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I consider myself more of a writer than a photographer but in the course of writing Finger Lakes Living, my weekly blog, I do take thousands of pictures each year. Next month on December 13, our little country church, the Chapin Methodist Church, will be hosting its annual Country Craft, Bazaar, and Bake Sale and I will be exhibiting some of my best pictures that I have taken here in the Finger Lakes in 2014. In the course of my wandering around the Finger Lakes, I take pictures of what strikes my fancy, and then I sit down in front of my computer with a cup of coffee in hand and write a story which connects what I have seen and hopefully will spark some interest in my blog readers.

Pictures are like a bottle of wine – two people can taste out of the same bottle, but you will never get two people to agree with each other on how the wine in that bottle tastes! And so it is with pictures. And the reason should be fairly obvious. A picture tells a story, an incomplete story of what the photographer was seeing when the picture was taken, but it can’t tell what the photographer was experiencing at the time that the picture was taken or what was in the photographer’s mind.

As an example, take the first picture that I have selected which is a picture of the Boathouse at Thendara near my home. Previously, before this piece of property became a private estate, it was open to the public. The Boathouse was a restaurant where you could go have lunch right on the water during the summer months. And on Thursday evenings, there would be music coming from the Boathouse as the summer people came in for a drink and to do a little dancing. It was here that many local people came to find a little summer romance.

Now that Thendara is a private estate, The Boathouse Restaurant has been turned back into a boathouse! But we still can’t forget the times on a hot summer evening when Jeanette and I would walk to the Boathouse and have something to drink to shake our thirst and a sandwich for our dinner while we enjoyed Canandaigua Lake. And so we still dream about the Boathouse Restaurant. Perhaps you can now appreciate why pictures are such an individual thing.

I hope that you enjoy the pictures that I have selected as my best in the Finger Lakes in 2014. And please do stop at the Chapin Methodist Church on December 13th where I will be selling these pictures as magnetic refrigerator reminders of 2014 in the Finger Lakes at our Country Craft, Christmas Bazaar, and Bake Sale. It’s my craft you know!

The Bathhouse at Kershaw Park, Canandaigua, NY

Cottages Along Keuka Lake, Hammondsport, NY

Swimming in Canandaigua Lake at Kershaw Park

Keuka Lake at Snug Harbor Restaurant, Hammondsport, NY

The Farmer’s Market at Penn Yan, NY

The Outlet at Skaneateles, NY

Canandaigua Lake Along East Lake Road

A Farm Market Along Route 5&20, Aloquin, NY

Sunset Over Deep Run Park, Canandaigua, NY

The Judge Ben Wiles Touring Boat at Skaneateles, NY

The St. James Episcopal Church at Skaneateles, NY

Keuka Lake at Bully Hill Winery, Hammondsport, NY

The Point Restaurant, Ithaca, NY

Birds of a Feather at Skaneateles, NY