Today’s images are old. Big surprise right? They were not however created on film. They are early digital jpgs.

As most of you know, I love working at the edges of light. In one way or another. all but the final photo below were captured along those edges.

One of the strangest dewy orb web images I made, and I have made a lot of them, was this one which was created just as the sun began her journey of casting a new light on the land. Of course I always loved orb webs as a subject.

This certainly deserves the title of abstract despite the fact that we all know what it is. Even images like this need to be composed. The center of the web in this case, is not the center of the photo. Symmetry can be beautiful, but it can be boring as well.

Sunrise clouds, the top edge of a lake, and the rising sun. Dreamy but still crisp. I love the early morning hours.

A pair, and yes there are two, Sandhill Cranes strike a midair pose for my camera. A long time ago.

Nothing outlines the shape of something, like the rising or setting sun. Notice there is more distance in front of the birds than behind. It works well to give moving animals some space in front of them. Somewhere to go without running or flying into edge of the picture frame.

I do not believe that these autumn Sumac leaves were photographed at sunrise, but I enjoy the effect that they are given as they lay against the sky.

This is probably late morning light, and it penetrates the leaves not only giving “pop” to the colors and designs of those leaves, but adds some contrast as to create some separation between each leaf.

This dragonfly is wet. Really wet!! I love the deeply shaded background that produces obvious droplets, showing texture. Images like this are hated by some and loved by others, I love that nature provided “pop” !! I did add some contrast when editing.

Another opportunity for crisp light, dew, and a black background. I have spent many a morning and quite a few late afternoons, looking for opportunities like this. The angle of the light, the mysterious background, and the wet petals spell drama.

The photo below is of Great White Egrets in a pond, and is obviously not at the extreme edges of light. But still, the light is low level and the darkening background and the white birds with their reflections provide pop!. Overall, because of the subjects and what they are or are not doing, the photo becomes serene and peaceful.

Photography is about light.

Sometimes nature photography is also about pure, stark beauty. Such is the case with these Great-Blue Heron siblings. I was fortunate that they literally froze in one spot, making it possible for a crisp image, displaying in detail what a young bird at this age truly looks like. Stark reality.

And finally one of my favorite subjects, morning fog and sunrise.

This was made at a southern Wisconsin nature preserve. One that has a lot of foggy mornings. That meant that I spent many a morning getting up in the darkness, driving a fair distance to get to this location, hoping for a fog with the rising sun highlighting the land. I was blessed more often than I was disappointed.

Old Libertarians Never Die, They Just Give Up

When I write about my political /social journey on these pages, I have usually commented that I was a liberal for a long time, and I have most definitely switched teams to conservatism. Really, that is way too much of a simplification.

I always leaned towards what I consider the purist, most constitutionally accurate doctrine, libertarianism. I was nine parts libertarian.

Libertarianism supports the most true liberty of any form of government. Or should I say lack of government. They understand we need some form of police and military to protect us from each other, but beyond that it is up to each of us to control our own destiny. I still believe in that philosophy to some degree, but you cannot put out a fire with a squirt gun. All of the noble intentions of being a Libertarian mean little in a battle against freedom robbing Marxism. I might add, Marxism at its historic worst. I agree with the libertarian philosophy of completely free religion, but that only works when communistic forces are not attempting to squash the right to a belief in the true God in any form whatsoever. Sometimes “pretend Christianity” is accepted by those powers that be.

It takes God and His Word to defeat the pure atheism that is at our doorsteps.

It would be fair to ask me, how can you say you believe in things when you keep changing. I have changed, but not in many of my most fervent beliefs. The world has changed and not for the best. Freedom robbers, dictating beliefs, creating classes of people, some to be exploited, some to be propped up, and others to be eliminated. We are currently investing ourselves in those horrors.

We are on the brink of a “master & slave” society. The haves and the have nots. Not because of hard work and smart enterprise, but because of who you align yourself with. A “master society” with a ruling class, and then the servants.

All that is being approved of by an ever increasing group of “willing dupes” who would turn over their sovereignty to those who would own you and your life. I feel terribly sorry for the young people of today. They are increasingly being coaxed into servitude. It keeps general society afraid and in their homes. Good police, for which thankfully there are still many, are step by step being driven out of their positions. Several in recent years have even committed suicide.

An unprotected and vulnerable society is forced to comply with the “ruling class”.

Libertarianism is dying because those with that philosophy unfortunately will not fight the battle. It is literally a self-defeating prophecy in today’s world. In many respects the never-Trumpers of the political right are those libertarians of today.

So I say, keep strong to your beliefs, but change around the edges when necessary, in order to remain afloat. However, if you give up everything you believe in in order to win, you become exactly what you are fighting. Becoming what those who you apposed are, is just another form of losing .

We are all sinners, There is no one person who is the Godly answer to our dilemma. There are manmade saviors for sure, but ultimately they are flawed and will crumble. History’s one true Savior, will return, but not today.

When you know some people will be upset about what you say, but you know you are doing the right thing, keep doing it. The older you get, and the closer you are to the finish in this wold, the more you are ambivalent to the naysayer’s.

The one thing I have come to realize about me and this blog, is the fact that I cannot stay fully on the topic of photography. I wander to politics and Christianity, and that will only stop completely when I quit writing.

Life without faith, is unimaginable. It is however about what and where you place that faith that tells the story. The church is so important but we do not worship churches or cerimonies. It is about God, and the truth of His Word.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that today here in the U.S. it is Memorial Day. Today we honor those who gave the “last full measure of their devotion”. if I may quote the words of Abraham Lincoln. Too many have died in wars here and everywhere, but I thank God that there have been those who gave everything, so the rest of us could live free.

What a shame it is to give that freedom away.

The greatest post war speech that has ever been given, in my opinion, was in fact, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Please read every word.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1868

God Bless,
Wayne