I’ve not been a photographer too long, I don’t recall ever taking a photograph until somewhere around the time I met Maria. I paid people to take my photos, and it dawned on me one day that I might take my own. I couldn’t tell you why I never did, I think what  you photograph reflects what you see and feel. And there was so much of the world that I could not see.

Taking pictures has changed my life and radically altered the way I see the world. Everywhere I go, I see images I want to photograph and tuck them away somewhere in my consciousness. I always carry a camera, I regret it every time I don’t.

We often go to Williamstown to have dinner or to see a movie at the independent theater there – we saw Tangerine today, a very poignant and compelling story of a friendship between two transsexuals in Los Angeles – and I passed one of my favorite barns, it was in Pownal, Vermont.

I’ve been driving past this beautiful old barn for several years, but it never worked out. The sun wasn’t on it, I didn’t have the right lens, I had forgotten to bring my camera, it was late or raining or snowing, or there were people out front. When this happens, I make a date with the image, I have learned to be patient. There is always another day, another photo.

So today, my date was to be. We drove through just as the afternoon sun came out from behind a cloud and hit the barn head on, I had my wide angle lens to capture the feel of the tilting barn and the curving old tree, they probably grew up together. I didn’t even see the man back in the woods on the left, he came out and glowered at me suspiciously – everybody thinks my big camera is suspicious –  but said I could take the photo.

So I had a good date with a barn in Pownal, Vt. It isn’t what the camera sees, it’s what you see.