Apropos Via

[aproposvia]

I stopped for the remarkable view skiing above Les Grands Montets and below l'Aiguille Verte and l'Aiguille du Dru (upper left). Few places are so stunning, and so easy to access! Many are the reasons Chamonix is a Mecca for skiing and alpinism. The views, vertical, the terrain, the routes, the exposure, the history, the people....the list goes on. Be sure to visit if/when you can! But beware--as you won't soon get it out of your system (if ever). I first visited as a wide-eyed college student before an exchange program in Avignon and have been blessed with many returns over the years, although it has been too long...maybe next season n'est-ce pas?! Unfortunately, even then I won't be able to get that lush #kodachrome latitude for a monochromatic mountain scene like this, mais c'est la vie... #skiing #chamonix #argentiere #lesgrandsmontets #lesdrus #mountains #skimo #france #alps #adventure #photography #kodakfilm #slidefilm #filmisnotdead #madewithkodak #camp4pix #theoutbound #visualsoflife #passionpassport #monoart_ #photooftheday #tbt #createcommunicateexplore (at CHX - Les Grands Montets)

[aproposvia]

It was a beautiful day for exploring on frozen Lake Baikal near the Angara River outside of Irkutsk. Buryat men riding vintage Ural motorcycles with sidecars were scattered across the ice in groups like this enjoying the fine weather for ice fishing in March, 1991. Earlier that day ten other of these guys on antique motorcycles cut across in front of me, spooking my horse (a small, long-haired Mongolian pony shod with spiked shoes) who bolted for the mountains of the far shore and Mongolia. A couple miles later he finally wore out and slowed to a walk again. When I eventually returned to the group, the Russians I was with looked at me with a mixture of respect and disbelief that I’d managed to stay on. The rest were in sleighs pulled by these same horses—but I’d tried that earlier and grabbed the only horse and saddle for the rest of the trip. Why? That mad dash on the horse wasn’t half as bad as riding in those sleighs. (But *that* is another story!) For the rest of the trip the Russians just called me “the Cowboy” ...in the most hilarious Russian accent. Follow me to see more from this trip and other #adventure old and new. #ikidyounot @uralmotorcycles #documentary #photography #nofilter #travel #USSR #russia #irkutsk #siberia #fujifilm #slidefilm #tbt #createcommunicateexplore (at Lake Baikal - Siberia, Russia)

[sketchplanations]

Know your dashes: the hyphen, en dash and em dash.

OK, so you can get a little over the top about these, but I do notice when a hyphen is used to add a thought in text rather than the em dash which is obviously better made for it — and much nicer than using parentheses (). And — to go the full mile — why not use an en dash when you’re separating your page numbers 1–5 or months May–Sep next time?

Didn’t spot that? 

- hypen

– en dash

— em dash

Most writing tools and OSes have tricks to do these automatically for you.

[aproposvia]

We didn't even have a boy's name picked out. And so, after six years with two daughters, I was genuinely surprised when the doctor lifted up a boy and not another girl. I left the operating room with the nurses to get him cleaned up and wait as his momma got stitched up. As I looked down with that familiar and unforgettable feeling of awe and wonder I was a bit taken back with a different sense of connection and responsibility. I was now also the father of a son. And this was going to be something different altogether. Just as suddenly his name came to me: Jonathan. I held him and looked at him and waited to show him to his momma. When she finally came out and I handed him to her she looked down at him with a beaming smile that told her own story of a mother's awe and wonder. She looked up at me and asked what I thought of the name Jonathan... Yesterday was his birthday. It's been a wonderful nine years. But it goes by so much faster than I'd ever have believed. Stop, slow down, take a deep breath. #thankful #gratitude #fatherhood #oregon #coast #portrait #blackandwhite #son (at Strawberry Hill)

[aproposvia]

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Marcus Aurelius

[aproposvia]

et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt

[aproposvia]

It's hard, methodical work, more like splitting firewood than cutting. But this is a shot deep in the #bog 'cutting' #peat. Where a proper Irishman like Padraigh carves his way into the mud wearing a white shirt. It's hard, methodical work, more like splitting firewood than cutting. #documentary #photojournalism #slide #film #farm #families #Ireland #DayintheLifeofIreland #Kodachrome (at Galway, Ireland)

[aproposvia]

Brooding skies threaten rain while Padraigh Fergus takes a break from cutting peat to roll a smoke. His son loads a tractor bucket of peat 'logs' they've just cut from the bog. The boy, his mom and sister unload and stack the sticky brown bricks upright in tiny teepees in the nearby bog fields. Cut from damp, dark earth, the peat moss looked more like mud to me--but after it dries, it burns in the stove and heats their cottage just fine. Padraigh invited me to join them after we met him in the morning while I was photographing Lady Hemphill and her famous #Connemara ponies near #Athenry. He was a large and jovial man with a twinkle in his eye; a quintessential Irishman. It was an unforgettable day. #Ireland is a wonderful place to shoot. Unbelievable colors and light that was made for #Kodachrome (RIP). #documentary #photojournalism #DayintheLifeofIreland (at Galway, Ireland)

[aproposvia]

Doing dishes after lunch. Nothing was fast, almost everything was done by hand. No hurry. But nothing would be left for later. The brothers ran a tight ship. #documentary #fuji #provia #slide #film #farm #families (at Whidbey Island)

[aproposvia]

One of three elderly brothers living alone on a small oasis of farmland along the south shore of #Whidbey Island. I spent time with them back in the '90s. They showed me a lot about how one can live outside our day and age, how it's possible to be nearly #independent and provide for yourself. They farmed, raised cattle, chopped wood, they kept the ancient equipment running around the old homestead. They were fascinating. Gentlemen and kind to a fault, they permitted me to join them with my cameras. Looking back, I realize what a privilege it was. #documentary #slide #film #provia #pugetsound #farm #families #nofilter (at Whidbey Island)

[aproposvia]

Anybody who travels knows that you’re not really doing so in order to move around — you’re traveling in order to be moved. And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see when you’re sleepwalking through your daily life.

Pico Iyer

[aproposvia]

This is the photographer that inspired me more than any other. And still does. If I shoot again professionally it will be because of him. He is a master of the art and craft.

[aproposvia]

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt

[eskayar]

[aproposvia]

Too late? Really? —Don't think so. And it won't be. Think so? Then probably is. #startup #growthhacking #perseverance

[explore-blog]

There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored.

Flannery O’Connor on storytelling and why the grotesque appeals to us.

[aproposvia]

Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. — G.K. Chesterton

[aproposvia]

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.

Rudyard Kipling