Anyone who has truly loved a car knows, it is a sad day when you have to finally say goodbye. Laura loved her Volvo…….. a lot would be an understatement.  Well it’s time had come, and before we brought it to the dealer to trade it in, we had a little photo shoot. You were a great little car Volvo….. and while no one could ever replace you…… there’s a new Toyota Matrix parked where you used to be.

RIP little Volvo.

This may also be my last time easily accessing under the bridges as construction has begun to close it’s grasp on the area

I tend to let the photos that I take for myself fall through the cracks. They sit among the blurry moments of my life that get filed away into a pile that ultimately becomes too big to deal with…. so I make a new pile. This post is an attempt to pull out a few favorites from the past few months. Their only cohesion is that they are taken by me.

I took this photo of Laura as we walked through the Cambridge Arts Festival. I love this photo… and her. She lives with a photographer that can’t seem to leave the house with less than everything. The flip side of dealing with me complaining about the weight of my camera bag is that she always has great Facebook profile pictures.

Meet the Monsters. My friends call Zoe (above) the stealth ninja kitty, I call her misunderstood. Zoe is Harper’s mom and sometimes I think she wishes she wasn’t. She is the best six pound badass anyone could ask for. Harper (below) is a spaz. No one has told him that he is not a kitten anymore, and I don’t plan to. He likes to jump off the fridge and onto Zoe, among many ways in which he makes Zoe wish we had kept a different kitten from her litter. None the less, they love each other……. I think.

The colorful shades below are made from old reels that buses put in the window to show the route and stop. These have been in the attic since before I was born, some of which were used the same way in the house I grew up in. It wasn’t until I unrolled them in my new place that I realized they were for the bus that runs by where I live now in Somerville.

This is Jezebel. She is Tara’s cat. She is a very chill and very hairy chat, and a great one at that.

These are of my friend Lance in Jay VT. He reminds me of Bigfoot in the top one. We got fogged out of any good riding, but we still had a good time.

I love to photograph fire. Whether it is forest fires, house fires (which is always heartbreaking, but also extremely powerful) or smaller fires in their controlled environments. There is something very hypnotic about staring into a fireplace or a campfire. These still frames offer a Rorschach like look into the fire.

All i wanted to do for my birthday was go to the Aquarium. Me and my grandmother hopped on the train and spent the day with our noses pressed against one giant tank after another. I can’t think of a better way to have spent my birthday, and what a great way to feel like a kid again.

This last one of the jellies was not taken at the Aquarium. It was taken in the Charlestown Shipyard. We looked over the railing and there were thousands of jellyfish.

This is is how my birthday ended.

I was formally introduced to rock climbing this week. Ben and Vince Schaefer are two friends of mine. They are brothers who join superpowers to become Avenna Studios, a wedding and portrait studio that is blowing up the Boston scene. These Alaskan natives were chill enough to show me the ropes (pun intended), show me how easy it looked and then let me find out how easy it isn’t. I absolutely loved it! I was like a little kid getting off a rollercoaster and getting right back in line. We were rockin out in the Quincy Quarries (also intended), which is a place I love and have spent much time. It is an old granite quarry that has since been filled in and turned into a park. The park is mostly used by rock climbers and graffiti artists (I use the term loosely). I will say that, after years of seeing unimaginative scribble about peoples moms and which high school rocks, I am finally seeing work worth looking at. Thought out, well executed pieces, many of which are in places I can’t imagine getting to, never mind bringing 10 different cans of paint to. Unfortunately the climbers and the artists are not a symbiotic relationship. The thick heavy paint that the graffiti writers use covers, and makes unusable, a lot of the holds you need at the beginning of the routes. I am torn, because I love graffiti, but now I love climbing too. At the end of the day I did do a little shooting. One thing I will say, the bright colors of the graffiti makes for good pictures.

A big thank you to Ben and Vince………. climb on Avenna.

My guides for the day. If you climb, or are thinking about it, buy Boston Rocks, it’s a great resource.

Ben working on some bouldering problems, despite the paint.

kinda like spiderman

I’ve been enamored with the look of tilt shift lenses for some time now. They  have such a unique look, and when in the right hands, can be down right amazing. I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to play. I rented a 24mm tilt shift, and away I went. The original intent was to bring this guy snowboarding, but I was hesitant to ride in the rain with it, and rain it did….. but more on that to come. I couldn’t give this back without giving it a fair trial, so I did a little Boston wandering. Why do I always love the expensive lenses!

Through the awesomely random circumstances that be, I came to meet Lawrence. Through Lawrence I met the rest of his crew, Bud, Rich, Darren and Curtis. They make up the band Crunchy Monkey. These guys rock!!!! literally.

