About

My name is Tom. I live and work in the Boston area. It’s an odd story how I came to do a photoblog.

My creative background includes, predominantly, music and video creation and production. I have also done some writing, having kept a regular weblog for some time. Unfortunately, I can’t practically do any of those things for a variety of reasons. First, my musical and writing abilities are not enough to stand on their own. And video owing to the kind of medium it is, requires a commitment in terms of time and resources that I just don’t have as a working professional.

So a few months ago I decided to take up photography. As a visual person, it appealed to me. Furthermore, it was the kind of thing I could pursue even in small moments of free time. As long as I carried my camera around with me, any time I wasn’t doing something else was time I could devote to photography.

As I began to take more and more pictures, I also began to feel that somehow I should find a way to merge two of my favorite pursuits: writing and photography. I thought to myself that if I could somehow mix my writing, in the form of a blog, with my photography that would be ideal.

Then one morning I happened across an article on Ars Technica. It was an article which on any other day, I would likely have skipped over: quick description of a contest to sculpt an iPod Shuffle out of food (go figure). The winner was Davin Risk. His name in the article was a link which for some reason, I felt compelled to click on.

Lo and behold. There before my eyes was photograph after beautiful photograph of urban grit (among other things) in Toronto. As someone new to photography, these photographs opened up a whole new set of ideas for me about what photography could be. Some of the photography I did immediately after seeing that site was heavily inspired and influenced by Davin’s aesthetic. Thanks, Davin.

But in addition to that it seems his partner, Gayla Trail, was his inspiration having started a photoblog shortly before he did. And so I found myself perusing MakingHappy. Again, the photography is wonderful. But one of the things that sets her and her blog apart from others (aside from an addiction to cheap, eclectic cameras) is that she writes. Of the few photoblogs I’ve seen, MakingHappy has the most writing.

To me, that is really compelling. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I’ve read every single one of her hundreds of entries. The writing in MakingHappy combines autobiography, personal observations, random comments, and what amounts to a diagram of the trajectory of one person’s love of cameras and photography. It is singularly engrossing and inspiring. And best of all: it's completely unpretentious.

At this point, I don't know exactly what I'm trying to do with this other than take pictures and write. But if I can do something half as interesting, I'll be happy.

Here goes...