All through our lives, Americans of very generation have been almost obsessed with loving to share their experiences in life with others through Photos. Photos of our Children and Family, Family vacations, our backyards ,communities where we live, events of all types and what I often refer to as our community treasures. It's all good and we love to see and share what others experience as well as share our own experience.
ActiveRain, being a Real Estate Network is made up of professionals in all aspects of the real estate industry. We write about the laws governing the industry, opinions about the changes that are evolving in all the related fields in real estate. We inform consumers of the process as well as the opportunities that might exist in acquiring or even liquidating real property holdings. But we also talk about ourselves , our families and friends, our clients and even others whose lives are intertwined with our own in other professional or personal ways.
Coupling those two things together, one of the groups in our ActiveRain Network, the AciveRainPhotoBlogger group provides the opportunity to combine the best of our personal , professional and community lives through photos and joins it together with the network of real estate related posts and provides the best of both of these worlds.
So, is there a relationship between your vacation or your home town or even any other community with real estate ? Of course their is. " Under All is the Land" , as the preamble of the REALTOR code begins. Anything which has to do with the land is certainly real estate related.
Included in this life journey are also the pictures of our travels, the wonderful people we know in our professional and personal lives and certainly the bounty of new people and other creatures we encounter along the way. So if you are hearing me correctly, sharing a photo story of the Red Tailed Hawk in the back yard, is OK. Yes and more, our accumulation of all of our life experience is indeed real estate related.
Homes or houses of all types, apartments or condos, are the places that we live our lives from and call home. A base if you will. Without a place to call home, we would be hard pressed to plan for much of anything, vacations and or the shared life experiences . So real estate is the beginning, not the end game of our life experiences. Because real estate is a general and all encompassing category. Most all of life itself is tethered to the land and it can easily become the common thread or common denominator in our lives.
So if the above thesis is correct, just about anything that takes place in our lives has a basis in real estate. That is giant leap I am sure you are thinking but I offer this simple illustration. When we drive to the grocery store, land is involved. Laws are involved that control the use of that land, cars are involved that moves over the land, other people are involved in a myriad of different ways but they are always involved in land. Even the very groceries that we are going to purchase were grown or made and will be sold to us on the land.
There is no way to live life without it. Real estate is not just about the houses,the condos, apartment buildings, churches, schools or commercial buildings. It is about the land, everything living on it, existing on it , everything that grows on it, everything taken from it , is built on it and even the magnificent ways it remains undisturbed by all the happenings that take place upon it. Land is perhaps the single greatest common denominator of our lives.
The ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group provides a home to share the photo and the story of our professional and personal lives as it might relate to the moment captured by the Photo.
But we are not a group to just throw Photos up and call them a part of the life experience. We provide so much more. We give you the story of how that photo came to be important enough for us to share it with you. As a group dedicated to photo journalism though, we not only want that story, we demand it. For it is the story after all which is the basis for sharing the photo in the first place, giving it the defined parameters of our unique experience.
Life is a continuum of shared experiences of all kinds. But the photo is just the snapshot that forms the basis for capturing the experience as a record of our journey. So yes, our group has guidelines ( rules) but they are simple ones. The photo has to be yours, your own experience, your own encounter or your own treasure. And the only other rule is that you have to share the story contained within it. No less than 50 words about it. If the photo does not warrant at least that many words to describe what it is and how it came to be, I am sure you would agree, it probably wasn't worth sharing in the first place.
We do one more thing in the ActiveRainPhotoBlogger group. From time to time we share tutorials about how to capture or translate that moment into more beautiful and interesting images. Good lighting, good focus, capturing the essence of the experience be it a leaf or flower shimmering in the sunlight, a bee in motion doing what a bee does, a mountain or just a view of the outer reaches of our life journey. But the Photo stories are all important no matter what view of our lives they are expressing. Under all is the land and if we accept that as our premise, then our captured moments in Photos can become whatever we want to share with our real estate network, family of friends and consumers.
So come along and join us in the marvelous group of real estate related professionals as we show and share some of the almost magical experiences which have already taken place in the realm of " Under All is the Land" . Join the ActiveRainPhotoBlogger group today. You will be so glad you did as some of these shared journeys will truly capture and perhaps even expand your imagination.
