Concept, design and photography
by Bill Vanoss (w5pt@yahoo.com)
trace: -noun 1. a surviving mark, sign, or evidence of the former existence; 2. vestige: traces of an advanced civilization among the ruins;
image: -noun 1. photograph, painting, sculpture, or any likeness made visible.
- Ancient Lands
"I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
-- Robert Frost
- Man's Corporeal World
"Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God’s business." -- Michael J. Fox
- Photography as Art
"Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry." –Aristotle
"Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist." -- Wikipedia
- The Family of Man
"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." -- Mother Teresa
- Traces of Creation
"Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God!" -- John Muir
- Images 2011
"I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap. " -- Bob Hope
- Costa Rica
"A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." ~ Moslih Eddin Saadi
- Caribbean '11
- Israel
"Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure." -- Robert Browning
- Italy
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound by shallows and in misery."
-- William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)
- Tunisia
"O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much? ...
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering-sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?"
-- Frances Cornford
- Spain
"I will assume the undertaking for my own crown of Castile , and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of it, if the funds in the treasury should be found inadequate." -- Queen Isabella of Spain
- France
"This (French kissing) is a really sexy thing to do, according to the French people, although you should bear in mind that they also like to eat snails." -- Dave Barry
- Las Vegas
"When you're certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool." -- Edward Teller
- Brazil
"Now more than ever do I realize that I shall never be content with a sedentary life, and that I shall always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere." -- Isabelle Eberhardt
- Argentina
“Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at you. In Argentina they throw themselves.” -- Marlene Dietrich
- Chile
"We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness... and tell the world the glories of our journey." -- John Franklin
- Peru
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Images 2010
“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.” -- Marcus Aurelius
- Hawaii
"The heart has its reasons, of which the mind knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal
- Costa Rica & Panama
"I will work for a Costa Rica able to maintain moral leadership in the world thanks to defending peace, liberty and human rights." -- Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla
- Caribbean '10
Aruba, Bahamas & Curaçao
"The blue estuaries
Where what breathes, breathes
The restless wind of the inlets,
And what drinks, drinks
The incoming tide."
-- Louise Bogan
- Norway
“Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.” -- Helen Keller
- Scotland
“Every man dies. Not every man really lives. " -- William Wallace
- Ireland
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -- Henry Miller
- Holland & Guernsey Is.
"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time." -- Bill Bryson
- China
“Peace comes from within.” -- Buddha
- Images 2009
“The joy of feeling fit physically is reflected in a clearer and more useful mind. You may read and study forever, but you come to no more important truthful conclusions than these two: (1) Take care of your body (eat and exercise properly), and your mind will improve. (2) Work hard, and be polite and fair, and your condition in the world will improve.” -- Edgar Watson Howe
- Caribbean '09
“Columbus found a world, and had no chart save one that Faith deciphered in the skies.” -- George Santayana
- Hungary
- Rhine & Danube
“The music of Fifth Concerto streamed from his keyboard, past the glass of the window, and spread through the air, over the lights of the valley. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought." -- Ayn Rand
- Austria
"My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So it was when my life began;
So it is now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!"
-- William Wordsworth
- Germany
“All my life I have wanted to be a great painter in oils.... As soon as I have carried out my program for Germany, I shall take up painting. I feel that I have it in my soul to become one of the great artists of the age and that future historians will remember me not for what I have done for Germany, but for my art." -- Hitler
- Images 2008
"The problem these days is that we're all searching for a book with the answers in the back." -- Albert Einstein
- Fort Concho
Allie: Why didn't you write me? Why!? It wasn't over for me. I waited for you for seven years. And now it's too late!
Noah: I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year.
Allie: You wrote me?
Noah: Yes! It wasn't over. Still isn't over. [kisses her]
-- The Notebook
- Alaska
"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." -- Arthur Ashe
- Egypt
“Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe,
time carries away the names and the deeds of
conquerors and commoners alike.”
