Old SturbridgeI've hit the wall. It was bound to happen as I spent the last three years taking photos of just about everything that moved (or didn't move). The deep freeze has finally come and like any hibernating bear, it's left me some time to think. Believe it or not, my favorite camera still sits in bubble wrap three weeks after being serviced for overuse and abuse. My incarceration resulting from my cameras injuries has me feeling kinda..off. I swear that time has become frozen, leaving my brain idling in neutral. Down time just feels weird and the separation between myself and my camera has me feeling like a disembodied shell of usual myself. As I look outside of the frost covered window and gaze upon winter's frozen sunset, I long for a slight tilt of the earth upon its axis to bring us some warmth. I have little hope that I can find it within myself to reap the season's offerings of reflection and rest. Despite heeding winter's sleepy advice, I find myself looking for new adventures so I can strip that wrap off my camera and start living for life's next image. I need some inspiration or this camera will stay under wraps. Meanwhile, I passed some time by looking at old photos of opportunities I've had to travel. The kids peered into digital albums as I clicked from one photo to the next, awestruck of how much they have grown. The camera is a wonderful time machine. I began to think, if possible, where would you go if you could just go? Would you find warmth among the palm trees or around a fireplace near a ski slope? Do you travel near or afar? Do your trips have a scheduled itinerary, or do you just head off in a general direction. Either way, I would love to know. NY Ferry to BurlingtonYep...we've tried campingLake Placid, where the best memories have been made.Greetings from UtahNavy Pier, ChicagoHarry Potter World, UniversalProvidence, RIView of Soldier's FieldMonterreyDinosaur Park, CTHermosa Beach Pier, CAMonterreySt ThomasMarthas Vinyard in the snowSeeking out friendly localsThe BahamasCanada, Mont TremblantGalway, IrelandPhiladelphiaNYCDominicaNorthern CaliforniaUS Virgin IslandSt CroixSomewhere in IrelandHistoric PhiladelphiaOld Town Puerto RicoGrenedaSomewhere in the rainforestA new friend in HawaiiMauiThe US TreasuryHartfordTime's SquareMarylandShelburne Farms, VTTulumDisneyRiviera MayaLake Placid13,000 feet up in TellurideWhere to Next?
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While Santa tiptoes around the living room quietly, I spy my dog, Miles sniffing for the fuzzy new tennis ball awaiting at the bottom of his Christmas stocking. Even my calendar dog is excited about what tomorrow will bring. It’s truly hard to believe that Christmas has come around once again. In such quick time, my kids have grown into pseudo adults. I stare at the colorful piles of presents in the living room feeling like we are at a crossroads of time. I can truly embrace the theme of this year's Christmas card as I ponder the essence of our Christmas Past, Present and the Future to come.
At one time, big boxes of Legos and Playmobils covered the floor while now; small little boxes of techie treasures will fill their happy Christmas hearts. I think back to a year that brought about many of the adventures that come with adolescence and I know that if they are ok, then so are we as parents. To provide a healthy childhood for our kids is really the best gift we can give them. And now, sitting somewhere around the halfway point of life and child rearing, I cherish them more than I ever could have imagined. It doesn’t stop there however. I find myself using the word cherish a lot these days. It’s really become an important part of who I am. Every day, I cherish the man I see coming up the path after riding his bicycle home from a long day of work. I cherish the friends that have become close and those that have given me a chance despite my many quirks. I cherish good health and wish it upon everyone I know. I cherish my craft for the adventures it brings. No matter what gift sits under the Christmas tree, each one is born out how we cherish each other, and that’s more important than what is actually in the box. That feeling you get as you see it all unfold, is the real gift. Merry Christmas and may you have a wonderful time with your family. There is no better day to have a snow day then two weeks before Christmas. The kids slept in and I put some energy into arranging some of the Christmas decor and wrapping a few gifts. The tree sparkled beaconing for Peter to add gifts under its boughs after each gift was wrapped. As the Christmas music played, the house was keenly alive with the spirit that this season brings. I logged on to Facebook only briefly in the last few days and stayed away from the computer trying to focus myself on my family, the holidays and the things that I love most. This season can take its toll on people, but as the snow fell today it created a perfect catharsis and lightness of being. I took an hour to escape into the darkness with my camera. I pulled on my snow-pants feeling more ready than ever to look through the camera's viewfinder. Having photographed so many people this year, the old familiar landscapes felt almost foreign as they lay in from of me. It was a welcome reprieve to be alone with my thoughts. Only a flashlight and an open shutter created these photos. Sometimes I look back on my photographs not only for the image remembered but where my mind wandered while taking them. Perhaps the only thing better than a snow day, is a snowy night.
