RockandFern

In the fall of 2014 my family and I were at our camp* in rural Maine. I often found myself on short, slow walks with my sons who were three and a half and four months. We always seemed to be collecting natural objects to bring back with us. This particular week, as we meandered along the worn road, we found fallen apples from the old weather-beaten apple trees, the first few crimson maple leaves, some blue stained wood on a muddy snowmobile trail and wildflowers on the roadside. As we packed up the car to head home, I glanced at the pile of natural treasures we had collected over the week and decided to snap a photo. It was beautiful. As my boys fell asleep on the drive home I kept thinking about the photo and the beautiful objects we had found.

I fell in love with photography in the darkroom at my high school. It is harder to pinpoint where my love of nature and the outdoors started. I think for all of us, it is hardwired, but my parents nurtured that love by exposing my sisters and I to the wilds of our backyard and beyond as we grew up.

On that fall day I saw the connection between my many identities: nature lover, photographer, explorer, science teacher, and mother. I have spent the past few years nurturing this vision. Practicing my skills. Exploring with my family. Absorbing as much information as I can. Testing prints and different materials. Gathering, collecting, arranging and looking closely at the world around me.

Rock & Fern takes its name from two simple but beautiful natural objects that I love. Inorganic and organic. Geology and biology. It is all connected.

I hope you find something here that you connect with.

There is such beauty in the details. I hope my photos help you remember to slow down and take a look.

* Camps are a New England word for your getaway place. They can range from a hunting shack with no running water in the middle of the woods to an extravagant lakeside mansion, and all things in between!