As a man of repetition and superstition, I have formed a rather costly habit of taking off on a trip after completing a big project. By the time I finish whatever I have been working on I’m usually pretty exhausted, so it’s sort of a way to send myself to work rehab. Not sure how we picked the location this time around. I think maybe the tickets were cheap or something. Anyways, we chose Maui.

After being there for an hour, I found that the island is filled with roadside memorials. There are so many that it’s almost to the point where you realize that someone has died on every mile you have driven. I saw so many of them that I realized my photographic theme was leaning in a pretty morbid direction. At the end of the trip I had eight rolls of death, abandonment or isolation. With a couple of sunsets mixed in.

Not sure if it was all the death and loneliness, but when we got home we broke up. †

Now that summer is nothing more than a fleeting memory, drowned out by the icy downpour that is winter in the valley, I figured it was time to go through my photos from North Carolina. I’m greeted in the morning by a thick frost on my windshield, and I wistfully remember how just a few short months ago I dreaded sitting in that oven of a car, which lacks a proper air conditioner. The days go by faster and faster.

This past summer was filled with a few big firsts, the best of which was my first trip to North Carolina. It’s a place that I’ve romanticized for years, hearing stories from friends of summers spent at watering holes, diving off boulders, green, lush forests and a mild, humid climate that you never really get in California. Little Derballito rounded up the troops in an effort to share his hometown memories with us. We rented a giant cabin next to a waterfall and spent the days hiking and swimming and the nights cooking together, lighting sparklers and watching the stars.

Here are some pictures from the adventure – really just a glimmer into the epic few days lost in the woods.

- az