After a long hiatus, Powder Ridge has reopened. A large crowd watched as new owner, Sean Hayes switched on the lights, bringing the storied hill back to life. Notable was the fact that this wasn't just a local event. Many came from afar to celebrate the opening of the hill. There was a clear sense of nostalgia that emanated from the crowd. Many who learned how to ski at Powder Ridge or worked at the mountain in their youth, brought their children and families. The facility promises to be more than a ski mountain in the future by offering a high end restaurant and wedding facility. The cars came in on by one reminding many of the movie, "Field Of Dreams", a story about a man who builds a baseball field in the middle of a corn field that becomes a huge local attraction. Many in surrounding towns hope to see this as an economic boost by creating job and business opportunities. Bonfires were lit and people watched at snow guns discharged plumes of falling snow. There was a clear sense of excitement in the cold November night, as many enjoyed live music and food prepared by renown chef, Kevin Kottle. With hopes set high for Middlefield's great hill, there's little doubt that all eyes will be on Middlefield for some time to come.
I've been staring at December on the calendar and sizing it up. I would like to think that after 14 years of parenting and 42 years of existence, I would get a better handle on all things holiday. So what's your battle plan for the season? Tomorrow's Black Friday, to be followed closely by cyber Monday. What's not to say there wont be a "Take no Prisoners" Tuesday followed by a "Harried Hump Day". If there's a name to be made up, the big retail industry will create a special shopping day for every day of December. It's like the retail world has taken the petit surprises of an advent calendar and hyped it up into a frenzy godzilla-like monster. So what are we to do?
Let me start by saying that the original "Doorbuster" frenzy started with my dog, Miles. Blissfully unaware that Doorbuster day should only happen on the Friday after Thanksgiving, he managed to eat almost all the trim off of most of our doors on a daily basis as a puppy. Slowly we are repairing them all, and it's no great bargain. So is searching for the bargain worth the toll it takes on our sanity? Part of me is willing to give it a try, while the more logical side of me has me putting on the brakes. I was thinking that perhaps the best way to "celebrate" the holidays is to give yourself some guidelines. Be sure to realize and understand your own personal limits and realize that no matter how well (or not so well) you succeed as Santa's elf, that your family still loves you. Here are my thoughts on how I'll deal. I'll be sure that as a family, we'll will sit down and watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas", as a simple reminder of what Christmas is all about. It's timeless and more relevant than ever. I will not let my kids' sports schedules turn me into a psychopath. If we need to skip a day, then we will. I will think twice before I head out the door. Shopping in a mall can bring out the worst in humanity, especially this human. Recently, I was chased down by a kiosk perfume lady and I truly envisioned giving her a black eye for her invasion of my personal space. My Italian/Irish traits will behave. While in a store, I will be patient, because like waitressing, retail isn't an easy gig. If I do have to get in a car, I will do my best to compose myself after numerous stop light cycles without forward movement. I'll be nice to my kids when I take the Christmas card photo realizing that I have a tendency to go way over the top and ask too much of them. I will stay in my ugly fleece pj's, and create a permanent indentation in my office chair and enjoy shopping with my dog at my feet and my cat on my lap. Since I will be sitting in my office chair a lot, I will not buy any ice-cream throughout all of December as a preventative measure for my waistline. Before I buy my kids some landfill fodder that seems awesome at the moment, I will venture up to their closets and witness last year's treasures shoved in the corner. I will back away from the Paypal button when it comes to purchases for myself. I have a tendency to buy the same "logical gifts" every year for my family. I will try not to bore them with more of the mundane in a slightly different colors. I will shop small businesses and spread the cheer there. They are huge in making our town, a community. I will not embark on any new craft gift projects after December 10; this means avoid Pinterest like the plague. I will get off my arse on a regular basis to play ball with my dog and run him in the woods. I will not stay up past midnight more than twice a week. I will open my heart to those that tend to push my buttons because they are probably more stressed out than me. If I get a chance to get some holiday baking in, I will make a note to self that cookies are not dinner. Best of luck taking on (fill in the blank _____day). We have about 25 of them before Christmas. May your good cheer begin! Day 6 of 12 Months of Miles. Look, it's a bird, a plane…..Squirrel! While there are the many enemies Superdog protects us from, the common squirrel continues to evade him despite his best efforts. “I stand For truth, justice and the American way. “ Clark Kent steps into the phone booth (at the Dari Serve) and revels the superman (or dog) that he really is. Superman