Twenty years ago I received my very first camera — a Panasonic Powershot, a 35mm beauty with motorized zoom. I was ecstatic! It was my 18th birthday and I immediately set about buying film and taking snapshots of the world around me. Christmas, Easter, family vacations, mission trips… all were now subject to my artistic desire and, with practice, came better pictures. My photography hobby kicked into high gear five years later when I bought a Canon Rebel SLR camera for about $700. It came with a removable lens and all these cool settings, like “Sport,” “Portrait,” and “Landscape!” I was working for a small newspaper at the time and part of my job involved shooting sporting events. I quickly bought a 300mm Sigma lens to go with my original lens and the sky was the limit.
Fast forward more than a decade. Now I use my second SLR, a Canon Digital Rebel, with a third lens and more than 10 years of practice and publication. I’ve been both overseas and inside my own garden, snapping frames. I mostly take landscape and macro photos, though I do mix in a person or two on occasion. But the natural world is my muse. I find colors, textures, shapes and sizes all over the place. Turn the camera at an angle and a whole new world of images becomes available. There is art and there is beauty in photography. There is also freedom. And those three make wonderful bedfellows.
Here’s a sampler of some of the photos I like the most.
Just beneath the surface of a dry lakebed in Southern California’s Mojave Desert is a reservor of salty blue water.
Statues always intrigue me. I loved the face of this angel.
Edinburgh, Scotland, at the moment of sunset. Castle Hill is at center.
This sign tells a story of rivalry and hate between Glasgow, Scotland’s two football (soccer) clubs.
Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Red church doors abound in Scotland. This one is in Dalkeith, southeast of Edinburgh.
Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland.
Reflection of an old farm building near my home.
Dunfermline Abbey Church in Scotland.
Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland.
Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland.
Edinburgh, Scotland, as seen from Calton Hill.
A rusty tractor plow.
A lone chapel sits at the top of Johnson Mesa in New Mexico.
I love textures. This is inside a Japanese garden in Fort Worth.
A sundial provides another opportunity for art.
A lit ferris wheel spins one night in the center of Glasgow, Scotland.
This is my favorite hat. The bench is nice, too.
A lone cyclist heads home in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Signs direct hikers and bikers on a trail near my home.
Beautiful nature.
This old gate is locked, keeping tourists out of an abbey ruin.
Natural color frames a walking path in a garden in Scotland.
Medicine Park’s waterfall, Oklahoma.
Melrose Abbey in Melrose, Scotland.
The Bisti Badland are a treasure of color and shapes in NW New Mexico.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico. This is the old Catholic churchyard.
Rusty nails and peeling paint create more texture and style.
This signs warns people visiting Jefferson Island, Louisiana, to watch for falling branches from ancient oak trees.
Guitarist Rhett Butler in concert, 2009.
A rusty spring.
Ruthglen Barracks in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland.
Ruthglen Barracks in Scotland.
This is my favorite photo. It speaks volumes of love, war and faith. Someone had placed the dogtags of their loved one on the hand of the Jesus statue in a cemetery. I can only imagine the grief and hope of heaven.
A chance encounter with a hiker at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.
Silhouette of the Edinburgh skyline.
Grapevine Lake, down the street from my house.
A Southern California sunset brought this gentleman out to capture the beauty.
Southern California sunset.
An old Cajun workshop in Vermillionville, Louisiana.
J.C. Newton 