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Thank You !
William,
What a fantastic group you've started here in the Rain! I'm blessed to know you and the other members.
Mike in Tucson
Hi William....I see I need to spend more time in our Group..today I moved a Lot of Land, Called Top Soil and Compost, so our Garden will do well this Year..4 Yards to be exact is going in the flower beds and Lawn.
Nice Collection of wilderness photos.
Hi Mike, How wonderfully kind of you. Thank you and it is even a bigger pleasure to you a big part of it.
What a beautiful post, William. Both the sentiment you so wonderfully expressed, and the photos you've shared. I agree with Mike above - It is a fantastic group, and we're glad Mike is a part of it - And as for Fred, you make me laugh, cuz!
Looking forward to welcoming more new members to the group, and a great year for everyone!
Debi
Hi Fred, That was a soils movement Fred. When we have soil movement here in Southern Cal, it is literally the ground moving, :-) We are delighted you are an active member of the group and I am glad you feel that way. We are so proud of our members contribution both to ActiveRain and the our group in particular. Some wonderful wonderful photo stories. And yours are no exception.
Hi Debi, I have so enjoyed our combined efforts today, I am actually starting to feel a bit better. I want so much to believe that this thing is getting through my system but between posts and comments, I have laughed so hard, smiled so often and it has been a rich day. A you my friend make life a little easier and your kindness is so greatly appreciated. Are you featuring this post for the group? LMAO.
Life is a continuum of shared experiences of all kinds. But the photo is just the snapshot that forms the basis for capturing the experience as a record of our journey. _ and all the more reason for form this group. I am not a photographer.. however, I support this concept and your group! I'll stop over to take a look at our talented AR members.
Hey William,
this is good , as soon as I have time I will get back to post in your blogs, I need to go right now, but I just wanted to say hello :)
Hi Joan, Thanks for dropping over. We all take photos, some take them better, some are spectacular but we have no requirements for what is good or not. I think the story determines it best anyway. Hope you will be an active Contributor. Because you sure are a good writer.
Hi Ray,
You are alwaqys welcome and I so look forward to your contribution in the comment section. I always a lot from you. And I haven't forrgotten that you are teach how to do those charts.
going to have to see if I am a member - love my cameras and what they do for me :o)
Hi Thesa, Hope you will be if not already. Can't wait to see what you bring to share.
Very nice William. Have Camera Will Travel. Never without my trusty "shootin' iron"...
Helping you help others live their American dream...
Great slideshow William and I like what you said, about all of our lives, touch real estate, the land.
Hi Michael, THank you so very much. I always appreciiiate your feedback.
Hi Missy, Thank you so much. Hope to see some of your own contributions to the group.
Hi Marti, Thank you so much. How are you, we haven't talked a quite a while. I hope life is treating you well my friend. Many thanks again for this very nice honor.
William, this group is just perfect for me. I stumbled upon it when looking at someone elses's photos. Your photos of the mountains were beautiful - my favorite was the one with the train.
Hi Frank and Sharon, Thank you and delighted you will be going us. This was a train trip up into British Columbia as a side journey while I was touring in Alaska. Such magnificent country and the entire journey was amazing.
And I should mention that it was taken with a small point to shot camera. How I wish I would I could have had an SLR cmaera along for the trip. There was so much nature beauty that with more pixels , I could have really capured it in better detail.
I look forward to listening and looking - it is a terrific idea!
Williams..Beautiful presentation as usual...
HELPFULHANNAH
William,
I'm in, but I will need some tips and tricks to take great shots as you do and other AR fellows do it, I'm not great taking photos :) hope that later on you can show me some tips.
Hi Janice. We look forward to having you a part of the group. There are some wonderful presentations and Debi, Mike and others do some great tutorials for the group.
Hi Hanna, Thank you so much. I always enjoy your posts as well.
Hi Ray, Our resident genius is our group administrator, Debi Boucher. She is the consummate professional. Drop over to the group and Look for her and seek out her wisdom. She is delightful and so wonderful about sharing her knowledge and her skill. She loves being a key part of our group and we all seek her guidance from time to time.
