Photo of the Day - January

From the late eighteenth century onwards, it is no longer from the practice of community but from being a wanderer that the instinct of fellow-feeling is derived. Thus an essential isolation and silence and loneliness become the carriers of nature and community against the rigours, the cold abstinence, the selfish ease of ordinary society.

Raymond Williams, The Country and the City

I'm sure most people who read this (2 out of the 3?) know that I spent the last year working on a project where I took one photo each day. That was pretty much the only rule; it could be the most exciting thing that day, something I thought was pretty, or just a hastily assembled still life because it was late and I had forgotten to take a photo earlier. I started the project on my birthday last year, so it (clearly) came to an end this past week. All photos are taken with the same camera, and are unedited (except for one or two that are cropped or the one panorama that is stitched). It is odd not to no longer carry a camera every day, and it is odd to look back on my life in a series of 365 photos.

Here's January, 2010. (click to enlarge)

January 18th


January 19th


January 20th


January 21st


January 22nd


January 23rd


January 24th



January 25th


January 26th


January 27th



January 28th


January 29th



January 30th


January 31st



Carriage, take me with you! Ship, steal me away from here!
Take me far, far away. Here the mud is made of our tears!

Charles Baudelaire

Finally! Liechtenstein!

For Christmas, I did a little bit of travelling. I originally wasn't sure how many days I could take off of my new job, so I decided to go to my Aunt's for Christmas rather than my parents'. Later (after tickets had been booked) I realized I could take off a lot more days that I thought, so I also booked a flight to my parents' lining me up for a nice week of travel.

Christmas at my Aunt's was really nice. We always did Christmas at our house because we lived so far away, so I don't even remember having a cousin Christmas before this one. So, it was 3 days in Minneapolis well spent.


The plan was to fly back to DC for 24 hours before boarding my flight to Switzerland, but then there was Snownami or whatever it was called this year. So, long story of shenanigans aside, I boarded a flight from Minneapolis to DC via Atlanta, and then spent the evening in Detroit. Made it to DC with 4 hours to spare before my next flight - scheduled to leave from the same gate I arrived in - and realized I had to go back to my apartment regardless because I didn't have my passport. Insult to injury, my Frankfurt-Basel flight was then cancelled, but I eventually made it to Therwil.




The family ended up renting a car and driving to Liechtenstein and Austria for a few days of good skiing (and better alps/weather than Switz). I sang Edelweiss and really enjoyed St. Anton and rode a lot of T bars. I also took some photos.






We drove back to Switzerland on New Years Eve where I had a pretty lackluster evening that involved the Berlin Ball Drop and yodeling competitions. So, about 500 pounds of cheese and chocolate later, my 2010 year and travels came to a close.

With my birthday coming up in a few days, my year long photo a day project is about to end. I'll start posting the results on here after that. Get excited, and happy belated new year!

-L