I lived in a winter-wonderland for four winters. My first winter was filled with a terribly romanticized affection for snow. By the time my last winter rolled around, I was ready to dump him and his excessive desire to hang around ’til April.

I grew up, however, in the Mid-Atlantic where winters are mild and summers are hot. This is what I moved home to recently. Normally, we’ll get two inches of snow and call it a season, compared to my previous lodgings where a 2 foot snow base was merely “moderate”. So, everyone thought it was funny that a month into my new residency, we got hit with a 24 inch snow storm.

Yesterday, everyone’s attitude turned from comically irritated to mad. My mild-weathered home received 30 inches of snow yesterday. To add it all up for you, that’s 54 inches of snow.

The aforementioned winter-wonderland? Hasn’t been getting any snow recently. Folks up north and folks down here alike are blaming me. Apparently I picked the wrong year to move south.

The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred; but beneath all this, there lingers, in the least reflective mind, a vague and half-formed consciousness of having held such feelings long before, in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride and worldliness beneath it. — Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

You may or may not remember my February Venture, but starting today (actually we pre-gamed it all last week) I’ll be posting a photo once a day (along with two other photogs) over at The Camera Phone Diaries. You may want to start out by reading the Manifesto and catch yourself up to speed.

We’re all really excited to see what the month holds, and our first day of “official” posting is proof of how interesting things can be. All three photos today have one thing in common, and we never discussed it beforehand!

So head on over and check it out; leave a comment or twenty.

I love.love.love stop motion videos. Love.them. Here are some of my favorites from around the interweb:

This one is magical, mixed with a bit of creepiness. It’s eerily awesome.

I guess they’re all magical in their own right, but I loved seeing this one on TV

And this is a GREAT idea for a wedding. Lots of camera/man power, though. ChaChing

And this has to be, hands-down, my favorite of all. I cannot even begin to imagine the hours that went into creating this.

Don’t ask.

I’m starting up a month-long photo project with two other photographers called The Camera Phone Diaries and would be thrilled if you’d join in on the fun. Here’s the run down:

They all own Canons. They all have names that start with the letter C and end with the letter A. They all have camera phones. Separated in three different states, Cassandra, Cecilia and Christina endeavor to document their lives in one place: here. For one month, daily posts will stretch the artistic ability of these three photographers as they use their least-favored piece of equipment: their camera phones.

So head on over to the new site, read the manifesto, subscribe by rss or email and be sure to leave a comment or five. We’re pretty excited!