Kelley+Kanon

New Website!

2011-01-24T17:10:00.000-05:00

I have definitely been slacking on my recent blogposts, but I have been working on launching a new website which has been stealing away most of my attention. I'd love for you to check it out.

http://www.kelleycookphoto.com

My new blog can be found there. Thank you!!

"I recall, Central Park in fall..."

2011-01-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

New York at Night

2010-11-12T17:16:00.000-05:00

Boston Public Library

2010-11-02T17:54:00.000-04:00

NY Underground

2010-10-25T18:40:00.002-04:00

Sherlock Holmes

2010-10-16T18:23:00.003-04:00

Gus' awesome birthday party at the Museum of National History that I had the pleasure of photographing. His outfit was awesome!

UPDATE: Recently featured as Photo of the Day (11/03/2010) on Time Out New York online.

http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/own-this-city-blog/548791/photo-of-the-day-scavenger-hunt-at-the-american-museum-of-nat

The Solitary Man

2010-10-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

Madison Square Park

Dominica

2010-10-11T19:24:00.000-04:00

Island Living

2010-10-06T12:27:00.001-04:00

Lake George, NY

2010-09-23T15:08:00.002-04:00

Jen and Dan's Rehearsal Dinner

And now the groomsmen prepare for the big day:

The Job Search Begins!

2010-09-20T13:06:00.001-04:00

So I finally made the big move to NY after many days of meeting with realtors and searching apartments on craigslist varying in location and size, from park avenue apartments way out of my price rage to tiny studio apartments in the west village, still out of my price range. So I finally settled on a place in Hell's Kitchen with my college roommate, and things are moving along. Mattresses have been delivered, kitchen supplies have been bought - now all we need is internet and cable to be installed (Friday yay!) and a couch (coming in two weeks ugh!) While I wait on these vitals, I have become a regular at Starbucks - free internet yes! - to begin the job search.

So that being said, I will make one plug for myself - anyone know of any photographers needing an assistant or wanting to take an amateur under their wing? Know of a local NY newspaper needing photographers? Need a photographer for your birthday party? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Let me know! Thank you!!!!

New York City

2010-09-01T09:34:00.001-04:00

My new home.

Cortona, Italy

2010-08-25T00:18:00.001-04:00

Venice, Italy

2010-07-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

Florence, Italy

2010-07-19T15:56:00.000-04:00

Cinque Terre, Italy

2010-07-17T06:54:00.001-04:00

Tuscany, Italy

2010-07-15T05:15:00.000-04:00

Germany

2010-07-05T06:10:00.000-04:00

South of France

2010-06-24T09:21:00.000-04:00

Amsterdam

2010-06-20T08:04:00.000-04:00

Rome

2010-06-19T12:58:00.001-04:00

Tulips

2010-04-15T17:20:00.002-04:00

"Told You So" - The Guggenheim Grotto

So to the garden we go, quiet and slow and we

watch the world awake

as taken from: http://bornunderusualcircumstances.blogspot.com/

Panama City Beach, Florida

2010-04-13T20:52:00.000-04:00

Nashville from the Rooftop

2010-03-23T11:58:00.004-04:00

“Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.” - Oscar Wilde

I kindly beg to differ.

Jamaica

2010-03-16T17:16:00.003-04:00

Centennial Park

2010-02-27T00:55:00.004-05:00

Cool Dog

2010-02-19T12:51:00.001-05:00

Vietnam

2010-02-16T21:41:00.004-05:00

An exerpt from my journal during my Semester at Sea.

March 23, 2009 – Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

We were on our way to Hanoi, the nation’s capital, where we would then depart on our three hour bus ride to Ha Long Bay through bright emerald rice fields dotted with men and women in their pointed brown, woven hats and loose pants and button down shirts, bent over as they pulled the fine grains of rice from the grass. Interspersed in the fields were old, grey tombstones, in either large plots of about 100 gravestones or just a few side by side. Our tour guide said that they bury the dead wherever they have land. I found it quite odd though that they buried their dead in the midst of the rice fields, but the more we drove, the more tombs I saw tucked into the lime green grass that produced the nation’s largest food supply. There were chocolate colored cows grazing contentedly on the nutritious green expanse and old wooden wheelbarrows and dusty bicycles resting in the dirt paths between the fields. Along the back of the fields were tall, narrow, brightly colored houses all piled on top of each other, one after the next, with big bay windows looking out onto the fields and balconies with freshly cleaned shirts and pants hanging to dry on clotheslines that hung diagonally across them.

