Eye of the Tiger

Determination comes to us in the smallest of media, yet the greatest of potency.

Mountain Panorama

One thing I love about moutaintops is that they remind me of how small I really am.

Location: Fairplay, Colorado USA
Date: Summer 2003

Celestial Luminations

do we say that light appears
as a beautiful thing at last
because it is both wave and particle
or have we been made to grasp
the hues, colors and lumination
in such a way that mysteriously
transcends the seen?

Location: Fairplay, Colorado USA
Date: Summer 2003

Window of Knowledge

Through this window students peer
With hopeful optimism upon their brow -
That tomorrow might be more
than the maximum
And eternity's boundlessness be progressed,
Deeply imprinted upon their minds
For all time and further still.

Location: South Bend, Indiana
(Notre Dame Campus)

Date: April 21, 2006

The Liberator

I wrote a post on the Nook a while back on the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. entitled More than a Black Holiday. Many regard him as a kind of modern day prophet. This statue of Moses standing in victory on the neck of the golden calf reminds me that prophets of then and now all pointed to a hope beyond themselves.

Location: South Bend, Indiana - University of Notre Dame Campus
Date: April 21, 2006

Spring's Trumpet

A lone daffodil in northern Indiana, seems to be the only one interested in posing for a picture. The others look off to the right at the passersby.

Location: South Bend Indiana
Date: April 21, 2006

Notre Dame: O What Architecture Could Be

My wife and I were at a philosophy conference at Notre Dame this week. I took a couple of hours to scour the campus, for it was an architectural feast.

Location: South Bend, Indiana - Notre Dame
Date: April 21, 2006

Малинкая Белоснежная Церковь The Little Snow Covered Church

Hidden away in the small town of Kirov, Russia the bright yet weathered paint of this little church bounded across the magical winter snow to catch the eye of the passerby.

Location: Kirov, Russia
Date: November 14, 2001

Roman Pillars and Eastern Seminaries

It has been a while; however, I am pretty sure this was a shot I took of a Russian Orthodox Seminary (праваславная семинария). You may know that the Christian Church split in 1054 C.E. over a complex of issues, which left the Roman Catholic Church distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Church, which includes the Russian Orthodox Church. What is intriguing to me here is that the pillars at this Eastern seminary we find Western, Roman styled pillars in the architecture. Where's Dan Brown when you need someone to make up an unbelievably paranoid conspiracy story?

Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Date: November 19, 2001

Fearless Squirrel

Familiarity breeds content and sometimes contempt. This squirrel at Turtle Creek was absolutely unimpressed with me as I shot a bit today.

Location: Turtle Creek area of Dallas, Texas
Date: April 18, 2006

Spire Through the Streets of Tallinn

Light is an amazing thing. It warms the soul and draws us towards it. It is more ancient than the cobble stones that pave the narrow streets of the best kept secret in Eastern Europe: Tallinn, Estonia.

Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Date: August 26, 2000

A Simple Crane

A simple crane skimming across the surface of the water, taunting the photographer as he tries to capture her gracefullness on film.

Location: Irving, Texas USA
Date: April 11, 2006

Деревня кирова - The Countryside of Kirov

In mid November just west of the Urals, there is a place that remains from centuries ago. The woman we visited, who lived in the pictured house, had no indoor plumbing. Strangely, she was far more joyous and content than most Americans I know. With a fairy tale view that she had from her home, there is no wonder why.

Location: Countryside of Kirov, Russia
Date: November 14, 2001

Tartan Turtle

My wife and I were walking through the neighborhood park and were delighted to hear three young boys come running up with delightful cries, "We found a turtle! We got a turtle!" It was a beautiful delight to share this with them as a complete stranger.

Equally amazing is the detail in which these turtles are made. The face of this little guy looks like a most detailed tartan (I think he is a Ferguson). The red behind his eye is brilliant. What is even more remarkable is that the Creator of this turtle made him uniquely like this. We can recognize this fellow as a turtle and yet we can also distinguish him from other turtles if we know him well enough.

Location: NW Park. Irving, Texas
Date: March 26, 2006

Baltic Sunset

While the remaining Soviet art is definitely "Big, ugly and incomprehensible," Tallinn is one of the most beautiful well kept secrets of the Baltic region. I hope you will enjoy the various photos that will be posted here from 2000.

Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Date: August 31, 2000

Everything is New

Wavy yellow plastic has become fascinating again through the eyes of children. It is fascinating to watch little children explore the world that we have taken for granted. It reminds us, often uncomfortably, that there is indeed much that we take for granted.