They saw my recent post of Nick and Meg and really wanted to shoot down at the ICA. We had a blast. Little chilly….. little windy…… but these guys were troopers. I wanted to give the guys something different, a little badass, so I decided to try some graphic novel inspired images. Diggin it.

I give you…… Crunchy Monkey.         true villains & propa rockers

I’m laying on the ground in the lobby shooting and turn around to a museum tour standing behind me……. I pretended to be an installation piece until they left

evil beware……..

Nick is a fellow photographer and great friend of mine, so when he asked if I would photograph him and his awesome girlfriend Meg, I was flattered and psyched. We had so much fun shooting this. Freezing cold, but high spirited we ran around Boston and the ICA, with pretty much run of the place, I think everyone else opted to stay in because of the weather. We win!

Nick is an amazing photographer & super talented. Meg is also a super talented artist and a rockstar hair stylist. I love working with other creative minds. I love when people give me  good ideas, but then let me run with them. It becomes a collaborative.  There was no event to be captured. They were not marking their engagement. They just wanted photographs from this time in their life.

Nick & Meg loved these photos when I showed them to them a few days after the shoot. I loved that they loved them so much. What I can’t wait to see though, is how much they will love them when they come across them 30 years from now. You tend to remember to capture the big moments in your life……… try not to forget the little ones.

Nick and Meg: Thank you for being down for anything and trusting me fully.

ps. I swear that these guys are not models on the side…… although, I really think they should be!

I have had so many people commenting to both myself and Ann about these photos I thought I would share a few more. I thank everyone who had such nice things so say,  I’m glad you enjoyed getting to share a little bit of our trip.

I have never stood in absolute awe of so many things before in my life. One vista after another laid out the most beautiful and dynamic landscape anyone could hope to come upon. The spirit of this trip was adventure. Go with the flow and see what happens, and when you’re flowin with Ann at the helm, things happen. The experience of just wandering is one of my absolute favorite things. You don’t really know where you are going, you don’t really care. You just take in where you are. You get lost (especially when the navigator that doesn’t speak portuguese is reading the all portuguese map), you stumble on places you would never have sought out, people you never would have found and adventures you never would have had. It’s freeing.

When we landed in Faial and got off the plane, I tied my camera to my hand and didn’t take it off till I got home 6 days later. I loved it. I got to play….. and play I did. Ann, Clinton, Erin and Ann L. are all fun and creative people, down for whatever. You can’t ask for more than that in co adventurers. I really want to thank the four of you for making this the trip it was.

I was on a plane to go snowboarding a few years ago. When we were taking off, I had my head firmly pressed against the glass with a giddy smile on my face. After a few minutes I blinked and looked away from the increasingly shrinking ant sized cars and homes. When I looked through the crack at the seat in front of me there was a young kid, probably five or so, with the same exact look on his face and his forehead pressed firmly against the glass, trying to see down to the wonder below. I’m happy I never grew out of it.

Many of the volcanic rock houses like this one have been abandoned after and pretty big eruption in the 50′s and a more recent earthquake in ’98.

This is off the back deck of our house. Really. Someone gets to wake up every morning to this. Yes please.

This is one of quite a few panoramic photos I did while we were there. This is 6 photos.

This is one of Manual Brum’s (no relation) gardens. This guy did not mess around with his garden. He had fruit trees with things that were delicious and impossible to pronounce, flowers that looked like they belonged in Jurassic Park, and spiders that had a sportin chance at eating me whole.

Horta, Faial

This is three photos and one of my favorites from the trip.

I love that neither know why I am photographing them.

The thumbs up always translates.

Pico is a different Volcano. It is massive. As I said before we’re gonna get a close up.

Four photos. If you look closely you can see everyone standing at the edge on the right, they get bigger when you print this 5ft long.

What? You thought I wouldn’t find it.

That lighthouse was buried under 50ft of ash after the eruption in the 50′s.  They had to build a new one because there was a newfound landmass that had grown up between it and the ocean it need to warn.

This is the museum they built under it.

A contemplative Ann as the ocean moves around her. I absolutely love this portrait of Ann.

Ann wanted to place her flowers somewhere meaningful as opposed to just absently throwing them out. This seem more than fitting.

You can see the house we stayed in. That is the land mass that blocked the lighthouse. It started as 22 sq. km. It has washed away to just 2 sq. km. and even that will be gone in the next 20 years.

Thats Caldeira where they got married.

Horta

We were actually that close. This is the tip of Pico. I am glad that that was my last fleeting glimpse as the ocean swallowed the view and I removed my forehead from the glass.

Ann and Clinton are two of my absolute best friends in the world.

Guess who has always wanted to get married in the Azores.

Ann called me about four weeks before take off to tell me that it wasn’t a dream anymore……. “We leave in 4 weeks, you in?”      Twenty minutes after I get off the phone I’m at the post office with my passport application.  To be able to share an adventure like this with four friends was the chance of a lifetime. We had our very good friend Erin, who was going to be giving the ceremony. Then we had another, and equally awesome, Ann L., who would be doing some video.  The rest was to be determined. No plan. No worries. We’ll figure it out when we get there.