continues to be one of the most successful movie franchises in history and the comic continues to be written today. On June 14, 2013, Superman made his most recent visit to the silver screen with “Man of Steel”. Perhaps Miles will star in the next installment of the movie. Day 5 of 12 Months Of Miles. Miles, he's such an accomplished artist. There could only be one Salvador Dali, born on May 11, 1909. He was eccentric to say the least and most noticeable because of his crazy looking mustache. He had many notable quotes but this one stands out to me, "Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it". This may be my favorite of the series mostly because of its composition as well as the fact that it's one of my favorite locations atLyman Orchards. A jump in the pond topped it off for Miles! Day 4 of 12 Months of Miles Most of us follow some type of code for behavior…even dogs. Miles is seen here channeling his inner Moses. He delivers his message as the waters rage behind him. He stands affront the Red Sea, (aka) Wadsworth Falls here in Middlefield. Moses's Biblical message is timeless and at the core of many of our values. I don’t believe anyone could tell you what day or month Moses was born, but it’s said he was born sometime in 1391 BC. I reworked the message on the stones to work for a dogs code of behavior. 1. Obey your Master 2. Thous shall not worship sticks or balls. 3. Thour shall not bark excessively. 4. Wag your tail everyday especially on Sunday. 5. Guard your family. 6. Thou shall not chase and kill critters. 7. Thou shall not drool at the dinner table. 8 Thou shall not steal another dog's stick or ball. 9. thou shall not blame your indiscretions on the cat. 10 Thou shall not covet your neighbors kibble. Day 3 of 12 Months of Miles... He plays the role of Einstein and I realized just how brilliant a dog can really be. Well kinda...he did try to eat his wig. To get the classic picture of Einstein sticking his tongue out, I played ball with Miles for a good while leading up to the shoot. Einstein was born March 14, 1879 and while he has too many great quotes to list here, this is one of my favorites..."Logic will take you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere." Day 2 of the 12 Months of Miles.... Today, Miles is depicted as Steve Jobs, born Feb 24, 1955. He was the brilliant mind of Apple. Miles wears his signature black turtleneck. "I want to put a ding in the universe". He clearly did as everyone in my family can barely tear themselves away from everything Apple. On Jan 5, 1920, the New York Yankees announced the purchase of out fielder, George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for a sum of $125,000. He's pictured here on location at Coginchaug's playing fields. Let me introduce you to Miles, our awesome rescue mutt. He is a mix of a lab, a mastiff and a shepherd. His breeds' traits include his love for any ball(lab), goofiness (mastiff) and loyalty(shepherd), a combination that makes him very special. Always following closely by my side, I decided to make him the focal point of my annual photo calendar. He is an amazingly patient and sweet model that enjoyed playing ball after each of his 12 mini shoots. Working with him is always fun and he behaves better than most human models. When photographing a dog, one learns quickly to set up the shot well before the dog comes into the frame. I am excited to share lovable Miles with you all. Extra thanks to Lili Kinsman for helping me find bits and pieces of costumes for each celebrity look. She's the best to work with! Since we are 12 days from Dec 1, I'll call it the 12 days of Thanksgiving. I'll plan on sharing one image a day. I usually give this as a gift to my clients and friends for the holidays, but will also have it on sale starting December 1st at Perk on Main and the Durham Pharmacy. If you're from far away, I can send you one. Enjoy!
Let me introduce you to Miles, our awesome rescue mutt. He is a mix of a lab, a mastiff and a shepherd. His breeds' traits include his love for any ball(lab), goofiness (mastiff) and loyalty(shepherd), a combination that makes him very special. Always following closely by my side, I decided to make him the focal-point of my annual photo calendar. He is an amazingly patient and sweet model who enjoyed playing ball after each of his 12 mini shoots. Working with him is always fun and he behaves better than most human models. When photographing a dog, one learns quickly to set up the shot well before the dog comes into the frame. I am excited to share lovable Miles with you all. Extra thanks to Lili Kinsman for helping me find bits and pieces of costumes for each celebrity look. She's the best to work with! Since we are 12 days away from Dec 1, I'll call it the 12 days of Thanksgiving. I'll plan on sharing one image a day. I usually give this as a gift to my clients and friends for the holiday's, but will also have it on sale starting December 1st at Perk on Main and the Durham Pharmacy. If you're from far away, I can send you one. Enjoy!
January-Babe Ruth On Jan 5, 1920, the New York Yankees announced the purchase of out fielder, George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for a sum of $125,000. He's pictured here on location at Coginchaug's playing fields. Today isn't a day to sleep in. It's a day to go out and do what you love and do best. Do it because you have the freedom to do so. Honor your veterans. Love your country and cherish the life you've been given.
