"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation."    -Herbert Spencer

 

Fun in the afternoon sun... and the prickly trail. 

                                 I love the softness of this one.

 

 

Pic Credit: Richard Evans

Pic Credit: Richard Evans



I completely forgot about these...
                     He just sent me a message the other night encouraging me to take another look through our shoot. We set up originally in Joshua Tree then headed to the hotel suite.

"I was just thinking  about you. I wish I was closer, when I   

come back to Cali in the spring let's shoot again."

"Ok, this time you're taking me to Death Valley." 

I've always wanted to shoot there in the spring.

A word from a dear friend of mine:

 

 

Jessica walk "your" path don't buy into someone else story.

Live in the present and let the future take care of itself.

Remember thought become things......so why not think

thoughts of Good and the Divine....and that is what will follow.

Namaste,

Tom 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic credit: Haily

My evening with "the girls"... 

        My little sweetheart has turned into a teen!!! Her cup size is bigger than mine and she is proud; walks up straight, shoulders back, chin high... beautiful. Natural beauty has been overthrown with silicon and  plastic surgeons. If you have natural talent you're told differently and those who "don't" are told they can have it. So, now the only question is; How do YOU define beauty? 

      Pic credit: Jyoti

      I shot with Andres Razo, yesterday. We started our session in Idyllwild and ended up near Pinyon. The dry heat and almost unbearable hot rocks from the afternoon sun was completely worth it. The thought of my first photo shoot in some time was full of feelings of uncertainty and apprehensive nerves which softened with his patience and kind smile.  

He enjoyed the beauty of the forest, but apparently was set on more desert shots. When driving back through Garner Valley he asked about the lake near by... yes, we past it. Coming upon it, back to Idy, we drove through the camp site. 

"Beautiful, can you swim in it?" (apparently he knows my fascination with swimming; in any body of water, but...)
"I wouldn't even let my dog swim in it!" 

The end of a solace shoot, with whom you become professionally compatible, is always crestfallen; never knowing if you will ever work together again... 

I can not wait to see the results, Sven Ellirand is the only photographer who has handed me the camera to review the work during the car ride home. "What do you think? Like anything?"

This is how I feel right now.
             Let's go to work! lol

 

Pic credit: Ken Allen

 

 

Happy 60 days of sobriety

 

 

 

 

Our little town is being some what threatened by this wild fire that started this last Monday afternoon. A "mandatory" evacuation was called out today while I was in Hemet. A simple trip to Hemet turned into a whirlwind of constant sounds coming from my phone- why I gave almost everyone a personalized tone, I don't know. I  couldn't even answer one with a simple yes or no before another text or call came       rolling in- interrupting. The police finally allowed me up so I could pack                  (after talking to my Dad!)~Thank You.  

 

 

This fire also ruined yesterday's photo shoot I had set with David Paquette.

Reschedule!

We were going to be shooting around... there.  

 

 

Irony?

 

~19000 acres burned, destroyed mobile homes, 15% CONTAINED, heading towards...me.

 

 

                                         Mmmm.... fresh from our garden.
                                                       

                                                Who's ready for dinner?

I am to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within; a growth upon a foundation of complete willingness. 

 

 

My willingness is as proportional to the amount of arrows in my ass; which is as proportional to my humiliation. 

 

 

Photo Credit: Sven Ellirand 

 

~`~All which I do not seek, yet have fallen upon~`~ 

 

 

 



         Is not our age characterized by the ease with which we discard old ideas for new, by the complete readiness with which we throw away the theory which does not work for something new which does? 
       




Material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded.

           My babies haven't bloomed in five years... Maybe they were waiting for sobriety, too.

                                                                                                                                                                         Alcohol is a disease of carried isolation. It engulfs you in a cloud of dark pins and needles. Until hidden disaster shows face, one stays in ignorant bliss.  
            The light eventually emerges, unexpectedly at the necessary  time. True colors show and your waken by realism. ~My new life has blossomed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I will not regret...I will not remorse...I will not retrace...I will not reconcile...I will not retreat...I will not regress...I will not rewind...

The past is non-existent  as is the future.

I will recover.