This picture is not the most breathtaking picture I've ever seen—or taken—and there were certainly more unusual, vibrant, delicate, colorful flora on the Camino, but when the goal of my walk was simply to walk, I found myself in that proverbial zone and wouldn't break my stride to take snapshots. I'm reminded of a quote by a friend of mine, "don't take a picture remember this in your heart." While I may not stop to smell the roses, I do try to remember to take deep breaths along the way.

I took this image while feeling rather alone amid my group and lonesome for home. The roses and bamboo reminded me of friends back home. The opportunity to focus on them helped me refocus on the pilgrimage. Despite my blue feelings at the time, this image inspires an optimistic mood as it represents growth, even in the face of aging. The rose petals may shed, but the bamboo stays strong and still flourishes (even if considered little more than a pesky weed to many yards in my neighborhood). [Click here for more backstory.]

A Selective Color Wheel Palette

From the "I can't leave well enough alone department," here's another palette I've worked on (between numerous Fireworks/Citrix crashes) for the past couple of weeks. Prominent colors from two flowers were isolated and inserted in each upper quadrant. The sections in the lower quadrants represent dominant colors of leaves from the above respective flowers. The surrounding colors in the upper area represent a younger bamboo stalk in the left quadrant and an older one on the right, while the surrounding colors on the lower quadrants represent leaf colors of the respective bamboo (left is younger, right is older). The two shades of blue in the middle represent two different samples of bird poop on bamboo leaves.

The Backstory
[If, on further reflection, you really don't want to read all this, just click to go back up to the actual assignment.]

I embarked on an ancient and, in some parts of the world, famous spiritual pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago, in Spain's Galician (northwest) region during June 2005. One generally walks the Camino at one's own pace, and we generally did as well, although our group of 14 teens and four adults had a bit more of an agenda, courtesy of our tagalong tour representative.

Still, we walked on average what the average itinerant non-itineraried pilgrim walks: roughly 25-35 kilometers (15-22 miles) a day. If our day did not finish at our lodging, a motor coach picked us up at the end of our trek and dropped us off at our inn (posh by pilgrim standards, as many pure pilgrims stay in low or no cost refugios—simple volunteer-run, dorm-style, first-come, first-in, no frills roof over one's head, generally). After perhaps 20 minutes to shower, rest, bandage blistered toes and tend to one's other personal hygiene, we were aboard our coach and off again to a cultural opportunity).

Before all that 'though, I reached the conclusion that I do not like being a photographer. After a mad high school photography immersion with my 35mm SLR camera and my dad's incredible, in-home darkroom, I eventually realized that my images generally fail to capture my intent.

So as I was heading out the door for Spain last summer, I grabbed a "starter" digital camera so that one of the teens, who'd just torn his ACL and had surgery a few weeks shy of our departure, could email images of his leg back to his surgeon (she joined his family in their concern for the grueling aspects of our trip). As his parents decided to invest in a digital camera of their own, I happened to have this one—a simple 3.2 megapixel unit from a no-name manufacturer (I got it cheap from Macy's as a bonus with my purchase of something more expensive) acquired to hasten the transition from our expensive 35mm habit. After a few days in Spain, I decided to collect some images, since I'd bought a memory card for the camera.

Midway through our 10 day trip, on a particularly bad day, that would culminate with hurt feet, hurt feelings and several teen threats of quitting and going home in the morning, I decided to kill some time during a rest while awaiting the rest of our group by snapping some pix. The image at the top of this page is from that day. [back to top]