Postcards from Ithaca. Photographs from a road trip.

It was a rare day that I had a date with my neglected other child, my Nikon. I had a day to drive around the fingerlakes. Here are some of my favorites from that beautiful sunny, rainy, stormy, humid day.

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics Libe Slope, Cornell University. (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics Lake Cayuga. (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

May 11, 2015 – Ithaca, New York, United States: Fingerlakes scenics Taughannock Falls (Jessica Brandi Lifland/Freelance)

Rockaway November 2012

I will post photos here from my time in the Rockaways. I only wish I had MUCH more time and that I had arrived weeks ago. People here still need help. They need help in so many ways but many still have no water heat or power. They need Food, Rx, generators…seniors are still being discovered isolated in their apartments. Rebuilding efforts will be kicking in soon as the clean up is underway.  Many volunteers came in over the weekend to go house to house do demo to so many people’s homes as mold is beginning to creep in. They need to rip the water damaged floors of their homes down to the studs in many cases – if the homes are salvageable at all.

Nov 17:

Project Rubicon helps people such as Mariann Smith. More on them and her story to follow.

Mariann Smith of Rockaway hugs military vet Kyle Murphy as a group of volunteers organized by Team Rubicon arrived to help clean up her home. Team Rubicon mobilizes military veterans to disaster relief areas to help get the relief effort going in areas that FEMA and the Red Cross have not yet been able to make an impact. The cleanup of Smith’s modest home took three days and involved removing all her possessions and throwing out those that are unsalvageable, demolishing the structure of her ground floor to its studs to remove mold, and making the home habitable for Smith, five dogs and about 24 cats she provides care for, most of whom are unadoptable.

Surfer at Beach 90th or B90th Street headed to B87th Street to surf. Behind him are the remnants to the boardwalk.

Rockaway

Images from my magazine project as part of my Master’s degree program in Visual Communication at Ohio University made in 1999. I keep thinking about what is happening there right now. I want to be able to witness and revisit Rockaway in t he aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Click here or on photo to view the slide show of images form 1999

The original opener text that accompanied this piece is as follows:

“Have you ever seen snow on sand? Rockaway is only a few miles west, along the very same beach, the southern-most stretch of Long Island, from where I grew up. So in a sense, I went home to do this story. The challenge was learning to see my own back yard with fresh eyes. I truly understand the Rockaway residents when they say the beach permeates their lives. That beach was a very important part of my childhood and has become embedded in my spirit. It’s where I’d go to do my best thinking. In fact…it’s just where I’d go. It was home. I suppose it still is, even more so than the house I grew up in or any other place I’ve ever lived.”

Times Square, New York City hipstamatic image circa December 2011

Times Square, New York City. Hipstamatic image circa December 2011