The story of shoes.

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time. It is, in essence, an homage to two wonderful ladies who have given me so much, in some cases without even knowing it.

The first is my adopted daughter, who inspired me to begin taking pictures of shoes strung up on telephone wires to begin with, and who incorporated them into her wonderful design for this journal. No, she didn't tell me to photograph hanging shoes; before I began to look carefully at photos she posted in her current (and previous) journals, I was not much of an experimenter with a camera. I looked at the images she put up, as well as many others she sent me, and learned to feel free to play with my digital camera.

And this was the first of the series...



Once addicted , I continued...



...and chronicled the life of the shoes in a smoke-filled sky...



...on cloudy days...



...and foggy evenings...



...in moonlight...



...and no light...



As I say, I've been thinking about posting a Shoe Retrospective to thank Whatsername for the inspiration and friendship.

But the impetus to finally dig out all these old images came from another very sweet lady, who has been a good friend and has recently gone through some serious problems of her own. Last night, she sent me a message which said, in part, "It's pretty weird how your pics of the shoes in the power lines can cause me to want to continue my personal fight to live, but they do. I think I have saved every one of them."

I don't care why she feels this way; I am simply happy that it is so.

So now, I dedicate the Story of Shoes to these two wonderful women, both of whom have given me so much in terms of encouragement and happiness through our friendships.