November, 2005

Winter Memories

Posted by Evan at 8:46 am

Fall, my favorite season, has come to an end with the first snow of this year. This morning as Jamie and I were lifting weights we looked out the window and saw that the snow was coming down pretty good and it was actually sticking already. I knew winter was here.

Like most people I have lots of great Christmas memories from my childhood. I remember one Christmas morning opening presents when I was around eight. We had finished all of our gifts and my dad asked me to go and get his cup of coffee off of the counter in the kitchen. As I opened the door to go through the middle room I saw two brand new bicycles, both exactly the same except for the color of their seat covers. They were matching bikes for my brother and I and we could hardly wait to try them out. As a matter of fact, we didn’t wait, we put on some clothes and took them out for a spin even though it was snowing.

Me opening my gifts on Christmas morning of 1987. That’s my dad in the background.

Another Christmas morning when I was twelve my brother and I awoke to a large number of gifts and we could hardly wait to see what they were. There were two large washer and dryer sized boxes that we weren’t allowed to open until the very end. My brother and I tore through the paper of our other presents, filled with excitement wondering what might be in the two large boxes. Finally we reached the end and when we realized that it we could now open the large boxes we both looked at each other silently sharing our excitement. We worked on unwrapping the huge boxes, which was no easy task and then we could finally see what it was inside. A wonderful stereo system for our room, something we had both wanted for a long time.

As much as Christmas appeared to be about the gifts and getting when we were little it’s all too clear now what really made it so special to us. It was the people that gave what they didn’t have in order to make my brother and I feel like we did have. A truly selfless act that, at least today, I have a great appreciation for. I only hope that I can be as giving to others.

Photo tour of Wayne County Indiana

Posted by Evan at 1:39 pm

I’ve found a new love, and as many people who know me will tell you, it’s photography. The more comfortable I get with the basics of photography the more I love it.

I was thinking recently about some ideas for photography projects when I had an idea. I want to create an in-depth photo tour of Wayne County. There are some beautiful scenes in this area and I would like to share them with the world. I have to give some credit to Jane Holman with Waynet.org for starting the Wayne County, Indiana group on Flickr, which was part of my inspiration for starting the project.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been taking some time to go out and around Wayne County looking for areas that represent what makes Wayne County so great. Once I’ve had time to determine what locations I will be photographing I will go out and get some shots. I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to release the project, whether it will be online only, whether I will offer printed versions, or maybe even a calendar, but I’ll keep you potsed.