Afternoon Spin

I’m Still Here

Note: iPad download link is a universal mobile wallpaper size will work both on iPads as well as iPhones. I’ll get the link text fixed up down the line. Wanting to make it easier to get back to posting desktops so I’m looking to streamline.

Fall Bloom

Note: iPad download link is a universal mobile wallpaper size will work both on iPads as well as iPhones. I’ll get the link text fixed up down the line. Wanting to make it easier to get back to posting desktops so I’m looking to streamline.

Checkers

Note: iPad download link is a universal mobile wallpaper size will work both on iPads as well as iPhones. I’ll get the link text fixed up down the line. Wanting to make it easier to get back to posting desktops so I’m looking to streamline.

Max

On one hand I have been nothing but quiet on the internet front lately but in general I have been nothing but. Finalizing details of a new album of music and moving into how to package it as well as writing, and searching for new material for desktop posts it’s just been a lot of behind the scenes work at play lately.

It hit me though that I have a few new wallpapers as well as a new 50ft Radio mix completely ready to go so I thought I would start a few new posts off with this lovely, minimal image shot while on a weekend camping trip with the family. We made a stop at Max Patch which is a famous spot along the Appalachian Trail to soak in the view and Its impossible not to take photos like this while there. The landscape is a unique patch of grassy land at high elevation giving visitors a really lovely 360 degree view of the mountains around the space. Links below for a wallpaper, enjoy!

Tiny Shrine

Traveling with a toddler can be a challenge, especially as a photographer. Finding a moment to sneak off and take photos is tricky because I have to balance my guilt for leaving family behind for what feels like a selfish endeavor and my creativity which doesn’t always flock to me at the flick of a switch. In my experience it takes me time to find a rhythm among the shutter clicks and in prioritizing time with family it has been harder to find my way to that space of mental clarity. It is something that I have been fighting a lot with in the past couple of years. My wife, YoungDoo seems to be clairvoyant behind a camera though and has managed to mold her creative focus around the challenges of being a mother but I think that I have come to the conclusion that we have different means of finding inspiration.

Her creative visions come fluidly through inspirations found in her surroundings, wherever she is and I have no idea how she pulls that off. With me, I need more room to get lost in my head and get comfortable with whatever space I am in. It takes time for me to see beyond the anxious pressure I put on myself when I walk around with camera in hand /with intention/ to shoot. This is touching on ideas I have been writing a lot about lately and have been chipping away at an article of sorts that needs a closing before I can post it. Thats the hardest part of writing is it not? Sticking the landing.

Waiting Outside

I’m sure I mentioned it already but bikes and Kyoto are a match made in heaven. The city is largely flat and you can get anywhere in the city with little to no effort by bike. I was apprehensive about this fact for some reason while we were there so we only took out bikes made available for us once which I look back on and regret. Maybe it was just that I love taking subways and trains places and the trains in Kyoto are charming and affordable so it was hard to resist.

Bikes littered the city though, at least the more traditional parts of it. It was hard to go anywhere without one zipping by and if your ever there I highly suggest you consider it as a key mode of transportation. What better way to see a city than to take it slow? Enjoy the photo? Wallpaper links below!

Kurama-dera

We did our best to balance our time in Kyoto, leaving plenty of space for simply traveling between places or taking the long way somewhere. This did send us to the wrong spot once or twice including our attempt to make our way out to this beautiful temple in mountains just outside of the city. It’s a beautiful place to visit and because it was the off season and we arrived at the end of the day there was hardly anyone there at all. Even with only a short time available to us to explore the cliff dwelling temple we were able to soak in some of the misty charm and glow of the complex and its many vistas, temples, and steep pathways. It was a beautifully calm place, as was the tiny town at its entrance. This image is but a tiny, perhaps common view but it quickly brings back fond memories. Links for a wallpaper below!

For Tomorrow

Looking through photos I took in Japan four years ago I find it impossible to believe that it has been that long since traveling there. I had to recount the years a few times on my fingers just to triple check but its true. This could be because my life has sped by exponentially faster and faster as big shifts swing with a wider circumference as I get older. The weight of that spin and its billowing momentum makes me wonder if there is any way to stop a year from going by without it feeling like an abrupt cut in a film with a lazy caption reading “one year later”.

Or, lets look at this in a more optimistic light. Maybe the reason looking through these photos I feel as though it were just yesterday because the trip left that much of an impact on me. After a lifetime of curiosity I had finally made it to Japan, maybe just for a short time, sure, but I do remember it fondly. The movement of Kyoto, the taste of each thing we ate, the color of the walls and the feeling of dodging raindrops with a large plastic umbrella bought at a 7-11. Memories from this trip have been surprisingly sticky in my mind, especially when digging around through photos taken while there. My heart lights up a bit as memories start to flood in, holding loosely onto one another in a wave of “oh yeah, I remember that!” moments.

The photograph here felt like a good place to start in sharing some of these visual memories with anyone stopping by. I have a few cropped already and will continue to share and dig through them until I feel like I have run out of interesting things to post from the trip. The photo here today taken at a temple in Kyoto feels apt somehow as I start to notice my own hopes, prayers, and dreams start to neatly pile up around me. Tonight, sitting here in silence on any one random winter night, I find myself again considering an ongoing theme in my personal thoughts going into this year about time and its passing and find connections and metaphors everywhere I turn.

Or, lets look at this in a more, “hey, John, I’m just here for the wallpapers, wheres the link?” Oh, right. Ahem, links below, stop back by soon, lets see what momentum I can get going in 2018 shall we?