January | 2015 | photoremedy.me

The last month has featured a generous supply of photoremedy opportunities for me, and they came in a couple of my favorite categories – kids and travel.

I almost opted out of the first photo opp–the baptism of our lovable grandson, Daniel–due to unrelenting back pain. I am, however, quite thankful that Andrew (Daniel’s Dad) wouldn’t let me sit on the sidelines. He basically told me, “Bring your camera and get in the game.” Taking and developing the photos briefly took my mind off the pain, which is what photoremedy is all about. It just took Andrew to remind me. Plus, what’s not to love about being front and center for such a blessed sacrament for such a special little dude?

Partially aided by $29 one way January flights on Frontier Airlines, my back problems quieted down enough for Mary and I to take a leisurely tour of places we wanted to experience in Louisiana. It will take awhile for me to develop all of the photos as I’m struggling to spend much time at the computer at one time and I have another back “procedure” schedule for February. But, here’s a sample of what’s coming up here on photoremedy.

Garden District, New Orleans

Houmas House – Darrow, LA.

Laura Plantation – Vacherie, LA.

St. Edward Cemetery – New Iberia, LA.

Duffy’s Diner – New Iberia, LA.

Note: photoremedy.me is published as a labor of love. Please feel free to share the site, or any of our posts, with others. Our Home Page always features an option for our readers to sign up to immediately receive new material as an email. We hope you will become a part of our photoremedy network.

Photos, digital art, and article by Greg W. Gilstrap. Our 2014 poll is closed, and we have a winner. The “Life is a Splash” image–featuring our oldest grandson’s amusing expression when he stepped onto a colorful splash pad at the Anthem, Arizona Community Park this past summer–ended up walking away with an impressive 41 percent of the vote. Two other photographs also distanced themselves by being the only other images that captured more than 15 percent of the vote. See our December 26, 2014 post to see how all the images fared.

Our annual contests have been, to date, essentially passion polls because we let visitors to photoremedy.me register as many votes as they like. The approach proved to be overwhelmingly effective, as our six-day voting period drew 3,024 submissions–virtually tripling the previous record (recorded last year) of 1,099. To all of you who participated in the poll, thank you for making this an unmitigated success and a lot of fun.

Seattle, Washington – Digital/Fine Art Photography

While the contest is designed primarily for entertainment, it is also aimed at encouraging others–particularly those suffering from chronic pain and other illnesses–to considering turning to photography to help them move their minds away from the pain they are experiencing. Art therapy works, and it is becoming increasingly accepted by respected academic and medical experts. I always encourage our readers to Google “art therapy” to discover all of the related information that is available. The thoughts and photos we post here are designed to demonstrate, “If art therapy can help this knucklehead, perhaps it could work for me as well.”

Pike’s Market Area: Seattle, Washington – Digital/Fine Art Photography

Important News

1) This is our 99th photoremedy post, so our next one will be a major milestone for photoremedy.me and those that help keep me blogging. Special credit for this help goes to my beautiful wife Mary, our two talented sons Andrew and William, always supportive daughter Amanda Bradner, friends who have traveled with me (or Mary and me), and my excellent team of doctors. Thank you all! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the baptism of our youngest grandson will be featured in the 100th post. By the way, little Daniel is a keeper!

St. Rose Parish – Anthem, Arizona

2) Our photoremedy.me blogs are gaining what we used to call “legs” in the marketing and branding business. Of our top five viewed posts in 2015, only two were actually posted in 2014.

Source: WordPress

3) Finally, WordPress.com reports indicate our message is “going global.” There is reason to believe that photoremedy.me will be read by individuals in more than 100 countries in 2015.

Source: WordPress

Our readers can help us spread the message by becoming email subscribers. Our home page always features an option for our readers to sign up to immediately receive new material as an email. Readers can then forward the photoremedy.me messages to those whom they think can benefit from the information or to those who might enjoy what we are producing.

All the best to all of you in 2015. Please join me in enjoying what promises to be the best year of our lives!