We took a short day trip to visit Saber while he recoups from his injury at The Sanctuary. While there, they had a young filly out in a paddock who was so delighted to see visitors. So, who couldn’t resist going over and meeting her?

While there, she kept pacing quickly back and forth, nearly rearing in excitement. She got pets and attempted her first bite of a carrot, but it didn’t quite work. When we walked away from her, she started bucking and stampeded around her small paddock.

Here’s a wispy warm photograph of her mane as she was pacing back and forth. It makes her seem so free spririted.

It starts in your head. If you start to think positively, you carry yourself positively. Then you begin to speak positively and eventually start acting and interacting positively with others. Soon enough, you begin to be known as an overall happy person and others start to be spirit-lifting around you. Good things happen from there.

Smile more. It’s contagious.

I posted of square composite of these chopsticks on January 1st, in celebration of Oshogatsu. This photograph was included in the composite, but it has a different feel when you see the full-size of this one.

I’m not much of a product photographer, but I feel like it can be something valuable to know. So here’s to that.

These chop sticks are the most memorable souvenir I have from my trip to Japan back in 2009. I bought them on our overnight trip to the Hakone region in the mountains. I liked the chop them for what they were visually, but upon further research on them, I have discovered a bigger value in them. The packaging of the chop sticks included a small note in English indicating the name of the design technique, as well as their handcrafted nature and uniqueness to the region.

The decoration technique is called yosegi, which is famous in around the world. The design calls for very small inlaid pieces of wood to form a pattern, which is seen on the tops of the chop sticks. According to the link, it’s seen on the Japanese puzzle boxes most often. Besides the pattern itself, the wood quality, texture, and sheen grabbed my attention as well. You have to love a nice piece of wood.

And of course, being in the form of chop sticks truly represented this memorable trip for obvious reasons – I was in Japan, at that’s the primary utensil. So, I acquired Japanese chop sticks decorated with a unique parquetry design pattern from a special region in the mountains with a lake formed by the eruption of Mount Fuji. So yeah, they’re pretty special.

And until this New Years Day in 2012, I have not used them. They’ve been too special. But through some persuasion, and their comparison to using fine china-wear on holidays, I decided to use them for our annual Oshogatsu celebration at a family friend’s house. We all gather – some 30+ of us – and eat sushi, play games, and of course (a Japanese tradition) drink.

So, Happy New Year to you all! May 2012 bring you prosperity and joy.

This candid group portrait reflects the anticipation yet the boredom that was going on in the front of the line at the Best Buy on Blanding Blvd in Jacksonville. Some people are smoking, some are chatting; some people are smiling and others are ready to finally get into the store. The police presence is also apparent. Some people seem to react negatively and almost paranoid when there’s a law enforcer around, as if they’re out to get them – as if they’re there to watch your every move.

Some people in the front of this line have been there for more than 24 hours. I dropped by this location the the night before and there were about ten or twelve tents already lined up. When I arrived here Thanksgiving night, the tents were already packed up, everyone was standing, the line was compressed and lined up around the corner to the street. Is that big ticket item worth it?

Ask them.

Up until two days ago, I was growing some sort of a beard for about two weeks. In my opinion, it looked the best on me about halfway through that stretch – about a week’s worth of growth.

This photo started out as a light test in a studio, and ended up as a finished product after some tweaks on my iPad. But better yet, who cares what the processing unit was. Or that it was processed at all.

And another reason, at least in the fashion industry, why do most men have the fashionably scruffy faces?

How many televisions do you really need? How many will you buy in a lifetime?

The row of cashiers at Wal-Mart is always somewhat disastrous between the slew of people, hap-hazardous cashiers in crunch time, and the aftermath debris of receipts and plastic bags that is left on the ground. It can really be a war zone. On this day, this store had every single register open, each of which had a line several people long (almost all with television sets).

There’s something to be said about our cheap electronic and appliances. Sometimes, they’re just so cheap that they’re not financially worth repair and maintenance. For less than what it would cost to get some appliances repaired or fixed, say for a coffee maker or a toaster, you can get a new one. So you just throw the other one out. Where did our quality products go? One that you would buy once and would last you a lifetime?

That’s my goal when buying most things – buy it for life. Buy it once, maintain it, and have it last as long as possible.

The doors are open and the wallets come out. People scream with excitement. Young, old, men and women, all in search of the bargain electronic door busters.

It can be poetic, but it can also be a concern. I can’t help to think about those who don’t have the money to pay their phone bill, but they spend their time and money to get a $200 TV that’s on sale. I don’t know about these people pictured here, but we all know that it happens – ad consumer decisions at the hand of marketing and sales departments.

We take our phones and electricity for granted sometimes, almost a burden because we have to pay for it monthly, so when a high dollar item goes on sale that’s in your presumable budget, you have to get it. It’s a one time payment that’s going to put you farther behind in your other debts. Instant gratification in exchange for missing other delayed payments.

This is also a personal struggle for myself. I abstained from Black Friday for lack of current expendable income, but still “participated” by photographing. But sometimes I can’t help myself to get something on a whim for $30 when that’s money I could be putting towards repaying my student loans, or credit cards. So this is a time for frugality for me, so I’m sharing my words and thoughts to hopefully help you make good decisions as well.

As Best Buy was doing their final preparations to finally open, I did my last tour around the line that wrapped around the corner and found this gem. The photo says more than I can describe, though. The young man is sitting, watching the entertaining people. The police are there to prevent and stampeding and overall chaos. And it’s all taking place at Best Buy, one of the more popular and busy Black Friday retailers.

Gotta love it.

Sometimes, I have to take a break from conceptual photos, and just make something pretty.

As usual, click to the photo to view it larger and sharper on Flickr.