the blogosphere

In the corner of my sun-filled living room, I saw a round object covered in dust. I walked over to it and did like they do in the movies. I blew on it. Dust went everywhere; the room became a sunny glowing cloud. The object that I found was a blogosphere that I had almost forgotten about. I now work in digital media and it seems more than ever the place where I live. I see the world through my phone and the social channels. But I do remember the days when things were different. Screens were bigger and we were able to find content rather than receive it in our feed. If you’re here, you found me. And for this reason I’ll have fun sharing things that I don’t share on social. Like the pictures below. And more personal stories. J Mascis says that the only social media he uses is Strava and that he’s gone almost 5,000 miles on his bike. Sounds fun.

Togetherness

I just spoke to a potential client today. She’s getting married. One of the questions she asked was*, “I know you do weddings, but what do you really love to photograph.” Usually it’s, “do you have an assistant” (no) or ‘can you show me an entire wedding gallery.’ (no). I loved this question. I answered, “There are things about weddings that don’t exist anywhere else: the clothes and dressing up; and the togetherness- usually only for weddings do people travel from all over the country and sometimes the world to be together.” A couple of more times in the conversation the person used the word togetherness. She helped me realize that togetherness is one of the big reasons why I do weddings.

Then, I said that I also love portraits/people photos. And that I really don’t do landscapes much. But I forgot all about my flowers and my abstractions (see above) that I had so much fun doing in early 2021. And I forgot to tell her about how I love to write. How I love to paint. How I even make music sometimes. It wasn’t a conversation about me. It’s about her special event where everyone will be together.

Peacocks

There have been many lowlights this year, but I’m going to hang on to the pinprick of a highlight that occurred during the NCAA basketball tournament. St. Peter’s College (in Jersey City) made it to the Elite Eight. They didn’t have money, or legacy, but they were cool and confident and they surprised everyone. I did photography through Erbach Communications for St. Peter’s for a couple of years when I lived in Jersey City. When they won, I celebrated and reconnected with my JC friends. Jersey City’s rents went up more than any city in the country since 2020, so I guess they didn’t put Jersey City on the map. But they sure did make a lot of people proud.

*quotes are paraphrased