Digital/Fine Art Photography

In the Fall of 2011, we started this little blog with the goal of sharing what photography has meant to me as I battle chronic pain associated with a failed back and psoriatic arthritis that has camped out in as many as 43 of my joints.

I wanted to share that the creative pleasure, and frequent thrill, associated with photography and photo-based digital arts has been a near inconceivable tool for helping me to move my mind and focus away from the pain. My overriding goal has been for photoremedy.me to help those in comparable circumstances. Who doesn’t want to help others climbing similar mountains?

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Rancho Mirage, California

Along my blogging way, I have found that I also enjoy sharing my art with others.

Unfortunately, 2015 was a rough year for my pain levels and the medical procedures and testing have temporarily wore me down a bit. Compounding this, I’ve found that typing and editing posts like this are particularly brutal for my cervical and lumbar areas. As a result, I’m changing things up. I’m going to keep taking and developing (what I hope are) interesting photos, but this will be –for now– the final official chapter for photoremedy.me. As this effort winds down, I’m happy to report that a new pursuit begins.

My Grandpa Dude will be an electronic gallery of sorts for both my new and classic photography-based art efforts. I’m not planning on doing any of the writing that has caused me –and probably more than a few photoremedy.me readers– excessive pain. It’s simply designed to be a creative outlet, while serving as an example of where the pursuit of photoremedy might lead others. Where does the name come from? Check out my full explanation at http://mygrandpadude.com/about. Here’s a short bit of it:

While My Grandpa Dude will consume more of my time, I plan on working with WordPress to hopefully change the current photoremedy.me site from one that begins with the “Blog Background and Initial Post” and follows with posts in the order they were created. I hope to make it read more like a book, while continuing to make it a resource for people looking for new ways to win their own battles with health challenges. And, hopefully, it will help communicate (in a small way) that people can gain new abilities as previous attributes fade away.

Photoremedy.me has been incredibly enjoyable for me. Thank you to all of my awesome family members who have helped bring life to this blog and thank you to all who have encouraged me in my blogging and even suggested I had something valuable to share. God bless you; I hope to see you regularly on MyGrandpaDude.com!

– Greg (a.k.a. Grandpa Dude)

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!