Painted on the Backdrop of Hell

The Bush administration has created an ongoing backdrop of hell on which to paint our pictures of beauty. While Iraqis were blown apart yesterday by the hundreds, we were walking along our favorite trail, photographing Great Blue herons and Belted Kingfishers. The simultaneity of our joy and their grief creates a stupefying dissonance that is always hard to shake off. Still we keep looking for beauty. It's a balancing act.

Heron flying as its reflection ripples

Kingfisher holding its territory

Kingfisher looks surprisingly light-colored underwing

Just a note-- We have been having DSL problems for two weeks. Our service quits every evening and doesn't resume until sometime in the morning (that's PDST). We've been having a hard time loading alot of our favorite sites on our backup 56k modem. So, if you haven't been hearing from us as often or as regularly, it's due technical difficulties.