Like most of us, I'm really good at getting in my own way. I'm sure there are many aspects of my life where I've tripped myself up in one way or another, but this is especially true with my photography.

I love making images. In fact, the experience of making images is when I feel the most alive, the most connected to myself. I'm exploring and trying new things, no boundaries, no limits, no rules. It's like I'm dropped in a river that meanders through a great swath, bouncing from bank to bank, being thrust into experiences new and unexpected.

So it is a bit curious to me that I don't particularly love sharing most of the images I make. I don't think that's a bad thing, just curious.

Take the image above, for example. I remember pretty much everything about the experience. It was a bit chilly and the sun would be setting soon (and quickly), but I was in a familiar place. I started heading toward a spot I'd been many times before, because the play of light and shadow on the hilly fins is beautiful and always different. Out of nowhere, something made me wonder if I might want to explore something new. So I veered off my path and followed a small gully as it wound through the hills. I followed around several corners, and didn't encounter much more than these blueish popcorn-like mounds. One and another and another.

I'm famous for my "let's just see what's around that next corner" wayfaring, and so one more corner, and then there it was, this band of red rocks broken into stepping stone pieces to make a pathway mirroring the serpentine gully. So odd, so interesting. Where did those rocks come from, and how did they get laid down in just this pattern? There were no other red rocks anywhere in view, just this one twisty line of broken red rocks.

It was a true delight for me to find this scene and stare at it while wondering about how it came to be. So then, given how I felt about the experience of finding this scene and making the image, why would I have not shared the image before?

It's because I'm just too damn precious about my images, and that's a barrier to my own creativity. This is the image, and I like it because it conveys the feeling that I experienced in making it. I also think it's visually interesting, with the contrasting color palette of blue and red, and the diagonal line sloping downward from left to right. Others may disagree. Even if I didn't like it, it's still a part of my own creative journey that I want to embrace, and yes, even share.

I'm going to try to be less precious about images, without giving up that deeply personal connection. I hope to share more, right here.