“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”
― Ansel Adams
Prior to this summer, my experiences with Yosemite National Park were limited to viewing the park through Ansel Adams’ amazing images, either in books or in museums. Even after viewing these photographs by the Master, I was in no way prepared
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”
― Mark Twain
Now that I have finished my summer travels, I have time to relive my experiences through the pictures that I was able to capture. My first trip of the summer was a family vacation to California. We started our week-long adventure in
“Happiness is only real when shared.”
― Jon Krakauer
I have spent four weeks of this summer break traveling. My final summer trip brought me to Florida to spend time with my brother, his wife, and some of my dearest friends.
The daughter of my close friends, Colby, is one of my
“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.”
― Saul Bellow
The first stop for our summer family vacation this year was San Francisco. One of the things my family wanted to do was visit Alcatraz Island. Luckily, we heard that tickets needed to be
“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. ”
― Walker Evans
I have seen many pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, located in San Francisco, California, since becoming a photographer. The images that seem to stay with me are the ones that have the bridge disappearing into the fog.
This past week, I had my first opportunity to see the bridge in person. I intentionally did not
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
― Mother Teresa
As I have written, I participate in an ongoing photography scavenger hunt. Participating photographers are given a list of words and work to create an image for each word. In a recent hunt, one of the words was
“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences.”
― Neil Gaiman
Each year, at this time, I feel compelled to take my camera to Roan Mountain State Park to photograph the rhododendron in bloom. Due to other scheduled activities, I did not think that I was going to be able to make it this year.
For the past few days, I have seen posts from friends who were heading to Roan Mountain to photograph. I talked myself into believing it would be fine for me to miss out on a trip to Roan during the rhododendron bloom
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
― Rabindranath Tagore
Several weeks ago, when my great friends, Amy, Tony, and I spent the weekend photographing in the Charleston area, we were faced most of the weekend with gray, storm threatening skies.
There was one evening, however, that we were able to experience
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever…it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
― Aaron Siskind
When I began my 900 Days of School project, I had some goals in mind. By searching to capture an image a day,
