John Boal Photography

The Williamsburg Inn I went to Williamsburg for the first time this December. It is a little strange that I could live in VA for 25 years, visit Busch Gardens twice, and never visit Colonial Williamsburg. But I finally did at the suggestion of my wife on our way to visit my parents in NC. The evening we arrived, they staged a lighting of the Taverns, which turned out to be a ceremony of sorts with fifes and drums, a volley of musket fire, and an announcer to describe the history behind each of the buildings illuminated by the glowing fires. Musket fire during the Lighting of the Taverns. Incidentally, I did not check to see if the guy in the middle still had his face. I didn’t have too much to say about Williamsburg until I started going through the images again. Those Colonials must have led a miserable existence. These people didn’t even have centralized HVAC! We walked up and down Duke of Gloucester Street ( it’s pronounced “Glawster”, it is one of my pet peeves when people attempt...

The holidays are upon us, and the new year is fast approaching. If it’s one thing I’ve rapidly realized, it’s that I enjoy pictures. Any kind of pictures. This doesn’t sound like much of a revelation, I guess. In fact, it seems almost like a revelation that I had to “realize” that I like taking pictures. But what I mean is that for the past couple years I’ve been dialed in to becoming as good a photojournalist as I can. Something I’ve tended to overlook is the potential of photographing not just people I don’t know (like at the newspaper), but also people I do know. I can help my friends by delivering a quality product that many people aren’t normally accustomed to receiving, while they can help me expand my business. So as I approach the start of 2010, I'm looking forward to something new to work on, in addition to being a photojournalist. Fear is a terrible thing. It can be paralyzing in a number of ways. Fear of failure has often kept me from starting projects. These projects ca...