Climbing Through Shadows

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.”
—Blaise Pascal

“Climbing Through Shadows”, Nikon D800, ISO 640, f/13 at 1/1250 sec., 32mm

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.

Stargazer

“May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling,
Silent as though they watched the sleeping earth!”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dejection: An Ode, 4 April 1802

“Stargazer”, Nikon D800, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/1000 sec., 300mm
Click the image to view larger size.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida

Visit my booth at Space Cost Pride this Sunday, May 25th!
Wickham Park Pavilion, 3701 Wickham Road, Melbourne, FL

Idol Hope

“Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by acceptance. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.”
― Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World

“Idol Hope”, Nikon D800, ISO 200, f/8 at 1/125 sec., 78mm
Click the image to view larger size.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.

Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida

Be sure to visit my booth at Space Coast Pride this Sunday, May 25th!
Wickham Park Pavilion, 3701 Wickham Road, Melbourne, FL

Grave Offerings

As I wander through cemeteries, I am always struck by the variety of offerings to the dead that I encounter. Sometimes they are simple: a flower; a photo; a favorite toy; bottles of soda or alcohol; a statuette… In other cases, they can be quite elaborate. I am most intrigued by those things left behind that imply an element of ritual, and I wonder if they are meant to appease a potentially restless spirit or an angry god/God. For one who believes the spirits of the dead are wandering around in the ether or that God demands appeasement rather than having a character of love, I suppose these gifts serve both a symbolic and a functional or practical purpose. I am intrigued by how they are often indicative of a broader culture or faith while simultaneously revealing the very individualized and personal ways we employ to cope with the death of a loved one.

“Grave Offerings” Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/4.0 at 1/25 sec., 85mm
Click here to view a larger size.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, individual, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida.

Keep Shuttering

If you enjoyed today’s photo, please share this post. There are convenient buttons below for the big social networks that make this really easy to do.

You’ll find me on Instagram at @earlharrisphoto, posting photos captured and edited on my iPhone. I post a lot of photos of cats there, too. #herekittykitty #instagramcats

I tweet and Twitter from @earlharrisphoto

And there’s always Facebook

Please vote for this blog in the Cool Photo Blog Awards – just click here and it’s done. Many thanks for your support!

Symbolic Redundancy (Does Jesus pray the Rosary?)

There is a section in Rose Hill Cemetery that is predominately Latino. The graves in this area are heavily adorned with plants, artificial flowers, candles dedicated to a variety of saints and a multitude of cast plaster statues. Here, a man hard up for a drink can scavenge for very aged bottles of the dearly departed’s favorite beer or tequila that lay sun-bleached amidst the headstones. As you can tell from the photos I’ve posted the last few days, I enjoy the photographic opportunities such grave adornments can provide.

Occasionally, I will come across something that inspires relevant or irrelevant introspection and pondering. Such was the case when I encountered a concrete Jesus holding a rosary. Not being a Catholic, I found myself stuck on the apparent symbolic and theological redundancy of this ornamentation. Some 25 years ago or so, I read and was completely fascinated by Umberto Eco’s sometimes unnerving observations in “Travels in Hyperreality”. I surmised the author would have had much to say regarding this present example of our ability to artificially augment artificial augmentations replicating or defining reality.

“Symbolic Redundancy” [Click the image for an enlarged view.] Nikon D800, ISO 200, f/5.3 at 1/30 sec., 93mm
Click here for larger view or to purchase a print.

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, individual, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida.

Let’s Get Social

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others! Thank you. (This blog really needs an audience 🙂 …)

Follow me on Instagram at @earlharrisphoto, where I am posting photos (and a bunch of kitty pics!) captured and edited on my iPhone. #herekittykitty #instagramcats

Tweeting from @earlharrisphoto

Facebookery happens at earlharrisphoto

Celebrating the life of a good friend who’s passed

Thank you, John, for providing me with today’s post. I will cherish this.

A View From The Middle (Class)

This is one of those articles I haven’t wanted to write, but the need to do so still exists.  My family lost a good friend today.  However, the belief is still there that the parting need not be sorrowful, it’s more a matter of time until we meet again.

James Cantrell died this morning in Florida after a long and agonizing yet still courageous battle with cancer.  Those are hard words to write.  They’re words that bring about anger — aimed directly at the illness that took James’ life, and the lives of too many others.

