My Latest Releases
Can you see it?
New chapters, reflections, and photography — updated regularly.
Look-Read-Enjoy-Repeat
Photos & Books & Blog Posts – oh, my!
Priorities dictate the top of the list belongs to my Photos and Books. However, I’ve got images/links to my latest non-photo or Story related content near the top. My latest Photography and Book writing links follow. I will let the new post list (posts which are neither photo nor book) build for at least two weeks before I remove them from the “Latest” page, so get ’em while they’re hot folks. You can find all my posts on the Blog page anyway.
Look Here for the latest blog posts – click the pic
Or choose which content you want to view from the list below. Just click the appropriate button.
Latest Story
Accidental Sovereignty defined the first years of independence for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These states did not fight for liberation or build mass movements that pushed the Soviet Union to collapse. They inherited independence through the dissolution of a system that had structured every aspect of their political and economic lives.
Latest Photo Shoot
A glimpse through the lens — Americana, Landscapes, Seascapes, Wildlife, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. NOTE: I don’t get out much anymore, so this section might be thin.
Explore the Archive
If you’re new here, this is the best way to explore the journey so far. Just click on an underlined link.
- Photo Showroom (for sale items by genre)
- My Blog Posts in reverse chronological order
To read any of the writing listed blow press a purple button.
- Studying the Stans – Factual Documentary – in progress
- Pups & Ponies Book I – fiction book – temporary pause
- Doh-Rey-Me Book 1 – fiction book – written here
- Doh-Rey-Me Book 2 – fiction book – written here
- K9LTW Book 1 – fiction book – written here
- K9LTW Book 2 – fiction book – written here
- Mystery of Willow Woods – fiction short Story – written here
- The Last Signal – fiction book – written here
- Rift Guardians – fiction book – written here
- Burtt the Blade – fiction book – for sale
- Shorty’s Path – non-fiction auto biography – for sale
Bonus Fiction Feature:
If you read any of the fiction I create here to the end, you will be able to download a free digital copy when It’s complete. If I get a referral from you, I’ll throw in the fiction – Burtt the Blade. You can let me know your progress via the comment box at the end of each post.
NOTE: All photos are Mine, Public Domain, or AI Generated. I’ll usually let you know which is which. Sometimes I forget. All writing is mine sometimes based on research done with the aid of my AI assistant, Railph – my CoPilot, if you will.
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About Popi
I’m Michael “Popi” Hurder — a storyteller, photographer, and lifelong observer of the details most people walk past without noticing. My work comes from years of paying attention to the small, unpolished moments that reveal who we are: the way light falls across a kitchen table, the quiet between two people who know each other well, the rhythm of a season shifting in the background. I’m not interested in perfection or polish. I’m interested in truth, memory, and the way real life actually feels.
I write and photograph with a practical mindset. I don’t chase inspiration; I build it through routine, discipline, and showing up even when the mind is busy or the day is heavy.
My stories lean on lived experience, military years, family roles, the long arc of resilience. I’m more concerned with accuracy, tone, and emotional honesty than with embellishment, for the most part. Some events can take up a lot of ink, and some of that may seem extraneous. But the details are what make a story live.
My photography follows the same approach. I look for scenes that carry weight without needing explanation: Americana, wildlife, quiet landscapes, vibrant seascapes, and the everyday moments that say more than staged images ever could. The camera is just a tool; the real work is noticing.
Everything I create, stories, reflections, images, is part of a larger effort to leave something real behind. It’s not so much a performance (though sometimes it may seem like it), but a record of a life lived with intention. Not always with clarity, but always with a steady respect for the truth.
Popi’s Primary Influencers:
There are idols, and there are idols. Ansel Adams, as well as Dorothea Lange are my inspiration. There is one more influence that I consider just a bit more influential. Where Ansel introduced me to The Camera, The Negative, and The Print, and Dorothea introduced me to stark reality, Claude Monet introduced me to color and just how magnificent its display can be, done right. Claude did it oh so right, didn’t he?
The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.
Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.
Light is the most important person in the picture.
I must have flowers, always, and always
Table of Contents
I am a private Nature Photographer. This is my Photo Blog and Photo Shop. I also sell my books here.