Sunday, December 27, 2015

Thinking Back through Images

I became interested in photography during my sophomore year of college while taking a photojournalism course. I wasn't great at capturing journalism through photography, but I loved capturing nature, stills of people, food and ordinary items. 

I like seeking a new angle to what we see everyday, of making the ordinary beautiful. 
As I went through images recently on my computer, I found these images, taken when I was 19 and 20, in New Hampshire, Vermont and Scotland with a variety of cameras. As I viewed each, I remembered vividly where I was and who I was in the moment captured and  seeing them now, they were interesting and touching and brought back more of the memory than I could recall.

A rural road in Concord, New Hampshire, close to my childhood home. I walked this road in the summer, loving it at all times of year, but especially on hot days with the cicadas chiming every few minutes. It was on this road, as I passed open spaces, fields, rock walls, farms and barns I fell in love with silence and reflection.

A snow storm in central New Hampshire through a windshield on the last day of 2012, so many shades of blue between snow, trees, mountains and skies. I remember the frustration and sadness during that storm, the frustration with driving, the sadness with the end of a sad year, the limitations of the storm, being unable to see a change, or brighter skies.

That same rural road in glittering light.

Nearly same shot, the summer of 2012. I worked at a vegan cafe that summer during the day and walked this road in the afternoons.

My dorm room during my sophomore year of college. Something about the soft light and the wall decor and the bed and realizing how much happened that year and how shaping it all was. I remember waking up early everyday and falling asleep as soon as I could. I remember being wrapped in the thin quilt that was won in a community raffle nearly twenty years earlier, of the bright colors on the walls, of the celebratory music we played in the spring, of laughing with my roommate.

That same year, in the spring, President Obama visited Burlington, Vermont to campaign for his second term. Arguably the bluest state, Vermont was the state that had gone the longest without a presidential visit (...I think '95 was the last). I had a press pass and wrote and photographed the speech for the college newspaper. The experience was one I'll never forget -- the excitement and energy multiplied through thousands of people, unafraid to celebrate and absorb the event. I have so many images from that day just like this one of a crowd of a dozen or more people, some faces more visible than others, but all listening, wanting, hoping. 

Late summer in Concord, New Hampshire with the leaves of a tree I grew up loving and a skyline of trees I grew up seeing. 

A few months after arriving in Scotland, I took a solo trip south to London to visit a friend. It was a terrific visit for many reasons but when I see this image, I remember arriving in the city during the evening. It was dark and I didn't know where I was going or how to get there, but the lights of the city and the thrill of arriving overrode it. Parliament during the day was beautiful too.


Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. Exploring a fishing village with a friend in the fall of 2012 and leaning over a high stone wall to see this residence, garden and view of the sea. It was an overcast day, but the bright shutters and stone roof and brightness of the grass (after immense amounts of rain)   added color.

The North Sea and St. Andrews, Scotland. I look at this tiny university town and the clear sky and sea and remember how Scotland healed and inspired me in so many ways. Some days my time there is clear in my mind, the memories and experiences there, the growth and change and all that I learned and gained. Other days it feels farther away and longer ago, that what I learned there isn't used today. Then I see this image or think back on those thoughts and realize that for many reasons, it'll never be too long ago or beyond reach, but just as importantly, not to forget the lessons and growth that continues today.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Images of November

I didn't take as many pictures in November with a busier schedule and a darker and grayer landscape, but I did visit Charleston, South Carolina, where the scenery was beautiful and the food delicious. It's hard to fathom how quickly this year has passed, faster than any year I can remember. Working to capture these pictures each month has been so fun, it's allowed me to see the world from different perspectives and notice just how quickly each season passes and returns.

Boston, Mass.

downtown Charleston, SC










James Island, Charleston, SC

GIANT oak tree on John's Island, Charleston, SC

sunrise above the clouds

New London, NH, a foggy Lake Sunapee between the background forest


Lebanon, NH sunset

Atlantic Ocean from Marion, Massachusetts

after the foliage falls, Manchester, New Hampshire




Thursday, November 26, 2015

Learning to Speak, Engage, Go Forward

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been reflecting recently on the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad and realizing that while media and our surroundings work to convince us that today is more dangerous than yesterday, people all over the world have always lived in challenging times. When I feel sadness at the islamophobia and fear that's arose in the past weeks, I've been reminded of the importance of youth, of new ideas, of inter-faith dialogue and communication and not allowing fear to take control. I like these words spoken by Robert F. Kennedy in South Africa in 1966, I think they ring true today:

"Everywhere new technology and communications bring men and nations closer together, the concerns of one inevitably becoming the concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the false masks, the illusion of difference which is at the root of injustice and hate and war. Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ended at river shore, his common humanity enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town and views and the color of his skin.It is your job, the task of the young people of this world, to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man."


Concord, NH a few January's ago.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Connecting to Nature

The colors of the leaves here have become muted, yet there's still so much color, strong yellows and burnt oranges now. The sky has become grayer and whiter too. There are more overcast days and rain and wind, leaves falling like snow. The interim of vibrant autumn color and blinding white snow, this in-between season between seasons still brings blue sky on some days, but far fewer than the middle months of the year. Before the landscape becomes bright with snow, it'll become darker with empty trees. Despite this in-between, there is so much beauty, so much opportunity to see and listen and connect with nature. It's in the yearly change of recurrence, the evening sunsets and early darkness, the smells of wet trees and dying leaves, the light in the morning becomes familiar again, as we enter a state of change we've seen and known before.