-- Harlan Ellison
- Air Fiesta '08
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace...
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
-- John Magee, Jr (High Flight)
- Atlanta
"In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print.
If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.
It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice."
-- Ansel Adams
- Images 2007
"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him." -- Aldous Huxley
- Fort Concho
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."
-- Charles Dickens
- Episcopal Diocese
"Do for the least of these." -- Mathew 25:40
- Smokey Mountains
"I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy."
-- Hamlin Garland
- St. Francis of Assisi
“I have done what was mine to do, may Christ now teach you what you are to do.” -- Saint Francis of Assisi (Last Words, October 3, 1221)
- New England
“New England is a finished place. Its destiny is that of Florence or Venice... It is the first American section to be finished, to achieve stability in the conditions of its life. It is the first old civilization, the first permanent civilization in America." -- Bernard De Voto
- Boston
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry
- New Mexico
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” -- John Muir
- Images 2006
“'Gimme a visky with a ginger ale on the side — and don't be stinchy, beby.' -- Greta Garbo
- Rome, Italy
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." -- Marcus Aelius Aurelius
- Venice, Italy
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
- Dr. Douglas Chadwick D.D.S.
"Did you ever fall asleep and dream you'd be here, today?
I believe you did; I can see it in your eyes in these photos.
You, my beautiful child, are a dreamer!"
-- Bill Vanoss
(Dedication on Doug's Photo Album)
- Images 2005
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to slide in broadside, two buck chuck in hand, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Woo Hoo! What a ride!"
-- Unknown
- San Antonio
"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth."
-- Evan Essar
- Grand Canyon & Vegas
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Memorial Day Weekend
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” -- Sir Winston Churchill
- Images 2004
"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow."
-- Robert Frost
- Yosemite & Lake Tahoe
“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed, and is, thereby, a true manifestation of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
-- Ansel Adams
- Alabama
"There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys
at the right time and the instrument plays itself."
-- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Amsterdam
“This is the true nature of home — it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from injury, but from all terror, doubt and division.” -- John Ruskin
- Paris
“As an artist, a man has no home in Europe save in Paris.” -- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Images 2003
“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.” -- Sir Winston Churchill
- Christmas
“The longest wave is quickly lost in the sea.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Back Roads & Alleys
"Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate." -- George Carlin
- Branson, Missouri
“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.” -- William Arthur Ward
- Images 2002
- Back Roads & Alleys
“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” -- Aldous Huxley
- Fredericksburg
- England
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This fortress built by nature for herself...
This prescious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it... as a moat defensive...
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England!"
-- William Shakespeare
- Images 2001
'Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants at tree, is more than all.” -- John Greenleaf Whittier
- Back Roads & Alleys
“We are all pilgrims on the same journey but some pilgrims have better roadmaps.”
- Nelson DeMille
- Texas State Parks
“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, And Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” -- Mark Twain
- New Orleans
"At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols." -- Aldous Huxley
- Images 2000
"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel
- Back Roads & Alleys
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'”
-- Winnie-the-Pooh
- Fort Concho
"The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is."
-- Mary Pettibone Poole
- Chris & Amber Wedding
"He gave me a copy of The Declaration of Independence, then he got a tattoo that says Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death. I think my boyfriend wants his freedom." -- "The Better Half" by Randy Glasbergen
- Nebraska
"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world sparkles with light."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Images 1999
"Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!" -- Horace
- Funeral & Thanksgiving
- Texas Campgrounds
"I came from a real tough neighborhood. I put my hand in some cement and felt another hand." -- Rodney Dangerfield
- Back Roads & Alleys
- Images 1998
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” -- Will Rogers
- Big Boat & Big RV
- Central High School 1998
- Central High School 1997
- Images 1997
"My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it." -- Rodney Dangerfield
- Texas State Parks
- Images 1996
"Be content with moderate gains, and be not misled by illusory hopes of acquiring wealth....
