My life has been spent chasing one thing or another. Chasing dreams,  chasing kids, chasing dogs, chasing life as it raced past me. Other times, life was chasing me. 

Willie Nelson said it best in his song, Still is Still Moving to Me. 

And it's hard to explain how I feel it won't go in
words but I know that it's real I can be moving or
I can be still But still is still moving me still
is still moving to me

My mind is never still. I am always framing my next shot or writing words in my head, words that don't always stay. They run through me, and still moving, they go on out the other side. I learned to stop chasing, to stop worrying because I can't remember them. Now I just enjoy having my drive-by thoughts.

Are you the chaser or the chased?

Fire fascinates me, a calming energy to flicker candle's, toast marshmallows, or fire a kiln. I am both energized and relaxed by the flames.

The way I use my camera to capture the sunfire might have been influenced by my love of earthly fires.

Walking around with my camera creates the same feelings as fire. I get in a zone where all I see is what I am shooting now or what I will shoot next; my fugue state, deep into peace, a breathing space. Each new shot moves me forward with excitement for the next one. 

Where is your breathing space? 

I like to push limits. Tell me to not do something, and I am likely to respond like a two-year-old and do it anyway. 

There is a list of 78 rules for photography. I violated 16, 51, 52, 57 making this Lily Fire.

 The noontime sun, the heat, and the moisture in the air made these colors as I camera-painted. You can almost see the flames licking up, floating in the wind. 

Can you hear the snap, cracke, and pop of the fire, and, more important, can you smell the s'mores?

(78 Rules for Photographers, and a recipe for S'mores - scroll down and you can cheat with oven sm'ores)

It rained last night; what a beautiful sound to backdrop your sleep.

What a beautiful morning after the rain clears the air, leaving just a touch of mossy green on the tree trunks. The white of the birch against the blue of the day after sky makes me smile. 

What makes you smile in your morning?

Green is reappearing and the moss is enticing me. I suppose I will get past this latest phase of multiple-exposuring one day, or not. It makes me look with a different eye, trying to strategically layer. 

Maybe when it stops being so overcast. Or, maybe not. 

What do you practice over and over until you get it just right?