Bruce's Kitchen

If you are hungry:

Discovering the Bird Feeder

It took all of three days

for the squirrels to discover

the new bird feeder.

King of His World. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Waiting to Open the Door to Spring

Door to our front yard with mirror. Photo by Bruce Barone.

 

 

Not an April Fool's Joke:

Winter Storm Warning

March 31--April 2

Western Massachusetts

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

The Tree Down By The Brook

Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Cardinal at Bird Feeder

Outside our home office window:

Cardinal at Bird Feeder. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Meatballs

Tonight I made meatballs.

Blooming

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Grackle at the Bird Feeder

Outside our home office window:

Grackle at Bird Feeder. Photo by Bruce Barone.

I think this would look great as a black & white 

but I  so love the iridescent color of the Grackle.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Nadine Learning to Use the Canon F-1

"Is this what I push?" asks Nadine. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

(Or Nadine!)

Saturday With Family

Susan and I are looking forward to leaving Western Massachusetts today and driving down to Northern New Jersey for a family get-together celebrating a little "rock star" on his first birthday; looking forward to a rockin' good time of good family, good food, face-painting and so much more!

The Lookout on The Palisades, New Jersey. Photo by Bruce Barone.

What are you doing?

I would to hear from you!

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

A Quiet Friday

Self Portrait. Friday, March 25, 2011. Reading in Living Room.

Pearls

Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Spring

Yesterday, Monday, March 21, was the first full day of Spring. Snow fell lightly throughout the morning here in Western Massachusetts and gently blanketed our trees and yard. I might add, I had raked the yard on Friday when the temperatures reached into the low 70s!

Photo by Bruce Barone.

The Robin, the "early bird," the harbinger of Spring, visited our yard and tugged worms out from the earth.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

The hardy Crocus, which is among the first heralds of Spring, pushed its way up from the earth and through the snow.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

How was your Monday?

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Pussy Willow

Pussy Willow. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Full Moon with Canals

Full Moon over our Avenue. March 19, 2011. Photo by Bruce Barone

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Friday Evening; Almost Full

Moon Over Our Avenue. March 18, 2011. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

The Almost Full Moon

St. Patrick's Day Evening. Moon Over Our Avenue. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Photo by Bruce Barone. Taken at Treydon's Bar & Grill, Easthampton, MA.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

The Luck Exhibition

May you enjoy these images:

Seeing Valery Lorenzo in the Landscape

Landscape. Photo by Bruce Barone. March 15, 2001.

Find Mr. Lorenzo here:

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Something About TRI-X

Old Mill Restaurant (No longer standing). Easthampton, MA. Photo by Bruce Barone.

Check out the inside; the paper plates and paper cups!

Tita Mastrangello (sp?). Photo by Bruce Barone.

