Shudder Release: Find your beach (an introduction)

Life isn't always a private island with its crashing waves creating a perfect balance between a "put you to sleep" lullaby and a gentle reminder that there is nothing to worry about except where you and your significant other are going to sun bathe on the beach. No, life can be quite the opposite. It can take those dolphins diving into the horizon mirrored by a perpetual sunset, and make you wish you had even just a cup of salt water to rinse your wounds so that at some level you could at least attempt to imagine that beach with its palm trees and coral reefs.

All the flowery language aside, life can SUCK. I am sure anyone reading this can take that word and give it its own gruesome, miserable, disheartening definition paired with an HD visual playback and multi-chapter pity party story. You wouldn't be alive if you couldn't. But life also wouldn't be life if there wasn't those things that can turn that frown upside down and somehow take you back to that island (of course, for you it might not be an island). Everyone's island is a little different, but it's your life and your mind, so that happy feeling should be available all the time. And once you find the key to that door, future kicks in the shin will transform into first-class tickets to anywhere you want to go--without you even knowing about it! You won't even know you just bypassed a week, month, or year of dwelling, worrying, and regretting. There will only be excitement and anticipation for what awesome thing is coming down the pike next.

Life does have some pretty beautiful, amazing and uplifting things. For me, the act of taking a camera and forever petrifying those images, those stories, those moments, can take me far, far away. No matter what my mind is being plagued with, I can go find a dragonfly, glassy pond, or dewy flower to use as a model for my happiness. Now don't get me wrong, I wish I could be in New Zealand or Paris photographing rolling green landscapes and 14th century architecture, but that tiger lily floating down a stream does the trick. Now, this blog is not at all limited to photography--it's about life, so essentially it's not limited to anything at all. (for the record, photography is not the only thing that makes my happy, and others will surface over the course of my posts)

I'll have pictures with stories that can cheer probably anyone up, and I'll open my mind to anyone reading this, and show, through the things I talk about or show through pictures, how pessimism can be whacked more simply, sanely, and permanently than we think, and since this "revelation" is still new to even me, reading through the pages of my simple views on life might take some patience...I apologize in advance :) All that to say, every post may not be me describing how much I'm enjoying the hammock on the beach if you know what i mean ;)

I'm just a sophomore in college who is excited about what life has to offer, and I hope through the pages of this simple blog, I can share how I got to where I am, what makes me tick, what makes me tick with a smile on my face, the story behind some of my photography, and the crazy things that happen to me... in the hopes that someone will get something out of (if nothing more than a laugh or a "wow, look honey, I could be like that guy!")

Now let's get to the releasing of all that "shuddering", and get away from anyplace where you can't curl your feet in the sand and laugh at the thought of a "bad day"!

PS. I haven't physically been to as many private islands and sandy beaches as I would like to, but if I have been everywhere I want to, then what's the point of life? Anyway, this pic is as close as I can get to the feeling I want to convey...or maybe it's just me acting like an idiot. It's in Maui, the most beautiful place ever!! (stories to come) and by the way, most of my shots will be better than this! (check the link at the bottom)