I’ll recap things and start at the beginning. The kids spent some quality time with their grandparents while my wife and I made the trip to New York City and Amagansett, NY. The city was a whirlwind of food, drinks, and walking. In other words great fun. I was able to meet up with Ed Brydon a friend that I had corresponded with but had yet to met in person. As I anticipated, it was a pleasure to meet him and his wife. We had a wonderfully rambling dinner conversation that covered many topics. After a couple of days in the city we traveled by bus to visit my brother in Amagansett where he is managing and cooking at The Meeting House. If you are ever in the area be sure to stop in for some food. It’s damn good. I may have a congenially biased opinion of my brother, but my taste buds are neutral and objective about his cooking. I recommend it.

New York was quickly followed up with a family trip to Destin, FL that was mostly spent poolside. Looking at my photo library, I have the most pictures from here which is fitting as my kids have always provided me with endless and quality photographic fodder. After Florida, we dropped the kids off at another loving grandparent’s and I went on a quick two-day trip with my wife to Washington DC. It was business for my wife leaving me free to ramble the city solo most of the trip. For such a visual and historic city I took very few photos. Perhaps because so many images are made of Washington DC’s monuments and malls that I feel like it’s been shot out and I had little to add. Even though DC is prime people-watching and street photography turf, I’m not very adept nor do I enjoy street-style shooting. Usually photographing strangers unaware feels too surreptitious to me and typically the street shots I take fail to intrigue me. All of the above led to sparse images from DC.

I capped off the travel period last week when I traveled solo to see a friend in Asheville, NC. The chilly, cloudy weather feigned late winter instead of early spring, but we made the best of it. The highlight being a day hike up Cold Mountain (of book fame…or movie fame depending on your medium of choice). I find little fault in a city populated by friendly people, surrounded by forested mountains, sliced by rivers, and filled with good breweries and delicious restaurants. I love visiting Asheville.

Through it all I usually had my camera with me and still I found myself using it less than I had intended. I’ve struggled to produce photographic work lately (as shown by the virtual cobwebs on this blog) and had the best intentions of trying to produce a photo essay about a “family vacation” or some such. For a few reasons that didn’t evolve. A big reason being that I find it hard to balance vacation and serious photographing. I want to enjoy vacation and share it with my family and friends not necessarily be behind the camera trying to work new angles and contemplating what image I need next in an essay. Although I want to be sometimes, I’m not the guy that documents every little moment in his life, camera always at his eye. That’s not to say that I’m not photographing family moments quite frequently. When I say I’m struggling to produce work I mean work that I think is worth putting out there. Many family photos are snapshots and I don’t mean that negatively. Those are memories and times that I want documented, but many of the images I take in reality only mean something to me. I don’t think they have a universal appeal or relatability that viewers will connect with, but I’m ok with that. Too often I put pressure on myself to produce something that will be “appreciated” and I’m working at focusing more on following my instinct and photographing what I’m drawn to. With my family that is the moments that I will enjoy looking back on years from today.

Regardless of the above sentiments I’ve attached some photos from my travels.

Clicking on any image thumbnail will kick you into a slideshow with larger images.

She was so excited for warm weather and a spring rain to play in.

For me, scenes like this[1] epitomize childhood.

I took these lily photos during a brief period of goofing around on a hike. Simple enough, but I remember the excitement and the kids’ determination to each get a lily for themselves despite the flowers being just out of their reach on the water. I remember the feigned flirtation (charitably given) that my wife acted out as I offered a lily to her. And I remember the next week that the lilies sat in a bowl of water on our bay window as the kids tried to nurse them into perpetual life.

Life is full of choices; how difficult they are is relative to your age.