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    Welcome to my blog

Light, reliable, and easy to use, the Nikon FM2 is the closest thing I have to an ideal camera.  The lack of technical “bells and whistles” that turn many present-day camera models into digital quagmires is a major boost to the appeal of this classic film camera.  It makes the FM2 the AK-47 of cameras.  Yet, with the world gone digital I have relegated this film relic to use only on my own time.  I do 99% of my shooting with the much bulkier and digital, D700.  It’s been my work-horse camera since September 2010 when I entered the School of Visual Arts’ Masters in Digital Photography program.  At 12.1 megapixels per capture it is blown out of the water by current models which are in the starting range of 25 megapixels.  I still can’t see myself upgrading anytime soon.  Unless Nikon can develop a camera that delivers the same quality image with a camera body that is lighter I am going to stick with the old warhorse.  The digital camera models come and go, however, classics like the FM2 don’t ever get outdated.

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On Saturday, my Uncle Michael asked those gathered at St. John of the Cross Church in Middlebury, CT:

“When Brian, Jr. turns fifteen what is he going to need to know?”

“How will we know that we’ve done our job?”

After a pregnant pause, he added, “As long as he knows the God is head over heals in love with him, we’ll know we’ve done our part in sharing the gift of Faith.”

After becoming a deacon several years ago my uncle’s focus has shifted to the work around his home parish of St. John of the Cross, but I know he’s always been passionate about serving in the prison system throughout Connecticut.  His stories of the incarcerated, both redeemed and those yet to be, are a source of entertainment and awe.

The Catholic Church continues to receive her fair share of criticism, sometimes on target and other times baseless, but after my uncle finished baptizing his grandson, Brian Jr., he exclaimed with a big smile, “Here’s the Church’s newest member, and our Church just got better.”

 

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On Saturday, I got the chance to enjoy the company of good friends.  Growing up in a small Connecticut town I am grateful that I have been blessed with great people throughout my life.  The above image is a class project that my classmates and I put together way back in fourth grade.

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Seed Leaves: Homage to R. F.

by Richard Wilbur

Here something stubborn comes,

Dislodging the earth crumbs

And making crusty rubble.

it comes up bending double,

And looks like a green staple.

It could be seedling maple,

Or artichoke, or bean.

That remains to be seen.

Forced to make choice of ends,

The stalk in time unbends,

Shakes off the seed-case, heaves

Aloft, and spreads two leaves

Which still display no sure

And special signature.

Toothless and fat, they keep

The oval form of sleep.

This plant would like to grow

And yet be embryo;

In crease, and yet escape

The doom of taking shape;

Be vaguely vast, and climb

To the tip end of time

With all of space to fill,

Like boundless Igdrasil

That has the stars for fruit.

But something at the root

More urgent that the urge

Bids two true leaves emerge;

And now the plant, resigned

To being self-defined

Before it can commerce

With the great universe,

Takes aim at all the sky

And starts to ramify.

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Today, I took these photos outside of the Ukrainian National Home in the East Village where a shrine was set-up to honor those killed in the protests that rocked the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.  There is a growing sense of dread that Putin has his eyes set on more than just Crimea.  Click here to read about it.  [The above image was taken at Union Square, where I photographed a Ukrainian rally several months ago].

 

 

 

 

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