Category: PHOTOGRAPHY
Slow-falling snow
These were taken a few weeks ago in Madison, Wis. on my iPhone. It was about 8:30 at night but it could have been midnight or it could have been five in the morning. The combination of snow and empty streets has a time-stopping effect. And there’s something so magical about the way light hits slow-falling snow– it’s even more beautiful than the twinkling of light on rain, I think.
Love for Charleston
Cities, I think, are absolutely fascinating.
Especially the idea that the people, culture, architecture and industry of cities across the United States can vary so drastically.
A few weeks ago, I visited Charleston, S.C. during my spring break. It was my first time in Charleston, but also my first time in a true Southern city. I grew up right outside of New York City and attend school a few hours from Chicago, so my conception of a city has always been a place filled with sky-high buildings, honking cars and rushed, unfriendly people.
Charleston was definitely not that kind of place.
Charleston has a true Southern flavor, which I loved. Not only do people wave or smile at you on the street, but doormen pause to help tourists with directions and drug store owners actually let people use their bathrooms.
Southern charm is a real thing.
Crazy.
Of course, the city itself is gorgeous, with its beautiful, pastel-colored Antebellum homes situated right on the water. The historic architecture and city layout gave Charleston a European feel, more so than anywhere else I’ve been on the East Coast.
This vibrant metropolis holds close to its roots — so much of the city’s past remains present. Old stone blocks even sit on street corners, once used to help men mount their horses, now active reminders of a genteel past.
And if I wasn’t already in love with the place, some key scenes in The Notebook were shot in Charleston.
Because it’s spring…
Caffeine Culture
Published in The Observer
If you’re anything like my friends and me, Starbucks downs your flex points just about as fast as you down its tall vanilla lattes.
I don’t even drink coffee just to stay awake. There are so many other great reasons to grab a cup: to fill an awkward break between classes, to catch up with friends, to procrastinate studying and to keep warm when the temperature goes subzero.
We live in a caffeine culture, and the ridiculously long coffee lines between classes prove that. You can even tell a lot about a person based on their caffeine preference.
We have the Waddicks types, who linger at the coveted red booths, reading Chaucer or discussing philosophy, slowly sipping large pumpkin spice coffees.
You know someone’s got a long day when their tumbler is filled to the brim with Grab and Go coffee and secured in the net pocket of a protruding backpack.
And then there are those who are perpetually holding Starbucks — never straight coffee but always with an excess of adjectives like nonfat, extra whip, unsweetened, light ice and no foam.
I may be stereotyping, but at Notre Dame getting coffee is a more social thing for girls than for guys. You are much more likely to see four PW girls in LaFun gossiping over coffee, than to see four Siegfried guys crowded around a Burger King table, chatting and sipping their nonfat lattes.
On the other hand, unlike guys, girls don’t typically purchase energy drinks to have fun with their friends. Let’s take the case of Five-Hour Energy shots. Girls never brag about taking them. In fact, most girls will down them in the privacy of a Subway booth or in their own rooms. But when guys pop open that small bottle, they have to broadcast it to whoever they pass by. It’s always like, “Dude, I’m so ridiculously awake now, I just took a Five-Hour Energy. Love that stuff.”
Addiction? Possibly. Problem? Not really.
But the Five-Hour Energy shot poured into the coffee? Yes, I’ve seen it done. Now that’s a problem.
At Notre Dame, we like to think that while we “play hard” on the weekends, during the weekdays we are studious, diligent and in control. However, our coffee drinking habits are oddly reminiscent of our weekend drinking habits. Why else would we order a double shot of espresso on a Monday morning, or claim that “one more cup” of coffee won’t hurt us? Why else would we suffer through headaches at 11 a.m., just because we didn’t have that morning cup?
Whether you’re a social coffee drinker, a caffeine addict, or, gasp, you “don’t like coffee,” there’s no denying that we live in a caffeine culture.
Of course, there are those out there who claim to survive without any caffeine at all. On good, old-fashioned sleep, they say. I still think there has got to be some method to that madness, but for now, more power to them.
SAD
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) plagues six of every 100 people in the United States, according to statistics by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
The main age of onset of SAD is between 18 and 30 years old. The disorder is related to seasonal variations of light (or lack thereof).
No wonder it affects so many students at Notre Dame.
That’s a pretty dramatic shift of scenery. Beautiful, as the white pathway and snow-covered dome are. But best viewed through a photograph or the warmth of a LaFortune window.
Check out The Observer‘s archives on Seasonal Affective Disorder here.
This is where I want to be.
Dear Photograph
My friend Laura introduced me to the blog Dear Photograph, which showcases pictures taken of pictures from the past in the present.
Some are funny: There’s a reason we had to paint those stairs blue.
Some are cute: The bike I have now goes a little faster.
Some are just touching: Thank you for everything we ever had.
But all the photographs make you think about the relationship between time and place, how quickly people grow and change while places can stay exactly the same.
In a CBS interview founder Taylor Jones said:
“What I’ve learned from blogging is people relate with emotion so if you’re making a blog it has to be good content, content that is going to be able to spread.”
He said he’s gotten “tons of emails” from people who say the blog has given them a reason to see their parents and look through old photographs together.
To submit, upload your photos to http://dearphotograph.com/submit or email them to DEARPHOTOGRAPH@GMAIL.COM
© All Rights Reserved by Dearphotograph.com and the original owners.
Continued since 1981…
The Lennon Wall in Prague used to be a portrait of John Lennon that’s been covered over since the 1980s with layers upon layers of paint. People began writing messages of freedom when the country was still under Communist rule. It was painted over several times by authorities, but always sprang back, more colorful than before.
Above is a photo montage of pictures I took while visiting the Wall in April. The Wall symbolizes freedom, peace, and unity. But what I found so striking about it was how the graffiti can be looked at in one of two ways: either as a whole, a collaboration of colors built over thirty years, or as thousands of individual phrases, words, and signatures, each existing in their own space. And because of the context, even the messiest, most indecipherable handwriting means something here.
Europe, through coffee
I don’t know what it is about coffee. I like to drink it, I like to write about it, I like to photograph it. Coffee has even found its way into my everyday attire by way of those inevitable spills when I’m walking too fast (which is usually.)
Anyway, since I arrived home from Europe a few weeks ago and am feeling particularly nostalgic for those café au laits, I thought this post would be appropriate. I present you: “Coffee Portraits.”
It’s a…blog!
Dear friends,
As many of you know, I’ve been wanting to start a blog for some time. I love writing, photography, and aimless searching online, so a blog always seemed to be the perfect fusion of my interests.
The summer after my first year in college I interned at a New York based company called Magnet Media, writing blog posts for the photography and design channels of their website, Zoom In Online (Now The Photoletariat). Each day, I’d take my free trade coffee up to the tenth floor of the Chelsea office building, feeling as hipster as a freshman Notre Dame student from a preppy suburban town could feel. I loved my job and was fascinated by the blog world, by how entire communities existed online and artists exchanged ideas through comments and links and shoutouts.
But then summer ended and school started and I forgot about my quirky little pastime. Two years later, I’m finally giving it another try. This blog will contain my own creative writing and photography and finds from the design world.
Hope you enjoy!
Sara
SKETCHING A STORY 
