A White Christmas

This Christmas past we ventured upstate to spend a few days in the Hillsdale house. It was my first time seeing Sarah and Dan’s epic home, and the first time I’d ever experienced a White Christmas. So naturally, I took an absurd amount of photos of Oliver in the snow. And not in the snow. And looking at farm animals.

More Christmas after the break. Continue reading

I Married My Sister

No. This post is not promoting incest. Though I did marry my brother too. In fact, Sarah and Dan asked if I might officiate their wedding, and I was honored to do so. A few weeks later this ordination confirmation from The United Life Church lands in my inbox. “Impress your friends, family, and peers with your new official status!” Needless to say, impress I did, and also managed to document a few moments along the way.

More wedding after the break. Continue reading

Paso Robles

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Diving into the archives for back-to-back birthday posts, this one a few years shy of the ole one-six. If memory serves we spent the long weekend holed up in a killer farm house, eating epic meals, driving back roads, and searching for photo ops. Sounds like any Elliott trip worth taking.

More Robles after the break. Continue reading

Oh Hai!

For Leslie’s 60th birthday the gang surprised her with a long weekend at the Turtle Conservancy in Ojai. Before you ask, it was amazing. Both the celebration and the turtles. We really could have spent a week on the compound, but managed to make ourselves at home in just three short days. In fact, I now consider myself a de facto tour guide after cruising through each and every greenhouse and turtle terrarium on the property. I like turtles.

More Ojai after the break. Continue reading

The Oregon Trail : Part Two

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A van rumbles down the Outback Scenic Byway collecting high desert dust. She flips through stations fighting static. No luck. The fellow travelers offer no distraction, their lifeless bodies slumped in sleep. It has been lonely these three hours. They’re almost there.

Lakeview, Oregon. A place of little fanfare and even less sparkling water. Gravel pops as they pull into the motel. Hot springs will have to wait.

More Oregon Trail after the break. Continue reading

The Oregon Trail : Part One

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On the eve of a great man’s 60th birthday we took a trip to parts unknown. Inspired by faded images of a bygone era, we attempted to recreate a simpler time in the backwoods of Oregon. A time when boys were scouts. The sea was rough. Yin Yangs were cool. And so was Patagonia.

More Rob Elliott after the break. Continue reading

The Reason For The Season

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A story of resurrection. No, not one with a bearded dude coming out of the ground for extra nights of partying, but rather a story of photographic redemption. It goes a little something like this…

There’s a poem after the break (how’s that for a tease?) Continue reading

Cuba

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I tend to agree with the photographic philosophy of letting your photos “sit.” I don’t lean them back the La-Z-Boy, peel open a TV dinner and work on their inner spudliness. But i like to let time pass between shooting my images and editing them. In theory the practice removes the excitement of “the moment” and allows for a more objective assessment of the “goodies.” You become lean, mean, and focused on nixing everything in between. Rationale aside, my family would say it’s just an excuse to be lazy. Case in point, Cuba, a killer trip that’s now surfacing after a year of “sitting.” Blame it on the embargo.

More Cuba after the break. Continue reading

Tribute In Light

Scan-130915-0010It started with a email from Sarah asking if I wanted to partake in a “mini photo expedition,” with the goal of photographing the 9/11 Tribute in Lights. Of course I was in, who did she take me for? Getting excited, I reminded her about my attempt last year, and cautioned against trying to photograph the lights with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground by crossing ON the Brooklyn Bridge…that wasn’t my smartest gameplan ever.

Her response was perfect “I don’t want the shot everyone gets. I want something different.”

More Tribute after the break… Continue reading

Hand Picked and Hand Crafted

Hand Picked and Hand CraftedI’ve been called “The most domesticated 23 year old on the planet,” and I’m convinced that a recent berry picking outing contributed heavily to that notion. Nonetheless, it was a good excuse to jet out of the city for a day, and I knew a few baked goods would be in it for me if I tagged along.

Read more after the break… Continue reading