I spent the weekend with a bunch of strangers that had one thing in common – a passion for photography. Peter’s Valley in Layton, NJ has a weekend retreat for all levels of photographer. The never ending debate about about film vs. digital rearing its ugly face around every dinner table continues. It’s great to see view cameras employed, hear about technical prowess – and participate in conversations about our favorite photographers and learn of ones we didn’t know of.

How many photographers does it take to shoot a barn? Of course everyone sees and works differently no matter the subject. Took me a minute to find my feet in this place and despite the mild isolation I was more interested in the touristic aspects of local natural spectacles. Something about nature providing and being capitalized on.

The one place I visited had a diorama of taxidermy animals – all the things you might see in nature, but stuffed and displayed in one room for your viewing pleasure before you pass through to the natural feature you just paid to see. The staff didn’t seem to mind me work the room. I decided to flip and mirror these images and create a joined stereoscopic image, since the sets are already so fake and lit with overhead flourecsent lights – it’ll never look real no matter what you do – so I decided to the draw the viewer further. Naturally your mind tries to make sense of something that doesn’t.

What happens in the Poconos looks like it stays there.