Murdoch Beach

During the last full day of any given Olympic Peninsula visit, I tend to get a bad case of end-of-trip blues. I start panic-searching for the best sunset views nearby to make the best of a last evening, but to my frustration, the beaches around Port Angeles were tough to navigate during our most recent trip. They tend to lie at the end of dark, winding, and often unmarked gravel roads, and often there is no indication that a beach is not public use until you’re pulling up to its trailhead. Originally I had a different beach in mind for my peninsula sendoff, but one such “no public access” sign forced us to turn away.

My angel of a boyfriend took it upon himself to try out a difficult switchback-heavy road a mile away and make sure I got my sunset views in for the day. We ended up at Murdoch Beach in Clallam County - a modest, hidden spot just beyond a lush stretch of greenery.

Fall Colors in Harvard Yard

From my mid-November trip to Boston.

C&J

Chris, on Jacky

"When I'm stressed out, he leaves gummy bears on my desk for me to find."

Jacky, on Chris

"[In the beginning] I tried to flirt with him using pop song lyrics and he didn't get it."

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Chris & Jacky are near and dear to my heart, both individually and as a pair. We were at Princeton together, and they are now both pursuing PhDs (& their dreams) at the same institution. I visited them at Harvard in mid-November and found them to be living their newly begun graduate student lives with confidence and clarity. 

This was a casual session shot at the Boston Public Garden and in Copley Square in the early evening. We didn't set out with a concrete plan, and this was never meant to be a Very Fancy Production -- just something for us to do while the boys ushered me around a few Boston highlights during my visit. 

Their dynamic is lighthearted and teasing, every interaction punctuated with pointed looks and gentle chiding, which I think is communicated in these photos. And it certainly helped that I was a familiar presence -- there's a friendly ease to these images that I like to believe I had a hand in encouraging. Or maybe these boys are just always delightful anyway.