David and Kathleen: The Proposal

Spring is here, and this April kicked off with a fun vineyard proposal in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  Sweethearts for eight years, David and Kathleen vacationed in Virginia’s wine country, but David had been planning to pop the question this weekend for months.  Circumstances made this one a hard secret to keep, and Kathleen came so close to finding out, but as soon as the couple arrived at the vineyard and found the picnic awaiting them, David eagerly dropped to one knee.

She said yes, and was in shock the rest of the day of wine and adventure!

Rhode Island: Summer 2017

Foreward in 2021

This is a blog post and collection of photos from my first-ever visit to Rhode Island that I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years; the photos have been done and waiting to be posted for almost three years, and I even completed the entire photo layout design and part of the copy on a flight two years ago… since then, it’s all just been sitting, sadly collecting dust.

The reason this happened is for several reasons; I put all personal work on the backburner until paid work is done, and by time these photos were done being edited, I had already gone back to Rhode Island to visit Alyssa once again, with an even larger batch of photos to edit, post, and blog about. The intention was to get those photos done as well, and post both blogs and photosets back-to-back.

Well, that’s essentially what’s happening now - I just recently, two solid years later, finished editing the last of my Rhode Island photos from 2018 (it was a much larger, more daunting set - I might be breaking it into multiple blog posts - you’ll why see, in time), and now I’m circling back to compose posts, and do what I should have done years ago, but sticking with the original plan of posting both sets at the same time.

Most of this post was composed in 2020; you’ll see the time of writing denoted in the post itself to account for any changes in context or subject matter resulting from the time passed.

So, it’s 2021, but these photos are all from 2017, long before COVID-19 was ever a worry.  And this 2017 trip had long-term impacts on me that still affect me to this day, so perhaps it’s good I’m writing about it so much later (read about it below).

So, after many years of anticipation, here is my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, which includes airports, islands, scooters, and boats.

DCA - PVD

NOTE: Everything from this point until denoted below was written in 2018.

For the last several years, Alyssa has come down from Rhode Island to visit with me, typically during my birthday week, but the opportunity to visit her hadn’t conveniently presented itself until this year - naturally I chose her birthday week, since it was becoming an unofficial tradition.

The last time I flew out of DCA the A Concourse was strictly JetBlue, which should tell you how many years it had been since I flew out of DCA.  Now it is exclusively Southwest; this would by my first trip on WN.  I’d always heard Southwest is either love / hate, so I wanted to try it for myself.  Anytime I fly I like to arrive early enough to grab a meal, a coffee, and catch up on emails in a relaxed timeframe.  It just happened that my travel date unfortunately had some of the worst weather the East coast had seen that Summer.  A severe thunderstorm spanning the entire length of the coast was rolling through the region, causing ground-stops at multiple airports including DCA.  My flight out was delayed by over 4 hours.  Not a big deal given how good Page’s (DCA Concourse A) food is.

Once the storm had finally passed through, flights boarded and began departing normally again.

Upon entering PVD’s airspace, I could see during our approach they were doing some night work on one of their runways.  I ended up getting a pretty good nighttime aerial view of T. F. Green International Airport because this also turned out to be my first go-around flight.  Our aircraft had to go-around when a departing flight on our arrival runway failed to depart when cleared.  This added about 5min to our flight time to climb back to altitude while turning sharply, and rejoin the approach pattern.

It made for a long and interesting day of travel.

Newport Winery

NOTE: Everything from this point forward was written in 2020, despite being photographed in 2017.

Alyssa had taken the entire week off for birthday festivities, and although we didn’t have a plan for every single day I’d be in town, we did have some plans in mind.

First up was wine tasting in Newport; anytime Alyssa comes to DC I take her to a new winery, since we have a lot of them.  Now it was her turn, and she chose Rhode Island’s largest vineyard which is also widely regarded as its most elegant.  I found it very similar to Virginia’s Stone Tower Winery, which is about as near to a Napa Valley vineyard you can get without leaving the DC region.

We had booked a reservation for a winery tour, to learn about the vineyard’s history, see its winemaking operations, and taste a selection of the 32 wines Newport Winery makes.

You’ll also notice in all photos of me that I’m wearing a knee brace - this trip was three months after my patellar dislocation, and two months before undergoing MPFL Reconstruction surgery, so the knee brace was there to help prevent another excruciating dislocation, and provide at least some stability until I got my knee fixed.  I’m happy to report, today, that my surgery was totally successful, and after a 6 month recovery, I’ve now been running half-marathon distances problem-free and in respectable times for two years, an endurance milestone I had never reached before the initial injury.

