Windsor Wax Co., Old Hoboken Building

"....to heaven, hell or Hoboken by Christmas...." -Woodrow Wilson

Dried Flower Pot, Long Island, NY

"The Earth laughs in flowers." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Touche - A Wall Near Quechee, Vt

Teenagers on a Waterfall, Northern Thailand

While I normally don't shoot live subjects, I couldn't resist these adorable, happy teenagers playing aimlessly on a ledge of an extremely large waterfall in the jungle of Northern Thailand. While I was nervous watching them at the edge of such a dangerous and slippery waterfall, they were constantly laughing, smiling and posing, and they seemed so carefree and full of life and positive energy. I especially love seeing the universal peace symbol - its interesting how that symbol and its meaning truly cuts across all cultures.

I posted this today to remind myself and everyone reading this that even in hard times, we must look inside ourselves and find our inner teenager, our free spirits, and laugh and play and find even a small piece of happiness every single day.

Masks Outside Wat Doi Suthep, Thailand

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive." -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.

I am fascinated with masks and specifically how an object can take on a multitude of purposes of varying significance and symbolism. Throughout history masks have been donned for protection, concealment, storytelling, amusement, and performance. There has also been a significant ritualistic and/or religious aspect to wearing masks, which spans across culture and historical eras.

I first became interested in the role of masks in a college theater course where we studied traditional Japanese "noh" masks, learned about the historical traditions of "black face," and interpreted modern western commedia dell'arte and the use of puppetry, clowns and masks to entertain. However, masks are also prevalent as metaphors throughout history and indeed in our daily lives in modern society. For instance, when we wear makeup or hide behind a "mask," we further perpetuate the idea that we are something other than our true selves.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once quipped, "Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend." Furthermore, William Somerset Maugham felt that "Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem." What mask or mask(s), if any, are you wearing?

Surreal Statue in Bordeaux, France

"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment- this very moment- to stay." Sam Abell

Painted Wooden Plank, Hoboken, NJ

"Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."- Oscar Wilde

White Orchids, Royal Flora Rachaphruek- Chiang Mai Thailand

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." - Alan Cohen

Fall Door Chime, Hoboken, NJ

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower" - Albert Camus

"Besides the autumn poets sing.....a few prosaic days...a little this side of the snow....and that side of the haze" -Emily Dickinson

Tractor Parts- Winter Park, Colorado

Sometimes the most mundane objects make the best photographic subjects, especially when dissected and photographed in small parts. I love the color contrast, chipped paint and overall texture of this portion of a very large tractor left on the side of my hiking trail in Winter Park, Co this past summer.

White Horse, Barn and Continental Divide- Colorado

Rapids, Rocky Mountain National Park, Co

"Who knows where madness lies....too much sanity may be madness....but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it ought to be." -Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (via Judy Cotter)

Longtail Boats, Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

"The way we get to live forever is through memories stored in the hearts and souls of those whose lives we touch. That's our soul print. It's our comfort, our emotional nourishment at the end of the day and at the end of a life. How wonderful that they are called up at will and savored randomly. It seems to me we should spend our lives in a conscious state of creating these meaningful moments that live on. Memories matter." -Leeza Gibbons

Venus De Milo, Lourve, Paris

The Venus De Milo is perhaps the most famous Greek sculpture known today, and for good reason. Discovered in 1820 by a peasant farmer in the island of Milos, the statue's arms and plinth have never been accounted for, creating an aura of mystery about what exactly she was doing (ie. holding an apple is a popular theory), and where the rest of the structure could be found.

Nevertheless, her beauty is on display at the Louvre, one of my three favorite museums (along with the Musee D'Orsay in Paris and Metropolitan Museum in NYC). Here, I was trying to capture the texture of the stone, while simultaneously trying to black out all the other tourists surrounding her and the flashes from their cameras. Thankfully, I was able to get the image of her alone with the black background as the perfect juxtaposition. (I must confess I still have no idea what I did with the lens/camera to achieve this but as I continue this "journey" I hope to figure it out so I can reproduce this effect at will).

Red Barn, Weston, Vt

This image was all about the angles and multitude of lines throughout, in addition to the magnificent deep red color of the barn, accented by the white angled roof. I tried to capture it at a rather odd angle to further highlight these features. While the linear patterns of the barn are so sharp, I included the shadowy tree in the background for its billowy contrast.

Basilica Sacre Coeur, Paris

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart is the highest point in Paris, in Montmartre. On this rather grey and cloudy day, I tried my best to capture its beautiful color and contrast its size with the tourists hanging out in the foreground. I purposely took the shot from a low vantage point, looking up at the Church, to hopefully send the viewer's eye upwards towards the sky or heavens, as the structure itself intends.

Flowers in Doorway- Hoboken, NJ

An Infant's Grave- Vermont

One of my favorite aspects of any type of art (music, dance, literature, acting, poetry, painting, sculpture, etc.) is its ability to affect human emotion. Whether it makes one smile, feel enraged, become saddened, etc., what makes the arts so fulfilling and universal is the ability an artist has to affect, even if only for a moment, the viewers' emotions or feelings. Therein lies the power of the arts (coupled with the ability to bring about change in the universe).

This photograph always gets to me in a way that very few others have. I have a hard time not looking away from it, or thinking about the circumstances of the infant, whose grave literally leans into one of his parents' graves for support.

A "Tunnel" of Benches- Hoboken, NJ

"I used to think that going to the jungle made my life an adventure. However, after years of work in exotic places, I realize that it is not how far off I go or how deep into the forest I walk that gives my life meaning. I see that living fully is what makes life- anyone's life, no matter where they do or do not go- an adventure." - Maria Fadiman (Geographer, Ethnobotanist and National Geographic Explorer)