CONTEMPORARY EXPLORER

Photographers always talk about the Golden Hours, near sunrise and setting, when the light blesses the earth with color and warmth. It quickly passes though. They shy away from midday shots when the sun is high in the sky yielding a harsh light that can dull images and creativity.  They also talk about the Fall and Winter when the sun is lower in the sky extending hours of softer light. Light that blends the best of the Golden Hours and the edgy harshness of mid day shots. As I have grown into the Fall, now the Winter of my life, the world has revealed more to me. Allowing me to savor more of the softer light and the texture of things. David Young

Small Dreams from David Young on Vimeo .

Part of the fun of travel is trying something new. Staying in the heart of a big city is exciting. The action and attractions are right outside your door. Prices though are getting high. A stay in a downtown New York City hotel often costs $300 or more. Not to mention the $75 cab ride each way and the $20 glasses of wine.  There are other ways to take a “slice of the Big Apple.” On a recent trip to New York, I flew into EWR Newark Liberty International Airport and stayed at the Hilton at Newark Penn Station. Newark is a short 21-minute commuter train ride to Midtown. There you can catch subways to almost any attraction in NYC, such as MOMA, The NY Public Library, 911 Memorial, and The Metropolitan Museum. Flights to EWR are low cost because it caters to cruise lines, offering volume discounts. The Hilton I stayed at was $118 a night. It is attached by a causeway to Newark Penn Station (the sister station to Penn Station NYC). Trains run every 9 minutes. Better yet, Hilton

Our society is built on hope and the promise of a better life ahead. That vision is becoming more difficult for many who find themselves among the New Desperate. The faces of those needing help is rapidly changing. They used to be called the welfare class. Today they are more likely to be aging Americans or the working poor. 20% of people over 65 have no savings and 1 in 5 are still working. Many more will have to go back to work at some point after retirement. The National Council for the Aging reports that 10.2 million people over 60 are under the threat of hunger. 15.8% of those over 60 receive food stamps.  Many of these Americans have worked hard all their lives and only reluctantly seek help. 10,000 new people turn 65 each day. There are 9 million working poor in this country. They represent those who work full time or at least part of year but still fall below poverty level. The official poverty level is a set shocking low at $11,880 for 1 person, $16,020 for 2 and

I’m at the top of Watatic and I feel like a drop of ocean water caught mid splash, momentarily suspended in air. Given awareness, looking over the vast ocean of green. Feeling the grandeur of nature cognizant of all the varied life forms including drops of humanity tucked into the hillside swells. For a brief moment, I drink in as much as my limited senses allow. And then the moment is ended as I turn to drop down the mountainside, returning to my rightful place in the sea of green. Brenda Little

The need for purpose can haunt you and follow you into retirement. Even after a great career, raising you kids, having grandchildren and many accomplishments, there still can be a need to have some type of purpose in retirement. Much is written about this subject and how to find missing purpose. Hobbies, family and volunteering help for a time. However, it never seems quite enough. We lived such an A to B life before retirement. How do we find that purpose again, or should we at all? Most articles will urge you to strive for it. However, there is another way. It is to look beyond the need for the type of purpose we knew in the past.  At some point, you start to realize that the driving need for purpose limits your enjoyment of the wonderful gift of free time that retirement gives us. A time when you can explore the full range of senses of what it means to enjoy life and be alive. The fresh fall breeze, the sounds of the city and nature, the taste and smell of a well p

Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, Level 6 and 7. Where was my car? I finally found it back on Level 3. Pausing, I thought about how all the levels looked the same. How the city had become that way, everything the same.  I turned, looking for an exit And hoped I was not that way…. dty ‘17

I grabbed the dog and walked down to the corner market deli. The shagginess and unruly nature of my dog remind me of my youth. No one would want him or me then. The morning air  freshened as I sat in front of the market with coffee and paper. A small article on the entertainment page caught my eye, “Jack Ely Dies.” The article went on, “Ely a member of Kingman, famous for singing Louie Louie…” Our old high school song, I thought. It was sung at every football game and dance. The memory threw me back to the late sixties and my high school years. Awkward and an outcast, they were long years for me.  I thought of Anne Farmer. Her beauty gave her a pass to the in-crowd . Dating upper class-men who had fast cars and faster ways, the girls in that group had nothing to do with outcasts like me. Anne was different. She had a type of beauty that earthiness cast and a warm smile. She always took time to say hello to me. I knew not why, but it helped me find my way through those tim

"Rolling Along at Walmart" - just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before....

The Desert Sisters from David Young on Vimeo .

Aberdeen is a raw windswept town on the Washington State coast. I knew it from my business days. It is a hard scrabble place fashioned by the demise of a once flourishing timber industry. There were still glimmers of opportunity, but many who lived there had given up hope. Aberdeen is now perhaps best known for the birthplace of Kurt Cobain and his Grudge Rock. Kurt Cobain, though, is not the only famous person from Aberdeen. Lee Friedlander, an icon of photography, grew up and went to high school there. Friedlander, now 79, is still alive and taking great photographs. He is famous for his series on Jazz legends, contemporary scenes, and street photography.  The story of how he made it from Aberdeen to fame in Los Angeles and New York is an example of how there are bridges to success even in the toughest of places. The answer to Friedlander’s success rested on determination and people skill. He set his site on a goal and sought the help of a local freelance photographe