I have been photographing nature for the past five years or longer... I continue to take my camera on almost every walk I take with my two Golden Retrievers "Muffin" and Riley".  These walks are not just walks they become adventures, a hunting, gathering experience in which my spirit and my camera capture the wonder and beauty in the everyday... 

At the moment I live in a tiny suburban town, there is a bit of wooded area that has been there for years, I grew up in it in many ways. It has been transformed by progress, yet still clings to wildness. Broken bent, twisted trees, wild flowers, reeds, mushrooms, fungi, there is a family of Red Tail Hawks, a falcon that comes through, to disturb the peace of the other birds, robins, redwing black birds, chick a dees, and many that I don't see but here, traveling around... 

On the ground I have been greeted by box turtles small and large, garden snakes, fogs. dragon flies, and the cicadia whirling about like a ballet in the air... 

Do I get to take photos of all these, not always, but I know they are there, that they have allowed me into their space.... 

I recently created two photographic calendar's, http://www.redbubble.com/people/jeffstroud,  in honor of the beautiful gifts that are there for us to take pleasure in, to allow us to breath, to live among the ever changing challenge of climate, pollution, noise and trash. 

My intention with the photography that I have the honor to shoot, is to allow nature and creation to speak on its own behalf. 

Not only are the hills alive with the sound of music, so is your neighborhood, your parks, your back yard... 

This is my gift I offer back to the gifts that I am grateful to share with all living creatures.... 

  Blog Action Day 2009