One photographer's musings on the human experience

People are often surprised when I can pinpoint the exact year a song was released when that date happens to fall some time during the ages of 11 to 18. I probably should be surprised as well.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell when a yearning for something from the past is simply pure nostalgia, or if things really were better ‘back then’. As it turns out, vinyl records really do sound better than CD’s and streaming, especially coming through the right tube amplifier. All things in fashion and our ‘looks’ of the past seems to make another trip around the sun sooner or later because something about them just works. The firm exception here, I hope and pray, is 80’s hair.

In 2016, I had the opportunity to meet up with an old friend of mine for dinner in Seattle who was in town for business from San Francisco.  I love Seattle for several reasons - I have dear friends there whom I visit from time to time, the city embodies everything great about the Pacific Northwest, it’s a rendezvous point for pals from Northern California, and it’s a fantastic backdrop for photography! 

I was walking on the beach with a friend in the spring of 2016 when we spotted the wheelchair pictured above. It took me a second to realize that the chair appeared to have been abandoned. Then one more second to experience the irony of a perfectly good, new looking wheelchair on a path by the beach, with no one in it or around it. It was as if the owner had been so inspired by the beauty of the ocean around them, they had magically gotten up and just decided to walk around. I had to take a photo.

For the last several days, right around sundown, I've been driving by fields like the one you see above, just a short distance from my home. The other night I finally made time for an attempt to capture a scene that has been blowing my mind all week - sun setting on ice.

There is something palpable about the anticipation we share with other human beings in our midst, right before something special is about to happen. We feel it in the moments before the band takes the stage, before the arrival of a loved one at the airport or in the urgent hush before a surprise celebration.