Category Archives: Personal

The Year in Pictures

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As my role at the newspaper continues to evolve, I still had a chance to use my camera on and off the job. Here are a few of my favorites from the past year:

I volunteered to work for the Valley News on Memorial Day, photographing the annual parade in Lebanon, N.H. I found Henry Dessert, Kate Van Arman and Ted Occhi visiting beforehand. Their years of service ranged from 1948 until 2016, which impressed me.

Sarah and Russell’s wedding in Wolfeboro, N.H., was one of many I did for Paul Saunders Photography over the summer. The bubbles, light, and everyone’s expression made this one of my favorites.

Jennifer Megyesi and I are adding birds to our popular chicken book, renamed “The Joy of Keeping Chickens, Ducks, and Turkeys: A Practical Guide to Raising Backyard Poultry,” to be published in September 2023. In the Spring, I spent time with Robert Nelson and his ducks at Blue Goose Farm in Randolph, Vt. His brother, Joshua, wanted to show me one of their ducklings. His moment of pride was straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting!

In June, my wife and I went to Maine for my sister-in-law’s birthday. We all went on a tour of the coast and randomly ended up at Fort William Henry in New Harbor. We were rewarded with a great view of the Atlantic on a beautiful day. It’s a phone photo, but a nice memory of our day together.

Ashley Jones gets a congratulatory elbow-bump from Dartmouth College President Phil Hanlon after receiving her Master of Business Administration degree in June. Thanks to the magic of digital cameras, I was pretty sure I had a good picture for the newspaper. The tough part was finding Jones to confirm it was her in the sea of graduates.

Since buying my Fiat Spider as a project in 2018, I have been sharing updates on its progress on Instagram. After following along from California, my friend Ellen came to visit and we spent the day catching up and cruising through covered bridges. Ellen wore the Fiat cap I gave her all day, including at the grocery store. “I can tell which car you like,” a fellow shopper said.

Sharon Academy and Blue Mountain players vie for a rebound during a December game I covered for the newspaper – I like the picture because of the playbill art on Sharon’s gym wall. The school’s annual play includes every student. My daughter is a graduate and the productions are very entertaining.

The late Dick Barnaby was a fixture in Tunbridge, Vt., where I live. Nicola Smith did a wonderful Valley News profile about Dick – while she was working on the story, she mentioned there was a sign in his chair where he’d collect returnable bottles and cans every Saturday. I’m glad I stopped by to get the photo.

Valley News photographs copyright © Valley News
May not be reprinted without permission

The Year in Pictures

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The past year has been one of change, which generally means more time for me to be behind the computer instead of the camera. I still love photography and my role in documenting life around me. Here are a few of my favorites from 2019, with notes:

It was a bittersweet moment to see the last issue of the VALLEY NEWS come off the press in West Lebanon, N.H., at the end of January. The press crew moved to a new facility in Penacook, N.H., which also meant a full redesign and the newspaper’s deadlines have been moved up by several hours.

When one of the reporters at the newspaper heard the Tunbridge Fairgrounds had flooded following a sudden January thaw, she was blown away. While it was amazing to see, fair officials accessed the situation with a big shrug. Happens every year, they said.

Finding a fresh angle on any assignment is always a challenge. In Northern New England, high school baseball season always starts indoors because the fields are too soggy. I’m sure the players thought I was nutty for laying on the floor, taking a picture of a ball.

With a huge field of Democratic presidential candidates this time around, we have been seeing them more often. On a Saturday in April, I covered Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign stop at a Lebanon, N.H., house party, where she did a video for Twitter before departing. The standard question for getting credentials these days is “what is your Twitter handle?”

My daughter played on Sharon Academy’s Ultimate team for the first time. Ultimate is a sport recently sanctioned by state officials and Sharon is the only school in the area with a team. I was there for Senior Day, one of our daughter’s last school activities I photographed over the years.

With fewer weddings to photograph, I spent a lot of my time off over the summer crawling under and around my project car, a 1979 Fiat 2000 convertible. While I felt overwhelmed at the prospect of rebuilding the whole brake system, I did it and the car is close to being fully roadworthy.

When our daughter graduated high school, she not only had a long ceremony to be part of, but then a party with family and an overnight excursion with her classmates at the school. Organizers didn’t want students driving themselves home, so I picked her and a friend up and we went out for breakfast at Eaton’s Sugarhouse. I can see why I was driving!

Our annual VALLEY NEWS Athlete of the Year portrait sessions were spread amongst the staff this year, a relief to me. Of those I did, one of my favorites was of Kiana Johnson, a senior at Thetford Academy. Kiana had to change schools for her last year after Chelsea Public School closed due to consolidation. She brought the ball she was given for scoring 1,000 points in her high school career, signed by her teammates.

