be to swallow up all epics in a superior and definitive epic."

The Symmetry of Water

Before I begin I'd like to give a couple of shoutouts.

First to A New Kind of Art by Josh Reeves. http://jreevesart.blogspot.com

He's a lanky-muppety sorta fellow who looks like Jim on the Office and plays drums like Wilco's Glenn Kotche

His art embodies sexy. You can see for yourself. (Also, I took the pictures he has up.)

Next: The Working Paper's by Micah Rains. http://micahrains.blogspot.com

I'm not jealous at all that he got to spend a month in India doing ministry. Not jealous whatsoever. No even in the slightest. Really, I'm not.

All right, now that's out of the way. I've found myself enthralled by the beauty of water. We live on a planet finely tuned to carry liquid water and thus support intelligent life, which not only allows me to take these pictures, but to appreciate the beauty of it.

Still water creates a perfect mirror. I think these are among the most beautiful pictures I've taken.

The lower pond of Juden Creek, lit in Autumn's blaze

These next three were taken at the Tree Farm

one of my favorite places on earth

Tree Farm at Twilight

(actual twilight, not those books and movies I've

neither viewed nor read)

The next four were taken at the Silver Mine over Labor Day, and with my Canon powershot

Cherokee Lagoon

(I've swam from one end to the other. I remember Bobby Brune got a leach.)

Scivally Bridge

Bollinger Mill

Cape County North

Here we are back at lower pond of Juden Creek
This was Summer

Same pond, at the start of Spring

Missouri's by no means known for beautiful, or even tasty water. Still, it has it's own subtle beauty nonetheless.

I was recently challenged to do something more with my photos, rather my ability to capture such images. I'd like to answer that challenge, though I'm not necessarily sure how to. But then if I did it wouldn't be a challenge.

We'll see what happens. I'm excited.

The World is my Canvas

My eye is the brush. My camera phone is my pallet.

Here's another round of my favorite camera phone shots. Again, I have a pretty simple philosophy of shoot what I see. Years of reading graphic novels have given me an eye for juxtaposition.

At any rate, Gentlemen: BEHOLD!!!!

Give me eyes

The Ghost of Wet Weather Falls

Streetlight Rosetta

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Scivally Bridge

This is Josh Reeves' favorite, and he embodies sexy

"flowers growing out of the desert flowers out of parched ground

flowers coming right up through the cracks
of the pavement in your old town

flowering's not a science it's more like a fine art

flowers coming right up through the cracks of our broke up little hearts"

Bill Mallonee

Karl told me this reminded him of Fern Gully

To the Rescue

Speaking of ferns

My new house.

Raining light

"Stay by your stained glass window and I can tell you

of the Maker of the reds and the greens and blues and the yellows.

And I can show, just this point of light through this window

As the clouds roll away and the sun strikes the pane."

Ridgely

"Can you start walking me again?"