It has been some time since I have thanked those of you who continue to support Earth Images Blog.  I appreciate each of you very much.  Your numbers have dropped and for that I can’t blame you.  I do make far fewer posts than I used to.   Some of it is also because with summer in full force many readers are understandably doing other things.  So I write fewer posts because there are fewer of you, and there are fewer of you because I write fewer posts and because of summer……”the chicken or the egg?”……or the weather?   I made it clear when I began this blogging journey that it would not last forever.  Every time I do get close to stopping, I find something more to say.  So I will state right now that my intentions are to “keep the ball rolling” for a while yet.  I still have a couple of things to write about and I still have more of my buddy Ron Toel’s writings to share.

Those of you who are members of Facebook or Twitter may have noticed that I have been sort of absent without leave.  I don’t know if that will change but I am still active in Flickr photos, including the Earth Images http://www.flickr.com/groups/earthimages/ group.  It is always hard for me to pull myself away from a social media group that is 100% photographers.   I really don’t know most of the small number of friends I have on any of these places and those who are actually personal friends can e-mail me any time, for written conversations.

There are pictures everywhere.  There is an infinite number of subjects in nature, and if you are so inclined, there are many great subjects outside of nature.

In the past few months I have come to accept that I have “a thing” for bridges.  It is one of the few non-nature subjects that I photograph regularly.  Old bridges and new bridges.  Covered bridges and open bridges.  I create both color and black & white images of bridges.  I had just finished creating a Lake Michigan sunrise when I turned and looked at the same bridge I had driven on a short while earlier.   I would like to think that they symbolize a way of reaching out to others.  Crossing a bridge to help.  Still I would imagine that a therapist may have other ideas.

I will admit that I have never understood nature photographers who refuse to photograph common subjects.  Many of those subjects make great pictures. If you are into selling your work they are often the easiest to move.  In many cases they have an important story.  The beautiful Mute Swan you see below is a species that was introduced to North American many years ago.  Like any introduced animal they have caused some stress on populations of native animals like Trumpeter Swans.  You need pictures to tell the story.  I also have plenty of images of Trumpeters as well as migrating Tundra Swans.  Anybody buying.  Of course you can still pursue getting photographs of rare animals.

I pretty much view everything as a potential subject.  To me something as simple as a river rock with cascading water is just waiting to have its picture taken.

Thank you and I hope you will stop again.