“Beautiful Outcast”
November 29th, 2011
A special thanks to Olloclip for mentioning my website on Twitter. I’m thrilled to share my hobby, if you like the site or the photos please leave me a message @fourpointedstar
Welcome to all of the visitors from The Loop. I’m thrilled to share my hobby with you, leave a comment on my Twitter if you like: @fourpointedstar
To answer a few questions: I shoot merely for fun & relaxation, but I have sold a few large prints. With the exception of the 5 family photos, each photo that is on this site is my own: capture, edit, & post. I claim no expertise, in fact I feel that this applies to my photography “If you can’t be proficient, be prolific.”
I post a photo each day, everything from Chicago skylines to insects in flight; come back in a week and there will be 7 more photos to enjoy. Be sure to check out the archives too. Enjoy.
As I toured Washington D.C. back in July of 2008, I was overwhelmed by the number of monuments to the men that had sacrificed their life to make this country free and to promote the cause of freedom around the world. I saw men from the Korean War tearing up as they stood in front of the Korean War Memorial; I watched with a profound sense of loss as grown men stood or knelt in front of the Vietnam Memorial and traced their finger across the names of friends, soldiers who never returned back to the land of the free. What a tremendous sacrifice they paid, and what a tremendous debt we owe.
Normally, I reserve my blog for still life or wild animal artistic photos; however, this is the 100,000th photo that I’ve taken with my Nikon digital SLRs.
But there’s another reason that I love this photo: Sally and her husband Gene have almost 20 horses that they own or board; they love horses. Cynthia, my daughter, loves her toy horses; but, other than a few pony rides at the fair, she’s never around horses. Sally enjoyed seeing Cynthia’s fascination with horses turn into a love for them today. I’m certain that both of them will remember today for quite a while.
Now, back to that 100,000th photo: I’ve had 4 Nikon SLR’s now – D50, D80, D90, & the D7000. They’ve each had their own personalities, and I’ve sold each one to friends who’ve enjoyed using them as well. In fact, my first Nikon, the D50, was sold a second time to another friend. I love photography; and, like Sally, I love seeing others learn to love photography too.
Think Different
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Stanford 2005, Commencement
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
