The Great Pumpkin

Most would argue the Great Pumpkin exists only in the mind of Linus in Charles Schulz's classic Peanuts comic strip. For generations, the Great Pumpkin has evoked a sense of mystery and intrigue, giving hope to the power of belief in something intangible. Every year Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin to rise out of the pumpkin patch on Halloween night - the pumpkin patch deemed the most "sincere" - and then fly into the night delivering toys to all of the good little children of the world. Every year, he is inevitably disappointed. In attempts to interpret Linus's yearly venture, some describe it as symbolic of the struggles faced by people with practices or beliefs that are not shared by the majority. Others see it as a metaphor for humankind's existential dilemmas. How do you see Linus's unfailing persistence? How do you see your own?

Re-growth, Bainbridge Island

Function turns to form, emptiness to expansion. What once was, now again is. Like old times, the bold, new form embodies vitality and vigor, limited only by the sap flowing through its curious roots. Paint splashes across the crumbling walls, as if rogue artists attempt to demarcate what is ours and what is not; but we don't own the world around us. It owns us. When we step back, forget and desert our rough creations, the natural world steps in and weaves its own strands, reminding us of our foolish efforts to tame what was never meant to be controlled.

Does Stillness Truly Exist Within Motion?

Amidst the chaos of dozens of people circulating through the space, one individual stands still, seemingly calm and relaxed, glancing over his left shoulder at the woman next to him. Is this truly an anomaly? His apparent stillness captured in a brief moment of time, is illusionary. According to Fritjof Capra in his timeless book The Tao of Physics, "The Eastern mystics see the universe as an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and not static. Modern physics, too, has come to conceive of the universe as such a web of relations and, like Eastern mysticism, has recognized that this web is intrinsically dynamic." Nothing is what we perceive. 

Pike's Place

Pike's Place Market. What image enters your mind when you think of Seattle? Fish flying? Space Needle soaring above the western sky? Elliot Bay and the ferry heading off into the sunset? Has Seattle effectively marketed its image? Does the "personal brand" of this city capture the vital essence of what makes this place tick? Seattle might not have the iconic lure of San Francisco or New York, but its Pacific Northwest dominance entitles a certain degree of pride. 

Revival...

Revival: "bringing again into activity and prominence". So here we go. After a phenomenal turn of events in the past year, it is once again time to revive my photo-thought blog. It's personal & it's who I am. However this time around, my posts will only be weekly rather than daily. Being in graduate school while attempting to photograph and post daily proved unsustainable. Being in a sustainable business program proves contradictory. Welcome, if you have recently subscribed - hello again, if you've been waiting for quite some time...and enjoy...the first photograph beginning this new chapter is from a historic neighborhood in Istanbul, the captivating hillside promontory of Beyoglu...a mid-September eve of my last day in Turkey before returning to the states.