the earth ink

One of the most amazing cross-country trips was by third class train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet. Leaving early in the morning, I heard the creaks and groans of the tracks being manually changed and lights flipped one way or the other to guide our line of vintage rail cars out of the city limits. Locals were up already, in the dark, making food for their carts for the day. Smells were potent. As the sun came up, we watched the rice paddies fly by and followed passengers as they boarded the train and departed at their stops. Tourists, of course, were on the train for the long haul; all six hours of the journey toward Cambodia. However, many of the locals used this train as their place of business; selling fruits and vegetables, meals of rice and meat on a stick, and breads and beverages. This woman alighted the train and took the track back toward her destination. Her orange clothes and baskets caught my eye. I was impressed that this is part of real rural life in Thailand.

I am a non-buddhist. So walking through Wat Pho was a far less religious experience than those who dropped their coins in the pots behind the world's largest reclining buddha, but no less curious. This Wat complex houses an astounding number of buddha figures. Away from the main temple, the grounds were sparsely toured and I had a difficult time imagining how their could be a need for so many rooms, walkways, and shrines full of so many buddhas. While meandering through the maze of towers and courtyards, I had plenty of opportunity to capture images of more sculptures and statues than I will ever know what to do with. Instead of finding the religious meaning in the statues, I found the art (though rather excessive and opulent) in my photos and learned a little more about the rituals of another belief system.

My annual personal project is a Christmas card. Every year my address list seems to get a little longer and every year the card is something a little bit different from the last - and from any other greeting anyone gets in the mail. I avoid writing long paragraphs to sum up the year. Instead, I use photography and graphic design to illustrate some of the highlights. This year, I chose to develop a 'passport of 2012.' I carefully blended the photos and places I had been together for each page and integrated a verse (James 1:16-18) into the design. I personalized the front of the passport with some Hawaiian holiday greetings and colorful splashy cutout photos. Inside, I placed scans of the country stamps I obtained in 2012 over photo collages of special memories. True to a passport, I rounded the corners of each little booklet and twisted a ply of yellow and red thread before tying it around the crease giving it an stitched effect along the binding. I also made envelopes...

Alone, I rarely venture too far at night. This particular evening, I found myself  following my path back to my hotel after a late afternoon tour of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. I was  waylaid into the evening  due to an annual holiday gathering of the Netherlands Parliament near the Swissotel  where I stayed for my last night on a long overseas trip. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Queen, but later found that they had unfurled the red carpet at the back entrance to the building in Dam Square.  After the later-than-planned, but  provocative  visit to Anne Frank's home, I was in a hurry through the dark streets and winter cold to return to the hotel and warm up, but I found myself captivated by the warmth of lights along the canals and the matte effect of thin ice forming over the water. So, I walked a bit slower, and patiently balanced my camera on a railing to capture a still image of the evening glow.

Everyone knows that London is famous for its red telephone booths and the Big Ben clock tower. Beside black taxi cabs and the more modern London Flyer, nearly everyone who visits takes home a picture of one icon or the other. It can be challenging to find a booth free of tourists hanging over it, or posing in various positions to get the most unique snapshot. But, I managed to sneak one in over the heads of unassuming pedestrians and photo posers. In due diligence of the London experience, I gathered my own brilliant photo of these two London icons in one frame; one of my favorite shots from this London excursion.

I am a walker. I walk nearly everywhere. I would much rather walk a couple miles and see all the sites between me and my destination than catch a cab. I like the details; the types of flowers that grow in a window sill and what games the kids play in the streets. My favorite shoes are these Keen Madrid Ballerina's. They are ultra comfortable, easy to slip on and off in security lines, and have been around the world with me; quite literally. The only time I found them to be lacking was when I walked through multi-colored sand in the desert in Sharjah. The shoes filled up with sand and stayed on the dunes rather than travelling with my feet! They did not prevent me from summiting a dune to see the pink sun slip through the hazy sky for the evening. In this case, I sunk my bare toes into the slope of fleeting ground beneath my body weight and climbed to the top of the red ridge where our tour group had gathered. Before I sound like an advertisement for a pair of shoes that are no...

A long awaited vacation. A chance to see a new place in my own state. A delayed flight. A window seat. A sinking sun. I did not know what to expect when I flew over the Big Island and landed in Hilo, Hawaii. The Isle of Hawaii is the biggest in the state and has several different sides to show. Hilo is on the windward side where rain falls regularly and waterfalls have cut dramatic and deep valleys that are cloaked in the thickest and greenest vegetation I have seen. On the coast were fields in a dozen shades of green crops. This remarkable photo hit my camera's sensor shortly before sunset. It was a cloudy day, but my flight delay put me in perfect time to see the sun peak through the clouds for a spot of time during our decent.