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LIFESTYLE

a cup of tea planner fancy pen and succulent inside a shell

pint of fresh raspberries in a green container

german chocolate cupcake with a sparkler inside

heirloom tomatoes of the green yellow and pink variety

fresh nectarines and peaches on a butcher block counter

charred lemons in a bowl with tongs on a wooden butcher block

gorge with water rushing through and the shadows of people standing on a bridge above it

orange flower against a moon rising at sunset

cream puff with chocolate syrup and brownie bites on a blue teacup

leaks garlic lemon charred over open flame

blueberry pie blueberries lemon and cup of cappaccino

electric blue drink with blue crystals lining the rim of the glass

steaming cup of tea against a dark background

Meet Erica

Erica Tyler is a photographer of fine art, lifestyle, and commercial work for businesses across the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Erica also loves to travel and share her favorite places through both photography and writing.

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ericatylerphotography

Explorer sharing experiences through photography

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Today I heard about this book for the first time, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida. I haven't read it, so I don't know if I recommend it or not, but that title caught me. My version of that is Let the Darkest Skies Erase Your Name. Erasing your name, letting go of a bit of yourself as an individual and setting your focus to the greater whole. I think a lot of us are doing more of that now than we were a few weeks ago. I hope you all are finding exactly what you need to get through the changing times.

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I love daylight savings time. Nothing makes me feel more like summer than a late evening sunset. I just returned from a trip closer to the equator where the sun sets around 6pm all year. It felt like summer with the warmth but winter with the darkness falling so early. I hope you're all enjoying the darker mornings and brighter nights.

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A few days ago I got a fortune cookie that said "If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds." It's one of my favorites that I've seen, and I've seen a lot. I worked in a Chinese restaurant for 7 years and I would read the fortunes left behind when clearing tables. Combine that with my own cravings for Chinese food and, yes, there have been many fortune cookies in my life.
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I think a lot about magic in my photos. The whole process has a bit of a magical element, revealing things that aren't visible to the naked eye. My photos also tend to elicit the same response that magic does: suspicion and curiousity. People often don't think the starry sky is "real", resulting in me blabbing away rather unconvincingly about cameras capturing more light than the human eye.
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In the past 6 days, I've only had one migraine-free day. I try to see the migraines as magic too. I think about how they come with the weather, and how maybe, in the days before weather forecasts and meteorologists, my pain could have been useful and revered. In present day, it's a fairly useless form of magic that I would gladly relinquish if given the opportunity.

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As I was climbing up the rocks in this cave bats flew over my head, out the opening. I also spent a little too much time here taking photos. When I was done the tide was so high that getting out of the cave involved a little wading. Always an adventure! 🙂

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I'm planning an early morning star photoshoot in the next few weeks. The night before I'll set out warm clothes and my equipment, fill my electric kettle and put a snack and my travel cup on the counter. The alarm will go off at 3:30am and I'll take a look out the window to see if it's clear, secretly hoping it's not so I can go back to bed. On the long drive to the photo location I'll play my music too loud, singing along badly but feeling pretty good about it, and look at the sky a million times to make sure the stars are still shining and wonder where the occasional driver I see is going at this hour. I'll probably also feel a twinge of anxiety, worried that I should have woken up earlier, that the sky will be too bright by the time I arrive. I'm hoping to catch that feeling of excitement when I finally get to pull my camera out and see what hides in the dark through the LCD screen. I'll stand there alone in the silent darkness, blindly adjusting the camera settings, testing out my focus, lighting the foreground with my tiny flashlight, and, if it is like most other outings alone, I'll learn something new about myself. I'll go back to the car to warm up and wait for the sun to rise, because if you get up that early you might as well make the most of it. I'm hoping the numb fingers and chapped lips and sleepy day ahead will be worth it. I'm also hoping the doughnut shop that serves them hot and fresh will be open when I'm done. If I'm very lucky I won't even miss the few hours of sleep that I lost.

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Warmer nights with better views are on the way.
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#vaoutdoors #stargazing #optoutside #camping #longexpohunter

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I have a little notebook of quotes. Pieces that meant something once, and occasionally still mean something now. It's handwritten, though my handwriting is terrible. I started the notebook after watching a movie that came out in 2002 and somehow the practice has survived these 18 years. Every now and then I have nothing interesting to say with these photos, so I'll flip through my book of quotes for some inspiration. This often happens when I'm migraining and the only thoughts my consumed brain can form are "please make the room stop spinning" and "I'm dying much faster than everyone else." A migraining brain is often an overly dramatic brain. That's the state of things today. I'm off to someplace dark and quiet.

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In pursuit of magic... brb
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#moodyvibes #easternshore #mdinfocus #livethesimplethings

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In 2019 I went indoor skydiving, had one of my photos accepted into an art gallery, barely made it through my first portfolio review for my photography, had a lot of feelings and wrote about them, hung an aerial hammock in my living room (eliciting many awkward looks and questions from people who come in my front door), traveled to 1 new continent/4 new countries and read 18 books (a piddly dent in the 215+ on my Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf). Reading 19 books in 2019 would have sounded so nice, but Dune demanded more time.

Each year when I look back at my accomplishments and start thinking of my goals for the next year, I feel a little defeated. Some of my goals for 2020 will be exactly the same ones from 2019 that didn't get accomplished. Some things take longer than expected. When I look back at the last 10 years though, I'm amazed at how far I've come. Ten years ago, I had never taken a starry night photo. I wouldn't do that until 2012, and even then it would be 3 more years before I took one that was good enough to share publicly. That photo was actually also terrible, and it'd take me an additional 2 years to create something that I'm still proud of. Some things just take time. "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years,” according to Bill Gates, and as the decade winds down that feels especially accurate.

I hope 2020 will be a year of continued growth. I hope to see more things that take my breath away. I hope to find a good pesto recipe that rivals what I've had in restaurants because the jarred stuff at my local grocery store just isn't cutting it. Happy New Year everyone.
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#milkyway #longexposure #starrynight #outdoortones #nightphotography

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