Trekking Couture
Author Archives: Richard Harrison
Mt Desert Island
This is a shot of the Mt Desert Museum & Gardens. Passed it yesterday on a driving tour of the Southwest side of the island which included some hiking round the Seawall area and some reasonably good shots of the coast in the late afternoon. It was sunny and warm in the afternoon which made the wind rain and cold that blew through later even more of a contrast. Downright cold this morning but the sun is back and the fog gone. Topped Cadillac Mtn as the sun was rising. If the weather holds, hardly the norm, might get a sunset from same. If I do, so will you.
DĂ©ja Vu All Over Again
Room with a vu. Mt Desert Island, ME. Edge of Acadia NP
Autumn in Acadia
The new glass arrived!
Last year when I headed off for a few months on the road I stopped in KY and my friend David Toczko (Lone Dakota Photography) insisted that I take his 100-400mm lens along on the journey so I wouldn’t miss any of the long shots so common on trips into the outback. It looked like too much glass to me but I was happy to be proven wrong and will be forever grateful because I was able to address frames that would have been otherwise impossible.
In four days I’m off again and had been haggling with myself over what to replace the 100-400mm with . I had used David’s 70-200mm at a shoot earlier in the year and loved it. So I got the f2.8 version to handle distance and low light and added the 2x extender to double the focal depth. A sort of two in one rig. The only issue I’ve found is that with the extender in place the largest aperture is 5.6 instead of 2.8. On the other hand the smallest is f51! You could do a solar eclipse with that. 🙂
I bought this from B&H Photo in NYC because they are simply the best people to do business with. Unconditional 30 day guarantee on all their stuff and free shipping with most. And (at this writing) no sales tax for shipments to VA.
The only other problem is my camera bag will no longer hold my gear. I’ll check the B&H site tonight but I suspect I’ll go local because I’m running short of time.
Tomorrow I’m off to MacHeaven in Chantilly to swap out my MBP’s 250GB hard drive for a 1 TB. The road draws closer every day now.
Project 365 – Day 38
The Tea Lady
Found in Culpeper, Virginia on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Project 365 – Day 37
Ogden. I suppose by now you’ve figured out there are some gaps in my Project 365 photo posts. It seemed simple to adhere to this schedule but I’ve found it more rigorous that I had imagined. So, I’ll get them up in numerical order but there probably  not one every single day.
What you see here is a crypt in the Fairview Cemetery on the outskirts of Bowling Green, KY. I visited there last Veteran’s Day near the end of the long 2011 road trip. I seem to spend a lot of time in cemeteries. Occasionally they make good subjects because of the stories that can be constructed from the stones.
Cemeteries were on my mind today. Their residents are the only ones completely exempt from tax of any sort in this country. But in some parts of the country they have been known to vote. 🙂
Project 365 -Day 36
North Point, Reston, VA
This is where I first came to know Reston. Seventeen years ago. Ruth and I lived in townhouse on Autumn Ridge Circle just behind North Point and frequented this center for everything from cellular phones, to groceries to (of course!) ice cream.
I had not been there in quite a while but had occasion to visit today to get some slides scanned and placed on disk. We had used FotoImage 1 Hr to process all our film back in the day and I figured they could handle the scans so I dropped in for that purpose. I was expecting them to say come back in a couple of days but instead got a come back in an hour response. Worked for me.
Maura had recently given me a Starbucks gift card and it’s right next door to the photo shop so I wandered over for coffee. Sitting outside watching people gobbling ice cream was too much so I also ambled into Baskins & Robbins for a cup of sherbet which I took back outside to devour. It was turning into a one hour – 1000 calorie turnaround.
I was pleasantly surprised when Heather came strolling down the walk with her two children and stopped by to chat for a few minutes. I think I’ve always had a secret crush on her since first becoming acquainted 3-4 years back. And as I told her today on those far too few occasions our paths do cross now, she somehow manages to become even more visually appealing than each preceding meeting. A bright and very engaging young woman. Given the 1/2 dozen generations age difference I’ve relegated the attraction to a geriatric disorder.
Still….
