Old Rag Photography

Photographing birds takes me to places I love to be. This winter my husband and I traveled from swamp to wildlife refuge through out Florida. We spent our last evening on Merritt Island watching the late day activity and feeling connected and at peace. It was a perfect ending. It was also the end of our enormous freedom of movement; the very next day we faced the realities of this deadly virus and headed for the security of home.

Grasses are gorgeous! Too often they are up front, spread out before us but remain unseen. I collect images of grass for the brilliant colors, the sensual textures, amazing blooms and windblown patterns.

My husband and I have a nursery that specializes in Japanese Maples so I always have the opportunity to photograph them. I never cease to be enchanted by their beauty. It is the ultimate in mixing business with pleasure.

Have you ever driven across the country? Many complain that this is a boring experience but I just love it because the changing landscape is fascinating. Often one can tell that something is different as soon as one passes from one state into another. And foreign travel introduces even more scenes. I often ponder the simple fact that what I find exotic is the standard surround to those residing in that area.

All Old Rag photographers live in Rappahannock County, a beautiful, rural Virginia haven. We border on the Shenandoah National Park and are within easy driving distance of Washington D C.

My ongoing project to photograph non-corporate restaurants brings out the street photographer in me. These spaces are usually created with love by proprietors and play an immense role in our lives. They are places of celebrations and places for lonely people to find some human contact. They are safe places for strangers to meet and communal spaces for business discussions. Old friends meet up there. Visitors may treat host as a thank you. Local residents gather for games, a drink, to watch sports on T V. And now with the virus shutting so many of these places I am worried many will not make it back and our choices will be more limited forever.

A forest is a place of great mystery and even mysticism. I am enchanted by them. It can create both a threatening and a sheltering environment. One can hide there or get lost within. It is beautiful but most often a forest is described as dark and even menacing. They play important roles in story: there are the woods in fairy tails like Hansel and Gretel or Show White; there is Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest and then the Mirkwood Forests of both Sir Water Scott and Toliekin; Shakespeare created a fantasy forest in A Midsummer's Night Dream and recently we encountered the Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter books.

When I was a kid we took family weekend trips to Cooks Forest in Pennsylvania. Occasionally my father would hire a couple jeeps to take us out looking for bears at night. We never saw any so now when I do encounter wild living bears, elk, deer or even squirrels I feel awed and rewarded.