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Private appointments available
earl harris photography
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.
love
Self-Portrait
For the fourth time, the holidays came and went without my beloved James. Everywhere I seemed to look, there were reminders of him and the joy we shared and the terror of our battle with the cancer that horrifically tortured him until death mercifully let him go. There amongst the distracted holiday cheer and frenzy of shoppers partied legions of demons, compelling and encouraging us to participate in the futility of escaping the evils of society by contributing to them, urging us to satisfy our lust and greed for more. Always more.
In our ceaseless struggles for more, we too often fail to acquire the one thing we need most: Love. I have come to understand that the reason we don’t receive enough love is simply that we fail to give enough of it away. When love does battle, it doesn’t do it with a sword but with service and humility. I hear the cries declaring we’re making America great again and “taking the country back for Jesus”, but Jesus isn’t and was never here. While we were wiping out indigenous peoples, honing and exhibiting our accomplishments, compelling unbelievers to accept our religious dogma and idolizing our power over others, Jesus has been tirelessly washing the feet of his enemies and showing them he loves them through service, compassion, mercy and healing.
The New Testament bears witness to the many ways Christ tore down the established norms and radically illustrated God’s love for all people equally, without regard for their nationality, family, class, wealth, social status or sin. Clearly, “his ways are not our ways” (Is. 55:8). A significant number of self-proclaimed and self-deceived “Christian Americans” want us to build more walls and create more cultural divisions and nurture extreme divisiveness both domestic and foreign. Yet if America is going to pull off its illusion (delusion?) of being a “Christian nation”, it has to look at least a little bit like Christ. That isn’t the duty of its government or its never-successful efforts to legislate morality, but is the sole duty of its people. Today. Now. It starts with me and it starts with you.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” —1 Corinthians 13:1-8 NET
Live love. I want more.
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Private appointments available.
earl harris photography
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.
Every Day I Love You
“I can’t use my intellect to figure out how to bypass my intellect. Love lies through the spirit, not the mind, and love never lies.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale
For James, Fujifilm X-T1, ISO 320, f/6.4 at 1/250th sec., 38.9 mm
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Private appointments available
earl harris photography
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.
Christus Victor
“My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you.”
– John 15:12 NET
“Christus Victor, Nikon D700, ISO 200, f/5.0 at 1/1000th sec., 200mm
This image is available as a limited edition 12″x18″ print. Please contact me if interested.
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Private appointments available
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings throughout Central Florida.
The Successful Life
“He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.”
— Bessie Anderson Stanley
“At-one-ment”, Nikon D700, ISO 200, f/2.8 at 1/1000th sec., 95mm
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Private appointments available
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings throughout Central Florida.
Casual Portrait: Reverend Shirley
“Tell people how much I love them.
Feed my sheep.
Pour out my love on them.”
― Lisa Bedrick, Poems about Life, Love and God
I photographed Rev. Shirley recently, as she briefly relaxed following a marriage celebration she officiated. She also leads the grief counseling group I attend. Rev. Shirley inspires me with her positivity, humor and the love she so generously shares with others. I am pleased to share her photograph.
Reverend Shirley
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Private appointments available
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings throughout Central Florida.
For Love
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.”
–Alfred Tennyson
“For Love”, Nikon D700, ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/200th sec., 200mm
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Private appointments available
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings throughout Central Florida.
By Grace
“This is a love story. I never knew there were so many kinds of love or that love could make people do so many different things.
I never knew there were so many different ways to say goodbye.”
—Maggie Stiefvater, Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2)
“Grace”, Nikon D700, ISO 200, f/3.5 at 1/125th sec., 200mm
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings throughout Central Florida.
Shadows of Unrest
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams–
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
—Edgar Allen Poe, To One in Paradise
“Shadows of Unrest”, Nikon D700, ISO 400, f/2.8 at 1/1600th sec., 22mm
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.
Awakening
“A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.”
—Jessamyn West
“The Truth Shall Set You Free”, Nikon D800, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/60th sec., 70mm
Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings
throughout Central Florida.
I Shutter at the Thought! 