Willie the Wonder Dog (aren’t they all), playing at Hamonassett State Park in 2005. We’d often take him there in the wintertime, and though he loved the wide open spaces, would never wander too far afield.
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family
Jim, my younger brother, passed away on 12/13/14, following complications in the treatment of a recently discovered CNS lymphoma. He was (is) an amazing soul, and leaves a HUGE legacy of caring for others.
He came back home after college to live with our parents, and stayed on to care for them following their retirements. He always said that it was an easy decision, and man of few words that he was, would basically just say ” ..well they took care of me..”.
Likewise, I may never forget the care he took, right before his final operation, to arrange continued snow plowing services for his elderly customers, AT THE NOMINAL RATES HE CHARGED.
Family and friends were important to him, and it seems that if you became his friend, you had him, like family, for life.
And he loved the outdoors with a passion, to the extent that he never seriously considered a career track which would have kept him indoors.
The photo above is from a road trip he and I took six years ago – it was the first one I thought of for this post, showing as it does a man comfortable and perhaps at peace with himself.
R.I.P., bro – you were and are loved deeply, by the many whose lives you touched.
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There are many things I like about this image; for one, it’s such a non-business use of the sign, and in that way reveals something about Yankee practicality. The shot was taken with a Fuji 6×7 film camera twenty or so years ago, a few steps away from the Mohawk Trail, otherwise known as Route 2. The road follows a Native American trade route that linked Atlantic tribes with those in upstate NY. Vestiges of that era remain – this place sold all sorts of leather goods including moccasins and warm rabbit’s fur winter hats.
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See below. Howard and Courtney Prussack of High Meadows Farm were featured in the article, which also carried a picture of them (taken a couple of minutes after this one). Note the photograph of the younger Howard on the table, as well as a vintage t-shirt.
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Many of us in the area began daydreaming of The Friends Annual Book Sale @ the Academy School in the dead of winter, despite the late July date. Over 10,000 used books, all at great prices, with the proceeds going to the Scranton Library.
Particularly good finds for me this year, each a hardcover for $2.00: Paintings of New England, which “gathers over 100 works by many of this country’s most favorite artists, all of whom have been awestruck by the sublime beauty of the region” (from the book jacket), and Icons of Photography, 20th Century, “more than ninety of the century’s best photographers are presented with some 160 icons of the genre” (also the book jacket). $4 picked up the Illustrated History of the Civil War. Somewhat overproduced, and overpriced at $10 was Through the Lens, National Geographic Greatest Photographs. This one is a sumptuous hardcover but ultimately a disappointment; I picked up National Geographic – The Photographs a few years ago, and found the choice of images there more compelling (though some were the same). All in all, it was a good day, with 11 books and 3 DVDs for $37.00.
This was the line one half hour before the book sale actually began.
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Spotted this beautiful chunk of red oak in the woodpile one day, and it only needed a little shaping and waxing to turn into a much appreciated Valentine’s Day gift. May your Valentine’s Day be a happy one!
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40 feet up in the air, two generations of the Flying Wallendas ride bicycles across a tightrope. Check out how the woman is balancing on a chair. They performed at the Guilford Fair, which dates back to 1859.
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Photographing total strangers at close range in public spaces can be challenging for any number of reasons. The initial difficulty is the fact that it’s inherently an intrusive act, which can get in the way of establishing rapport. Second, it requires some level of acceptance and commitment on the part of the subject(s), which might never materialize. Finally all the technical/artsy considerations come into play: composition, depth of field, background, the decisive moment, breathing, etc. etc. Probably thirty seconds elapsed between my first glimpse of these folks, requesting permission to photograph, and taking 4 frames. Thirty seconds seemed a comfortable span of time for all of us, perhaps the limit. Could I have done better with that time ? With more time ? Probably, but “close enough” is much underrated in in the art and science of photography.
This was the first frame, and I like it the best of the series, despite a busy background, and even though the last shot (below) has a simpler composition.
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Taken around 1925, by an unknown studio photographer, this photo shows the the Andrew and Mary Wasik family: my grandparents, mother and aunts and uncles. My mom is the girl in the back with long hair. She passed away 5 years ago today, at the age of 93.
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