P.S. The burgers were pretty tasty and the old woman who ran it was lots of fun.

~~~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

March at Mittineague Park

A few days ago, I went for a walk at the park down the street from us. Here are three photos:

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Dinner in the Diner

I have a wonderful old cookbook entitled "Dinner in the Diner, 300 Recipes From America's Era Of Great Trains." And I am thinking about it as I write this morning. Why?

On Saturday, after visiting the 18th Annual Monson Arts Council Art Exhibition & Sale (where we were inspired by the art and impressed with the hot and cold hors d'oeuvres from Johnsens Catering), Susan and I journeyed to a nearby restaurant which is located in an historic Railroad Station. It is named Steaming Tender Restaurant and there is a Vintage 1915 Porter Steam Locomotive right outside the front door!

ALL ABOARD!!!

We first sat in the dining car. Alas, it was closed:

Susan sitting at a table in the dining car. "Where's my glass of wine?"

We checked out the baggage check area:

We were getting hungrier by the minute but there was so much to see outside:

We watched the moms and dads and the children and the lonely men watching the slow moving train pass through town:

Once inside the train station, which is filled with historic train station paraphernalia, we sat at the bar and enjoyed lunch. Susan had a chicken salad and a glass of red wine and I had a pulled pork sandwich and a beer.

Check out this bottle opener:

My shoes, Susan suggested, before we left the train station, needed polishing:

We look forward to going back someday to the dining car and we hope it is open as there are seats there waiting for the two of us--and you, too!

Care to join us?

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

P.S. I will be writing about the cookbook, Dinner in the Diner, over at Bruce's Kitchen!

A Poem Re-written for My Brother on the Occasion of his Birthday

Photo by Bruce Barone

the mountains

are distant

but not so

distant

across the river

through the cornfield

where we ask why

we are answered

what you are

or have

become what

do you want

once  when

we were on

the mountain

this way

we called

over the ridge

we are

almost there

where now

it was

wet and cold

an endless

landscape

painted in fog

our path

was clear

come

the peak

called out

we dreamed

of sleep

and peace

and still

the path

led us

what path

this path

called

and all

changed

the dream

became

above

the river

where we

once were

we met

a priest

or was it

an angel

she said

follow me

now we

listened

closely

she did

not speak

but we

heard her

on the path

at the top

of the mountain

she said

listen

we took off

our back packs

and sat

in the soupy air

she said

this way

to the promised

land here

up ahead

quiet soon

it will be

dark

follow me

please

my brother

and i followed

her

along the path

and i dreamed

a dream of one

peacock singing

slow and beautiful

to me

songs in moonlight

in a field she

sings a short way

it is turn left

cross the bridge

the castle is

close the castle

is always

just down the road

Photo by Bruce Barone.

~About my brother: 

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Lent From a Different Perspective; Not Giving Up, But Taking Up

Today is the first day of Lent.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

 Lent can be a time of spiritual transformation
as we release negative habits and thoughts.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

I am aware that this time can be used to turn from the simple act of giving up things to a more positive commitment to take up the practice of high-level thinking.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

 I am taking up the daily practice of joy, gratitude, speaking positive words and committing myself to sharing my photography with love.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

 I am, simply, turning away from the simple act of giving things up to a more positive commitment to take up new things, or practices. 

Photo by Bruce Barone.

And you?

I would love to hear from you!

 

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Alan Hovhannes

Today, Tuesday, March 8, is the birthday of Alan Hovhannes.

Today, I had the great pleasure of listening to his Symphony No. 63, "Loon Lake"  & Guitar Concerto No. 2.

Hovhannes once said:

"I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God."

Photo by Bruce Barone.

 ~

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

 

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. This is one of my favorite "birthday" poems. It is by Dylan Thomas:

_______

It was my thirtieth year to heaven

Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood   

      And the mussel pooled and the heron

                  Priested shore

            The morning beckon

With water praying and call of seagull and rook

And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall   

            Myself to set foot

                  That second

      In the still sleeping town and set forth.

      My birthday began with the water-

Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name   

      Above the farms and the white horses

                  And I rose   

            In rainy autumn

And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.

High tide and the heron dived when I took the road

            Over the border

                  And the gates

      Of the town closed as the town awoke.

      A springful of larks in a rolling

Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling   

      Blackbirds and the sun of October

                  Summery

            On the hill’s shoulder,

Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly   

Come in the morning where I wandered and listened   

            To the rain wringing

                  Wind blow cold

      In the wood faraway under me.

      Pale rain over the dwindling harbour

And over the sea wet church the size of a snail   

      With its horns through mist and the castle   

                  Brown as owls

            But all the gardens

Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales   

Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.   

            There could I marvel

                  My birthday

      Away but the weather turned around.

      It turned away from the blithe country

And down the other air and the blue altered sky   

      Streamed again a wonder of summer

                  With apples

            Pears and red currants

And I saw in the turning so clearly a child’s

Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother   

            Through the parables

                  Of sun light

      And the legends of the green chapels

      And the twice told fields of infancy

That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.   

      These were the woods the river and sea

                  Where a boy

            In the listening

Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy   

To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.

            And the mystery

                  Sang alive

      Still in the water and singingbirds.

      And there could I marvel my birthday

Away but the weather turned around. And the true   

      Joy of the long dead child sang burning

                  In the sun.

            It was my thirtieth

Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon   

Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.   

            O may my heart’s truth

                  Still be sung

      On this high hill in a year’s turning.

 

Photo by Bruce Barone.

 

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

New Beginnings

French King Bridge. Greenfield, Massachusetts. Photo by Bruce Barone.

New beginnings are always a step into the unknown.

What do you think
I would love to hear from you!

 

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Physical Therapy

Photo by Bruce Barone

Last year in early March I went to my first session of physical therapy.

I went for both my shoulder and my tennis elbow, which is rather funny considering the pain in my elbow was, in fact, not from playing tennis, but gardening.

I got to thinking then, and again, today, that physical therapy is akin to spiritual therapy. Can you really have one without the other?

I love this quote:

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [1797-8], "To Teach Love and Reverence"

Our cat, Nadine.

What do you think
I would love to hear from you!

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

One, Two, Three

Photo by Bruce Barone

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Photo by Bruce Barone.

GO!

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

The Skaters

Photo by Bruce Barone.

… This leaving-out business. On it hinges the very importance of what's novel
Or autocratic, or dense or silly. It is as well to call attention
To it by exaggeration, perhaps. But calling attention
Isn't the same thing as explaining, and as I said I am not ready
To line phrases with the costly stuff of explanation, and shall not,
Will not do so for the moment. Except to say that the carnivorous
Way of these lines is to devour their own nature, leaving
Nothing but a bitter impression of absence, which as we know involves presence, but still.
Nevertheless these are fundamental absences, struggling to get up and be off
themselves.

~excerpt from "The Skaters," John Ashbery (1966)

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.

Unique Vintage

A few years ago I attended a concert at a small venue in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The performer was Lori McKenna and I highly recommend her to you.

She performed by herself; many songs from her CD Bittertown. It was a great concert and I felt blessed to be in attendance.

There was an intermission (Lori sang, I recall, for a few hours!). Walking away from where I sat I passed a young women with bright red hair, a recent graduate I would soon learn of Hampshire College.

People who know me well know I love red hair. I stopped and said to her "Oh my God. I love your hair." I handed my business card to her, which read Bruce Barone, Fine Art Photography.  "I would love to photograph you. If you are ever interested, please give me a call."

A few months passed. The phone rang. "Hello, Bruce," she said. "This is Melissa."

This all happened in late 2004. I had just moved into my loft in Eastworks. I had just opened my photography studio and art gallery (Studio 19)--both in the loft space.

Here is Melissa looking at photographic art by Helena Kvarnstrom. This was the first exhibition in the gallery.

Here is an ad for Helena's exhibition, which appeared in a number of publications (The website does not exist anymore.):

Here is a photo of all of Helena's photos hung in my space:

I published a catalog of the exhibition. The introduction was written by Katharine Tillman. A few of her photos would be featured in a later group exhibition, 19 at 19. The catalog:

One year later, I started to repaint the loft and here is what the gallery space looked like then:

BTW: There is an online store called

Unique Vintage;

I recommend it to you.

If you want events in your life documented or are looking for distinctive nature, portrait or wedding photography--photography with soul that inspires you

to live a more artful and beautiful life,

please contact me.