Kelly Prizel Photography

So, I’m not big on exercise. I know, I know…I should move more than every few hours off my computer to go get a snack. Here’s where hiking enters. I love nature. And in order to see nature, generally, you have to walk somewhere(what?!? no golf carts?).

So Natalie and I found this amazing park where no one hikes. It’s got a nature center and every few weeks I’ll spot a living person walking into said nature center. But apart from this, it’s just been us on the trail. I have actually come to look forward to these hikes, the calm, the cold air, the sound of the stream. So I brought along my tilt shift lens for a hike and tried not to fall on my face and break the lens on the ice.

So if you follow my blog, you know Natalie and I moved to New Haven, CT in July for her to start her PhD program here at Yale. We bought our first house here. We made big grown-up decisions. Ha!
The first semester here, I’m not going to lie, was horrible. I missed all my DC friends terribly, Natalie was so overwhelmed with work I hardly saw her, I felt alien in a town that is made up of a population that either goes to Yale or you grew up here. We fought. A ton. I cried a lot. I totally dived into my work and had weddings to shoot, to edit, etc so I tried to work as much as Natalie so I wouldn’t have to think about things.

But slowly, surely, I’m taking root here. I started going over to grad students houses and talking about things other that mid 18th century poetry on some obscure topic. I was meeting other photographers up here. I started getting hugs from kids in the neighborhood when they saw me(or rather, hugging my knee) and requests to see the bunnies since they hadn’t been outside in the cold. Our house started taking shape because the contractor finally *finally* was starting to finnish up(only 7 months late!). I started hiking regularly at park near us. One that it seems no one goes to because when it snows, my show prints are the only human prints for weeks.

I had a brief interruption of panic and confusion in December where I was sick with an infection that no one could figure out. Tests were showing nothing. Drugs were doing nothing. And then my body had an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics and then I had a serious reaction to one of the steroids they put me on for the allergic reaction. In the middle of all this, we lost 4 pets in December. Three of them were old/sick and we weren’t shocked. Sad, but happy that they lived such amazing lives. But we also lost our youngest rabbit. She died in my arms on the way to the ER vet. I felt like December just hated me.

But the second semester has started. Nat’s back in school with a schedule we both like much more. I’m taking an amazing yoga class twice a week. And, since the contractor is almost done, I felt like I could actually start hanging things and putting up decoration.

So last week, I finished designing and putting together my home studio. It’s where my local clients can come, drink some wine, eat some cheese, talk with me, get to know me. It felt amazing to have my first clients come in and gush about it. I inwardly cheered that it was a welcoming environment. I cheered that I had a base now in CT for my business. I cheered I could showcase my work somewhere that felt like me.

More pictures very soon!

My trip to Naples, Florida is coming to an end. Today was my last day on the beach as a huge storm is coming our way. But I did manage to get a few more shots in between reading on the beach(currently finishing up Ghost Map by Steven Johnson all about Cholera outbreak in London) and swimming in the pool. Soon I’ll be home, feeding the pets, catching up on huge amount of work, reading my google reader which currently houses 650 blog posts I have missed, and auditing a class on the way photographs have changed societies view on memory. But right now, I’m happy to be here, with Natalie, enjoying ourselves.

The first shot I just love because of the light. It’s so dark and almost unreadable except the sun was blazing on this osprey hanging out on a branch. 

Today I saw otters playing(and heard them bark) and saw a pod of dolphins playing close to shore. Bliss.

This particular pelican didn’t seem to mind me too much. I’m shooting with a 45mm lens so I’m maybe 4-5 feet away from him. All the other pelicans are going crazy and flying away. But this guy just stayed and starred at me. I was quiet, snapping away pictures of him, and he just kept looking back at me. He just seemed like an old pelican putting up with this crazy lady.