… hoping that your Christmas celebration was as good or better than mine … it is a special time of year and a time to spend with family and friends. One topic came up at the table last night and that was “what was your favorite Christmas?” There are so many, but one I recalled was of getting a large set of building blocks for Christmas sometime in the mid ’40’s. We used them to build forts and also bomber planes with the big rectangular blocks and used the cylindrical smaller blocks as bombs … we would fly over the forts on the floor with our “bomber ” blocks and drop the round ones on each other’s construction … we devasted each other’s little forts and cities. The realism was in our minds … they were but rectangular and cylindrical wooden blocks … we had the little toy soldiers and people too … cap guns for when we played out the westerns. Toys were a long way from the evolution we have seen since those days, but imagination?
The shot above is of Mesquite pods that I shot on a walk that were near the road on Moons View Road … the tree is no longer there, and a home is now on the property, but the captured beauty lives on.
First below is another shot of an Osprey that is just leaving its perch on a tree in Lake Pleasant. This shot has been on display in my home for over two years now and rotates between a guest room and the dining room. I took the shot with my new Canon 1DX MK III … the last of my cameras with an optical viewfinder and one of my favorite camera bodies.
Below the Osprey is a shot of the confluence of the Little Colorado River and the Colorado River … this is also where the Grand Canyon begins and Marble Canyon ends. This aerial shot is among the first thousand or so of my extensive portfolio of aerial shots of Northern Arizona. This photo was published as a 2-page spread in Arizona Highways back then too. I took the shot with an Olympus E-1 five mega pixel camera … things have really changed since I took this one and it is a frequent image on my walls.
Finally, a shot of Katie making herself useful this morning right after I booted the computer up. She made herself at home on my Wacom Tablet … I cycle photos as screensavers from the current years email photos. A close up of the ridgeline between Humpherys Peak and Agassiz Peak is on the left monitor, Michele with Enedina in the center and two donkeys on the right. Work kind of grinds to a halt when she takes command of the work area.
I have had a lot of requests for more on Max Ehrmann, so in Fridays email I will give you some background information on him … he is a fascinating person and his work which is more than a hundred years in the past is as relevant today as it was then … human nature does not seem to change with technological advances.
Have a beautiful day and keep the joy going forward … you are the only person who can do it!
Cheers,
Ted
A bird flies through the sky, and I fly with it. I am in
each pearl of moisture sparkling in the sun. I lie lazy
on the clouds. And I acknowledge my kinship with
each winged thing.
I see all as one, and nothing repels me, as this new
day climbs noiselessly out of the valley of night.
Peace lies over the world and over the world of my soul.
excerpt from On a May Morning by Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
More about Ted Grussing …