A fog rolled in while we were outside enjoying glasses of wine we’d ordered after the tour and two rounds of tastings; beside the people I hold dear in Rhode Island, the coastal fog is possibly my favorite thing about the Ocean State.

Block Island

The next day, Alyssa’s family had planned out an overnight trip to Block Island to celebrate her birthday on the beach.  I didn’t know what Block Island was except for “it’s like Martha’s Vineyard, but smaller;” having never been to Martha’s Vineyard, that description didn’t help me one bit.

Just after sunrise, we headed to Galilee, Narragansett to catch the high-speed ferry to Block Island; about a 30min ride on a hot rod boat with 4 engines and 4,400 horsepower.  Unbeknownst and unfortunately for everyone, the ocean offshore had become very choppy, with waves in excess of 10 feet, which for a cruise ship is jostling but fine, but for a 99ft catamaran, it’s a bucking bronco.  I’ve only felt motionsickness twice in my life, and this was one of those times; somehow, unlike most passengers aboard, I somehow managed to not vomit.  The ride was so rough you had to hold onto your seat to keep from being lifted from it, and anything not sitting on the floor at the start of the journey had been thrown to it by time we reached the island.  Even the crew was caught by surprise how much it picked up since their last run an hour earlier.  The few pictures I have while on the water are from by the shore when it was stable enough to stand - my stomach was still spinning an hour after disembarking.

We’d originally planned on eating upon arrival, but that was out of the question for obvious reasons.  Instead we decompressed on the beach for a little, and then head into town to pick up scooters Alyssa had reserved once the ground didn’t feel like it was spinning anymore.

So here’s the part that still affects me to this day.  Each of us driving a scooter had to demonstrate competency driving the scooter before being allowed to take off on one.  Alyssa… was given a hesitant pass after her wobbly solo demonstration; we were sharing a scooter, and the staffer said, “ehhh, why don’t you let him drive you around as a passenger on it for a while first.”  So off we went, Alyssa riding along behind me as our pack of 3 scooters explored the island’s twisting, foggy roads.  After a while of riding, stopping here and there to check out views of the cliffs and shoreline, Alyssa decided it was her turn; “it’s my birthday, it’s my turn!”  So after reminding her how to start the thing (which should have been red flag number two), I hopped on back behind her, grabbing onto the bar very firmly, as I was scared of somehow reinjuring my knee.  Alyssa gave the scooter some gas to creep up the shoulder to the road, but gave it a too much, lurching the scooter forward.  She panicked and mixed up the throttle and the brake, pinning the gas; I yelled “ALYSSA,” but it was too late - I got thrown off the back, landing on my tailbone and crashing my head on the ground, and she launched herself and the scooter into a ditch dense with bushes.

The helmet did its job and I didn’t feel a thing up top - I laid on my back for a few minutes gathering my self from the shock and the wind that was knocked out of me, though my tailbone was sore for weeks afterward.  What wasn’t evident until much later was what happened to my neck.  Several weeks after this incident, once back home, I started experiencing an ongoing pinched nerve down my left arm; it kept happening - it would slightly improve, then overnight blow up again.  This started in the week before my knee surgery, so I wasn’t allowed to take anything for it, and I wasn’t about to delay the surgery any longer.  I successfully had my knee surgery and made a full recovery, but this problem kept getting worse and worse while rehabbing post-op.

Without going into an even lengthier amount of detail, this incident created a recurring slipped disc and subsequent trigger points for the last 3 years since it has happened, and landed me in physical therapy twice now.  The slipped disc seems to be healed, and it’s been a slow battle against chronic trigger points for about a year now.  I have a really good PT, and the goal is to get my neck and shoulder totally under control so it doesn’t keep spiraling into severely seized muscle spasm; we’re pretty close as of this writing.

I don’t blame Alyssa one bit; it was an accident, and I didn’t even tell her the cause of my shoulder pains until she was in town two months ago as of this writing - she’s one of my best friends, and I knew she’d have felt too guilty until now.

