As a retired person I have the luxury of being a student for the rest of my life. I am an amateur photographer who is expanding into related graphics arts such as composites. Here are some narratives and examples of where I am going. The image below shows where I was coming from artistically, before I retired.
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This was taken in early September 2008 in Denali (the park). I was hiking about 30 miles north of Denali (the mountain) at about 10AM. I was struck by the contrast between the two sides of the mountain and the sharpness of the boundary between them. Only later did I see that the boundary contained a Yin-Yang symbol. Perhaps my imagination was tapping me on my shoulder about that when I was taking the picture, but I did not pay attention.
This was the last trip on which I shot JPEG images rather than camera raw. When your camera converts a sensor image into a JPEG, it throws away roughly 99% of the data it collected. The image is forever frozen as you saw it when you took it.
Life seems long until it isn't and you never know when a trip is a trip of a lifetime. Back then, I was interested in finding beautiful scenes and documenting them. Now, I am trying to let the larger world of the imagination break out of the prison to which I had banished it.