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Some of us are always on the lookout for the unexpected. As an amateur photographer, in the time before iPhones, I developed the habit of carrying around my camera, and with it a certain level of alertness to something noteworthy that might turn up in the landscape, cityscape, or right in front of my nose […]

One of my opening gestures to the man who would eventually become my husband was to send him a copy of Robert Frost’s “Birches,” a poem which is especially dear to me.  This year we are celebrating our 30th anniversary, and that poem remains a tender reminder of how our love began and how it

People who read the New York Times are probably familiar with the “Anatomy of a Scene” pieces, in which a film director describes a particular scene from a film they’ve made. Parts of the scene are shown as the narrative proceeds. The filmmaker/director often touches on what they were trying to achieve in the scene,

One of the things that I love most about wildlife tracking is that it demands a focus on small things, tiny details, signs of life’s everyday activities for animals that live in the wilderness or even in our midst in less wild places. Learning to accurately read these signs or just moving through the world

I began writing my first full-length book in the early days of 2011, not knowing how I would tell the story I’d been asked to tell or even what the details of the whole story were. I just knew I needed to explore the pieces that a relatively new friend had shared with me and

When I found some photos in my iPad that had been taken by my now-teenaged grandkids when they were little, I realized their psychedelic selfies represented not just funny and endearing memories but whimsical spontaneous art pieces. Their unsupervised play with digital forms of self-image left behind a record of artful innocence, a touchstone for us, as the challenges of life move us forward in uncertain times.

Even isolation can serve as a motivator for looking more closely at different forms of communication expressed by birds and other non-human neighbors in our midst. Spending time developing our sensitivities to subtle communicative behaviors opens us up to surprisingly meaningful kinds of narrative that can enrich our lives and enhance our appreciation of how birds and other animals experience the world we share.

Though phone cameras have changed the way we look at the world and ourselves, a powerful portrait remains a conversation. As a portrait maker I work from an essential sense of intimacy with and empathy for my subject. An artful portrait requires both a keen eye and an open heart. Establishing trust with the subject and honesty with the self can be key factors too.

One summer night last year I ventured into the star-filled night to catch remnants of the Perseids meteor shower. Being outdoors in a wild natural setting in the dark predawn hours inspired me to examine some of my fears and anxieties arising from a growing sense of helplessness about our deeply troubled world. It helped me appreciate how engaging in even small moments of beauty and mystery can help restore an increasingly elusive sense of agency.