Over the summer, Ben Canonica asked me to document the removal of a dam along the First Branch of the White River in Royalton, Vt. The first order of business was to push over a cinder block shed, creating an eerie photo as decades of flying dirt and debris went airborne. Greg Russ of the White River Partnership, shown, and I were amazed at Ben’s expertise in maneuvering his machines to return the river to its original state.

After covering Plainfield’s Fourth of July parade for the VALLEY NEWS, I added this photo of John Yacavone at the last minute because it grew on me (I love how the flag blends into his pants!). He is an enthusiastic Uncle Sam, leading the traditional parade for the past six years.

Protestors told the VALLEY NEWS they were planning to picket Gov. Chris Sununu’s appearance at a Lebanon, N.H., senior center due to the budget impasse between the Republican and the Democratic-majority legislature. As Sununu was leaving the event, he suddenly decided to speak with them and I was happy to document it.

My wife and I were fortunate to be invited to stay for a week in July with her cousin’s family at the Adirondacks camp where we spent our honeymoon. The original building has been around for over 100 years and we stayed in the smaller and newer cabin where her late grandmother spent many summers. It was so relaxing!

Daylight is long enough in the first week or two of the high school season that you’re able to mix in sunsets with the action, as I did at a Woodstock, Vt., game at the end of August. Peak light instead of peak action!

Valley News photographs copyright © Valley News
May not be reprinted without permission

Uniquely Cindy

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After recently photographing Cindy Pierce’s wonderful sold-out “Shuffle the Deck” performance in White River Junction, Vt., I feel so fortunate to have known Cindy over the past 20 years. I first met Cindy and Bruce as their wedding photographer then a few years later Cindy asked me to do promotional photography for her new venture, comic storytelling about her life. Cindy’s found her calling by traveling the country to speak to students about sexual health with her clear and honest approach. Cindy’s one of the most kind, giving, open and funny people I know! Here’s a few photos from the recent performance and others from the stage and her work at Pierce’s Inn from over the years:

The Year in Pictures

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As usual, it’s been a busy year for me and my photography. I enjoy the variety of the work, whether it’s the unpredictability of newspaper photography, documenting important family events like weddings and other gatherings, or aiming the lens to tell the story of my community. Here’s a few of my favorites, with a bit of commentary:

Since photographing their wedding ten years ago, Cara and Dean have had me to their Barnard, Vt., home several times to document their growing family. As things were winding down this summer, Baiah and her siblings were exploring the nearby pond and she showed me her sweet and beautiful creation.

When the phone rings at home later in the evening, it’s usually an editor at the VALLEY NEWS. There was a lightning strike at a Vershire, Vt., home, which is a couple of towns away from me. After negotiating with a reluctant home owner, I got access, photographed the investigation and uploaded the photo into the system via. my cell phone close to midnight. Technology is amazing!

I’ve known Logan since her younger sister and my daughter entered kindergarten 13 years ago. Logan and Nick were married in a beautiful hilltop ceremony in Tunbridge, Vt., then had a reception at the fairgrounds in town. When their wedding party — who are also rec league softball teammates — toasted the couple by shotgunning cans of beer, I held the camera over my head and hoped I got the photo.

When the largest schools in Vermont are puny compared with others in the Northeast, the state’s smallest Division IV basketball teams are scrappy and play with tons of heart. In the championship game, Sharon Academy held on to win 60-56 over Danville and coach Blake Fabrikant was as happy as the players were. It was the school’s first championship win and I was there for the VALLEY NEWS to capture it.

In an exchange for partial CSA payment, I have been doing photography and maintaining Tunbridge Hill Farm’s website for the past several years. When I look back at my photos in the middle of winter, I can vividly recall the warm soil under my bare feet and the sweet taste of the peas plucked from their dewey pods.

Driving to cover a Claremont, N.H., City Council meeting for the VALLEY NEWS, I was not expecting much. As part of a school project, 10-year-old boy was to present a petition to lower the speed limit near his house. But once I saw his mother tear up with pride while seeing her self-assured son confidently reading his speech, I was hooked!

The newspaper has been naming the best male and female athlete for the 18 high schools it covers for the past several years, marked with portraits and a special publication. Oxbow High running sensation Izzy Giesing has won it four times, and I think I’ve done her portrait each time. Wanting to change it up, I had the thought to photograph Izzy’s spiked shoes flying through the air. With help from her twin sister, we did several attempts and laughed a lot at the shoes poking both of them while they landed.

Another victim of changing times, the venerable local office supply business Twin State Typewriter was closing its doors in White River Junction, Vt. While working in the store with VALLEY NEWS reporter John Lippman, I was happy to photograph customer Becca White’s reaction to the news from Donald and Wanda Nalette.

