thinking

how time moves
like a bat
between trees.










the river seine. a snapshot taken when I wandered paris alone as a teenager.
it seems like a moment from another life.

places

oh the places I'd love to go.

made a trek to death valley & badwater basin a few days ago. the desert is my favourite type of environment, & I find death valley to be mesmerizing.

the plan was to experiment more with my new nikon d7500 dslr & it was a success. captured some fun photographs & shot some cool video while out in the desert wilds.

1: sunset at zabriskie point.
can the dslr do time lapse videos I wondered? yes it can. managed to capture this amazing shot of the sunset in death valley on my first ever time lapse experiment.


Sunset at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

2: poem film - badlands.
got out on the salt flats at badwater basin & thought: why not take some videos just to see? ended up with a few cuts which I've pieced together with my poem for that day (day 354 of the poem a day project). my first ever video shot with the new camera, experimenting with frames per second & the like. it ended up a little wobbly, but I still like it. I'm learning as I go.


Badlands from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

3: the real goal - photos
initially headed out to death valley to take some pictures, & got some fun shots of my friend/road trip companion. I've added a digital photography section to my website where more portraits & other photography will be added regularly.

personality crisis

& all I want to do

is keep

moving. 

heading to mexico city in a few weeks. happy to get back to my wandering.

watching old movies & packing for oregon.

oregon squares

My grandmother passed away 12 October, & I've been in Oregon the past few days for the funeral. She was a loving and wonderful woman, & I will never forget our conversations about poetry, or the huge amounts of sugar cookies we made each christmas... slathering frosting on them until the sugar soaked into our bloodstream through our fingertips. 

It is nice to be back in Brooklyn, Portland feels like a strange purgatory place now, I've made more trips there this year than I had in the entire span of time since I moved away. Though there are some bumps in my road right now, I'm glad to be home. 

If you follow me on twitter you're bound to have seen these before. But here's a selection of some photos from my trip west. 

I've updated my myspace for the first time in two years if you're interested in checking it out.
My grandmother's obituary is online, for those interested, there is also a guestbook for comments.

N

three clouds

from my seat in coach. 

four photos from new jersey

Yesterday I ventured to a place I had never before encountered.... New Jersey.
My lovely friend Heather Mae was playing a gig in Asbury Park and I decided to tag along. Overall, I don't have anything too terrible to say about the state... except that everything was closed at 6 on a Monday and I wandered through a boardwalk wasteland before finally stumbling upon a kind business owner who agreed to fry me some tofu and fries so I wouldn't starve.

me hanging out in the green room like a roadie, Asbury Park via instagram,
the aforementioned tofu & fries,  another view of the green room (everything was covered in stickers).

West

back in bk after the wilderness

I've returned successfully to brooklyn after living a week in the wilds of vermont. Honestly, I wish I was still there on many levels... someone to cook for me, clean, only talking about poetry & writing, & art. Spending time with good & interesting people. No real job. Just reading & reading & reading.

Now I have to return to the "real" world. Work on monday, & I have to sink into this system of working in packets to send to my advisor every few weeks. This is going to be the hard part... remembering I'm in school. (Even though I'm sure it will be over before I know it, & I'll have an MFA & I'll be trying to do something with that).

I started the missoula. project while I was away. one single glistening poem composed in half an hour & workshopped the next day. I see the roots, & I think this is going to work out, make itself.

photos:

puddle jumper.

walk to the dorms.

campus & the haunted martin manor.

fire.

the long walk to the library.

outside.

campus & the clockhouse.