So, I got knocked off a scooter, Alyssa launched herself into some bushes, and her birthday wasn’t really off to a good start.  Oh, and now the scooter wouldn’t start once her family dug it out of the bushes - we think it was just oil pressure or something from being flipped over, because after letting it sit upright for about 10min it finally started back up.  Once it was clear I was okay, everyone, especially Alyssa, agreed she wasn’t driving it at all, and I’d drive it the rest of the day.  The small crowd of concerned onlookers that had gathered dispersed when Alyssa and I hopped on and slowly got back on the road - I drove us probably not even a mile, just regathering my bearings, and then we stopped to check out a lighthouse.  But first, we got a picture of Alyssa with the scooter since it’s what she’d been looking forward to all week - if you look closely, there is actually blood on the side of it from where she scraped her ankle.

I told Alyssa she wasn’t supposed to take “you’re a pain in the ass” so literally as we gingerly walked to the foggy lighthouse; my tailbone throbbing, her ankles skinned.

Interestingly, there was a September 11th memorial bench nearby the lighthouse; one of two 9/11 memorials on the island.  There is no information about the memorial on the island beyond the memorial’s own engraving, but this bench is dedicated to Catherine Carmen Gorayeb who moved from Boston to New York and perished in the World Trade Center collapse where she worked.

At this point, our group of six broke off our own directions in pairs.  Alyssa and I’s next stop was nearby Mohegan Bluffs to stretch our legs a bit, although we didn’t hike all the way down to the beach; the rough surf we’d endured to arrive on the island was starting to roll in, and we had reserved a beachfront spot on a calmer, more protected section of shore on the other side of the island - later.

One more stop with the scooter; I found out Block Island has a small airport, Block Island State Airport (BID), and I wanted to check it out.  It’s a GA airport, but does have some commercial aviation.  It had been, quite clearly, a VERY long morning, and our stomachs were finally stable and starving, so it was time to return the scooter and grab some lunch.  I never turn down a lobstah roll, so naturally:

While we were eating, some bikers parked their choppers out front.

It had been a long morning, and we still hadn’t done anything on the beach yet.  It was time for a drink… or a few.  This was my first time drinking from a fruit, and just relaxing with a drink(s) on the beach!  Not many pictures of the beach since we kept the pineapple Long Islands flowing and went swimming a few times with the cameras safe from the sand.

It was getting late, and we weren’t staying on the island, so it was time to catch the ferry back - no high-speed ferry amplifying the surf this time; hell no.  Even-though the morning’s high-speed experience was an outlier according to everyone (including the crew, and Alyssa and her family who all go to Block Island several times a year), we weren’t in any mood for that chance again, so we took the much larger, regular speed ferry back to Narragansett.  Not a good sign: we spotted vomit on the deck when we boarded, but the 1 hour ride back was just fine.

There’s little reason I would have known about the project on my own, but the return trip gave a fantastic view of the Block Island Wind Farm; a five turbine offshore wind-farm that serves as a demonstration of oceanic wind power generation, and became the first commercial off-shore wind farm in the United States when it became operational in 2016.

Neither Alyssa nor I made the hotel reservation, but we stayed at the diviest hotel I’ve ever been to in my life.  I only have a photo of the parking lot, which had a small (read: Hitchcock-esque) seagull problem mirroring the rest of the motel.

The room keys were punch-hole keycards which I don’t remember ever seeing except maybe once as a young child in the early 90s.  The faded room number was Sharpied onto the card, indicating the motel reused the easily duplicated keycards.

This motel permanently shut down a few months after our stay.  Like most beach hotels, we used it as a place to wash the sand off and crash after spending all day out, but still, wow.

Everyone got back together at night to get some Rhode Island specialties for Alyssa’s birthday dinner: Rhode Island clam chowdah, clam cakes, and fried whole-belly clams.  New England hands-down has the best seafood; Maine is for lobster - go to Rhode Island for clam (I also got raw oysters; yay!).

Afterwards, some of us went barhopping until the wee-hours of the morning and every bar in Galilee closed down.

Narraganset

The next morning Alyssa and I had a lazy, no-plan day exploring Narraganset, stopping by Point Judith Lighthouse and the rocky shoreline.

Of course, lunchtime came around, and I never turn down a lobstah roll; I got another helping of Rhode Island clam chowder too.  Monahan's Clam Shack happens to be rated the second-best lobster roll in the Ocean State by Buzzfeed, and makes their Top 25 list in the country.

Stopping by Sunset Farms’ farmer’s market, we said hi to their goats and gave some love to the owners’ elderly Irish Wolfhound sheepdog (who has sadly since passed away).