It popped into my head that I should do a portrait shot of Heather (given permission) and make it my contribution to the Project 365 for Day 36. But I didn’t have my canon with me and I was also attracted by what did become the picture that you see here. I’ll have to get back to Heather someday when she’s not hopping back and forth cross the Atlantic. Particularly since she grows mysteriously better looking with age. 🙂
I spent a lot of time with Ruth in the location from which this image was taken. Today had not started out all that great. I am feeling the pressure to get all my stuff in order before launching the road trip and stress is no longer my thing. So sitting here on an extremely pleasant day sipping coffee and wolfing down sorbet while awaiting my scans had a relaxing effect on me. I tried a few versions of this image as a panorama but ultimately decided on what you see. This was captured with an iPhone and edited with an app called Mobile Monet. I’ve used it for some previous posts and enjoy the effect. It could not have been a much better day weather wise but if it had been, it would have looked just like this. Believe me.
Project 365 -Day 35
Heroes – This is my friend Scott. I’ve been acquainted with Scott for many years now but never really got to know him. I had that opportunity a couple of days ago when I dropped by for a visit. Scott’s recovering from a series of surgeries he’s undergone of late. That much I knew going in. What I didn’t know was that this latest round was conducted to attempt a correction from previous iterations that have been ongoing most of his adult life.
It was almost surreal to sit there and listen as Scott ticked off his medical history, one operation after the other, in such matter-of-fact manner. It was painful to listen and imagine the unbidden misery that has invaded large chunks of his existence on this earth. In the end I was struck by two thoughts: First, how had I managed to know this man for so long and not know what he was going through. I hadn’t seen him in a while – the last time was when he had come to visit me in the hospital when I was recovering from surgery. But over the years he’s been quite visible. And the second was the feeling not of pity but of admiration that emerged as I sat there and listened. It takes a lot of courage to live the life that Scott has endured.
There are lots of folk like Scott in this world; people for whom daily existence is a battle. They are each and every one heroes and truly unsung. I can only hope that if I am ever faced with the challenges they probably think of as more or less normal that I will be able to muster a similar degree of courage. The truth is I don’t really want to find out.
Via Flickr:
Heroes
Project 365 – Day 34 (Sort Of)
The first thing I want to say is I deliberately skipped posting yesterday. I’m well aware of the nature of the day and mean no disrespect but I didn’t think posting yet another flag or stone or plaque or whatever would add to the narrative. And I didn’t want to post non-related stuff so I simply stood down.
But there is another reason too.
On the day the attacks took place on our country eleven years ago, at the very hour of the attack in fact, Ruth and I were in the back of a London taxi on our way to Heathrow for our flight back to US. We’d had a long weekend in London celebrating our third wedding anniversary. As it turned out we were not able to leave UK for another week. But from that day forward the remembrance of the 9/11 attacks became inextricably intertwined with our anniversary celebration.
That was a long time ago. Ruth as been gone now for more than five years and I suppose the truth is that I’ve grown accustomed to ignoring both the 11th and the 12th of September. The one only brings to mind the utter senselessness of the human race’s quest for control of things it will never, ever overcome. The other brings to mind the loss that punched a hole in my heart that has never entirely healed.
But on this 12th September something different occurred. My daughter AnnaSummer, who is engaged to a wonderful young man named Massie, sent me a photograph of the ring she’d had fashioned from the wedding band and engagement ring that I had given Ruth fourteen years ago. I’d met with Massie in Charlottesville on the 17th August to pass these  on to him while he was back from Austin on a visit with friends and family. In the eight years that he and AnnaSummer have been together I think this was the first time that the two of us had ever spent any private time together. I came away from that meeting knowing that my favorite daughter had made a good decision (as had Massie) and feeling very optimistic about their nuptials next September in Charlottesville. I also came away very pleased that AnnaSummer would have another connection to Ruth and that Ruth, wherever she is on her new assignment, would be looking on approvingly. The love between these two women was and is palpable and eternal.
So todays picture, the 34th posted although not the 34th day, is of the ring as it exists now and will on the day Anna officially dons it. It’s accompanied by a picture of Ruth accepting the original from me on 12th September 1998.
