Hello Steemit world! As a photographer I paint with light, which literally is what photography means, and this orange coloured light painting I took of myself at around 5am one sunny bleary-eyed morning. The sunlight was amazing that early morning in it's colour and intensity, and as it streamed through my rush blind taking on an even warmer hue, I pointed my camera into the darkest area of a glazed picture I had hanging on my bedroom wall .. that of my Columbian friend Cecilia. I caught my reflection as I stared out my window gazing into the sun. I have used it as my Facebook profile picture ever since.

It seems to be an apt picture to prompt me to talk about sungazing – something I do at every opportunity now. Also I'd like to make this intro piece a useful prompt for the uninitiated. Funnily enough I knew nothing of the ancient practice of sungazing at the time I took this picture some years ago, but now practice it whenever there is a break in the skies over our dearly beloved cloud and mist covered British Isles! But I qualify this sungazing business with a health warning! .. Sungazing can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. As always, research is best.

Sungazing increases your health by eliminating free-radicals and all things out of balance in order to achieve a re-balancing, and more! It contradicts our conditioned sense as to what is sensible as we have come to know it as we in 'the West' have always been warned from looking directly at the Sun. But truly you must only ever stare at the Sun when it is down to UV factor 1 or less, which is within the first hour of sunrise and the last hour of sunset (but still use your intuition on this), otherwise you could damage your eyesight. Rule of thumb is if it feels uncomfortable or doesn't feel right then don't do it.

Anyhow, once you have researched this practice and are comfortable and using your intuition to know whether it 'feels' safe, you start by looking directly at the sun (start or end of the day) for 10 seconds on day 1. Day 2 for 20 seconds, and 10 seconds more each day until you reach 44 minutes. That can take a long time to reach this stage in places like the UK where we often have magical cloud and mist filled skies!

Once you have reached this long-term goal of 44 minutes then you stop sungazing and start grounding .. being in direct contact with the earth or walking on the ground with direct contact of the earth (shoeless, or wearing shoes that facilitate contact with the earth's natural electricity by not wearing rubberised soles) for 45 minutes per day. Simple right? And yet do we or would we make the time to do this I wonder? Working for someone else on a treadmill every day doesn't make this easy, so I am happy being self employed and not walking or even running on that daily employment treadmill many people find themselves stuck on. But since the advent of the 21st century, more people started to wake up and realise their own power, and very happily Steemit is certainly helping in this, so thank you Steemit people!

This photograph was taken on a winter's day with the Sun low in the sky and setting the rocky horizon on fire. A good time to sungaze. This is adjacent to Malham Cove – a 300 ft high ancient limestone rocky cove of a waterfall in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales. It is the source of the river Aire that feeds my home city of Leeds, which in turn fed the mills of revolution – the industrial revolution that changed the world. Quite a juxtaposition really from the quietude of Malham to the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest centres of the Victorian industrial age. Oh and by the way, Leeds is the true centre and birthplace of the film industry. But more on that for a future post. The story involves a Frenchman and an Agatha Christie type story. It is fascinating!

So now I've happily found with Steemit the perfect space to express myself, share some not insignificant revelations, share my creativity, contribute some value and possibly earn some value. I came across Steemit thanks to a great and reliable YouTuber who has an investment channel I subscribe to called @maneco64 who is also on Steemit. So now I can let off a little of my own steam from time to time! But first if you'll bear with me, I feel I must surrender just a little more about myself to complete my introduction and give you a taste of what further posts may offer …

Subjects of Interest ...
Art, photography, poetry/writing, philosophy, Nature, biomimicry, (free) energy, water, health, growing food, architecture and transport .. for that quintessential freedom to roam! And talking of roaming, one day walking the streets of Leeds outside the main City Art Gallery I came across this .. well, perhaps I should not say what it is straight-away as someone once told me they thought it was something completely other than it actually was ...

This photograph was taken on a winter's day with the Sun low in the sky and setting the rocky horizon on fire. A good time to sungaze. This is adjacent to Malham Cove – a 300 ft high ancient limestone rocky cove of a waterfall in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales. It is the source of the river Aire that feeds my home city of Leeds, which in turn fed the mills of revolution – the industrial revolution that changed the world. Quite a juxtaposition really from the quietude of Malham to the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest centres of the Victorian industrial age. Oh and by the way, Leeds is the true centre and birthplace of the film industry. But more on that for a future post. The story involves a Frenchman and an Agatha Christie type story. It is fascinating!