After driving for about an hour, our tour guide told us that we would be stopping at a neighborhood market. I was very excited to get away from the tourist attractions and interact with the local people.

So we filed out of the bus and entered a narrow alley way, passing by dirty motorbikes, old wheelbarrows, grimy bicycles and people busily at work transporting fruits and building materials into town. The people here were so friendly and curious about these strange white people coming into their market, which consisted mostly of Vietnamese women wearing old clothes, pointed rice paddy hats and brightly patterned doctor’s masks over their mouths to protect them from the extreme pollution that filled the air. Along the alley, some women were sorting oranges onto old crumpled up newspapers and others were sorting brown, rotting lettuce into more appealing piles. Then we took a right into this large space between the tall buildings that lined the road, exposing a massive market comprised of wooden sticks tied together with string, covered in brightly colored tarps which acted as roofs to protect the women from the harsh sun. There were stacks of crates and old boxes teetering on top of one another and bicycles leaned up against the backs of stalls, and women surrounded by chunks of striated and smooth red meat as they swatted away the hungry black flies that attacked the raw meat. Others were selling mounds of green herbs and bushels of ripening bananas, while others were selling green onions and white cloves of fresh garlic which laid on dirty beige tarps on the ground. But something that I noticed as I was walking through these markets with a big smile on my face was how friendly and welcoming these women were. They did not feel that we were invading their territory, but instead they welcomed us with their friendly, crooked smiles and when I waved to them, they excitedly waved back. It was an amazing experience to bond with these women using only my smile and a wave of my hand. But it worked and may have been one of the more powerful connections I have felt throughout this voyage. It’s incredible to realize that language can be such a large, isolating barrier between people, but it can also be overcome with simple gestures that everyone shares, no matter what country they come from or what language they speak.

I returned to the bus with a warm feeling in my chest, happy to have shared an experience with these accepting and kind Vietnamese women who seemed to focus more on our similarities than our differences. Little did I know this temporary good feeling would soon be replaced with feelings of horror and shame. We continued for a while longer until we reached our next stop, an Agent Orange rehabilitation center on the side of the highway that sold paintings, silk scarves, traditional Vietnamese costumes, jade jewelry and carved sculptures that were crafted by the victims of Agent Orange. It was a very moving experience to see these men and women that had been so badly debilitated by this toxic chemical that my own country had inflicted upon them. The Americans dropped 72 million liters of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, over fields and forests to clear the foliage to better see the soldiers’ pathways. We learned that four million Vietnamese people were affected by Agent Orange via birth defects, physical deformation and mental retardation. Watching the kind man at the desk writing out receipts with a pen tied to the end of the stump on his right arm where his hand should have been and a half closed eye lid which covered his lazy eye brought with it a wave of guilt for what my country had done. It was an incredibly moving and sad experience. I also saw another man walking from the warehouse to the courtyard, completely hunched over, with his back looking like an upside “U” so that his head was only about a foot above the ground. It was absolutely heart breaking. And it is strange to think that this happened over 30 years ago. It is something that I have rarely thought about, because I wasn’t alive when it happened and I have never once seen the repercussions of this war. But I began to realize that these innocent people’s lives have been drastically and negatively altered by my country. It doesn’t seem fair that I was never once directly affected by this war, and yet these people are affected by the war every single day of their lives, struggling to survive, never able to have a normal life – what a horrible thing war is. I was shocked that they could even look me in the eye. I felt so responsible for their awful circumstances that they were unfortunate enough to be born into, and yet they did not hold me responsible. They smiled at me kindly as they looked me in the eye, and I only saw forgiveness, and not the hostility or hatred I had been expecting. My friend Brad asked our tour guide at the end of the trip, “What is the most important thing that you want us to take away from our experience in Vietnam?” and the guide responded, with tears in his eyes, “that we are a forgiving and forgivable people.”