It’s an interesting design. The wedding band and the engagement ring were not a matched set. but they were what Ruth wanted. The band is gold and has diamonds embedded over half its surface. The engagement ring was more traditional with a three diamond array in a platinum setting. They do not physically sit well together. That was of no concern to Ruth who only wore the engagement ring with the band on special occasions. But AnnaSummer wanted to wear both rings together all the time and the fit was not working for her. So, she asked about modifying them to suit her approach and I thought it was a good way to make it both hers and Ruth’s. She consulted with her jeweler – yes, she has a jeweler; don’t ask – and they came up with the design amalgam you see here. I love it. I know Ruth  would; she’s probably wondering: Why didn’t I think of that?
Along with the picture of the new ring I had some other reminders today. I’ve packed up Ruth’s journals to store in our niece’s basement in preparation for a very long road trip I’m about to launch. And so I’ve read them again as I pack. Ruth was a prolific writer, a fact for which I will be forever grateful. But the journal I seemed to focus on today was the last one – the one that documented her feelings and activities in the last year. By this time all the shortcomings embodied in our relationship with one another over the years were set aside as we joined forces in the war against the cancer that was engulfing her tongue and throat and chest. So reading the account was not just reading Ruth’s story but our story. It was not easy then and folks it ain’t much easier now.
My mother, who I never knew, died of cancer at the age of 47. Ruth, who as I look back on it now was the only other woman of import in my life up to that point, made it to 57. There’s something terribly wrong about this and I’ve been flooded with that thought all day. I got a short break with the Wednesday Spook Lunch group but then fell right back into the hole. Putting it down here in electronic ink is helping me climb out. And by tomorrow I hope to have dragged myself up and over the edge.
The ring on Anna’s finger: past. present and future in platinum, gold and diamonds.
No one loved is ever lost and Ruth was loved so much.
10
Project 365 – Day 33
A Bridge Too Far
Project 365 -Day 32
Keeping an Eye on rhe Sky – Bruneau Dunes State Park Observatory, Idaho
Project 365 – Day 31
Pile Up On 36th
Project 365 – Day 30
When All Else Fails, Shoot Yourself
Taken by RichardGHarrison http://www.flickr.com/photos/59257988@N08/7953391216
Project 365 – Day 29
Like A Buick Six – The first car I ever owned was a 1956 Buick Roadmaster. I cannot remember how that vehicle faded into the past; no idea where it went. But when I saw this particular Roadmaster my old blue one came to mind. And now I wonder if it might not be sitting in a field somewhere. Waiting.
Project 365 Day 28 – Neighbors
Taken by RichardGHarrison http://www.flickr.com/photos/59257988@N08/7940567078
Project 365 Day 27
Sunrise at Signal Mtn, Tetons National Park
Project 365 Day 26
LA Wheels – Out driving ’round Beverly Hills/Westwood with Mitzi Jo and happened upon this sculpture of film in bronze. We went back that night to see what it might look like lit up. Here you go!
Project 365 Day 25
Foliage in the Badlands
Project 365 Day 24 – YoYo Departs
YoYo departs for his forever home.
A bittersweet moment. I’ve had YoYo as a foster cocker for the last six months working on his fear aggressiveness. In that period of time he progressed from the dog who bit me the first time I attempted to put a collar on him to one whose boundaries now know no limits. He’s the sixth Cocker Spaniel I’ve fostered this year for Oldies But Goodies Cocker Spaniel Rescue in the Greater Washington DC area and certainly the most memorable. I will miss his presence when I turn the light out tonight and when I roll out in the morning the scene will be a bit vacant lacking his smiling face and wagging stubby tail.
He had been so poorly treated by whoever it was that owned him before he came to OBG. But we’ve done everything in our power to make up for that. I suspect he’ll never forget either circumstance but he is at heart a loving and loyal companion and I envy his new human family. He’ll be joining another rescue dog and three rescue cats in this next chapter in his life. I hope to run into him again at some future OBG family event.
I give myself a day to grieve a little and then check back in to see what help I can provide to the new arrivals. And there will always be new arrivals – the need never ends. We’re all they have.
Via Flickr:
YoYo Departs For His Forever Home
Project 365 – Day 23
Won’t see a Blue Moon again for about three years so I suppose it has to be today’s subject. The longest glass I have right now is 105mm. This is a hand held shot that has been sharpened with Aperture.
Project 365 Day 22
On Crazy Horse Mountain
Project 365 Day 21
Window Dressing
Project 365 Day 20
Into The Flames
RichardBeGone 