Along the way, a few things happened.

First.
I was well into my adult years before it occurred to me that I am most comfortable below a big sky, staring at a long horizon. Once that realization struck – and I cannot explain why it took so long to arrive – I’ve not gone a day without noticing what the sky looks like, what color it is, which way the clouds are moving.

Second.
I started a daily photo blog in January 2009, and have posted at least one photograph every day since. The discipline of daily posting helped lead me toward the things I like to shoot, so it was really no surprise that the sky began to figure prominently into what made it to the blog, and then to this collection.

Third.
Besides skies, the other thing that ties these images together is the wind – wind in Barbados that last saw land 3,000 miles away in Africa, thick brackish breezes off Lake Pontchartrain, or just an old-fashioned Texas dust storm. Shooting with the wind, into the wind, against the wind, in spite of the wind have become part of my routine.

Fourth.
Ani DeFranco says, “Sometimes the beauty is easy.” Then David Bailey adds, “It takes a lot of looking before you see the extraordinary.”

Fifth.
I continue, always, to look.

***
(The show is in the Formby Room of the Southwest Collection; the hours are 9:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. The reading room is open until 7:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 9:00 to 1:00 on Saturdays; a staff member in the reading room can open the Formby Room during these extended hours.)

***