Good Friends Are Like Angels, You Don't Have To See Them To Know They Are There

Thank You for reading my Blog.

Thank You for being a friend.

Each one of you is an inspiration!

May Peace, Love, and Beauty be with you in the New Year!

Secretary, Hearst Magazines, @1980. Photo by Bruce Barone.

An image from my soon-to-be published book

Famous People Famous Places
with an Introduction by Luc Sante

Are there Angels in your life?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Blonde Bombshell in Black Dress

From my soon-to-be published book

with an introduction by Luc Sante

Famous People Famous Places

Forgotten Images of a Lost Times Square

What are your memories of Times Square?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Smile

Egg Farm. Otis, Massachusetts. Photo by Bruce Barone.

The best fresh eggs in Western Massachusetts.

 

What makes you smile?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Resolutions vs. Alterations

I found this old negative, a photo of a store on Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, taken many many years ago and I thought how apt of a word, how better than resolution.

So, instead of New Year's Resolutions, I am making Alterations.

To a great degree, all the Alterations are inter-connected, and I am enjoying illustrating each alteration with my photography.
 
In the book, Balancing Life By The Rule, Debra Farrington shows us the difference between self-help and spiritual growth in her article on creating a "rule" to guide everyday life, based on Christian monastic rules.

Contrasting a rule with a New Year's resolution, she says that the latter is based on what we think is wrong with us (too fat, too poor, too tired, etc), while a spiritual rule grows from a desire to become more fully what we were created to be.

What do you think?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

The Three A's to Successful Night Snow Photography

1. Attire

We are all familiar with the term "Dress for Success." When photographing in the cold at night, paying attention to this adage can make the difference between getting great images or mediocre images. It takes more than good equipment to achieve success; Keep you head, feet, hands, legs, chest warm.

2. Attitude

Having a positive attitude when you are out in the cold at night will have a great impact on your success rate. Simply said: You should be having fun! Which brings me to my next tip:

3. Attendance

We have often heard "Half of success is showing up and the other half is showing up on time." What I mean here is that we, as photographers, ought to be "practicing" every day in the same way a painter uses a paintbrush, a pianist uses a piano.

Snow. Rain. Heat. Aren't these all situations for us to discover new landscapes of and for success? And when we add Attendance to Attitude to Attire we get success.

Of course, a Tripod is a necessity as is an umbrella (if it is still snowing or raining). Often, people might see me standing in the snow or rain behind my Tripod, an umbrella in my left hand, and my right hand on my camera!

Snow Falling on Bus Stop. Easthampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Do you have rules for success?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

No-Knead Fig & Fennel Bread

Bruce's Kitchen Fig & Fennel Bread

Find the recipe here:

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me. 

Hark! The Hearld Angels Sing

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Photo by Bruce Barone.

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.
  ~Meister Eckhart 

Read about the hymn here.

How do you offer a voice that sings of faith, peace, joy, love and oneness--not just one day a year but a way of living life?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

 

In Silence of Falling Snow I Find Peace

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

~A Child's Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas

The Lower Mill Pond. Easthampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

 Peace be with you. Always.

Un Flambeau, Jeanette Isabelle

I love this Christmas Carol:



You can read a very short post about it here (and read the lyrics).

Do you have  favorite Christmas Carol?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Once In Royal David's City

A favorite Christmas Carol:

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

Read about the Carol, Once in Royal David's City.

Do you have  favorite Christmas Carol?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Vintage Christmas Decorations

Susan sprayed "snow" this morning through "Frosty" Christmas Stencils to create beautiful designs on our front window:

And we put Vintage Christmas Wrapping Paper under the glass top of a table in the sitting room:

Do you have any Vintage Christmas decorations beautifying  your home?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Giving and Bread

In today's Advent message from Unity I read:

"The real value of a gift is not determined by how much you pay for it, but by what you invest of yourself in it. A relatively inexpensive gift that has been blessed by your love and thoughtfulness will bring joy and lasting inspiration to the one who receives it. Always give imaginatively, lovingly, freely, enthusiastically--whether your gift be a word, a smile, an act or a Christmas package. It is better not to give at all than to give with a sense of burden or with the hope of gain.

"True giving is spontaneous, like the overflow of a spring or fountain. Stir up the spirit of love and joy within you--so that you cannot help but give. Then give in the happy realization that every gift, whether to God or to a person, has something of you in it--the best of you--your love, joy, appreciation, thoughtfulness and strength.

"Give with no strings attached, and you will receive in the same manner."

Dear Readers, I give to you today this message, the following photo, and a recipe for making bread:

Spring at Mittineague Park. West Springfield, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

What are you giving today?
I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Some Trees

"When you find your place where you are, practice occurs."

~Dōgen

 

Mt Tom Range. Easthampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

 

"Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness.......The wild requires that we learn the terrain,
nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get home."  

~Gary Snyder

What good story will you share?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Christmas Within An Inner Silence

Beyond celebration

of gift and carol,

candlelighting and

"Merry Christmas!"

there is another

ritual of season

when I turn within

to the still center

of my own being,

celebrating

within the shape

of silence

the star radiance

the birth love

the peace angel

and let vibrations

flow out from

that center's energy

to bless, to heal,

to give the gift

of radiant love.

~Elizabeth Searle Lamb

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Do you have "another ritual of season?"

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Santa, Please

A few years ago, four years ago, I believe,
I had the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap and talk with him
about gift-giving. I was documenting his visit
to the building where I lived in a loft
and had my photography studio and art gallery.

If you had the opportunity to ask Santa for a gift,
what would you ask for or want to give?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Chirstmas Decorations

Here is a look at some decorations at our home:

There are more, of course. But this is enough for today.

Guess who plays Santa in our house Christmas Eve?

I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

 

Season's Greetings!

May the Gift of Peace and Love 

Be Yours This Holiday Season

And Throughout the New Year

Card and Photo by Bruce Barone.

"Happy are those who live in your house."

~Psalm 84:4

Do you have plans for Christmas Eve?

Christmas Day?

I would love to hear from you!

Susan and I are having 18 people over to our house

for food, drink and gift-giving.

I'll soon be posting the recipes at Bruce's Kitchen.

Guess who plays Santa?

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Daily Achievements

I am able to imagine great possibilities
and take the small steps every day
that move me to create;
I am refreshed and revitalized,
enjoying the daily achievements,
applying focused and positive attention
to a project each day.

Mittineague Park. West Springfield, MA. December 13, 2010. Photo by Bruce Barone.

What project are you working on today?
I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me. 

Swan Lake

What exactly is success?
For me it is to be found not in applause,
but in the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing one's ideal. 

~Anna Pavlova

Swan Lake. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Are you realizing your ideal?
I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Hallelujah

I saw the above at StoneGable and wanted to share it.

Have you ever heard the Hallelujah Chorus in church or a concert hall? I have.


If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Passion is the Path

Photo by Bruce Barone.

"If we wait for the perfection of circumstance

nothing moves. We work in the midst of challenge.

Passion, not perfection, if the path."

~Mylene Dressler

Friend and Collaborator

What is your passion?
I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

Hope by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers --

That perches in the soul --

And sings the tune without the words --

And never stops -- at all --

Photo by Bruce Barone.

And sweetest -- in the Gale -- is heard --

And sore must be the storm --

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm --

Photo by Bruce Barone.

I've heard it in the chillest land --

And on the strangest Sea --

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb -- of Me.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Today is Emily Dickinson's birthday. 

Do you have a favorite Emily Dickinson poem? I would love to hear from you! If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.

On The Streets of New York

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Are you more charitable at this time of year?
I would love to hear from you!

If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.