I seldom leave my cameras behind. I took them on my mission trip to Mexico, to Liberia, and of course, to Alaska. We went on a mission trip, led by our friends the Icenogles, to Juneau. We all worked hard at a church camp and in a kitchen for the homeless. But we also had fun, especially with sightseeing. I was so excited to see the cold blue ice of a glacier up close. The ship our group was on came up into this bay, and I saw this other sailing ship at an "ideal" spot, even closer to the glacier. And for a moment, I wished I was on that boat for a closer view. But it took only an instant to realize I had a photo that no one on that boat had, a different perspective. One could get some sense of the size of the blocks of ice of the glacier by comparing them to this sailing boat. The mast gave dimension and the white hull contrasted with the blue ice. I was on the right boat, ... for a photo with dimension.

Beauty is everywhere. Just a brief walk from my house, to the top of the ridge, was the scene pictured below. I took dozens of pictures. I like them all. Some are backlit, and it seems that the seeds of this milkweed plant are exploding out of the pod. I even tried this in black and white, and I still liked it. But I do like color the best.

Visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park and you'll find that everyone is on the one-way road through Cades Cove. But there is a lot more park than the Cove. And there is certainly more to see than a drive through the Park from Gatlinburg, TN to Cherokee, NC. The park covers 521,490 acres or about 800 square miles. There are 384 miles of roadway and 800 miles of hiking trails. It is possible to be alone or nearly so in this massive park. One such place is Cataloochee on the far eastern edge of the park; it is home to a sizeable elk herd where one can readily hear them bugling. This photo is of Palmer Chapel on a November evening with the elk nearby.

When it gets cold, I like to imagine warmer places, like the beach at Maui. We went in 2008 and are ready to go back any time. Cold weather not only affects toes and fingers, but it messes with the brain. I noticed that someone else had written recently that cold weather makes them feel alive. Yes, it does that. And I have admitted at other times that I can miss snow. But I love being warm. And my one trip to Hawaii was in March. I could go in December or January or February.

I took this photo with a 11-18mm zoom lens, iso 200, .6 second exposure at f/20. The longer exposure blurred the action of the waves.

Some might think this odd, because you are either too young or already live in the country. But when I was a kid, my dad would announce that we all were going for a drive in the country. I loved it. It was a a chance to see something new, to go somewhere we hadn't been. And we would just roam the country roads. At least, it seemed that way to a kid.

I spent a lot of miles driving during my ministry, especially during the five years I was a superintendent. Again, it was new territory for me, and I have always enjoyed driving. This photo is on the road along the Mississippi River, just south of Nauvoo, among the prettiest places in Illinois.

I have waited on this hilltop several times for dawn. I was first introduced to it in 1997 by Bill Fortney and John Shaw at a photography workshop. This was in the last century when film was king. However, this is a digital image. And now it is hard to believe that this spot is only a little more than three hours from my house. I do think you have to be here every morning or very lucky to get a spectacular sunrise. I have seen some fantastic photos from this hilltop because I think every photographer east of the Mississippi River knows where this is. I'd like to take a great picture here, but it is a challenge to get out of a warm bed and drive in the dark up to this spot. But how will you know what dawn looked like unless you make the journey?

Today's lesson from the Psalms (123) concludes with these intriguing lines: "Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud." The petition comes from those near the bottom of society, those who live at the margin, those who are looked down upon.

The petition is as true today as it was thousands of years ago. People grow weary of being treated and used as things. And they plead to God, to be noticed, to hope their plight will be noticed by God because they are ignored and mistreated by the powerful. I find it to be a rather convicting message. I'm the one that walks by and looks down.

I loved riding a bike as a kid. I love it as an adult. I learned how to fix punctured inner tubes and to remount tires on rims. And then you need air. The nearby filling station often had an air hose attached to the building. Often, they would tell us kids not to use up all their air. But it was always free. And as we got older we realized that there was a compressor somewhere in the garage that provided the free air for bike tires and basketballs. I saw this "tireflator" on the wall of an old service station in Cowan, TN. One half of the building is a museum, while the other half is the town library.