Camp Notes .03
Little cabins everywhere!
Camp Notes from my time at Camp Onaway in New Hampshire.
What initially drew me to Onaway is their unique cabin setup. Most of their cabins can only fit two campers and each cabin is placed in a circle with identical cabins surrounding them - feels like little communities of cabins. It’s absolutely adorable and I spent entirely too much time capturing this
As I have mentioned before it’s so beautifully alarming to see kids just being kids at camp, no distractions, just nature and their friends. I captured the best moments during their rest hour. Since the cabins are small the girls sit outside on the porch during this time and read, play (quiet) games with friends, braid each others hair, nap, make friendship bracelets. I walked into one cabin and saw two campers mixing lotions and hair gel into different containers, just casual girl experiments - I loved it.
Every Sunday evening the girls gather to watch the sunset on Sunset Rock. A beautiful rock on their property that overlooks the lake. Very kindly the director organised this a few days early as she knew I wouldn’t be there Sunday evening. I loved getting to capture this moment.
Recently while sharing these images with a friend she said, “it makes me want to go to camp again”. I have carried these words with me over the past few days trying to create that feeling in every image I take.
Camp Onaway marked the half way point in my month long journey and all the doubts and fears have started to settle in again. Is my camera freezing these moments in time and will other people see the beauty that I see?
Highlights from this week:
- Spending the morning at the waterfront up to my waist in the water with my handy underwater camera. It’s so fun getting to photograph from that vantage point.
- On Friday it rained for 30 minutes. I roamed camp to see if I could catch glimpses of cozy moments and I discovered a group full of girls playing board games and listening to Christmas music. One of those moments you witness and it perfectly represents camp life.
- The sparkle of trees rustling at dusk. I swear all the elements of nature feel more magical at summer camp. If I was camping in the woods with friends I’m not sure I would notice the same things I notice here.
- All counselors and staff at Onaway are called Miss (first name). It’s very sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed being called Miss Amanda for 4 days.
I have arrived at my next camp and it’s been a very rainy day so I’m saving up my energy for the next 2 days of sunshine!
Thank you for reading!
xx,
Amanda
It doesn't seem like enough to tell you, I love all the photographs you've taken at these camps and the way you have described each one, the surroundings, the feelings and camaraderie of the campers. It opens my eyes to what I've missed out on in my life. Every time I read your camp notes and see such artistic photos, I get teary eyed and I'm not sure if it's because of the beauty your capture in everything or because I never got to experience that world and would have loved every minute of it if I had the opportunity to when I was younger.
This too makes me want to go to camp… beautiful images. Thanks for sharing.