Spending the morning looking through some of the archives and came across this picture of me that was taken in March 2009 on Mt. Lemmon, AZ. It inspired me. We are so small to this world around us and yet, at times, we are so oblivious of our surroundings. How often do we take a minute of our day and think about how great and inspiring the world is around us [the present actual world, not cyber world]. All we have to do is let it in. No texting needed. No technology needed. No talking even needed. Just sit back and enjoy, nature is free, enlightening, and greatly inspiring if you let it.

Get those feet muddy and get some dirt under those fingernails. Better yet, get that camera shutter clicking and make yourself a better photographer by capturing the world around you. With a camera you are the story telling, everyone that looks at your pictures will be looking at your point-of-view. You are the artist/author. Your opinion of how you framed it, how you composed it, how you over/under exposed it. Your pictures are you. So instead of reading those RSS feeds on your computer/smartphone or waiting for that next juicy status update on facebook today, go make some pictures!

Now to the good stuff:

• My first dose of inspiration, not only for you, but also for myself is a photographer with such a great concept that I rank it highly among all projects that I have seem. Clark Vandergrift has put together quite the collection titled, “Tree People” Not only is the body painting done exquisitely, by Master bodypainter Jen Seidel, they way that Clark has implemented them into the composition of the photographs is masterful! Very well planned and executed project. Well worth a click of your mouse.
• 500 photographers is a weblog that posts 5 active photographers a week for 100 weeks. The photographers can be from any discipline within the photographic range, but they have to be worth looking at and have a certain level of quality. My favorite so far.
• Joe McNally‘s assistant, Drew Gurian just launched a new, very clean designed web site to display his work. It is always great to view the work of a professional’s assistant, in this case, the assistant to one of the very best.
• A few weeks ago I had that awesome experience to photograph hang-out, talkin’ smack and making a few pics of these six guys known as Stepwise.

Well, I hope this offers you a bit of inspiration and perhaps a few pictures that you haven’t ever looked at before. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.