A freelance writer, I spend most of the week in my office in front of a computer monitor. I enjoy my work, but I do need to get away from it, sometimes. Fresh air and sunshine are the best medicine for the overworked.

My escape of choice is landscape photography. Following my father's shutterclicks, I started shooting pictures of scenery when I was ten years old. In those days, ISO was 15 and even the brightest sunlight required a steady hand,

Later, my husband and I shot pictures together in Colorado's spectacular San Juan Mountains. Both of us taught elementary school in Los Angeles. We spent our summers in Ouray. I was thrilled when ...

I hate being rejected. Do you remember the last kid chosen for teams in elementary school? That was always me. Not only was I rejected, but it was in such a public way. So, what did I do? In adulthood, I selected several creative, highly competitive fields of endeavor. What can I say, I'm kind of nuts.

In writing ,painting, and now photography, I deal with rejection every day. It hurts my feelings, and after the hurt comes a flash of anger, but after the fury comes a rush of determination--not "to do better" because that's a matter of opinion (A Wrinkle in Time, a classic, award-winning middle grade novel, was rejected 22 times before being published), but rather ...