I’ve been asked, “Why are you taking all those pictures?” Most of the time my mouth doesn’t move… I just shove a business card at the inquisition. The truth is, I can’t communicate well in person. SO, herein lies my reason -- beyond the dot-com facade.

Why do I like music and photography so much? I could write books on it… but it all boils down to this. Photography is my voice, my language, and my communication. I feel I can show the world what I am thinking in a single photograph, without having to say a word.

Music… allows me to understand what others are thinking and feeling… even when they can’t speak it. A guttural growl or a soft moan can tell me more than a thousand words in my native language. This became increasingly important to me when I moved to another state (state in every sense of the word). I, to this day, do not grasp the mentality of those in my community. However, when I hear them sing, when I hear them play their music, I appreciate and understand what they’re saying. I become less of a foreigner in my own locality. It brings me to a place somewhere familiar – somewhere closer to home. Regardless of language or culture, I get it (although the music of Yoko Ono still somewhat eludes my comprehension.)

As technology for recording and distributing music (and photography) matures and becomes more accessible, the amount of music out there exponentially increases. However, the basic human psyche allows for a generalized trend line of love, anger, betrayal, lust, joy, and loss to be drawn. But the trend line ignores the spikes of creativity, and that guttural moaning is lost in the recording. That’s why I preach about going out to see music live… especially local music. I want to share that understanding feeling - up close. I just hope that one person comes away from it seeing just half of what I see and feel.

I suppose, my second love (My son is my first love) is music. I feel everyone should have a love. Maybe some day I will understand people who don’t want to envelope themselves in music at every opportunity outside of a migraine. Perhaps they have knowledge or experience of something, perhaps spiritual, that I lack deep inside. For now, I’ll settle myself in the sadness of knowing, intimately, just some of what they are missing by letting music slip out of their lives.

See you out there.