Location: Texas USA
Date: March 20, 2006

Tromping through the Tulips after the Rain

We had something like 7 or 8 inches of rain fall across the Dallas/Forth Worth Metroplex over the last few days. The flowers are heavy laden with the moisture come all at once to a dry and weary land that has been in drought for 18 months. Sometimes when what we need most comes en masse it overwhelms us such that we too have trouble bearing up under it. Nevertheless, the tulip seems a bit more lucid and the light blue pansies just more incandescent.

Location: Jaycee Park, Irving, Texas
Date: March 20, 2006

Зон отдыха - The Place of Rest

In Moskva (Moscow), one of the most crammed cities I have ever lived, there was a place on the southside, between metro stations Tyopli Stan and Yugo Zapednaya that was a world within a world, an antithesis within a thesis. Everything about it silently and yet forcibly led one to contemplation. You would never feel comfortable walking loudly (as American's tend to do) though this place. The trees were asking you to be quiet and deal with your thoughts, even the ones we try and entertain away.

Location: Москва, Россия (Moscow, Russia)
Date: October 14, 2001

Charles Bridge from Southeastern Bank

The forecast for our trip to Prague was supposed to be rain and storms. Looks like science can be mistaken. For those who have an appetite for architecture, for humanity's rendering stones and tiles into media that communicate to the soul, then you will love Prague and her gothic.

Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: May 23, 2001

Tumbling River Touch

The sound of warm ocean waves and that of tumbling icy spring streams of the Colorado Rockies are two of the most relaxing and hypnotic sounds I know. It is the moment of the year in which the deadwood is washed away and from it comes new life, a theme that gives us all hope as we consider the deadwood we each possess in our own lives.

Location: Fairplay, Colorado USA
Date: July 2001

Two Grams of Spring in Context

One of the things about Creation is that it is the fabric, the context in which we can enjoy the particular delicacies of beauty and then, as if moving around to another facet of a great gem, we see it again as if for the first time. What is also remarkable is how Humanity can live and work within this context so that it contributes to beauty rather than detract from it. Consider the bridge in the background of this picture. It seems to flow from the landscape, as if it belongs there, adding to the beauty that we try to capture with feeble means of photography.

Location: Dallas, Texas
Date: March 14, 2006

Two Grams of Spring

I am no horticulturist, but I do know that this flower was singing to me yesterday.

The brown and cold are fleeing,
Spring's warm colors you are seeing!

Location: Turtle Creek area of Dallas, Texas
Date: March 14, 2006

Bolshevik Revolution in Kirov

In Kirov there is a wall size painting of the Bolshevik Revolution which comes out into actual tire tracks and wagon wheels of the three-dimensional flavor. I had never seen a диорама (diorama) before our visit to Kirov. It was quite fascinating as a medium, drawing you into the painting back of the props quite effectively.

The question that has always intrigued me about the Boshevik Revolution is the relative ease in which a relatively small group of people took control of not only Russia but the minds of the Russians. People will rise up against injustice while often in unjust ways. However, consider how amazing it will be when we as humanity rise up against injustice in just and gracious ways. The difference between Dr. Martin Luther King and Vladimir Lenin is quite remarkable.

Location: Kirov, Russia (north and east of Moscow, west of the Urals)
Date: February 2002

The Harmony of the Water-Wheel

Today nature would seem to serve only functions for the sake of humanity, which has somehow abstracted itself from nature. Nature is regarded as a harlot from whom her riches are to be exploited. The water-wheel comes from a time when nature was regarded for what she is, a beautiful and poetic discourse of God's revelation of himself. In this way nature was to be respected and humanity is then self-conscious of the fact that it is a concrete and inextricable part of nature.

Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: May 2001

Light through the Alleyway

In the midst of the daily hub-bub, a small sabor in busy Moscow market district radiates an architectural uniqueness, the "onion domes" directing one upward, to what is beyond themselves.

Location: Moscow, Russia
Date: October 2000

Urban Sunset

There are times when in the context of the mundane, beauty struts forth boldly, leaping over the concrete and glass and metal to give us pause and remind us that we are part of this mosaic.

Location: Irving, Texas
Date: March 8, 2006

my photokryptic side

I have this artistic creative side to me that does not have a lot of time to really develop and mature with school, running my business, and just trying to be a generally responsible person. However, one thing I have learned is that creativity is as much developed as the ability to think logically or play a sport. So this will be the beginning of what end I know not - but it's a beginning with hope that creativity and artistic expression will be photographically cultivated. To this end your comments, critiques and suggestions are most welcomed.

My photokryptic side is that side of me that is very much graphically oriented and pictorial in expression. It is that side of me that wants to capture beauty and intrigue in its manifold forms by means of lens and light, that in its frame these photos might move us towards what is truly beautiful.