As you may know, photography has become an avocation. I don’t know when it happened, but I do know in 2015 I lost all digital photographs; I already had quite a few and was very sad. Entering Facebook in 2009, certainly opened the door that would be my gallery for this future passion. In 2002 I submitted a photo for competition. If I journey back further to Christmas of 1984, I received my black and blue (with a bit of yellow) Fisher-Price camera when I was just 7 years old; the age I received my First Communion. Those printed photos have also been lost to history, but the desire must certainly have been lit!

This past summer I was with university students in Estes Park, CO. A professional musician spoke about the history of American music and played selections since the countries birth to tell his story. I was captivated by his passion and could see he likely spends hours honing his craft just to give this one public moment to us as a gift. I was jealous! In the moment, I desired the capacity to play guitar. . . to write music. . . to sing. . . to communicate something incredible to the world. I’ve had this exact jealously aise more than a few times over the yers. I just can’t figure out the guitar. Then it hit me: “what he is doing now, is what I do when I share photos on Facebook! What he is doing with his guitar, is what I do with my iPhone camera.” I can’t count the number of times people have seen one of my photographs and said, “did you take that with your phone?” with a tone of surprise. It was a gift - a grace from God - to recognize something that many people already knew: I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER!

I am constantly in search of the photograph that has such “might and energy” that it strikes the viewer immediately!

I don’t recall that search for the perfect picture, when the F-P camera captured geese at the zoo or when I took my first travel photos during the 1989 Rutten Black Hills Vacation. I don’t recall the passion to position people in just the right way so a background and foreground both tell a story. . . and to ensure every face is seen. Yet, this is actually who I have become.

In the foreground, I’ve taken a long journye and discovered this avocation to share with the world something beautiful. However, in the background is a story of God who knew at my birth that photographs would be a part of how I’d communicate the most mysterious and miraculous event which couldn’t be photographed: the Face of the Author of all beauty who would be visible in this world. In a way we never would have imaged, the Shroud of Turin actually captured a pictures (look it up!)

It just so happens that on the exact same pilgrimage to Estes Park, I captured the photograph below. It is the pinnacle of my photographic life since I was seven years old. It is a source of contemplation for me. The mountains and the grandeur of God; the snow and thoughts of Lord of the Rings; the monk (not me) who closes out the cast of characters; the individual people who also make a whole, and of course the totally unexpected moment I “saw” the possibility of such a picture; when I glimpsed a tree and some rocks I could stand near. What a gift I was given by God!

I have enjoyed sharing the fruit of my passion for photography with you and many. I am grateful to share this photograph as my 2023 Christmas card.