Well, she did. Ann is a rock star. By the end of day two, she had a cake being made, 4 potential wedding sites, dinner reservations for a reception, flowers being made, and any other potential detail you could think of was already covered….. oh, and did I mention she managed to meet the president of Faial somewhere in their as well….. seriously. Everyone was down for whatever, whenever.

So here I find myself on a beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic, with a bunch of my very best friends, a volcano and my camera……..

This post is of and for Ann & Clinton. I am honored to have been able to spend this week with you.  Thank You.

This is Manuel Brum’s garden. He was an amazing and hospitable host and was gracious enough to do a lot for us. He has a sick garden.

Who let Clinton drive?

fashion shoot

not one of his better ideas

I think it was pretty much a given that Caldeira was where the ceremony had to be.  To walk up to the edge of such a majestic thing is absolutely breathtaking.  It is impossible not to be affected by it.  We were all like little kids, running to and fro, in total disbelief of where we were. I was absolutely awe inspired.

“Just take one big step back”

I spent half the trip hanging out the window by the waist.

Ann wanted to find where her father had grown up on the island. On the way down from the mountain we saw an older couple walking. Ann stopped and asked them if they might have known her father. Well, they did. They hopped in the van and brought us to the house. It ended up being the house who’s driveway we had just turned around in.. There were a lot of really awesome coincidences on this trip.

The Big Day.

I never get to do getting readies with the girls.

Gorgeous.

He cleans up pretty nice.

what handle?

We couldn’t not go back to Manuel’s garden in the wedding dress.

badass.

The other beautiful Ann on the trip.

Erin and Ann. We did not stop laughing til we had to get on the plane home….. then we began to cry.

Really?! Thank you guys for trusting me, being down for whatever and caring as much about getting the shot as I did.

Horta didn’t know what hit them.

The aisle shot.

When we got to the rim of the volcano the temperature dropped to about 40 and the wind started blowing hard. Ann elected for a short and sweet ceremony and a quick retreat, but determined none the less to have it on the volcano.

The wedding party.

The wedding photographer.

We had a delicious and relaxing meal at an amazing restaurant followed by cake and champagne.

They did their first dance in the abandoned stone house next to where we were staying.

To stand ad the edge of a volcano is simply put….. surreal. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

There was no lava, or deep grumbling warning of an imminent catastrophe. No running for my life and having Pierce Brosnan whisk us away in the nick of time. There was no epic traverse up uncharted routes, but I guess the route must have been a little uncharted cause it took a few tries to get there, but paved none the less. None of this mattered.

It was as majestic as I never could have imagined. To stand amoungst the clouds with four amazing friends and look into the now overgrown mouth that created the island we stood on, is tough to put into words. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in that much awe of a scene before in my life. Had the trip ended there, every minute of it would have been worth it for those few minutes up there, but thankfully……… we were just getting warmed up.

This is the first of many…….. posts and adventures.

We stayed on Faial. This is her neighbor, Pico. We get a lot closer to that on the way home….. a lot.

I could not have asked for better friends to go on this adventure with.

You’re gonna see them get Hitched.

One of the most beautiful places I have ever stood.

by the end of the trip I was taking sick photos without even looking.

I spent a few days in San Francisco earlier in the year. I fell in love. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. If I could have, I would have called home, had a few boxes sent my way and hunkered down as a proper west coaster….. Art everywhere, on walls, in shops, on the ground, on people. Unique, hip, nice, open people everywhere. Great food, easy transportation, and close proximity to some of the most beautiful natural landscapes I have ever seen.

The only down side, is there isn’t one. Everything is uphill. Doesn’t matter which way you are heading or if you are going back to where you just came from, it will in fact be uphill both ways. A land our grandparents have told us about as children and we all thought was an exaggeration.  A place where  school was uphill both ways, often barefoot and in the snow. A place we all thought was a scary story old people told to make us appreciate the bus, or to make us go out and shovel on snow days.  Nope, they just all grew up in SF.

I’ve been pretty uninspired to post photos because every time I do,  I look at the post and think to myself,  I liked it better before I had to size it down to a postage stamp. Those days are over my friends. They may say bigger isn’t better but I don’t think they were  talking about blogs. This is still a work in progress so you will see some changes as we go, but for now……….

big up Frisco!

this dog was awesome.

self portrait

rockin out against prop h8te

no Officer,  I didn’t realize how far out the window I was hanging, I promise I’ll go slower next time.

it’s sunny right behind me, seriously

my partner in crime

Napa

still foggy

I love Pitcher Plants, they eat things alive

an amazing trip.