While there, I happened to catch a rare car spot.  At under 100 examples ever produced, I caught the WaterCar Panther as it pulled in to load up - I *think* it was the farm’s owner’s(?).  This amphibious Jeep conversion is WaterCar’s more practical successor to its Corvette-powered Python, capable of launching itself and reaching speeds of 85mph on land and 45mph on water.

PVD - DCA

The next morning, this trip was at an end on a cool, drizzly morning that lended for some aerial views of the bays and rivers that only appeared as inky-black splotches beneath the low cloud cover on my nighttime flight into PVD.

Stay tuned several more posts including photos from my 2018 trip to Rhode Island.  My stay in 2018 was longer and more involved, and really makes most logical sense broken into separate posts given some of the places I went and things I did.

Best of 2020

Let’s just say it: 2020 sucked. For everyone. At moments the year flew by, at many others the year seemed endless. But 2021 is upon us, and although for many, myself included, it meant more time at home than out in public, I still captured perspectives of this year the World will never forget.

It’s unsurprising that many of my photographs in this year’s Best of 2020 are barren of people, and those that do have people are individuals or small family groups. I quickly enacted a number of COVID-19 best-practices that meet or exceed those required by Virginia law, and have strived to maintain the safety of not only myself and my vulnerable family members, but those of my clients. Because of the unprecedented reduction in assignments this year, particularly of commercial clients due to the cancellation of events, a greater portion of this year’s Best Of consists of personal work, but you’ll see that although it’s personal work, much of it is relatable and has affected everyone in some way or another.

Here’s to 2021 redeeming all the hardship, loss, and overwhelming disappointment 2020 inflicted on the World. May these pictures put 2020 to rest, and may your 2021 be filled with joy and prosperity.

A “barn find” Porsche on display at the 2020 Washington Auto Show.

A Foggy February morning in Northern Virginia.

Toilet paper became scarce in early March as shifts in the supply chain shifted from commercial to retail bathroom supplies, while more population working from home, and public fear incited hoarding, drove demand, emptying store shelves of basic cleaning supplies for months.

Hand sanitizer, gloves, surgical masks, and N95 respirators became nearly impossible to come in Spring. By Summer, the market was flooded with price gouged, counterfeit, or unregulated KN95 masks, antibacterial sanitizing wipes, and hand sanitizer.

At Ronald Reagan National Airport, nearly all concessions closed indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

At Ronald Reagan National Airport, airlines cancelled all flights indefinitely for the safety of passengers, and due to low demand while citizens quarantined in place.

Inside Ronald Reagan National Airport’s nearly empty National Hall, a COVID-19 branded hand sanitizer station is affixed to a shuttered Information Desk.

As air travel all but halted, entire terminals of airports were shuttered. With fewer travelers, ad spaces receive fewer impressions, leading to marketing campaigns to be rolled back or cancelled entirely. Above a closed terminal at Ronald Reagan National Airport, a digital ad site displays a creative encouraging proper hand-washing technique in place of normally cycling ad campaigns.

"Black Lives Matter" blazed several neighborhood trailheads, but were defaced with the arguably racist "All Lives Matter," then subsequently corrected back to BLM during the height of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

In Northern Virginia, many parks and playgrounds were closed by guerrilla citizens even before executive orders explicitly closed such facilities. Meanwhile, other inhabitants ripped away barriers or ignored HOA shutdown orders, creating a kind of suburban anarchy.

Jack Zarinsky, CFP, walks into his office in Fairfax City, Virginia.

Jack Zarinsky, CFP, speaks into a microphone while recording for his podcast.

A Polaroid of pickerel hyacinth growing at Ellanor C. Lawrence Pond.

Erik and Jennifer walk in a lavender field on their wedding day, June 27th, 2020. Many engaged couples had to delay or downsize their 2020 wedding due to COVID-19 safety and legality of gatherings.

Polaroid of Alyssa McGuire carrying an elephant ear plant at Merrifield Garden Center, Centreville, Virginia. Alyssa’s favorite animal is the elephant, and as a self-proclaimed “crazy plant lady,” she chose a Colocasia to add to her Rhode Island garden. Alyssa drove from Providence to Memphis, stopping in Washington, DC for a week, to care for her aging grandparents who struggled to get supplies and home maintenance during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

At Washington Dulles International Airport, a health supply kiosk is shuttered inside a deserted terminal.

Rubin and Madonna stand on the ramp at Washington Dulles International Airport with the historic ATCT and taxiing aircraft behind them after Rubin proposed to Madonna minutes prior at the gate they first met.