Let our children also be taught habits of economy, and not to indulge in tastes which
they cannot gratify without running into debt.”
-- Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898)
- Images 1995
- Images 1994
"Adolescence is perhaps nature's way of preparing parents to welcome the empty nest." -- Karen Savage
- Images 1993
"I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." -- Anne Frank
- Images 1992
"The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a little.” -- Porterfield
- Images 1991
“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.” -- Peter F. Drucker
- Images 1990
“It's like the coming of civilization.” -- Unknown Person at the Opening of the first Russian McDonalds Restaurant, Moscow, 1990
- Images 1989
- Images 1988
- Images 1987
“There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any questions, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.”
-- James Robert Oppenheimer
- Texas State Parks
- Back Roads & Alleys
"No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit." -- Ansel Adams
- Images 1986
- Weekends & Vacations
- Family Albums 1986
"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet." -- Rodney Dangerfield
- Easter Week
- Weekends & Vacation
- Family Snapshots
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
-- Transformers (the movie)
- Images 1985
"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing>"
-- Dave Barry
- Deadly Accidents
“Some must watch, while some must sleep; So runs the world away.” -- William Shakespeare
- Images 1984
- Back Roads & Alleys
- Weekends & Vacations
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
-- Winston Churchill
- Texas State Parks
'Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business." -- Dave Barry
- Texas Back Roads
- Family Albums 1984
“There will be a day, not far distant, when you will be able to conduct business, study, explore the
world and its cultures, call up any great entertainment, make friends, attend neighborhood markets,
and show pictures to distant relatives — without leaving your desk or armchair." -- Bill Gates
- Weekends & Vacations
- Back Roads & Alleys
“I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.” -- Baruch Spinoza
- Images 1983
“O love! O fire! once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.”
-- Lord Alfred Tennyson
- Family Albums
- Christmas 1983
- Family Albums 1982
"Whatever is to make us better and happy, God has placed either openly before us or close to us." -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- Images 1982
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley
"I intend to live forever, or die trying."
-- Groucho Marx
- Texas State Parks
"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." -- Francis Bacon
- Frank's Photography
"The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit." -- Molière
- Florida
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."
-- Yiddish Proverb
- Milwaukee
“What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but
rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”
-- Viktor E. Frankl
- Wisconsin
“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” -- Tony Robbins
- Family Album 1981
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I’ll waste no time reading it."
-- Moses Hadas
- Images 1981
"There was a young belle of old Natchez
Whose garments were always in patchez.
When comment arose
On the state of her clothes,
She drawled, 'When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez!'”
-- Ogden Nash
- South Dakota
"Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." -- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Wisconsin
"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."
-- Dr. Henry Kissinger
- Images 1980
“Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-centered, self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power, ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crises.” -- William George Jordan
- Wisconsin
"Decide who you must be, then do what you must do." -- Epictetus
- Images 1979
“She has a laugh so hearty it knocks the whipped cream off an order of strawberry shortcake on a table fifty feet away.”
-- Damon Runyon
- Hawaii
“Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to reflect, too, and so he never married.”
-- Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle
- California
“Your friend is that man who knows all about you, and still likes you.” -- Elbert Hubbard
- Wisconsin
“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” -- Ray Bradbury
- Images 1978
“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations ... can never effect a reform.” -- Susan Brownell Anthony
- Images 1977
“Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.” -- Napoleon Hill
- Wausau Community Theatre
“It's one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work — the night watchman.” --Tallulah Bankhead
- Utah, California & Nevada
"A monk should take no pleasure in the respect of others, but should devote himself to solitude."
-- Guatama Buddha
- Wausau Community Theatre
“All the great amusements are dangerous for the Christian life. But among all the amusements that the world has invented, none is to be more feared than the theatre." -- Marquise Magdeleine de Sablé
- Images 1976
"Honest criticism is hard to take, especially when it comes from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger." -- Franklin P. Jones
- Images 1900 - 1975
"A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them." -- Albert Einstein
