Thursday, March 31, 2011

Bruce's Kitchen





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.

~~~

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

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,

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Tree Down By The Brook

Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~


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to live a more artful and beautiful life,

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,

Sunday, March 27, 2011

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,

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,
(Or Nadine!)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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,


Friday, March 25, 2011

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pearls

Photo by Bruce Barone.
~~~

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Pussy Willow

Pussy Willow. Photo by Bruce Barone.

~~~

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Sunday, March 20, 2011

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
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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Friday Evening; Almost Full

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

~~~

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Friday, March 18, 2011

The Almost Full Moon

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

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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

~~~

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The Luck Exhibition

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Seeing Valery Lorenzo in the Landscape

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


~~~

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to live a more artful and beautiful life,

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,

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

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,

Monday, March 14, 2011

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,

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

Friday, March 11, 2011

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: 
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

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,

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

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,
 

Monday, March 7, 2011

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
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

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
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Saturday, March 5, 2011

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,

Friday, March 4, 2011

One, Two, Three

Photo by Bruce Barone

Photo by Bruce Barone.

Photo by Bruce Barone.
GO!

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Thursday, March 3, 2011

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)


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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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
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
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An Anniversary

  Valentine's Day is around the corner and I like to share with you a love story. Fourteen years ago on February 9, Susan and I met at t...