Seeing into the future: a new vision for 2011

My friends know that my last eighteen months have been no walk in the park. I’ve had to make some major adjustments in my life.

I’ve had to recalibrate my focus, so to speak.

However, things I used to be “too busy” to keep up with have benefitted. This blog is one result, as well as my filing system. Other tasks and hobbies have suffered from neglect (I promise—is this sounding like a new year’s resolution?—to wade into and sort the storage closet filled with bikes and parts, old darkroom equipment and antique climbing gear).

But today, I zoomed in on what I can do. The accompanying little gallery illustrates that even on a short excursion rare gems await the purposeful eye, even in familiar places.

I’m lucky, though I sometimes forget, to live in a jewel of a region.

I’ve always felt that the job of a photographer—professional or hobbyist—is to examine the familiar in a new way and have always strived to live up to that ideal. (Admittedly, I occasionally fell short, shooting toasters for Canadian Tire).

What better time to reassert that idea than on the first day of a new year. What can you see in a new way in 2011?