I left this for last because it ends on a Spring feeling... Ansel Adams (the great photographer) said that the image right-out-of-the-camera is like music manuscript; while the postworked image is its performance. Adams' postworked in darkrooms, of course; but it applies to Digital as well---ie, the manuscript contains the music, but only the performance can bring it to life... Point blank: Claude is enormously committed to coaxing-out the image inside the image, its inner energies, lights, powers, etc. He dives inside whatever he shoots, and grapples with their molecules, telling them "I'm not leaving till you reveal your essences". He creates intimate work. Photos of the insides of everything. He does a lot of nature photography---naturally, I mean he lives in an drop-dead exquisite area: What's not to shoot? And for the sake of "complete disclosure," it's great to simply 'see' those sights everyday in his gallery. But when he makes images of them---from trees and flowers, to old houses and lichens, to pets and still lifes, etc---he does infra-red photos of the mind. I know that sounds facile (with words), but I mean it: They look like photos of the lights and energies beyond the visible eye. A great writer once said that events inside the heart are as real as those outside it: To me, Claude photographs both. Now: Deep reds and browns, deep greens, yellows and blues. These hues pulse all over his work. But then he'll turn around and shoot an old decayed house, and he'll so respect its dignity, he'll let it speak for itself. Whatever's required to let the inner world speak, like nature were a gigantic poetry reading, and he was the guy with the microphone... And he'll revise his work: He'll dive into to an image and make it better, and then post the new version after. (Commitment.) But I'm embarrassed to say that I've already loved the previous piece, and I'll think: Did I miss something? No. Sorry Claude, both versions worked for me. I love your work, what can I do...Claude seems a very gentle, caring soul, and seems to live a life filled with love, with his wife and friends and family and animals and his beloved nature...Sometimes I wonder if he's not one of those figures from folklore who, by merely touching a flower, makes it bloom...if it's not already obvious, I think his work is magic. Claude, I don't know you well, but boy you give us radiant, touching life; your gallery's on fire, which means you're on fire---fire, as in the light inside us all. I included Buddha because I know you resonate with his teachings and inner light; but also because you have a buddha-eye, and it's splendid. I posted this to tell you I love what you do, and thank you for reminding us that seeing, at base, is an act of love and communion. I wish you tons of inspiration and joy in everything you do, and lila---the sublime "dance of the cosmos," to which you seem called each day of your life...huge bows of gratitude, you're a real gift to us all namaste, Mark (again please zoom, it's huge)