Elizabeth laughs at James’ jokes during their July engagement session. James and Elizabeth planned for a Spring engagement session coinciding with the April Cherry Blossom Festival, but this became unsafe and illegal as DC enacted executive orders that made visiting the Tidal Basin legally impossible, while the National Park Service feuded with DC Mayor Muriel Bowser by continuing to sell photography permits. Meanwhile in Virginia, early executive orders explicitly closed or kept open specific businesses, but failed to provide operating guidance for unlisted non-essential businesses, forcing many people, like Elizabeth and James, to postpone scheduled sessions.

Lily pads float at Ellanor C. Lawrence Pond, seen through an antique Lubitel 2 medium format lens converted to work on Canon EOS mount cameras, shot on an EOS R mirrorless camera.

The Cumberbatch family poses among the Autumn leaves during their family portrait session in Sterling, Virginia.

J. David Buerk, owner and photographer of J. David Buerk - Photography poses in a werewolf mask and gloves, holding an authentic rusty scythe on Halloween in Fairfax, Virginia. Despite ample candy and decorations, not a single trick-or-treater showed due to COVID-19 scaring off young goblins and ghouls.

Kevin drops to one knee and asks Rhoda to marry him at a snow-covered Stone Tower Winery.

With vines in the background, Rhoda places her hand on Kevin’s chest to display her engagement ring minutes after saying “yes” atop a snow covered hill at Stone Tower Winery.

The sun shines on the steering wheel of an Infiniti G37 S 6MT coupe’s steering wheel.

A handmade, artisan designed and crafted embossed leather journal cover with pewter clasp, featuring a flourishing acanthus leaf pattern. I first spotted this journal five years ago at the Renwick Gallery, and have regretted not getting it at the time, and had been unable to find the creator until recently. To my surprise, it is still available, and the maker even has an Amazon storefront now, with limited supply available. My most loved Christmas gift this year, this beautiful, naturey journal in my favorite color holds the notebook I’ve been using for years, and will hold future notebooks as this one nears filling, fitting perfectly into my daily leather Tumi backpack.

Kevin and Rhoda: The Proposal

Last week, on a snowy Sunday at Stone Tower Winery, Kevin and Rhoda spent an afternoon wine tasting and picnicking by the fire pit.  Later in their day the couple went for a tour of the winery, and at a secluded spot outside the cellars, Kevin dropped to one knee and popped the question.  After celebrating with some sparking wine, the newly engaged couple toured the winery with me for some portraits with the barrels and snow-covered vineyard hills in the background.

Best of 2017

Each year I publish a year-in-review which shows the highlights of my year in photography.  2017 is a year I am very happy to see end; it has been the most challenging personal year of my life, bringing bad news and personal injury which unquestionably held me and my photography back this year.

As some of you may know, I fell and tore a ligament in my knee in May, which culminated in surgical intervention to replace the ligament in October.  Luckily I have an excellent surgeon (he served as Surgical Team Chief for President George W. Bush while he was in office) and I am still reportedly progressing well through physical therapy.  I am doing well now, but being knocked off my feet for a month after the injury and for two months after surgery took a serious toll on my work and morale.  I am expected to make a full recovery and be back to normal mid 2018, but this injury with such a slow recovery time has been very disheartening, even with a cutting edge new surgical method employed which was less invasive and is allowing for a quicker recovery than previously able with this relatively new ligament reconstruction I've had to have.  This is why I haven't posted too many pictures this year; most of my work has been straightforward photoshoots with existing clients since I've had to be selective with what photoshoots I've taken on during my recoveries.   If my 2017 can teach you anything it is don't dislocate your bones and tear ligaments - 0/10, would not recommend.

This isn't to say 2017 was all bad; I did quite a bit of great photography before, and after (and during, for that matter) my various adventures in knee problems.  I spent about ¼ of the year recovering from knee injury and surgery, but the other ¾ of the year had quite a lot of photography.  2017 was a year about change, and that change began in January, even before the 20th, which began bringing even more change and seemed to set the tone for the rest of the year.  My knee didn't change until five months into the year, but every month held some kind of change; just two months after that quite possibly the biggest thing that has happened in my photographic career happened, pointing to the future from my past; 2018 is here, and I am eager to move forward to that future beginning now.

Washington Dulles International Airport Manager Christopher U. Browne addresses Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority guests as he "Departs the Pattern" and steps down as Airport Manager after 29 years with the Airports Authority.  Chris is now Deputy Director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

A protestor gives a white rose to an arriving international passenger.  White roses are traditionally known to represent purity, innocence, sympathy, and spirituality.

