Essex, Connecticut

Since this was the first stop, I started with Connecticut. Seems fair to let my home state go first. I'd heard Essex was an interesting town, and it was only about twenty minutes away, so the logistics were pleasantly low on drama. My friend Ed joined me for the trip. I did the picture part on February 1 without him; he came along for the rest of the outing on the 2nd.

On an earlier drive through town, I'd spotted a small pond with a battered dock and immediately thought, That's the Essex picture. To get back to it, I drove down a dirt road to a little picnic area. Some people in a broken-down car nearby watched everything I did. No idea what that was about. Maybe they were art critics. If so, they kept their review to themselves.

I liked the frozen pond with the house in the background. Later, after dinner at the Griswold Inn, Ed and I drove past again and saw people skating and playing hockey there. Pretty cool. The quiet place I'd photographed had an entirely different life a few hours later.

I tend to mix black-and-white with bits of color, then sharpen the hell out of the picture. I like an extra-crunchy piece of art. You'll see more of that as this journal goes on. Consider this your warning.