Who will ever forget your child’s (or your) first Halloween school parade? The kindergarten teacher would walk with a boom box blaring “the Addams Family”. Parents (tired from making costumes) would line the school halls sending big smiles and little waves to their ghoulish passer-byes. Pre-sugared kids would be wiggling and bouncing throughout the entire school day just waiting for the big night. It was Halloween, a time to be whoever you wanted to be! …Fast-forward 10 years and my daughter has 5 quizzes scheduled for tomorrow. Were losing grasps of our children’s fleeting child-hood traditions and they are morphing into pseudo-grown-ups. I decided to do something about it. Last year I called my incredibly creative friend Lili Kinsman and proposed that we do a mother daughter photo shoot to help reclaim some Halloween fun. I suggested a ghost theme and Lili, who’s the most imaginative stylist I know, was right on it. …Fast-forward another year and we have stepped up our games. For both Lili and I, doing a shoot in a comfort zone of working with our own kids allows us push our creative envelops. There’s nothing to lose and so much fun to be gained. Add our friend Kim to the mix and she keeps us organized and moving along. She also brings the cookies! This year’s theme was inspired by the Capitol fashions of District 13 from the Hunger Games. We wanted to portray wild color and extravagance. The first portion of the shoot started with the girls wearing simple attire. By the afternoon, they had morphed into some wild looks, some which got odd stares along Main Street in Durham and along the streets of Middletown. My hope is that we can continue to do this for as long as possible. It has become a cherished tradition that’s destined to replace the school parade and trick-or-treating with a new era of creative energy. Madison brings so much personality to everything she does. She smiles easily and the key to getting a good shot of her is to let her dance, jump and sing at will. Lili dressed her knowing she wanted to bring out Madison’s inner funk by creating an over the top look. It turned out to be masterful because in these shots, you can practically feel the confetti that is Madison’s party just streaming out into the photograph. Madison is the party girl of the Hunger games, District 13! Kate has read the Hunger Games over and over again. Trying to keep this shoot from being literal, I had her avoid the expected Katniss Everdeen Character (Another day perhaps). Instead we took a different approach going for bright and may I dare say garish color. In Panem, each district had a purpose; one of her looks was inspired from the fishing district. She was wrapped like a fish being caught in a net. She went even brighter(if that’s even possible) in the metallic purple costume, which seemed to compliment Maddy’s pinks! Finally, after a long day of Kate looking like the colors of a rainbow, she found her stride dressed as her interpretation of a Peace Keeper. The simple red dress(I think an old stewardess uniform that we found at Savers), did everything for her! Her face, now so simply made up, became perfectly illuminated by her red lipstick! She became perfection. Yep…that’s my kid Peter! He played a bit of a sinister role in the shoot, aptly modeling as a combination of looks of the flamboyant Cesear Flickerman as well as working the stylish sideburns of the Game Maker, Seneca Crane. Peter’s birthday is on Halloween, which somehow makes this outlandish costume seem perfectly appropriate. Katrina can rock any look she’s given. That’s one of the best things about Katrina. Watching Lili get Katrina duded up was like watching a girl redress her Barbie doll over and over. In shoot’s, Lili will use some of Katrina’s grandmother’s performance dresses. Her grandmother was an incredible jazz singer who performed with the best. Katrina fit so perfectly into her grandmother’s dresses and stoles it felt like she was channeling her beautiful spirit. Throughout this year’s shoot she kept crossing back and forth between a past time of glamour while touching on the modern looks that could be expected in the Capitol District from the Hunger Games. Melissa played the roles of characters from two Districts from the Hunger Games…Grain and Technology. I have taken my share of photos of Melissa over the years and these are my favorite of her by far!. She embraced her awesome costumes crafted by Lili and unmistakably draws you into her characters while infusing a good dose of herself into these shots. ! It was fun scoping out locations with her in mind and seeing the final results after editing. As a photographer, I have always loved capturing her dynamic facial structure, she’s got a look that’s hers and only hers. She’s beautiful!
There are lots of things that have a way of muddling up a perfectly fine day. Most of the things that do the muddling don’t usually give you a heads up. But as they piled up the other day, I decided to force myself out of any ruts this muddling had caused. I headed over to Deerfield Farm for no other reason than to find a way to snap out of it. I had a hunch that it would be a sure cure for the little things that ail me. Just the view out the back end of the barn was enough for the miracle cure. I looked down upon the field of well kept cows that stood among the spectacular colored fall backdrop. I thought to myself, “Hello Ladies, your view is a special one”. If that wasn’t the cure all, the magical pill came next as I got a dose of the barn’s three resident kittens. They jumped about in a pile of wood shavings blissfully unaware of their perfect lives. As I watched them in their unassuming perfection, anything that felt heavy, became light.
…and so it really would be that simple to turn things around. ….I brought my daughter there today after I had experienced the place’s simple pleasures. I had told her that I wanted to bring her somewhere special and she dropped everything to come for the ride. She too cuddled with the kittens that easily managed to add some ethereal quality to her day. While this was only a simple serving of positivity, my reason for bringing her there was planned. I was hoping to help her realize that the most effective tools are often the most simple ones. I hope that she learns to seek out those things that will make her life good and unfettered propelling her through obstacles. Only you can see yourself through. If you can do this, life is yours to enjoy. |
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