Following President Trump’s executive order implementing a travel ban on seven countries, protests initiated at international airports across the United States where individuals affected by the rapidly enacted ban were detained. The Trump administration justified the executive order as part of the “extreme vetting” of immigrants promised during his campaign, while those opposed to the ban question the constitutionality, motives, and execution of the ban. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D) was on-site denouncing President Trump’s travel ban in a press conference.

Internationally arriving passengers exit the International Arrivals Building to a sea of cheering protestors welcoming their arrival after clearing customs.

Following President Trump’s executive order implementing a travel ban on seven countries, protests initiated at international airports across the United States where individuals affected by the rapidly enacted ban were detained. The Trump administration justified the executive order as part of the “extreme vetting” of immigrants promised during his campaign, while those opposed to the ban question the constitutionality, motives, and execution of the ban. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D) was on-site denouncing President Trump’s travel ban in a press conference.

Tom Veirs, in his glassblowing studio, giving a demonstration on how patterns are made in extruded glass, such as wine glass stems. Tom retired in May, 2017.

Captain John Prater with a ceremonial cigar in the cockpit of his United 787 Dreamliner upon landing his final commercial flight before retiring.

Adrianna McVay graduates with a Bachelors of Arts in Biology from George Mason University.

Jockies on the main straightaway approach the finish line at the Virginia Gold Cup.  2017 hosted one of the rainiest, muddiest Gold Cups of recent history.

Myself wearing a knee immobilizer at a portrait photoshoot two days after my initial knee injury.  The next day I would meet my orthopedist and find out the extent of the damage.

The doctor told me I was truly lucky that I'd only torn one ligament and had no other damage; the MRI showed no loose bodies, no damaged cartilage, and no torn menisci; all extremely common injuries with the type of fall and injury I experienced, but was able to avoid from sheer luck.

In October, later in the year, I would undergo a successful MPFL reconstruction surgery to stabilize the kneecap and prevent future dislocations, instability, and additional damage.

While this picture may be a personal low point ironically placed in a "Best of" post, this was a life-altering event, and more than qualifies in this "Year in Review."

Michaelangelo Pistoletto's "Venus of the Rags" on display at the Smithsonian's Hirshorn Museum.

Succulents growing in a flowerpot in Washington, DC.

Bokeh of exhibit lighting inside the National Museum of the American Indian.

An Operations Manager listens to an airfield radio while walking between two Plane Mates at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Terry McAuliffe, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, speaking at Air India's inaugural event at Washington Dulles International Airport; "We don't believe in walls; we believe in bridges."  The comment alluded to President Trump's recent efforts to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

Air India's 777-200LR departing Washington Dulles International Airport for the first time.

Polo players competing at the Great Meadow Polo Club.

"A Planespotter’s Dream Gig: A Look into the Life of an Airport Photographer;" an article on AirlineGeeks.com profiling my work as an aviation marketing photographer.  Although my photography has been featured in many articles and publications, this marks the first time a publication has written an article specifically about me and my work.

A nighttime aerial image of T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island.

Grapes growing on 200 year old vine at Newport Vineyards, a winery in Newport, Rhode Island.

Fishing vessels docked at Galilee Salt Pond Harbor in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Alyssa McGuire posing with a moped on her birthday on Block Island, Rhode Island.

A blood red sky at sunset in Fairfax County, Virginia.

In Niotta, Tennassee a man uses a paper plate to safely view the projection of the 2017 solar eclipse after the solar filter for his telescope broke mere days before the eclipse.  Solar filters were in high demand, and became unavailable months prior to the day of the eclipse.  The ray of sunlight emitted from his telescope's eyepiece was hot on the skin when placed in the beam.

The sun half eclipsed by the moon as seen from Niotta, Tennessee.

Totality of the 2017 solar eclipse as seen from Niotta, Tennessee.

The Washington Redskins Burgundy & Gold Club restaurant and bar at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Portrait of Ryan Ewing, owner and founder of AirlineGeeks.com.

Ryan Ewing, owner and founder of AirlineGeeks.com, walks on the airfield at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Local DC Brau and Atlas District Common beers on display for sale at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Portrait of Cyrina Yarbrough, Marketplace Development Marketing and Customer Service Manager at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Orville, NASA's flying squirrel mascot, marshals in a Southwest Airlines 737 at Washington Dulles International Airport.