Meeting Michael Johnston
September 2nd, 2016
We’ve just returned from a week-long trip driving through upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. We visited our niece and her family in the Buffalo area, attended the wedding of our grand nephew (boy, just typing that makes me feel old) in Cornwall, Vermont. I dropped in at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont where I dropped off a couple prints for their next show, The Environmental Portrait. Then we did some sight seeing and hiking in the north woods of New Hampshire which included a trip (in the Honda Pilot) up Mt. Washington. And, on the drive back home we stopped for a night in the Finger Lakes region of New York so we could meet and visit Michael Johnston.
If you don’t know who Mike is, you should. He is the author of the blog, The Online Photographer. If you have any interest in photography you should be reading this blog. It is the best written photo blog on the internet. It has an excellent balance between posts about cameras, posts about taking photos, posts about looking at photos and posts about the meaning of life.
Now that I’ve met him and visited with him for a few hours I can say that in addition to being a fine writer, Mike is also a very nice guy. And a great conversationalist. It’s always nice when things work out that way. That’s not always the case (the time I met W. Eugene Smith, for example). We had a wide-ranging conversation about just about anything you might imagine, including, occasionally, photography. It was great fun.
Yes, that’s Mike in the photo above. He is standing in the doorway to the living room in the Bed and Breakfast where we spent the night in Penn Yan, New York. Mike recommended La Belle Vie to us as a place to stay and it was an outstanding recommendation. A beautiful house, with fine details in its construction (check out the woodwork in the arch above Mike). Our room was beautiful, comfortable and very nicely decorated. The breakfast was to die for. Highly recommended to anyone visiting the Finger Lakes for any reason.
We met Mike at his lovely home on Keuka Lake and went to dinner in nearby Hammondsport at the Timber Stone Grill. I can give a hearty recommendation to the Timberstone Grill. Food doesn’t get much better than the meals at that fine restaurant. Both dinner and conversation were outstanding. It was late when we made it back to the B&B and we just went right to bed. The next morning Mike joined us for breakfast at the B&B. The conversation was so fine with Mike and the B&B owners, Llewellyn and Laurel, that we didn’t get on the road home until after 1 in the afternoon. And did I mention that the breakfast was wonderful? A really fine way to end our trip. We made it home around 9 in the evening and are now starting to get back into our routine. I’ll be back to regular posting in a few days. Meanwhile, go read The Online Photographer.
I just want to say a belated hello to all the folks clicking over from The Online Photographer. I wasn’t quite prepared for the influx, but I’m glad you came.
I use this blog just to post whatever I’m working on at any given time. If you want to see a bit more organized set of my photos, please click over to the portfolio tab above. While much of my work does have nudity, I certainly don’t think any of it is in any way pornographic, but rather in the tradition of artistic nudes. But I also have dance photography and landscape/nature work on the site.
Thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to leave a comment if you want.
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