I have tagged along with my daughter to the July 4 birthday celebration for her friend’s brother for several years. It’s held at the Woodstock, Vt., community fireworks display and his parents are fully equipped with not only cake but party favors. The kids’ creative uses of glow sticks and their reaction to the display made me happy I brought my camera and its good lens!

Sometimes portraits just fall in your lap — I had an assignment to photograph property management owner Melissa Allen at her office in Grantham, N.H., for ENTERPRISE, the VALLEY NEWS’ business magazine. I was greeted by Penelope, Melissa’s sweet basset hound, and asked if Penelope could be in the photo on her desk, where there was nice morning light. Melissa relaxed, having her dog in the picture.

I was interested to see how competitive go-karting works as I spent the morning with Matthew Winter and his family at the Canaan Motor Club for a VALLEY NEWS story. There was a lot of time spent preparing the kart, attending the drivers’ meeting and doing qualifying races before the feature. When there was a bit of tension about adjusting the kart between Matthew’s father and an official, I was glad to be there to document it.

On the same day as the karting assignment, I had to run down the road to the annual Abenaki and Indigenous People’s Honoring Day in White River Junction, Vt. As I arrived, the organizers were speaking and I saw that Martha Knapp, one of the founders who recently retired, was in the audience. She was presented with a dream catcher and I was lucky to be there to photograph her reaction.

My daughter is in her final year of high school at Sharon Academy and she’s loved every minute of it. The school has an annual tradition of putting on an all-school play where every student is involved in the process. Many are on stage but there are others who do the lighting, play music, sell tickets or produce the program. I enjoyed seeing students who I have known since kindergarten flourish in their roles!

For the seventh year, I volunteered to photograph Santa’s appearance at the Tunbridge Public Library. Euclid Farnham has been doing the gig much longer — since 1979. It’s not only wonderful to see his interaction with the children (his wife Priscilla is usually there as Mrs. Claus but was under the weather), but as president of the Tunbridge Historical Society, Euclid has also put my work into their archives for others to enjoy years from now.

On another VALLEY NEWS assignment, I spent the morning with Mount Lebanon Elementary School Principal Eloise Ginty for a story about her decision to leave the job at the end of the school year. Fourth-grader Leigha Hopwood gave her a big hug during a break in school work. It went so well with the quote I got from Eloise: “I enjoyed every minute of being here,” she said. “It’s a great school.”

Valley News photographs copyright © Valley News
May not be reprinted without permission

Saturday with Santa

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As he has been doing since 1979, Euclid Farnham visited children at the Tunbridge Public Library as Santa on Saturday (Priscilla, Euclid’s wife, usually attends as Mrs. Claus but she was not feeling well). It’s impressive to see how he treats each visitor with such kindness and respect. Follow this link to see more and to order prints and device downloads in the Galleries section of my web site (profits will benefit the library).

 

Newsies

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This weekend was bittersweet for my daughter and her senior year classmates at Sharon Academy, as they were part of their final play performance at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph, Vt. Interim, where the entire school works together to produce a musical, was yet another success with Newsies! Follow this link to see more of my favorites in the Galleries section of my web site (print and download profits will benefit the school’s Annual Fund).

Campus California

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We just returned from a whirlwind visit to the Golden State, looking at four colleges with our daughter, who is a senior this fall at Sharon Academy. Flying into Los Angeles and leaving from San Francisco a week later, we had a great time getting a feel for what it’s like to be a student in California. Here’s favorites from the visits (and a few side trips!):

From top: The William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University overlooks the Westchester area of Los Angeles; our daughter photographs the view, enhanced by the sea breeze from nearby Playa Del Rey; She takes a walk with other visitors on the campus trails at University of California-Santa Cruz, on 2,000 acres overlooking Monterey Bay – I said if she went to school there, she’d not only walk a lot, but be a Slug as well (the school mascot!); One of the campus bulletin boards at UCSC reflects the popular use of staples; scenes at dusk from Santa Monica Pier, including the Hot Dog Stick stand and a slackliner; The town of Locke, population 75, was built in 1915 by Chinese immigrants near Sacramento and now has several museums, including the Dai Loy Gambling House Museum; A customer enjoys a drink at Al’s Place in Locke; Dusk sets in at the end of the road over Monterey Bay in Santa Clara.

So Much Funnery

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The Chelsea Funnery staged two performances over the weekend of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Town Hall in Chelsea, Vt. The Funnery is two-week camp where over two dozen actors from ages 12 to 18 learn their lines and performances from scratch. Our daughter’s been going for a half-dozen years and it’s totally amazing to see what they accomplish! Follow this link to see more and to order prints and downloads (proceeds will benefit their scholarship fund).