Today’s title refers to the paragraphs below the images.

Two Lane Blacktop.  Most of the photos of remote roads that I show you on Earth Images are dirt, gravel, or sand.  I love those roads but many of the best roads in the world are two lane blacktop.  This image was made in west Texas.  Of course I am careful when I make pictures like this as to not get hit by a car or cause an accident.

Light is the essence of photography and I so enjoy working around the “shadowy hours” of dawn and dusk.  They leave just enough to the imagination to hold mystery but reveal enough to get the essence of the location. Big Bend N.P., Texas.

It’s important to make a variety of compositions of any given scene.  I often begin by making both horizontals and verticals.  Notice I did not just flip the camera to the vertical position, but instead moved the camera and tripod around for a strong vertical comp.

Well the time is coming. Those mornings after the storm will be here before you know it.  Be ready with your cameras.  I always preferred to get out early in the morning after a snow storm.  The warm light of sunrise combined with cool (cold!) blue skies and snow makes fur superb pictures. When you are the first one out in the morning, the only tracks you have to concern yourself with will be your own. Of course sometimes traveling on “the morning after” can be dicey at best, so care must be exercised.

The perfect snowfall.  Get it before it melts.

Rivers in fall and winter are magic.

Dreams.  Snowy branches and swirling water.

Pictures full of Snow Geese are pretty easy in New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache NWR during the winter.  Up to 40,000 can be found at a time. Every wildlife photographer should work Bosque at least once.  I actually prefer spring (May) after the geese and most of the Sandhill Cranes are gone.  I witnessed the best migration of shorebirds and wading birds I have ever seen at that time.  These desert and mountain stopover points become saturated with interesting birds because there are a limited number of locations that have the habitat they need to replenish themselves on their journey north.  Those journeys end everywhere from northern Colorado to the arctic.

These American Avocets were photographed at Bosque on May 2, 2005.

Giving It Away

As I look around and evaluate the world we live in, as I often do, it amazes me how we have willingly given up so much of our privacy.  We blame others, but how much have we protested?  As I sit here writing this post and get closer to the moment when I hit the publish button, it occurs to me that there are people who will know exactly where I am when I do it.  If you are a regular reader of this blog I know what you are probably saying.  You have willingly given up much about your life in the writings in Earth Images.  Have I?  There are always key elements of those revelations that I omit.  Most of my personal stories are from my long gone past.

I believe the two most important personal aspects of our lives are freedom, and privacy.  I also believe they go hand in hand. To be free you need a certain amount of privacy.  Are the biggest name celebrities, and I mean those who are forever pursued by the trashy press, free. Of course they can afford to buy a certain amount of privacy. We can’t, so it seems it would be “normal” to protect  the privacies that we do have.

What’s the limit?  Should we confess on public media every intimate moment of our day?  Some do.  With every speck of privacy we lose, we lose a little bit of freedom along with it.  Maybe it’s too late.  You can’t put the air back into the balloon once it has popped.

I am hoping that before privacy becomes totally obsolete, we as a people, will finally say enough is enough.  I have my doubts, when so many willingly give away even more than is taken.   Look at me, look at me. The film 1984 is almost mild in comparison to what we readily accept today.  Use your cell phone and your every move is being recorded.

In the mean time, I think I will take a shower, go poddy, clip my toenails and scratch myself.  (I thought you’d want to know). Then I will go to the store in my jammies, loudly discuss all of my personal problems on my cell phone in the busiest part of the store, give up my address and phone number in that same conversation, pick my nose in my car while I sit at a the stoplight, and go home, get on my computer and broadcast to every company and government in the world that”here I am”.  If you want to know if the dogs are outside just enlarge that satellite picture that you are already looking at.