Three Ceramic Pots on a Doorstep, Cold Spring, NY

"Your life is a piece of clay; don't let anyone else mold it for you." - anonymous

Sunflower, Cold Spring, NY

Sunflowers have been an object of fascination and importance throughout our history. From ancient Inca priestesses who wore them as headdresses to Renaissance painters who seemed hardly capable of capturing a scene without their depiction, to their myriad modern uses in medicine (as a diuretic, to treat coughs and bronchitis), sunflowers don't seem to be waning in their beauty and purpose. Typically seen as a symbol of foolish love (the flowers blindly follow the sun), they are also symbols of prosperity and good health.

For me, the sunflower is the epitome of the spring and summer - that time where we feel more carefree and perhaps more openly joyous, where we take in the sun and feel more healthful, where we have more hours in our day with which to explore and go about our lives, and those days which remind us of being young and childlike. What a perfect wintry day* to post this photograph of a sunny yellow sunflower to remind us of summer days past and of those yet to come.

*I'm writing from NY at 5pm where its cold, windy and has already been dark for an hour. :)

Adirondack Chairs - Garrison, NY

I photographed these chairs while attending the wedding of good friends in Garrison, NY this past summer, and was struck by the emptiness and solitude of these chairs, while just one hundred feet away, dozens of their family and friends gathered to celebrate such a wonderful and festive occasion. Perhaps it was the contrast of the empty chairs adjacent to the bustling festivities that got me thinking about the significance of photographing empty chairs, and why I am typically drawn to such images.

I am clearly not the first, nor will I be the last, to capture such an image on film and raise the topic of what an empty chair symbolizes. Does it remind us of those who should be present but who are not? Do we assign personalities to different chairs? If so, do the owners or occupiers of those chairs reflect, enhance or contradict the "personalities" of the chairs they choose? I tend to think about those who have possibly occupied the seat in the past - what they saw, what they may have done while utilizing the chairs, how they may have relaxed or have been comforted by their respites, etc. So much of our time is spent in chairs- especially for many of us whose jobs require working at a desk. What do your chairs say about you? How do they comfort you? How could you make changes in your life just by changing or perhaps rearranging your empty chairs?