But, knowing James, he wouldn’t want us to be sad for long.  He’d want us to celebrate the life that he led.

In many ways, it was the kind of life everyone could take a piece from and use as an example on how to live it to the fullest, and to show how…

View original post 1,443 more words

If Cancer Had A Face

Is this the face that haunts us?
He that invades our lives with pain, heartbreak and fear?
He that seeks to destroy our future? A future once so bright and secure.
Is this the face that takes it away;
Takes everything, leaving only Love to stand naked and alone?
You cannot create, so you have to destroy.
You deceive, driving others to chaos.
And still your face pales next to the face of Love.
You destroy the body, but you can’t degrade Love.
We’ve seen evidence of Greater Promises, and it has changed us.
Truth, Faith and Grace will take us through to a better Day,
When Love shall be renewed and together we can acknowledge:
The price was cheap enough.

“Ghoul” [Click on the image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/3.3 at 1/2000 sec., 85 mm

 

We learned this last Thursday that James’ cancer, which was in full remission, has returned. Despite James’ horrible pain and discomfort, we have plans to travel to DC soon to be married by Rev. Cedric Harmon. I am flying up tomorrow to apply for our license, then there’s the obligatory 3-5 day wait for turnaround and processing. Sadly, Florida will not acknowledge our Civil Rights and there is no place closer we can go to get this done. We are thus forced to endure the expense and hardship of travel. After 21 years of committing our lives to God and each other, we deserve this happiness amidst this hell. James wants to ensure that no matter what happens, we can receive the benefits we are entitled to by right and by Liberty. We humbly and gratefully request your prayers for healing and strength to get us through these difficult days. Thank you and God bless. — Earl

It is Finished

“In every grave on earth’s green sward is a tiny seed of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, and that seed cannot perish. It will germinate when the warm south wind of Christ’s return brings back the spring-tide to this cold sin-cursed earth of ours; and then they that are in their graves, and we who shall lie down in ours, will feel in our mortal bodies the power of His resurrection, and will come forth to life immortal.”
– David Gregg

Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/22 at 1/45th sec. 35mm

“Earth’s saddest day and gladdest day were just three days apart!”
– Susan Coolidge

“All of heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, hell afraid of it,
while men are the only ones to ignore its meaning.”
– Oswald Chambers

Happy Easter from Earl Harris Photography
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An Unacceptable Truth

An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s a punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion.
– John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Nikon D300, ISO 640, 1/1000 sec @ f/6.3, 36 mm, HDR

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I enjoy learning from your comments; please let me know your thoughts about today’s photo.

A Prize Fighter Named Rocky

Over 1.5 years ago, Rocky appeared on the back doorstep begging for food. Cats seem to know that the suckers residing at my address will give them a good meal if they are on the street and hungry; we’ve adopted two that came into our lives that way. When Rocky showed up, he was skittish but demanding. He would eat the food we’d put out and disappear again.

After several days of this, he trusted me to pick him up. People are impressed by Rocky’s size; he’s a big cat and pretty darn strong, too. I couldn’t help but fall in love with him, so Rocky got to experience a trip to the vet to get neutered, checked out, vaccinated and tested for FIV and Feline Leukemia (FLV).

Sony Cybershot, ISO 250, f/3.5 at 1/40 sec. (Auto Mode)

To make a long story short, Rocky was diagnosed with feline leukemia. His lymph nodes began to really swell up. It devastated me to be told he had maybe two weeks to live, at best. In fact, I refused to believe it. I even took him to another vet for a second opinion, only to have the first one confirmed.

I believe in miracles. When I was a child, my family and many family friends witnessed a miracle of healing that resulted in my father still being around to bless my life today instead of succumbing to doctor’s opinions and a hopeless prognosis. I have no doubt of the power of faith and prayer. Rocky’s vet still says she is at a complete loss to explain his miraculous recovery, though to me there is no question.

Rocky (aka “Little Buddy”) is a fighter. Though he’s confined to life in his own 2-bedroom basement apartment, his needs as an attention whore get satisfied daily and he enjoys being spoiled. He even likes – and demands by standing next to the sink and getting really vocal – a nightly bath so he can maintain his status as the world’s softest cat.

Rocky has blessed our home in ways I can’t even begin to describe. We’re so happy he chose us.

Nikon D300, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/60 sec., 82 mm

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