Given all of the talk in the wake of the death of Nelson Mandela, I felt compelled today to offer a small tribute him and his legacy. He not only helped change the face of South Africa, he also helped change the way many think about race and equality. The photo is not mine and I hope that's OK.
Four quotes of his strike me as particularly meaningful today
"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."
"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."
"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."
and
"It always seems impossible until it's done."
At the end of one of my photography classes the other day, I asked if there were any questions. During the minute or two that I waited, I was greeted with silence. I told the class that their silence may be due to their shyness, their total understanding of everything I taught, or their confusion. I did point out in a friendly way that "teachers don't drive the best learning; curiosity does."
So today's photo is a huge leap from what I've been posting the last couple days. Is there some plan that I have so that I can keep my viewers off balance? No. In fact, the number of views I get when I post kids goes way up. Today's photo won't get a third of the hits yesterday's got. But that's OK with me. . . . 
Yesterday's photographic mission was to copy a photo that had been taken 59 years ago. The subject in the photo is Debra DeGeest (AKA Deb Shephard). The new subject for the copy was Glenny J. (AKA Glenyce Jane Shephard). The dress in both photos is the same dress - worn very little for the photo so long ago and worn only for a few minutes for the recent shoot. Both subjects are 6 months old.
A few years ago one of my photography students told the front office that there were several reasons I should be fired. As hard as it is to realize one isn't all things to all people, the one reason that made me laugh went something like this: "He should be fired because he doesn't like children and therefore we won't learn how to photograph children!"
So I'm indulging in my architectural detail fetish today, this time with a shot of the Utah state capitol dome. Tomorrow maybe I'll have a turkey photo given that it is Thanksgiving here in the USA.
I suppose I should be posting something slightly more seasonal, shouldn't I? But perhaps these purple iris are blooming somewhere in Australia, where summer is about to begin. So I would suggest they are seasonal.
Given that I talked a bit about the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel yesterday, I thought I'd post my one and only photo of the ceiling, "accidentally" taken in 2004. Photography is not allowed, but in the crowded and somewhat chaotic chapel, my camera somehow went off. And this is what I ended up with.
Here's another capture from the Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. As I was working on getting this photo ready for this post, it occurred to me that the photos you see here fall into one of about three categories: photos that demonstrate a process, photos that attempt to show a unique or new view of things, and photos of things, in which process, art and uniqueness are not primary considerations.
It's no secret that I have a penchant for architectural details. On the morning I visited St. Cecelia Cathedral in Omaha, I was well aware of the fact that have hundreds of church exterior and interior photos. And so, even though I had my camera with me as I walked in and around this beautiful cathedral, I had decided that I wasn't going to take any photographs.
Given all the retrospectives of the Kennedy assassination on the 50th anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to post a photo I took while visiting Dallas a few years ago. This is the Texas Book Repository from which Oswald shot Kennedy. 50 years ago I was only nine years old but, like many of my generation, there are many things that I remember from those days in November. . . .