The Poetry of Noticing
Welcome to Weiss Journal.
This is where I share my stories, essays, monochromatic street photography, artwork, and occasional musings. Everything here is made by me. No AI. Just a writer, a camera, and an attempt to pay attention.
Why black and white?
I've always been drawn to it.
Black and white is simple. It can be elegant or stark. It can make an ordinary moment feel almost theatrical. Perhaps that's the minimalist in me. I like taking things away until only what matters remains.
I experimented with color for a while, drawn to the cinematic street photography that has become so popular. I learned Lightroom Classic and discovered how much can be done with light, shadow, contrast, and selective focus.
But in the end, I kept coming back to black and white.
I still use Lightroom, but now I use it to shape my monochromatic photographs, to deepen a shadow, draw attention toward a face, soften a background, or let a patch of light carry the eye.
Black and white simply feels more like me.
The writing
I've always loved literature and elegant prose. I spent some time in a creative writing MFA program before deciding that life, reading, and writing were already giving me most of what I needed.
I spent 26 years in law enforcement, including ten as a police chief. Along the way I earned a master's degree in criminal justice administration, studied landscape painting, and moonlighted as an editorial cartoonist for the Santa Cruz County Sentinel.
After retirement, the camera took hold.
Street photography became a way of slowing down and looking more carefully at the world. A person waiting for a bus. Someone sitting alone in a café. A stranger caught in a shaft of afternoon light.
These small moments often become the beginnings of stories.
The poetry of noticing
That's what Weiss Journal is really about.
Noticing.
The world is full of things we hurry past. Photography makes me stop. Writing makes me look again. Here you'll find stories about ordinary lives. Essays about the things that interest and trouble me. Black-and-white photographs. Pen-and-ink cartoons. Paintings. And whatever loose ends find their way onto the website.
I don't have a particular formula. I’m not chasing algorithms or fads. I simply want to create my best work.
Every weekend I send the free Weiss Journal newsletter to more than 7,000 readers. There are no paywalls and no marketing games. Reader donations and book sales help keep the lights on.
If you enjoy thoughtful writing, black-and-white photography, editorial-style cartoons, and stories about the beauty of ordinary life, I hope you'll stay awhile.
There are still stories to tell. And plenty left to notice.
This website is completely free. No subscriptions or paywalls. If the work resonates, you can support it via PayPal or Stripe.
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