Opening the Door to Wealth

door to wealthSome people state very clearly that the goal of business is to make money. Others get offended by that and claim that they are in business to help people and to do what they love. What side are you on? Can the door to wealth be opened, so that the two sides come together?

The desire to make money is neither good nor bad in itself. What IS problematic is focusing only on the money: that is like saying “I want to get to New York” without having any idea how to get there. The result, too often, is that the journey is bittersweet. [Read more...]

Abundance and Beauty are Waiting for You.

Walking along a beach near Cape Town one evening, I was enjoying the warmth of the sun, the glorious soft hazy light and the sound of the ocean gently rolling up to the shoreline. There was a sense of a vastness, harmony and perfectly grounded beauty. And Mother Earth was there sharing all of her splendor and energy with me – and with the man in the red shirt and the fishing pole.

Why was he just standing there? He was at the edge of a bountiful ocean! He was in the right place and it was the right time – all he had to do was reach out and cast his line! Why was he just standing there and not taking action? [Read more...]

You Are a Fountain of Talents

Fountain at Versailles GardensMost people photograph the gardens at the Palace at Versailles the other way – looking from the palace into the garden. This shot has an unusual viewpoint – it goes the opposite way and this adds interest. Having a fountain in your face in the foreground adds to this. Shot with a wide angle lens, from a viewpoint a little lower than normal, the hugeness of the fountain is exaggerated, as is the smallness of the people along the paths on either side. This gives a sense of perspective and adds depth to the image. [Read more...]

Get Out of the Jail Created by Limiting Beliefs

Are you in jail, like these orchids?
What do you see here? Are the orchids bursting out of their jail-like window, free at last? Or are they held back by the bars, unable to experience anything more than a fleeting and superficial freedom?

In fact this whole image is an illusion. It was constructed from two separate photos: one of the orchids I found in a hotel lobby, and the other of a street level window along an interesting graffiti–filled lane I visited one day. The marriage of the two photos took place in Photoshop. I erased the background around the orchid photo, and copied it into the window image, manipulating the layers so that it looked like the flowers were peeking out from behind the bars. Once this was done, I played with the lighting, so that the two parts of the image looked like they blended more naturally and belonged together. The  result is what you see above: a believable image created entirely by my imagination

Do you do that in your life? Do you create images of the future or memories of the past that are figments of your imagination? Believable, but not true? What are the bars in your life? Are you putting yourself in a jail that isn’t really there?  Here are some techniques for getting out of jail free. [Read more...]

Calm in the Center

Amsterdam crowds so much into such little space, yet in such a charming way! I took this photo with a wide angle lens, positioning myself carefully to capture what I considered the essence of Amsterdam: the bikes, the bridges, the canals and the quaint canal houses. Capturing the big picture was what I remember thinking about.

Looking back at it now, I am struck by how there is a balance, a calm and a sense of order within this crowded scene. Notice how the chaos and the crowdedness lie all around the outside. [Read more...]

Seeking Advice

Why, when walking along the old streets in Paris, did a man feeding pidgeons attract my eye more than buildings, bridges and classic sites? Who knows! It just did! I tend to look at a scene, then quite intuitively distill it down and focus on what it is in the scene that I specifically find interesting. In this case, I was fascinated by how addicted the pigeons were to the man feeding them. They would have followed him anywhere!

This scene reminds me of how often we depend on someone to feed us: not food, but more abstract things like happiness, or fulfillment. [Read more...]

Composing your Life: Lessons from a Parrot

Photographers tend to notice other photographers. On a trip to Maui, I kept running into local photographers on the street and in parks making money by offering to take your photo with their parrot. Souvenirs of your trip kind of thing. And people were flocking to it! What I found most interesting, of course, was the parrot!

I really wanted to photograph that beautiful bird! But how?? [Read more...]