It's December, 2013, the weather forecast is snow and  I have this new passion for photography! I am not a fan of winter and its dreary, gray days, not at all! Just the hearing the word Winter can give me a pit in my stomache! But, for the first time in a very long time I am excited, almost happy! SNOW! I grabbed my camera, put on my hat and gloves, two pairs of leggings, my heaviest coat and ventured out. I drove 20 minutes north to a town called Centerport, Long Island. Although we don't have mountains, Centerport happens to be a hilly, beautiful town on the north shore of the Island where I often go to take photos. There are beaches and a harbor and lots of curvy roads. I headed to the Vanderbilt Mansion and Museum, which was once the estate of William K. Vanderbilt II. This location is 43 acres of waterfront property that was deeded to Suffolk county upon Vanderbilt's death in 1943 and was opened to the public as a museum in 1950. (And that is the end of our history lesson for the day!)

Ok, picture this...it is snowing. Not a little bit, but giant white flakes, the kinds you see in movies where children are usually laughing and running and having glorious snowball fights! I drive up this massive hill till I arrive at the estate, pull through the black iron gates and stop at the security house. The guard came over, took one look at me and politely told me that the estate was closed! Closed?? Why closed I asked? So he quietly pointed up to the sky and said that they were closed due to the fact that we were in the middle of a giant snow storm! Duh!! I am sure that he had to physically refrain from rolling his eyes at the sheer absurdity of the situation!  I told him that I understood and that I was just hoping to take a few photographs of the estate all covered in white. At this point he inched a bit closer to me and asked "are you a student?". Well, those were the nicest words I had heard in years!! A student??? I was 43 years old! Yes, I was a student of life! lol! I chuckled and told him that I was not a student but just a very enthusiastic, amatuer photographer looking to capture a moment. Well, I am sure that is not exactly what I said, but something like that! I guess whatever I said made some impact on him because the next thing I knew he decided to not only grant me entrance but gave me free reign to walk around the estate and take photographs!

And there you have it! This photo was taken close to the entrance of the estate and it is looking down at the boathouse. Beyond the boathouse is the Long Island Sound. It was truly a heavenly scene! I explored the estate property until I could no longer feel my fingers and toes!

Fast forward two years later and this photograph had now become the most well known in my collection. It won a photo contest, was chosen to be on display in a gallery in New York City and was the first photo that I have ever sold, not to mention it received thousands of "likes" on social media. 

Now that winter is just around the corner again can I honestly say that I am excited? Well, no. I still get a that same, darn pit in my stomach. But now I also have a winter photography bucket list that I look forward to completing! Someday!

         The image that started it all. Florence Italy, 2013. Edited in Instagram.
All images you see here or on my website can be purchased through LONG ISLAND FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY.                                                 

​                                                     THE BEGINNING 
Ok- here goes! A funny thing has happened since I picked up my first camera only a little more than 3 years ago...my life changed. It all started for me when I took a family trip to Italy. Well...of course I needed to get a new camera! Little factoid about me...I am a techie. Always has been-always will be. I can sit with the guys at parties and talk android vs iphone, computers, mega pixels, mega bytes and all other techie stuff as well as an man in the room. I have also been very creative, but never really knew how to channel it or what to do with it. I don't paint or sing or draw or dance (does zumba count?). However, I was always fascinated with photographs. I would take them and make basic collages in the days before collages were a drop in the bucket. And then came along instagram where I could play with them, filter them, colorize them and make them black and white right on my phone! But the true passion began in Italy. I bought a long lens point and shoot camera  and did not put it down the entire vacation. Ironically, when I got home it broke. Luckily, I bought it from Costco and my 3 month warranty had not run out yet. So I returned it and "upgraded" to my first DSLR, a Nikon d3100. I will never forget the day I placed the camera box on the edge of my bed, opened the flaps and looked at this scary, scary piece of equipment. It had dials and settings that I just didn't understand! In that moment I knew that  I was not going to just be one of those moms walking around with their "fancy" new camera and keep in on automatic. If I did that I could just as well have replaced the broken camera with the exact same model, and saved myself $300 dollars! Nope- I was going to learn how to use this thing!  I thought to myself " I am going to make the extra $300 worth it!". After all, I don't have to buy anything else ever again for this hobby! Right? My nifty camera came with a long lens, a wide lens and a 16mp card. I was done and ready to jump in. Little did I know that I was now entering one of the most expensive "hobbies" ever (she says 3 camera bodies later, 6 professional lenses, triggers, lighting, filters and other odds and ends).

                                            THREE YEARS LATER
Ok- now I am boring you with technicalities..so I shall move on to my point! It is 3 years later, hours upon hours of learning, reading, watching videos, taking workshops, and I have more passion for this than ever. People ask me all the time "what is your favorite thing to photograph?". I answer honestly- EVERYTHING! I love to take photos of adorable children in fields, sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, mountains, oceans and even waterdrops!! For me it is not the subject as much as it is the creative release. I want to create! " Create??" you say to yourself. "But you are a photographer who is capturing a moment in time, you don't create it". But that is not the way I perceive photography. 

                                        PHOTOGRAPHY IS AN ART
If I were a photojournalist, then yes, I would be preserving the events as they had happened. But for me, photography is an art, a visual journey of consciously snapping moments and presenting them to the world through my minds eye. And the sheer fact that people like what I am creating is something that I don't ever think I will be able to process completely! Friends and family members have been more than encouraging, but of course what else were they going to say!  However, taking the risk and putting my work on Facebook for the review of strangers has been extremely humbling. I am in awe at times of the comments and praise, something I hope I will never, ever just take for granted. And over the last 15 months I have entered and been accepted into over nine Juried Photography competitions, was the Grand Jury Prize winner of one of them, had a solo Gallery Exhibit (at a wine bar on Long Island, which of course I had to go "visit" every week! ), and had one of my photographs hung in a gallery in NYC! Talk about obliterating my goals! Three years ago, not only did I not think this could not happen to me, but even more so, I didn't know that I WANTED it to.  In my mind,  I am still in the beginning of a never ending journey of learning! And I hope I always am! 

 SO-WHY A BLOG? WHAT-YOU WANT TO BECOME A WRITER NOW TOO? 
And now we have finally come to the point of this blog. A funny thing happened since I have had the solo exhibit in Northport, NY  at the Wine Cellar on Main. Well..the first thing was that I frequented that establishment no less than 6 times, leading to a large increase in my wine intake (not such a terrible thing!). More importantly, since all of the photos that were hung in that particular show were of local areas around Long Island, NY, I have had a lot of people ask me about their exact location, and about my experience taking each shot. In talking to many individuals, I realized that each piece holds a significant memory or experience that I hold near and dear and would like to share. I think once per week I will post a landscape photo on this page and share the backstory behind it. Sometimes it will be of Long Island, other times not. Either way, it will be a journey!