Utopia...

The fine subtle hints of meticulously crafted tastes and smells swirl over my tongue and through my nostrils. The molecular compounds of vanilla, roses, ripe pears and chocolate vibrate my taste buds like a bell and send wondrous messages to my brain's receptors. Fireworks of electrical impulses fill my core as my eyes flutter and visions of Bacchus' age of crafts acts as a muse once again. Forget about politics, if even for just a moment.

corvus corax...

There is something strange about a murder of crows. They are like the pirates of the air. Cunning characters always flying in numbers never to stray too long. They have no insignia, no morals, and a distinguishable language, you know when they are coming.

flowers...

In all the world very few things are as beautiful as a full flower in bloom waiting for the winds and insects to consummate its lovemaking with another nearby bloom. Many flowers tell a humble bee to land on it by means of infrared markings. Orchids mimic an insect in full by having its bloom resemble a worthy mate of its own species. Plants, especially those that bloom, have far surpassed so many other life forms with their inter-genus love dance and empathy. And humans, oh how our senses tingle with the mere symbol of a flower. If only they could sing.

crater lake...

I went on a bending journey with my love this late summer. We gawked at sunrises over the ocean and looked up the tallest trees in the world... some of the oldest too. We slept in tree houses, drank Bailey's and coffee, we went deep into caves. We as humans are quite fortunate to be able to think about the splendor of nature and all the happenings that are out of our control. The Earth is like a fine wine that is ever-changing in taste and age. I am just so excited to be able to think of such an occurrence on a plane outside of ignorance.

fe·roc·i·ty...

The quality or state of being ferocious.

Lulu at the driveways bend...

I am sorry to have missed all the people I did when I went back to Wisconsin, but, I can blame it on one sole factor.... Lulu... This little girl is quite amazing. I got to meet her just before her 3rd birthday, which I helped her celebrate. She is up at dawn and out well after the sun goes past the horizon. She has a friend, Robin, who flies wherever she goes. Robin is a superhero of sorts as he can fly, but he often forgets things, such as his backpack, which he has to go back and get quite often. He needs his backpack. At her dance recital she is the littlest one. But she is the easiest to spot because she has the biggest smile. Between times of disaster, as things often are to her, and taking photos of tongues sticking out, well, there just isn't that much time. This is where I used to play.

witches...

My dog, Aurie, reluctantly lives with a cat. You see, he is deathly afraid of them. He tells me that they are shape-shifters... witches of the worst kind. There is no such thing as a domestic cat, he says. They are all just witches living on the sly. Therefore he keeps his distance. Any person wise enough to stay away from witchcraft and spells will live a much more genuine and predictable life. I can attest to one thing... I have never known Aurie to lie.

remember roses...

The seemingly complicated process of a rose provides such a simple product. The repetitive flow and size makes the eye scan again and again. Yet, the strong and defined plan that it upholds produces such a soft and susceptible plant. A point of origin flows vigorously to the end of its world. Why can such a simple sample of the biological world hold so much for all senses. How privileged we are to be human and share our remembrances.

website...

everpoor photography... come get some.

Portland photo booth project...

Some samples of the photo booth project at Alberta's Last Thursday in Portland... you can see the rest at www.everpoor.smugmug.com and the Portland video HERE AND don't forget the Boston photo booth project HERE.

terminal velocity at half dome...

Finding these photos is precisely what taking them is for. This was an amazing day in my not so distant past. The day had started out rocky. I didn't want to go to Yosemite for some odd reason yet I still went. We had four in the car and were meeting two there. Before even leaving Tahoe, some crazy girl punched on her horn behind us, sped around and locked up her brakes, emitting smoke from the tires. We stopped and she got out in the middle of the road and proceeded to yell at us for cutting her off. I got out of the car and asked her to kindly get back in her car and leave. She said it wasn't her car, it was her friend's. Oh, really? That is how you treat your friend's cars? Regardless, this was not a conversation I wanted to have. I put my arm around her and guided her to the car. She said I had beautiful eyes.... twice. I wished her good-bye and to buckle up to be safe. some guys cheered.

We eventually made it to the gates of Yosemite after finding the other two. They went ahead with their parks pass while we waited. Then out the port side of the car there was a long legged blonde haired kid running through the field. It was Matt and he had the parks pass so that we (the second car) could get in for free.

We made it into the valley where it seemed that most of California had decided to go. We started hiking up to Half Dome while bumping shoulders with the onslaught of tourists. As we pressed on we eventually emerged out of the crowd after a bridge. From there on we saw a total of maybe four people. So much for the meek.

We camped early so that we could get a get-up on the next day. we slept for a few hours and awoke a couple hours before sunrise. With headlamps equipped, we pressed on.

In pitch black we made it to the bottom of the cables to Half-Dome. While we looked for matching gloves, as to not cut our hands on the cables, a man who never really came out of the shadows lingered. paying no real attention to him he started to climb. It seems a lot steeper when you can only see ten feet in front of you.

