Neptune has MOVED!

Neptune has broken free of its normal orbit and settled at the following location.

 http://traverserobinette.com/blog

Backyard Days

When I moved to Cambridge one of my favorite features of the apartment was the little back yard. As a child my father always kept a garden and to this day, every summer his garden is an oasis in my parent’s backyard. When I visit my father, he always takes me for a walk around his backyard upon my arrival. He shows me everything he has planted, telling me to taste this or smell this. I have many fond memories of my father and this is one of them.

Backyard Bike, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

With this new backyard it was now my turn to try my hand at gardening. My first summer I didn't have a whole lot of time to commit besides watering what was already growing. It was an interesting patch of land because tenets before me had planted a variety of flowering perennials. Throughout the summer each plant took its turn by becoming the center of attention in this backyard jungle.

Summer White Flower, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

A jungle is what I imagine my backyard to be every time I went out to water or till the soil. I never knew what I would find under the leaves of a plant or crawling in the soil.

Coming home after work and spending time in the garden became a daily ritual for me. I quickly learned how relaxing it is to work with the earth and getting dirty as you watch your efforts grow.

Garden Worm, 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Needless to say by late summer, my overgrown garden was truly a jungle. I didn’t do much weeding this first summer because so many of the plants were new to me. If it started growing I gave it a chance and left it alone. Most of the plants growing I had no clue what their proper names were. Like most explorers, I called them by what the plant resembled. The Firework Weed grew in abundance. I'm sure it is a weed but it became one of my favorite plants in the jungle.

Firework Weed, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

Summer came and went, so did the jungle. Winter has a way clearing the canvas to my little piece of paradise. Of all the seasons’ winter is by far my favorite. Because of winter and its bone chilling cold, it makes warmer times that much more special. I love the crocus for the triumph it represents to winter’s end as a sign to spring’s arrival and the warmer days to follow. With this sign I know the jungle will soon return.

Crocus, 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

A Thing Called Love

District of Columbia; Part One, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

I want to show a moment in time when I was in love. A time when nothing mattered except to be with this individual. It has been over three years since that summer. I can’t forget this time, nor am I suppose to. vidual. It has been over two

 

District of Columbia; Fireworks, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

 

Our past is not always something we want to remember yet it is a part of us regardless of what we want. Our memories make us who we are. Saying this doesn’t make it any easier for me to share these images.

New York City; Window, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

You were always away during the summer, write isddown ohis dow and I had to go looking for you. You were pursuing those dreams of yours. I just didn’t know it yet, but I was not in those dreams.

New York City; Fountain, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

Shadows of a memory are all that remain. You slipped away. We drifted away.

Ponkapoag Shadows, 2010 © Traverse Day Robinette

For Whom the Bell Tolls

February 2011 I went for a long weekend in Hancock Vermont. I had planned on shooting black and white landscapes.  Somehow I forgot my film and only had 10 sheets of 4x5 instant film and a two sheets of slide and two sheets of black and white film in my film holders. Times like these one wonders why does anyone still shoot film.

Self Portrait; For Whom the Bell Tolls, 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

I did some hiking and a bit of shooting. Mostly I froze my fingers off while trying to make images in the icy woods of Vermont. I made a few instant images at Texas Falls and they were technically off. I had intended to have the scene back lit but my cold hands took so long to set up the shot that the sun actually moved from behind the tree. It is a sad day when the sun moves faster than you. I had two choices, 1) Move my camera to another vantage point and start over or 2) Stay put and make the image shooting straight into the sun. As you have probably have guessed I was not interested in loosing another race to the sun. I must say it was hard for me to let go and make an image where I knew I had given up control.

Snowfall, 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Life is a funny thing and photography is no less strange. My photography professor Nick Nixon once said “Make pictures now and ask questions later”. Unfortunately at the time this was of little use, while in college everyone wanted questions answered “now”.  These words have been echoing in the back of my mind since graduation. I consistently find myself photographing without reason or direction of events pertaining to daily life. Answers to these questions seem to surface years later and bring a greater focus to works already made. This is something I had never anticipated to happen.

It Tolls for Thee, 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

I put these images aside and did not think of them for some time. They represented the scene not as I had wanted them to, but in a totally different manner.   After a year or so I found myself drawn to the quiet beauty they held.  I started to form a story and to think how they were like scenes from “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. I had brought along this novel while on my trip and I found myself reading in the window. It was snowing outside and in the book. I look at these images from Texas Falls and they represent the snow fall and what was to come.  This sequence was also contrived with the purpose of representing my insecurities with what is before life and after death.