In the words of the great photographer Marc Riboud, "Taking pictures is savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second."

... So beware the Ides of March, she is taking photographs of Life around her.

A retired Texas Master Naturalist, Gulf Coast Region ... it's about everything I am interested in outdoors - camera in hand I am learning.

Travel reminds you to live in the moment, photography helps to capture some of them.

I've heard it said that diamonds are a girl's best friend ... I beg to differ ... this woman appreciates boarding passes!!

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ~Mark Twain

I am now using a wonderful Nikon D200 with Sigma lenses, a gift from a son who wanted to catapult me into the digital age in a big way ... previously I used one of my 2 35mm film Minolta Maxxum 7000 bodies with various lenses and/or filters (in the last few years when I took the film in for developing I would have them also burned to CD ).

I now also have a Nikon P610, retired Panasonic Lumix FZ18 that is delight to use = I carry it daily on my walks during my lunchbreak, an old 1megapixel Sony Mavica gathering dust, my Samsung cellphone that has come to my rescue many, many times ... and of course a scanner ... and screenshots /screensaves .... etcetcetc ....

...so my digital images can ... and do ... come from many sources!

I take photographs for many reasons - for reference, for ideas, to express an altered-reality, just for fun, for in-camera experimentation or learning - definitely keeps my mind and eyes challenged and busy. Photography is my passion...for many self-sustaining reasons - and it is always there as my escape from the mundane but necessary work of everyday life. So the variety, or oftentimes lack thereof, in the photos here is due to whether I am able to 'get out' with my camera or what I am able to retrieve from my archives (posting to Flickr has led me to re-see, re-evaluate and re-enjoy the images and the moments they help me to recall of my 'older work').

So here I have photos from various sources - they might be from a cellphone, a couple of my old digital cameras, digitized development from my 35mm film days, scans of old photos or my new dSLR - they're all thrown together and posted as I see fit - and all as seen through my eye/s - or at least how my mind's eye came to envision them at some point!

Found Quotes regarding Photography...

...very often the most imaginative and effective rendition of a photographic subject is not one that simply records what the photographer saw in a simple or literal way...Direct translations of the visual world are often lifeless and boring.

-Chris Johnson, "The Practical Zone System, Fourth Edition"

The urge to create, the urge to photograph, comes in part from the deep desire to live with more integrity, to live more in peace with the world, and possibly to help others to do the same.

-Wynn Bullock

The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.

-Brooks Anderson, 1951, "Once Around the Sun"

...pick up the camera that's been sitting on your shelf. Try anything that can put you in touch with your creative imagination, but don't attempt to explain your behavior to anyone else. This is about making inner connections and not about outer rationalizations.

-my Pisces horoscope, Feb. 2008

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face - the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited; and the wealth and confusion that man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

-Edward Steichen

Maryanne Jacobsen of Venice, FL, USA wrote: "Whatever one's chosen craft happens to be, the key to continued fulfillment in life is progress, no matter how subtle."

© Kim A. Lytle, All Rights Reserved.

These images are the property of the photographer and cannot be used, printed, downloaded, or reproduced in any way for either personal or commercial use without prior written consent of the photographer.