We made it to the top as little telltales of light shown over the horizon. We had made it, and just in time for sunrise. Madeline, being as prying as she is decided to go find out what our lingerer was doing. As luck may have it his story is the most compelling:

He asked, "Do you know this area well?"

She had no idea.

"I think my car is somewhere over by that river's bend."

he kind of had a lazy eye as he told her his secret.

"You guys seem nice enough, I'm going to jump."

She flagged down the rest of the crew to notify us of his daring stunt.

And just before he did jump he wished those around him to have a wonderful sunrise.

We watched him fall down and pan out. He flew across the Yosemite Valley toward Bridal Veil Falls, made a ninety-degree turn, opened his chute and lofted into the trees.

The sun was just coming up now, and it was time for a nap.

depictions of reality...

I used to paint. Then I noticed what was going on around me. No matter what I tried to create from puddles of paint and a brush could never be as beautiful as the wood and hairs used to create the brush nor the crushed up berries for the colors. The time and procedures that went into what already is will always be far more beautiful than any conscious mind can recreate. The painstaking hours that I would put in to mimic what has already been would only be an underachievement. To think that a sun's rays bounces off of every little particle in the atmosphere before it gets to me is far more of any art form than I could ever wish to learn.

the paradigm of josh dion...

This is Josh Dion... He is one of my three best friends. We live in Portland an he always partakes in the winter "beard off". You wouldn't know it by his hard look here, but he is really a baby-faced lover with soft arms to hold you with. We met snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. In fact during the time that we hung out we met up with another friend, Kyle "Schwartzkopf". Kyle mistook "Mr. Niceguy" Josh Dion for a 35 year-old hardcore ass kicker ( he was 21 at the time). Perhaps it was due to the Fu-manchu that Josh adorned at the time, or perhaps it was the hand sewn homemade patches that he wore on the sleeves and back of his denim jacket. I'm pretty sure Josh invented denim on the snowboard hill.
Josh wanted to be a filmer and I thought that I was a hardcore snowboarder, so we hit it off. He filmed me as I fell down, a lot. I don't think that I could have been a snowboarder worthy of film, but I think that he is a filmer worthy of recognition. Had he stuck it out in the cold he would be getting paid to stick it out in the cold.
Josh is one of my three best friends and one of my two human best friends and he is not my girlfriend... so he could be considered my best friend, by default. We have an interesting passive relationship but always look for fun. I like that.

if portland's sunset is bhutan's sunrise...

...then a new day I send to you.

city of roses...

In winter's wake, roses awake; a blossoming flower flutters... In spring's rainy prelude, petals soak the nude; a warm wind mutters...
the roses,
the roses,
the roses are here...
always a beauty, never the same, and the want to be near.

Tyrannosaurus...

Its roar is mighty...

Its speed is unparalleled...

It fears nothing...

...only in a child's imagination.

Expecting...

I was extremely excited when I knew that I would get to take Megan's maternity photos. I have never had children and I have never had a younger sibling. Sometimes I would babysit my cousins when I was younger, but was not mentally inept to understand the process and nostalgia that coincides with watching a person develop through their adolescence. Though I am not consistent in my friendship with Todd and Megan, I still get little "sneak peeks" as to what Flora (who is pictured here) and her older brother Haylen are becoming.

Though larger picture problems infect my mind and newscasts, the core of human nature is shown more eloquently on an intimate level between sole individuals. The idea of rocking on a chair and watching children overcome the new day's struggles that we have all gone through is a beautiful thing. I have now been a viewer of what someone achieves by merging their love to create another. Assembling molecules from the cosmos in the body's kettle only to share that body with another. Truly a timeless cycle that is beautifully shared throughout all living beings.

I am jealous of this power, for I will always only be an observant sailor, as barren as the sea's horizon, knowing fully of the ocean's potential of life and never become the ocean itself.

Into the land of goat pepper...

This last fall I had an opportunity to witness and share the love between two individuals. There were five of us in all to partake in the ceremony and festivities. We all whisked away to the far off island of Ireland. Drove to the western most coast to the Cliffs of Moher. Everyone jumped a fence, trudged through cow pasture mud, and arrived at where the island falls slowly into the sea. The sun peeked in-and-out of the clouds that the wind pushed by. Yet, within all the chaos that is nature was a vortex of shared excitement and sincerity. Two beautiful people, with the help of a cherished friend, gave themselves to each other.

kid project...

Three of the last five books that I have read have started out giving thanks to a child who asked the author a question that they couldn't answer. Once simple question lead those individuals to write whole works of literature because a child asked of it. There is much muse and self-discovery to be found in a young being. Perhaps, because we all sprout from the same make-up of the cosmos and structure ourselves through the same patterns, we can always relate with what we were. If we're lucky some of us never have to completely change. This is the hopes that I can be inspired by never forgetting my roots of adolescents.