Spiritual Wanderer Blog - Page 2 of 23

May

Robyn and Angie’s Ann Arbor Wedding

I was honored to be asked to photograph Robyn and Angie’s Ann Arbor wedding at the Stone Chalet Bed and Breakfast Inn and Event Center. They are a fun couple who made the day special with their easy-going attitudes and quick smiles. Of the 1,500+ full-color photos I sent them, these are my favorites, done up in a classic black and white style that matches the couple’s own classic style. Here’s to a great beginning of another chapter in their lives.

Cheers!

Robyn and Angie’s cake contained a fun rainbow surprise inside.

May

Why oming?

My daughter, Taylor, alternates with me between napping and driving across The Great Plains.

We just passed a shrink-wrapped boat. What it’s doing in the middle of Nebraska, I have no idea. But there seems to be all manner of transport along this flat, gray, rainy Pony Express trail.

My daughter sits next to me napping on her “Hug this pillow until you can hug me” fluffiness, given to her by her new hubby. It’s sweet. Even though we’re traveling at a pretty steady clip, we’re not taking great pains as we drive across The Great Plains. Destination: Cheyenne, Wyoming and her next three years. Why oming? Her Air Force husband just re-upped for duty and she’s got a job working with older folks at the Veterans Administration. Her new life awaits her.Read More

May

Que Sera, Sera

This essay originally appeared in my first book, Spiritual Wanderer.

My life is a struggle to make sense of things — enormous things and things like, “There’s a bathroom on the right.”

I’m referring, of course, to the Credence Clearwater Revival lyrics, which don’t have anything to do with plumbing. The line that’s so often misquoted is really, “There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

May

Outliving My Father

Mom and Dad sat for one of my early portrait sessions back in the mid-1980s.

So I’m hanging out, chatting with my wife and daughter after running some errands, having a salty snack — the usual slow afternoon things — when KABLOOEY, it hits me; I’ve outlived my father.

Apr

A Long Time Ago In Haiti

A young boy peers out through a shattered wall in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(First published 25 years ago)

I can’t really say why I went down to Haiti in the first place. Ron, a priest friend of mine, wrote and suggested I make the journey to see some places and faces that would fill a whole book. As every egocentric photographer knows, that’s all you really need to hear.

Apr

How to say “Buttigieg”

HELPFUL NOTE: That’s rock guitarist The Edge from U2 (with the skullcap, not the wig). If you’re still confused about how to say South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s name after this, it’s pronounced “PEET.”

Mar

Mayan Healing Ritual

Massage therapists work their magic during a Mayan Healing Ritual in Costa Maya, Mexico.

You can credit the pills.

You can credit eight months of treatment.

You can credit the warm, moist Caribbean air and glorious sunshine.

Or, like me, you can also credit the Mayan Healing Ritual.

Feb

Being in the Not Know

El Castillo is the main pyramid at Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico.

It’s good to not know what I’m doing.

My wife texted me on a recent Thursday afternoon, asking if I was into a last-minute cruise.

“Okay, cool!” I wrote back.

Early Friday morning, we hopped into my Prius and drove south out of Detroit and snow squalls toward sunny New Orleans. Read More

Feb

My Favorite Films of 2018

What a year for movies — a very strange, crazy year.

Two of the Academy Award nominations for Best Picture — Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice — scored in the 60s on Rotten Tomatoes, the number one website for collecting movie reviews. A third film — Green Book — got a tepid 81% score.

And here’s the thing, I think one or two of them should win!

Jan

Zach and Meegan: two friends, two notes

Crunch Time: the Picture Editing team putting together the 120-page book at The Mountain Workshops.

I met Zach this past fall down in Kentucky at The Mountain Workshops, a week-long intensive dive into photojournalism. He was one of our students in the Picture Editing sequence that I’ve been lucky enough to help teach each fall for a large part of this millennium.

Zach made us laugh, worked really hard and helped us — with our other students — pull together a 120-page book of photos and stories in less than a week. But I think I bonded with him during our shady drug deal on the streets of a small Kentucky town.

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