Spring Has Sprung…

I have been hiking, running, and slow walking Monserate Mountain and the Los Jilgueros preserve in Fallbrook for 16 years.  In all that time I don’t remember the sum of the skies, the greens, and the earth coming together so often, in such color, and so willing to be received.  This has been the best spring season I can remember.

I left my fancy camera behind last summer when I left Temecula, and never looked back.  I never used it that much anyway.  Too complicated — to many buttons, too much to think about, not fast enough in process.  Not for my process anyway.

Going forward I am a committed smartphone photographer.  I will let the available light and where I stand dictate any would-be results, based on the fact that I live in a beautiful place.  As in the gym and at the dining table, I do better when I impose strict limitations on myself.

A good comparison for this…

 Eric Johnson is one of the most talented guitar players alive.  With regard to his skills, his tone, and his process, he expands on and enhances these with technology.  Guitars.  Effects.  Peddles.  Amps.  Processors.  Mixers.  And about  all of this, he is very protective and secretive.  At the end of the day though, Eric Johnson might be the Wagner of the electric guitar.

Seasick Steve, on the other hand, plays a guitars often made of hubcaps, washboards, broomsticks, and scrapyard components.  Most often, they just have a string or two.  Given the choice, I would honestly rather see Steve play live than Johnson.  That’s just my shtick.

As the saying goes, KISS.  Keep It Simple Schleprock.

Down The Road…

Spring is winding down.  Hopefully May gray and June gloom will help keep all the greens a little greener for a little longer this season.  By August there will be more browns than greens, and as beautiful as this community is, I’ll need to find other subjects to photograph.  Probably the area homeless, and in black & white.

I have prioritized walking in nature this Spring in a way I previously have not.  For at least one hour per day, often longer, I am stopping, observing, listening, smelling, and yes, photographing.  Relationships, above all things, are what we are here for.  My relationship with nature has never meant more to me.  That new found fulfillment is due in large part to me stopping, pointing, and capturing.  Looking for beauty helps one see beauty.

Here’s a quick recipe for happiness.  Live in a beautiful place. Take make time to enjoy that place.  Share that beautiful place with grace.  Be well…  rc

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If you are not already a subscriber, please scroll up and do so.  Tell your friends about me — about what happens when I push the STOP button on the blender in my head.  Oh, and there’s this from Seasick Steve.  Enjoy…