WHO I AM AND WHAT I ENJOY:

I'm just observing life and experimenting with writing with light whatever I see and sometimes imagine. I'm a physician and a native of Southwestern Pennsylvania where I have maternal roots going back to the first settlers of the region, the French and Indian War, and the U.S. Revolutionary War in this area. I think every bone tells a story and I love seeing people and learning about history and stories across time. I'm a member of Peace Lutheran Church, McMurray Pennsylvania. I've traveled on medical mission trips first as a resident physician to Honduras (during Residency training in Family Medicine) into the rural Yoro Mountains to the village of San Jose Negrita with Hombro A Hombro (Shoulder to Shoulder). I fell in love with digital photography on that trip in 2007 and set my mind on getting a real DSLR camera several years later. Subsequently, I served as a volunteer physician for Pittsburgh's Operation Safety Net Street Medicine program for the homeless started by Dr. Jim Withers and served on the board of the Street Medicine Institute. I remember being captivated by the stories Jim could tell about those he had served since 1992 and photojournalistic images that helped tell those powerful and inspiring stories of compassion and service above self for the benefit of those forgotten here in America and around the world who are the street homeless. I've enjoyed sharing stories and raising funds and donating winter boots for Pittsburgh's homeless population with the interest and help of my local community of philanthropic minded individuals who give voluntarily from their own heart to help strangers whom they will never meet to build a medical anthropological trust rapport that gets them connected to holistic medical care, social support, pragmatic necessities and housing. I became more heartily and mentally spiritually active by joining my church after being invited by their pastor to travel as their physician for two mission trips to Dirkiesdorp, South Africa in 2012 and 2013. Since diving into digital photography fairly seriously, I've enjoyed a journalistic style of photography with minimal editing, but I've slowly begun to also enjoy candid portraiture along that journey. I've done some formal portraiture for a church directory and for some of my friend's children. I also enjoyed learning in a teaching setting how to do artistic nudes (mainly of the feminine form, I'm a single male, and I've worked with professional models who taught me a lot about that trust rapport for creating such images that are tasteful and respectful) and became friends with one of the models from that class whom I still communicate with even though we live in different parts of the country. To relax I like to take walks and discovered a joy in capturing nature images (whatever catches my eye during a walk or garden tour with whatever lens or lenses I happen to have to see what I can get later when post-processing, which I view as an act of relaxing meditation and full of happy surprises). I've also had some fun with flash photography and macro photography, aside from shooting the moon and a couple night images under a starry sky in the middle of nowhere South Africa, I haven't dabbled in astrophotography... yet. So I guess I'm a generalist photographically, not a master of any particular genre of photography. Therefore, I am inspired daily by a range of work by different photographers on Flickr - THANK YOU! I also only use 100% Free/Libre Open Source operating systems (GNU/Linux) and related software (Darktable and GIMP) for my photograph post-processing workflows.

I enjoy the relationships formed from making photographs with other people as the lay, amateur or professional models or fellow photographers both professionals and active fellow learners. The artistic process of finding the right artistic composition and exposure solution is fun for me most of the time. I'm also a bit of a gear head so that's fun to explore as well. I also enjoy Amateur Radio, Medicine, and general life and situational preparedness.

I'm always impressed by the works of others. My personal political views are libertarian to pragmatic conservative republican. I see a lot of propaganda and gaslighting going on confusing and upsetting people all around me. I grew up and live the borough/township next to where the 20 year old man who tried to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump grew up and lived, about an hour from Butler, Pennsylvania. I hope Americans unite behind what always united us historically our shared desire for individual liberty and trust in God, not government and rulers. However, I try not to judge others and avoid conflict, everyone has a perspective. It is a metaphor that photography exemplifies to us. Each capture is a mere fragment of a moment in time of a narrow bandwidth of reflected electromagnetic information, a restricted depth of field, restricted cropping and composition of elements, and a myriad of post-processing variables that yields just one of a multitude of perspectives that are all true and each can shape what the observers' eyes and minds make of that shared real or contrived moment for far longer than that moment existed. Fascinating how that can be used for good and evil purposes. Let's focus on the good purposes that grow people and liberty and an appreciation for all that we know and all that we can never fully know around us.

I post on Flickr for fun, a little to journal my photography journey for myself and I enjoy seeing the amazing and diverse work of others. I'm amazed when I have a like and look to see who liked my work to see how wonderful their photos look, it is inspiring! Feel free to follow, like, comment or even critique anything I post, it's a free country. If for some reason I am moved to respond I will and if I am moved to delete the exchange, so be it, and the same for your works and pages. I don't comment often I usually just press the star to show I liked the image. I'm surprised by some people being demanding on who can follow and like their works in regard to their other likes and their own political philosophies. I probably won't comply, not to annoy them but merely because I am too busy to read such instructions and find it a bit off putting being told what to do, how to think and how to act when you can merely press block or change the sharing of your works if you are that restrictive of others. To each their own I presume. Live and let live. Jesus loves us all regardless of our faults. If you're demanding like that, and I've liked or commented on your photograph, realize this, I merely found your image compelling and putting myself in your shoes, thought it was worth some positive feedback for making a pleasing image, nothing more and nothing less. Have a blessed and happy day and life! We're all imperfect sinners and people, hopefully intentionally and even accidentally growing to a better version of ourselves with each deep and relaxing breath. May we see any errors in our ways and repent accordingly being kind to one another as how we would like to be treated in kind. Don't agree, that is fine, we both have a block button and can go about living our separate lives happily ever after. ;-)

Happy capturing and sharing! With agape love and peace, in health and for liberty,

73, N3TBJ, Dr. Steve