one photo a day, for a whole year

just another 365 project, this one by vanessa pamela.

Permalink 366/365 2012 was a leap year, so there are 366 photos in this 365 project. Based on all other truths about my life, this seems relevant and fitting. Rachel picked me up from JFK at 7am on Monday, January 31, and we drove first to Brooklyn to drop off my bags and then to New Jersey to ring in the New Year in her empty suburban house with her cute dog. I had told her she didn’t have to do all that driving, that I could take a cab to Brooklyn and she could meet me there, or even better I could take a cab to Brooklyn and then a train out to New Jersey, but she had laughed at me when I suggested all that. Don’t be an idiot, she said. I love you, she said. I’ll be at the airport at 6:45, she said. Incase your plane gets in early. When we landed (early, like she thought we might) I got off the plane, said goodbye to my family who still had to fly to Boston, grabbed my bag from the conveyer belt, and walked outside to find Rae’s blue car parked directly in front of the Jet Blue terminal. She had a hot chai tea waiting for me in a travel mug. We did all our driving, and then we went to pick up groceries so I could make New Year’s Eve dinner, just like last year. We spent the evening alone. We made a delicious dinner and kissed a lot and watched back to back episodes of Buffy. We ate fancy chocolate Rae had bought us in Seattle and we mixed delicious drinks and we kissed some more. We took this goofy photo about 10 minutes before midnight, practicing for the photo we would take when the clock actually struck 12, but we never took that one. We laughed about our noisemakers that didn’t work and the blue glitter that fell off her hat and landed everywhere and her dog’s fascination with all of our New Year’s Eve accessories. We forgot about the camera and just sat together, being in love, being together, being happy. And then suddenly it was 2013 and it was a new year and this photo project is over but I think there’s more to come, I’m just not sure what yet. I’ll be updating this blog one more time, with a written reflection about what this project taught me about photography and myself and life and this past year. Thanks so much for following along. This was a good thing to do. I’m really glad I stuck it out and finished it. Happy New Year.
Permalink 365/365 Our final night in Hawaii; this was impressive.
Permalink 364/365 Reading depressing literature by the pool…I’m nothing if not predictable. (PS: I strongly recommend that you read The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolman if you’re at all interested in the Arab/Israeli conflict in the Middle East. I’m about 5 years late to the party, but it’s incredibly well written, thought-provoking, sad, and relevant.)
Permalink 363/365 Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa. No complaints.
Permalink 362/365 Even in Maui, I still found Christmas lights.
Permalink 361/365 Let’s get lost.
Permalink 360/365 We woke up at 2am to drive a couple of hours up to the top of a volcano, Haleakala, to see the sunrise. Unfortunately it was crazy cloudy and the sunrise didn’t really happen as planned — or, it did happen, but we didn’t really see any of it — but we drove up even higher once the sun was high up in the sky and suddenly we were above the clouds, rather than in one, and the air was thinner, and we were surrounded by plants called Silver Swords that looked just like their name, and the sky was like nothing I had ever seen before. This was possibly my favorite part of the whole trip, and it was a pretty damn good 10 day trip. 
Permalink 359/365 Woke up at 7am the morning we were flying from Honolulu to Maui. Was gifted this sky as a reward.
Permalink 358/365 Keyana took me hiking in Hawaii. This is Makapu’u.
Permalink 357/365 Honolulu, Hawaii
Permalink 356/365 I wouldn’t call traveling for 20 hours the best way to spend your 24th birthday, but I was pretty excited to finally reach our destination.
Permalink 355/365 I realized this was the last time I would get to see Bryant Park all dolled up for the holidays before 2013 — because I would be leaving for Hawaii the next day and when I returned to New York it would be January — so I made the most of my lunch break and walked around the park by myself for a long while, even though it was quite cold. Bryant Park in the winter will always feel like mine.
Permalink 354/365 Someone put up Christmas lights on the fence outside my building and I love it.
Permalink 353/365 I got my roommates matching initial mugs for Chanukah even though none of them are Jewish. I’ve been dying to have four of these sitting on our shelf since the day we moved in.
Permalink 352/365 I am forging a friendship with this pup. It’s easy when she’s so damn cute.