It really is a great honor to work in real estate, even with all the grief we experience. Thank you for this post and the ActiveRain Photo Blogger group. This group has really encouraged more compelling posts at a minimum. Thanks to you and Debi for all your work, tutorials, and inspiration, not to mention the great photos.
Hi Frank, It is Debi and I and all the Moderators that Thank you for your constant source of wonderful new Photo Blogs. We are delighted and indeed honored to have you in our group and count you among our friends.
One of my "new favorite groups" here in the Rain. I was reading a lot of "why is that here, isn't this a Real Eatate site" and thinking, "can't we all just get along?" =o) I think there is room for all of the facets of Real Estate, and all of the facets of the PEOPLE who are involved in Real Estate, here on AR, and photography and photoblogging are CERTAINLY a part of that! Thanks for starting the group!
Photoblogger has become of of my favorite groups to read. The quality of the posts is so wonderful.
Hi William,
Wow! Very well written. Where was that video taken? It is absolutely gorgeous! Boy I would go crazy with my camera there!! I have really enjoyed meeting people and reading all of their different stories/experiences. I have learned a lot, seen beautiful things, laughed, even cried, and enjoyed every second. I look forward to reading the new and the old blogs, and the responses to those blogs. I didn't know that you formed the Photoblogger group. I must say thank you to you now that I do. Thank you for enriching my (our) life!
Hi Cheryl, You are so welcome and Thank You for a being an important part of the group.
Hi Brenda, Thank you so much. We really appreciate our members and the great contibutiion they all make to Photo Journalism.
Hi Dawn and Peter,
I was on a tour in Alaska and took a side journey into British Columbia. An area that was sought out i the Gold Rush days. Totally uninhabited area with level 6 rapids. ( Never been successfully ridden by any know humans) . It was a WhitePass train tour and was delightfully incredible. I had a small point and shot for what I would naturally have needed to have something much larger and more powerful to even begin to capture the essence of this magnificent land.
I assembled those photos using my Real Estate Shows program so I could add the music. I have several others, one of them being into the Mysty Fyords of Alasla.
I am sure you would have loved the terrain and the gorgeous vistas in all directions.
William,
I will follow your advise :) one day I will taking great shots like many of you do ! !
Hi Ray, One reason why we struck up such a nice friendship was that we both have strengths and they are actually different. Because we share , both of our lives can be improved and that has been the case for me for sure. Debi is so talented . And such an amazingly happy person when she is helping or being supportive of an enthusiastic someone who wants help. I chose that word carefully. Wants. That is a real treasure in these changing times, Ray.
William - this is such a terrific group. I need to spend more time looking at what members have done with their posts...but time seems to be such a precious commodioty right now. Keep up the good work - there is an excellent collection of photo bloggers there. I hope to get to that point myself someday.
Jeff
Hi Jeff, Thanks Jeff and we love all the participation from the members. The excellence is mostly in the story and in that regard, you are already at and beyond that point. It is as simple as this. Any of your photos in the post and story behind it. It doesn't have to be long, just things you want to share. I have hundreds seen if not more of your photos and you could throw a dart ( well don't do that exactly) and where it lands, post and tell about it. Not to ever worry about skill in the photography. That comes secondarily. We learn from each other better ways of taking our photos to either capture the story or vice versa. We all learn by doing ( just used that term in my new network post today. But it is true. No body laughs, they just encourage. We have a few skilled photographers that make us all envious. What is so cool is they all help the rest of us learn new ways of thing about photography. We are benefit. Some of the posts are just so totally amazing and always interesting. So it is an excellent group and though I might sound a little prejudice, but it is my favorite group as well.
ARPhotoBlogger is one of my favorite groups. Life is full of stories, and in those stories is life! And you're right . . . underneath it all is geography of place and time.
William - what a nice post about the ActiveRain Photoblogger group. I really enjoy the group and reading others posts, and sharing my own as well.
Hi Deena,
My comment to you didn't go through. We are delighted to have you as part of our group and congratulate you on having had several "award winning" posts to share with us. Keep them coming!
Hi Sharon, Thank you so much and we love that you are part of our group. We look forward to many more of your wonderful posts in the months ahead.