New Orleans

2010-02-15T20:16:00.005-05:00

Vandyland

2010-02-11T11:20:00.001-05:00

Vandyland snow day.

Footprints

2010-02-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

Snow in Nashville

2010-02-07T00:03:00.003-05:00

Snow

2010-02-01T17:31:00.001-05:00

New York

2010-01-25T15:09:00.002-05:00

Living in New York City gives people real incentives to want things that nobody else wants. - Andy Warhol

Vermont

2010-01-11T15:38:00.003-05:00

Walk This Way

2009-12-25T21:17:00.001-05:00

Pepsi

2009-12-20T20:50:00.001-05:00

Sunset

2009-12-16T13:33:00.001-05:00

Missing the North Channel.

Blue

2009-12-12T01:48:00.002-05:00

Our favorite Canadian drink of choice.

Sisters

2009-12-04T14:46:00.003-05:00

These are two photos of my sisters, Tracey and Madison. Tracey just started a blog called "No Sleep for the Wicked" which I highly recommend... Check it out: http://bornunderusualcircumstances.blogspot.com/

She posts artsy songs, videos, cool photographs and advertisements.

Very well done.

Fast Cars

2009-11-28T23:06:00.003-05:00

Friends

2009-11-19T18:25:00.002-05:00

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together"

- Woodrow Wilson

Time

2009-11-16T14:25:00.003-05:00

This Saturday was the very last tailgate for the Class of 2010. I decided to bring my camera with me to document the day. During the weekend, we kept saying, "I can't believe this is our last tailgate!" "How did this happen?" And I have discovered that I have no idea how this happened... It seems like yesterday we were excitedly walking to our first tailgate as freshmen on the tailgating lot. So in my contemplation of time passing too quickly, I did some googling and found some cool quotes:

It's a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up. ~J.K. Rowling

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Time goes, you say? Ah no!

Alas, Time stays, we go.

~Henry Austin Dobson

Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. ~Denis Waitely

Nikki

2009-11-08T18:18:00.002-05:00

This is a photograph of one of my best friends, Nikki, during one of our lazy afternoons spent in Centennial Park in Nashville, with a bottle of wine to accompany our novels and life conversations, which are becoming slightly scarier every day as graduation continues to draw nearer. But on these afternoons in the park our futures can be anything we want them to be. And what more could anyone really want than the contentment of knowing that the possibilities of life are endless and we can do anything we set our mind to? We simply have to be creative enough and driven enough to figure out what we want and find a way to make it happen.

Ann Arbor

2009-10-25T23:28:00.002-04:00

Sunrises

2009-10-16T14:19:00.004-04:00

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Mauritius

Thailand

Empire State of Mind

2009-10-14T14:24:00.002-04:00

New York

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,

There's nothing you can’t do,

Now you're in New York

These streets will make you feel brand new,

the lights will inspire you,

Let's hear it for New York

Jay Z

Varanasi, India

2009-10-12T14:50:00.003-04:00

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world" - Gandhi

Mauritius

2009-10-11T20:40:00.003-04:00

Namibia

2009-10-07T21:05:00.005-04:00

Namibia Journal Excerpts:

I have never seen anything like the Namib Desert before. It looked so barren, yet so beautiful and vast. We arrived at our first stop and all got out of the 4x4 to enjoy the scenic view. It was like a “sea” of desert – just sand, ripples of rocks and sparse brown shrubbery for miles in every direction. The bright blue sky contrasted against the darker rocks, making the effect that much more dramatic. At the site where we first stopped, there was a huge pile of jet black rocks made of iron, covering a high precipice, and when two rocks collided they produced the high-pitched sound of a wind chime. So there we were in the middle of a gorgeous desert, looking at the barren beauty stretch on for miles, while listening to natural “wind chimes” produced by jet black, iron rocks that we were hitting together. It was all quite magical. After getting back in the 4x4 we continued winding our way through the desert. We stopped a few more times to examine different types of plant life that survive in the “not-so-barren-after-all” desert.

...

This country greatly exceeded my expectations. I felt as if I was in a completely different Africa than when I was in Morocco. There was a sense of calm which I didn't expect. It permeated the town, and the people exuded this joyful contentment with their lives. Between the natural beauty of the desolate deserts and the calmness of the ocean and the kindness of the people, I couldn't have asked for a better three days in this wonderful country.