So now I've happily found with Steemit the perfect space to express myself, share some not insignificant revelations, share my creativity, contribute some value and possibly earn some value. I came across Steemit thanks to a great and reliable YouTuber who has an investment channel I subscribe to called @maneco64 who is also on Steemit. So now I can let off a little of my own steam from time to time! But first if you'll bear with me, I feel I must surrender just a little more about myself to complete my introduction and give you a taste of what further posts may offer …

Subjects of Interest
Art, photography, poetry/writing, philosophy, Nature, biomimicry, (free) energy, water, health, growing food, architecture and transport .. for that quintessential freedom to roam! And talking of roaming, one day walking the streets of Leeds outside the main City Art Gallery I came across this .. well, perhaps I should not say what it is straight-away as someone once told me they thought it was something completely other than it actually was ...

They thought it was a Rose. In fact it was a screwed-up piece of paper someone had left on a stone wall. But my friend with a different perspective saw the vertical mortar as the stem or stalk of the Rose. Fascinating I thought! Which led me to thinking more about how we perceive things differently, particularly out of context or by surprise, through our own unique perspectives. Fascinating really, and I love that photography can really prompt us to see the world differently from each other or to see more than even the author or artist even saw at the time of creation of their work. I suppose I have made a nice habit of photographing other things in the same vein, composing and editing with a degree of obscurity, or flexibility, or lack of certainty, which helps to open up whole new worlds of possibilities.

I am slowly working on a collection for an exhibition I rather think I will call 'Zen And The Art of the Ordinary'. Well it implies meditation, stillness, simplicity and perhaps something otherly. Besides, I have always been interested in the Zen philosophy. So the title sits well with me, and I do like to think I can stimulate different perceptions than might otherwise have been the case. Surely this is a large part of what life is about from my perspective.

The above photograph I took some years ago, but I am pleased to say that with the passing of time even I am now confused by it! I seem to recall I was looking through a hole in a wall onto a pavement in the distance, but I cannot be sure of how the aperture comes to be as it is. And maybe I don't need to be or want to be sure anymore. I like work that gives the onlooker the freedom to interpret and muse without such tightly ordered or predictable constraints. I'm all for a little marvelling and awe and wonder.

I am an artist, primarily in photography, but also video and poetry. In photography I like to alter the perspective of frame of reference on a scene, often turning the mundane or 'ordinary' into something you might reconsider as being out of the ordinary or interesting in some way, if not enigmatic. I like to see the Zen in the ordinary in order to appreciate it's potential and extraordinary qualities. It is a truism in life .. there is always another perspective. This wisdom about seeing the same thing from different perspectives in order to better appreciate and understand something, primarily about ourselves, I learnt whilst in my philosophy school which is based in London and was known as both The School of Economic Science and The School of Philosophy.

This photograph always reminds me of Zen Buddism and I find it's simplicity refreshing. The day and location was not quite so refreshing as hot, being on a beach in Sardinia. Philosophy aside, art has always been one of the closest things if not the closest thing to my heart. I have mounted the odd photographic exhibition throughout the years starting with my very first exhibition in the 1990's called 'Anima Sublima' - a collection of monochrome portraits I mounted at my local regional theatre The West Yorkshire Playhouse based in Leeds, Yorkshire, northern England. It was December and I offered hot roasted chestnuts and hot punch to my visitors for the opening night. I opened the exhibition in total darkness to the music of 'Dead Can Dance' – an amazing and enigmatic world music genre group. My then partner Duska went around with a candle unveiling each piece. I always feel the photographs looked better with the black netting veils left on! I liked the sense of mystery and sense of anticipation which also matched the title of the show very nicely – 'hidden soul'.

By a fluke of knowing the events manager who was a client of mine I subsequently got lucky and had an exhibition at The Groucho Club, London's premier private club frequented by celebrities galore. Loved the place. It may have been a disastrous turn-out as I hadn't promoted it well, and I just missed the opportunity to collar the great Stephen Fry before he swanned his way into the Damian Hirst art adorned restaurant (the dot picture) .. got a great impression of him as a lovely guy as he apologised with great warmth and humility and a smile.

But my lovely host made sure myself and my dramaturg partner were well looked after with the most amazing light bites, wine and service. We probably didn't deserve such fine treatment after raiding a next door literary party from which we hijacked a few interesting guests. But then we did always work well together that way, we were party people. But I'm sure the nicking of guests from another party will come back to haunt me one way or another.

Well that's my rather long winded introduction. If you are still here, thank you for taking the time to read all this and well done, you have great stickability! I'm looking forward to posting out some real gems here about some rather big passions and projects of mine covering art to biomimicry. And with that said, I'd better leave it there and crack on with some Steemit engagement. Deep breath … tally hooo here we goooo! …

Acknowledgements ...
By the way, I'd like to acknowledge a few people here. Starting with the person who is the reason for me being here in the first place @maneco64 plus my great Spanish artist friend Flor Orjales who created my profile picture, and the great art photographer I have come across on this platform called @velimir who's work I greatly admire. Thank you to all!