leaving vermont finding home

i've posted many pictures of my visits home to vermont on this blog.  i've talked about the people, the food, the family, the culture.  i've shown images of boats, farms, civil war re-enactors, and very old gravestones.

my return to los angeles was especially difficult this time around.  maybe because it's summertime and LA is packed with sweaty drivers, filled to the brim with brown air, and slathered in a thick layer of filth that only a week-long rainstorm could wash away.

we had perfect weather in vermont.  my mother complained of the haze on a hike up to sunset ledge, but one might as well take issue with their creme brulee being too hard to break into.  we hiked, we sailed, we swam, we ate.  we buried my mother's mother on a sunny day atop a hill, overlooking wide skies, tall trees, and distant mountains.  appropriately, she was an artist and had a gift for making things beautiful.

and maybe it was hard to leave because i'm afraid i won't be able to continually uncover the beauty of my home in what zappa called "the cesspools of excitement".  that, and there are no maple creemees here.

pictures i didn't bastardize tho i wanted to

anthony and i went to vermont at the very best time of year.  when the leaves are on fire, the grass is green, and the ground sticks to your feet as if to say STAY.

i love my home state.  i love the pace, the community, the barns, bridges, and bakeries.  my mom lives there, in a toy house she designed and made home.  i love the pancakes she makes.

what i remembered on my trip is that i'm not a landscape photographer.  i'm not very good at recording a mountain just sitting there.  i can appreciate the shit out of it, and stand in awe of its brutal beauty, but it doesn't translate into a subject for photography.  my new camera can take multiple exposures in-camera, creating surreal geometries and abstract realities.  not using that function for every shot required discipline and a dedication to a simpler approach.

so, as unnatural as it is for me, here are some au naturel country shots, unfettered and unadulterated and naked and free like a goddamned winter tree.