India

2009-10-06T21:28:00.005-04:00

I took this photograph in Sarnath, India. Here is an excerpt from my journal about Sarnath:

After returning to our hotel for breakfast and checking out, we caravanned to a Buddhist temple in Sarnath, where Buddha preached his very first sermon hundreds of years ago, called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. It was amazing to see that this building was so well preserved, unlike the city of Varanasi. The temple was relatively small, with 3 large points on its top. We had to take our shoes off upon entering. In the back of the temple, there was a statue of Buddha made completely of gold, crossing his legs in meditation and holding his hands together in a symbol which means “learning.” There were vases of brightly colored flowers on either side and deep orange strands of poppies hanging from the altar. The walls were covered in pastel-colored paintings of Gods and acts of meditation.

To the right of the building, there was a small park area with plaques and thousands of brightly colored peace flags strung throughout, representing hope and harmony. After seeing these beautiful flags, not aesthetically but beautiful for what they represent, we continued to explore the rest of the area. And after about two minutes, we were approached by more beggars, old women, middle-aged women and children, all asking for money or food. It seems inescapable. And it is impossible to help all of these people equally. And is giving them money really helping them? What is more important is for them to become educated, at least in a particular field, so they can create a sustainable living for themselves. Otherwise the vicious cycle of poverty and famine will never end. We were followed all the way to the bus by hunched old, bedraggled looking women clad in tattered clothes which had collected years of the grime that also fills the air, gathering in their ears, noses and lungs as well, completely incorporating the filth into every last fiber of their being.

Spring Street

2009-10-02T13:06:00.004-04:00

Tommy

2009-10-01T16:40:00.004-04:00

South Africa

2009-09-30T13:04:00.004-04:00

The Atlantic

2009-09-27T21:32:00.001-04:00

Soho

2009-09-25T19:52:00.002-04:00

Madison

2009-09-24T17:31:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of my beautiful sister, Madison. I took this on a boat, so the wind was blowing her hair everywhere. I tinted it a light blue color and then used the color preservation to restore some of the color.

Hamoc

2009-09-22T14:35:00.003-04:00

The Island

2009-09-21T22:33:00.002-04:00

Ontario, Canada

Wakeboarding

2009-09-15T00:00:00.002-04:00

Newbury Street

2009-09-11T13:40:00.000-04:00

Boston

2009-09-10T19:52:00.001-04:00

Ontario, Canada

2009-09-07T13:48:00.004-04:00

Ella

2009-09-05T00:35:00.002-04:00

These are two photographs of my dog, Ella. I took these photos this summer when I was in Canada, in the North Channel of Lake Huron.

Newport, Rhode Island

2009-09-02T13:27:00.001-04:00

This photograph is from Newport, Rhode Island. I spent the day there in July and did a "cliff walk" along the ocean. The water was bright blue and the sky was cloudless. We ended our cliff walk at the beach where we sat in the hot sand and watched the oversized seagulls swoop down to catch their lunch of the day, consisting of salty chips and juicy burgers.

Boston

2009-09-01T16:41:00.001-04:00

So I have decided to post a photo of the day. This photo is of the clock tower at Faneuil Hall in Boston. What a beautiful city!

Around The World

2009-08-31T01:37:00.002-04:00

Thanks to the inspiration from two of my best friends, I have decided to start my own blog. From January til May, I circumnavigated the globe, starting in the Bahamas, then traveling to Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America, and back to Fort Lauderdale. It was an amazing trip to say the least, full of life lessons, challenges, breath-taking sights and great friends. And I was lucky enough to document it through the lens of my Canon. My dad is a wonderful photographer and as a gift before I left, he gave me mine.

Over the next four months, traveling to 13 different countries, my camera was my ultimate traveling partner. I brought it everywhere with me to document my journey around the world. I took thousands of pictures and all the while, fell in love with looking through the lens.

Here are some photos from the world.

Mauritius

Varanasi, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

Beijing, China

Kyoto, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

Honolulu, Hawaii

Atitlan, Guatemala

South Africa

Namibia

Sevilla, Spain