DSC05125 I have officially ended my 'residency' in the White Mountain National Forest.  Not that this journey is over, it is just a fork in the road.  I have been to Many places, Taken countless Thousands of photographs,  Exposed over 20 rolls of film, and quite a few sheets of film as well.  The results of this labor is on this website in several galleries, and I have more to put up.  Most of the film has now been processed and In process of scanning so I can determine which to print.    Here is a list of some of the places I have been in the WMNF:

Arethusa Falls
Artist Bluff
Bald Face Mountain
Bear Notch
Beaver Brook
Blueberry Mountain
Campton Pond
Crawford Notch
Dolly Copp
Dry River
Fletcher's Cascade Trail
Hastings Bridge
Holkers Trail up Madison
Lost City of South Landalf
Hubbard Brook
Jackson Trail
Kancamangus
Lincoln Woods Trail
Mt Cabot
Noon Peak
Pond of Safety
Sabbaday Falls
Star King TrailDSC04466
Three Ponds
Tripple Falls
Wild River

I found some amazing spaces that don't have a name, at least not one I could find along the Kanc, Rt 113 and Sandwich Notch Road.  And as I look back, some of the things that I was taken by the most, I am not able to show on a 2D page.  There is something lost no matter how large I make my prints.  The green isn't as full of life, the light not as bright with the promise of a new day.  The power of the water lost on the page, the grand space lost in the finite borders placed around it.   The limits of the media.

I made it my intention to find those places that were NOT often traveled, and frequently I saw no body on my journeys, or saw few.  Asking many people where the interesting, not often seen, and hidden places were.  I stayed away from the well traveled trails, journeyed around into the wilderness areas outside the reach of my cell phone, but not outside the reach of civilization.  Traveling well into the woods, and out of the view of the city lights was not enough to keep away of the noise of our world, as much as I tried, I could hear, or see the mechanized world in which we live.

I was NOT looking for the view from the mountain top.  The 'view' so many people want at the top of the mountain is so limited.  I was asked if there was a good view from the summit of Mt Cabot and I said it was amazing, for, it was.  5:30am and watching the clouds in the valley like a river.  9PM and watching the clouds catch the light of the setting sun and glow with the colors of God's Promise.  How could you not call that a view.  But sadly Mt Cabot doesn't have a 'view', at least not what most people call a view.  But I am looking for what is hidden.  And finding a view where there is 'none' is exactly what i set out to do.

mt cabot exterior

I was struck by the tenaciousness of Life, Of the circle of that existence and of how small we are.  The amazing things that sprout from, within and around a fallen tree.  The green of the forest is greenest around the fallen.  The monstrous trees clinging to rocks that don't look like they should be able to support their wight, On cliffs, in cracks withing stone walls.  The foliage just doesn't know when to stop.   I had an interesting chat late at night with another star gazer Sarah who worked at the Dry River campground about the stars and our place in the universe as we watched the Milky way Galaxy cross the Southern sky. 

Chasing the light meant I was up before anybody else, and often up after everybody else.  I found I was a bit sleep deprived when I returned home.   But the light was worth the effort.   The color, the quality, the sounds of the earth at that hour.

So I also sought to show the intense numbers of people that use this land.  And while I found more secluded areas of the forest and mountains, It is easy to find the countless visitors.  The overlooks, the swimming holes along the scenic byways. The wonder of some people in these very public spaces was fun to watch.  Children who have never seen the kind of magic that The Creator of these spaces placed in front of them.

While my residency is NOT over, I have just come back to my 'normal' life I have lots left to do,  Lots left to find, develop, print, show, talk about, learn, explore, listen, watch, and take photographs of.  I hope you enjoy the journey through these images, and can find a place of wonder, hope and the promise of life.

Find Galleries of  the Photos,  Time Lapse,  Panoramas and Infra Red

In the short term, come visit at the

Informal exhibit. talk & reception
Saturday, September 7, 5 to 7 pm
Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery
69 Maple St., Center Sandwich

I will also have a piece at the reception for the PSU Faculty show oppening on the 10th and at the art show for the recital for Sally Jensen on Saturday at 4. 

Columbus weekend at Waterville Estates

and always looking for more places to show.