florida hotel grounds

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spent a few days in orlando for work & while florida is not high on my list of favourite states a walk around the resort grounds with my digicam one afternoon did make things seem a little better.

digi in the dusk

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took my latest digicam on a drive through joshua tree national park in the late afternoon sun as storm clouds rolled in.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the ricoh cx3’s “high contrast black & white” setting & I can’t wait to have some bright southern california spring days to play with.

february / march 2024 poem for aaron bushnell

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I don’t need a gun
I need the dark thick pit
curling around my stomach
to bloom into sweet lilies

I don’t need a gun
I need the stitches you’ve sewn
across your eyes to melt
under the heat of children’s blood

I don’t need a gun
I need the weeping
the wet hollowed wailing
to stop

listen on the poetry hotline

hollywood details

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my streak of buying old digital cameras continues...

spent an hour walking around hollywood testing out the latest digicam I’ve added to my collection, the nikon coolpix p7000 which was originally released in 2010. so far I’m finding this little thing pretty fun & I’m excited to experiment more with the build in ND filter & the full manual controls.

lake manly's return

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I spent a weekend in my favourite national park recently, death valley, which is known for being the “hottest, driest, lowest” national park in the united states. right now though, thanks to our strange summer hurricane, pluvial lake manly (the ancient lake which once covered most of death valley) has made a reappearance at the lowest point in north america – badwater basin.

I had thought most of the water would be gone by the time of my january visit but it turns out lake manly decided to stick around a bit longer than expected. the cloud streaked blue skies & mountains reflected in the pristine surface of the ankle deep water made the whole experience feel otherworldly. like visiting the inside of a kaleidoscope.

rolling sands

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a bright afternoon on the mesquite flat dunes in death valley. I have been playing with photographing the desert in black & white recently. there is just something immortal about the way these came out.

cold boston morning

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one freezing saturday morning spent wandering along boston’s charles river esplanade.

a few weeks ago I went to boston for the weekend to check out the john singer sargent exhibition at the museum of fine arts. sargent is one of my favourite painters & I couldn’t pass up the chance to see so many of his works in one place. arriving in boston just before 7 am on a saturday morning meant I had a lot of time to wander. I layered on hiking clothes & windproof fleece in the logan airport bathroom before heading into the city to brave 27 degree temps.

it’s been quite a while since I’ve experienced “real” winter. the sharp cold air & ice gathering along the rivers edge fascinated me.

some favourite photos of 2023

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I’m not normally a year end review kind of person but I have been thinking about all the photos I’ve made this year & wanted to reflect on the ones I’m most proud of. these are probably not the best technical photos ever made, but they are images that I thought “that’s rad” when making & look back on fondly.

they run the gamut from landscapes to street photography & were made on a variety of cameras in a range of locations & on different formats, though I’m a bit surprised to realize there isn’t much film in the mix. I think this year I learned that the camera & the gear matters less than I believed it did when I first got back into photography even if I did still buy a whole new setup this year (the fujifilm xpro3) which I still haven’t fully explored.

here’s to more adventures in 2024!

narrows

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hiked the narrows in zion national park this past summer & did not enjoy it! the canyon is stunningly beautiful but hiking in water is not my cup of tea. twisted my ankle & fell in the water more than once.

“the narrows” are the narrowest section of zion canyon and the name refers to either the 3.6 mile bottom-up hike or the 16 miles top-down route. it is one of the most popular hikes in the national park.

down on the bombay beach

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installations from bombay beach on the shores of the salton sea.

bombay beach was a popular getaway until the 1980s when the increasing salinity & receding water line of the salton sea destroyed the lake’s ecosystem & drove away businesses. bombay beach remains with a population hovering around 200 & is the lowest community in the united states at 223 feet below sea level. it has been undergoing a renaissance in recent years as artists & intellectuals have moved in. the town is now home to numerous art installations & the annual bombay beach biennale.