I’ve never done well in school, or with teachers. I have a photo instructor, Christine Glade, and I am doing very well in my lessons with her. I have learned a lot. I did get yelled at today for failing to provide provide of my homework – showing photos of different shutter speeds to show I am mastering movement. But I am learning how to control my camera, something I did not know, and also a lot about light and wind and other things I have not thought that much about. Digital cameras are fast and smart, and if you let them, they will do most of the thinking for you. I like to do my own thinking.

I am loving a prime lens (no zoom to it), the 35 mm, and I am going to work hard and focus on this lens, as it will force me to conceptualize my photos more clearly, and I love how clear the lens is and how soft the colors.  I tend to get too close, because I like emotion, and perhaps because it is easier to twist the lens than think about the photo. Each photo tells a story, and I think the 35 mm is a story lens. Not too close, not too far.

Christine is impressive, and I have finally found a teacher I love, even if I do get yelled at. We ended the class today in a philosophical discussion about why we are on this earth, something she thinks about, and how we are different from chickens and other animals. This, as you know is a subject I love. My wheelhouse.

And the lessons and the lens come into it. I’ve been taking photos for some time, taken thousands of pictures sold quite a few, had a half dozen photo show (she doesn’t like them either.) I was there, sitting in her office, I said, with her and with this lens, because human beings, alone among all the species of the earth, can strive to be better. Can be better, even if they are not always. No animal gets up in the morning and wonders how to improve their lives. This is what is sacred about people, I think, what separates us from them. This is why, even though I love animals, I do not believe they are the same as or superior to people. Our desire to change our lives is very precious.

Every morning, I seek to be better. Sometimes I am. Each day I want to love my wonderful wife more than the previous day. To take a better photo than I have ever taken. To learn something I didn’t know. To listen to something I need to hear. To write something that is thoughtful, useful, entertaining. To learn more about the animals than I knew the day before. That is why I am here. That creative spark is sacred to me, what makes us wonderful and unique, not matter how short we fall. I appreciate my new teacher. Learning is good.