Another warm week…and August is a hot stone’s throw away.

It sure is quiet up here in the mountains most of the summer. Like most of our time up here, we do a few chores and do an abundance of things we enjoy doing. There is no shortage of fun and interesting (to us) things to do. Hike the creek, play on the ham radio, edit new art, or sit on the deck swing and watch the hundreds of humming birds coming to our feeders. Those hummingbirds suck. We buy sugar in 25-pound bags now.

Summers are still a bit strange for me. Before the pandemic, I was shooting 3 or 4 times a week in Chandler and on location there. Then we’d head to Bonita for the summer, and that all but stopped. As I’ve mentioned before here, I found I did not miss the actual shooting. I missed the creativity that I would be coming up with (hopefully) for 2 or 3 hours. More than that, it was the communications. The banter with the model and anyone else at the shoot was great. That connection of souls brought together to create. I missed that.

The occasional departure hug in my driveway was always lovely. I’m sure it kept the neighbors wondering what was going on at my house.

Since the pandemic, the wind has vanished from the sails of the model/photographer scene—just some occasional breezes. I know very few who are still shooting, at least not at the fevered pace that it used to be. Maybe I’m just not in the circle of a bunch of activity and don’t see it.

I’m trying to get used to being an old man. So I understand that there is always a bit of ‘cats in the cradle’ that will start to happen. I’m incredibly thankful for the time I’ve had so far being an artist, and that joy will never fade for me. I cherish the memories. And I hope to make more before I can’t shoot for some reason or another. I do miss the dust in the air from the constant activity.

The deck swing and the cool breezes are becoming my new lifestyle, slowly but certainly.

Much of the art in this issue is new edits from the last week. Many are new edits from previous shoots, and I’ve included some older edits from the same shoots. For most of you, even the old ones may seem new because you may have only seen them once or twice. I have about 10k edited images, and I add 5-10 new ones a day. As one might imagine, sometimes I spot one in the pile that I don’t even remember taking. Most bring back fond memories about the shoot and the wonderful souls I’ve worked with.

Until next week!! Enjoy art anywhere you can find it. Make it a priority.

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