Wednesday, July 20, 2011

gettin' gone!

in 24 hours jade and i will depart this sweaty state of summer insanity and head for the glorious and mild mountains of colorardo. actually, the mountains are quite dramatic, but the weather, oh so lovely and mild.

colorardo is one of those trigger happy places for me. it's so stunningly beautiful that i can't stop taking photo after photo, never satisfied with my inability to do its stunning landscapes any justice. maybe if i were a nature photographer....

but having toted my camera around and shot thousands of photos last year, as seen here and here and here and here and here and jeez, now, a newly processed set here, i'm still bringing my camera, but in the interest of not being even more redundant, i'm going to TRY to restrain myself. maybe use the point and shoot a little more and relax.

and relax is the key word. no phone, no computer, no work. nothing but wilderness and campfires and myriads of really nice townsends running around and veggie burgers on the grill. yes, for those of you who wonder what a vegetarian does on a week long fishing trip, i turn you over to the wise words of my friend ben, who on a soho street corner last weekend declared to me, "I've found that fishing is just a good excuse to spend time on a beautiful river..."

Monday, July 18, 2011

09 april 2009 jack z.

i love the unabashed insanity of children. that fun insanity that's really just a lack of inhibition that gets regrettably, eventually replaced by the true adult insanity that is obsession with what others think of us and our actions.

jack belongs to the zinsser dynasty. they are friends. talented, awesome people. those qualities are not dependent on each other, rather two separate and incredible things about them that i love. i am a jill of all trades for them, doing this and that ranging, from assistant teaching to plant watering to art photographing to dressing up like a gypsy and conducting candlelit rooftop tarot readings for giggling but strikingly career-focused eleven-year olds.

when it was little brother jack's turn, he looked into my eyes with all of the grave seriousness such a subject deserved and asked, "will i make it to the major leagues?".

i shot jack in the same school hallway where i shot his father, john, 2 months earlier. see that session by clicking here: ah, may as well make it a two-fer, since i didn't include the actual scan with typed print...

as usual, these are so much lovelier when you click on them to enlarge...

Saturday, July 9, 2011

vegetables growing in the sky, part 2

early may vs. early june

some time ago i showed you guys a photo of our modest fire escape garden. much of this garden was planted from seeds. this is something i'd never done, being that i possess the blackest thumb of all. i therefore had no faith that things could sprout from the ground under my care.

so let's credit jade. below, some mysterious kind of lavendar (from seed!) and a cutting of a maple tree. those top leaves--brand spankin' new life!


twin teardrop tomatoes! get your mind outta the gutter....



cucumber blossoms wrapping their tendrils around the metal of the fire escape.






and the dill, admittedly, not the happiest.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

you say insect, i say magic little beast

last week i met up with my sister and nephew in washington dc. though (and i knock on wood when i say this), i feel that new york city has been relatively kind to us this summer, my fair sister, accustomed to the freakishly mild weather in Northern California (I really have come to understand how unusually nice it is there compared to the rest of the country...), was drowning in the relative heat and humidity.

always the pollyanna, i periodically pointed out the beautiful side of the ugly east coast summer. i see these as little rewards for putting up with it. like leaving the house knowing you'll return after midnight, in a tank top, with no sweater. like an incredible, awe-for-nature-inducing thunder and lightning storm just went you think you'll simultaneously melt into a gelatinous puddle and spontaneously combust.

and then there are the fireflies. i understand that they are just insects. i understand that they light up to find their mates. yet none of this understanding changes the fact that they are 100% undeniably pure MAGIC. i remember the first one i saw. it was the 4th of july of 1997, my first summer on the east coast. of course i knew about fireflies, but they resided in that category of my brain labeled "exisiting only in the realm of books, television and movies". You know, mac n cheese and pizza behind the lunch line at school. That doesn't really happen except in sitcoms, does it? or halloween parties where every single person shows up in perfect and elaborate get-ups that could sell for $300 at a costume shop.

but there i was, sitting on the porch, and there came floating through lynn's yard, one of those mythical fairies, lighting up like a beacon. I squealed. I screamed. Suddenly they were everywhere. a veritable freakin' fairy garden. like maxfield parish must be lurking behind a bush around the corner. they may as well have been little unicorn/pegauses (pegasi?) flapping purple wings around.

and thus, i don't remember the fireworks. just the fairies.

Considering abbie is my sister and not only shares my exact dna, but also my environmental upbringing, i counted on her to have the exact same reaction. and how pleasing it was.

we toured the national monuments at sunset which led into twilight. as we walked away from lincoln's steps, past the expansive mall and into the pathways of trees and bushes, I knew they'd be there. i stopped abbie and put my hand on her shoulder to impart a great sense of drama. stay still and just LOOK over there! i whispered. and soon enough the squealing came. dozens of little fairies thanking us for putting up with the heat and humidity. our little consolation prizes.

our friendly tourguide, who'd been here for 30 years shook his head, laughing. he said, possibly to the bushes, possibly to the serious statue of lincoln, "....and these are grown women!"



oh! and i forgot to mention the glorious and spellbinding cicadas....