Corey Shay

Contact sheet · Roll 01 · ongoing

Curiosity is the only plan.

Currently featuring Dogs.

Central PA, where a very patient wife, a loud boy, and a very good dog put up with the whole operation. Email me, or wave from the porch.

▸ 04 · Kodak 400TX
Sunrise over a pond through bare trees
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Pour-over coffee mid-brew
▸ 06 · Kodak 400TX
Carter celebrating on the soccer field, black and white
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Golf carts lined up in morning fog
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Corey and Heather laughing on the boat
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Sunflower field at golden hour
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Boxcars on the rails, black and white
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Heather, Carter, and the puppy at the lake
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Moon rising behind bare trees
FR 01 · Anchorshot before sunrise

Anchor.

Faith, for me, isn't a performance or a set of answers. It's more like a compass I've learned to trust even when I can't see where I'm going. I came to it late, came to it honestly, and came to it humbled. God has been less of a destination and more of a steady presence in the ordinary days, the hard ones, and the ones I didn't deserve to get through as well as I did.

I'm not here to convince anyone of anything. Just to say that this is the thing underneath everything else on this page.

FR 02 · Familythe home team

Family.

, , the dog. Lake days, Big Ten Saturdays. Loud dinners, and the people who turn a house into the place I actually want to be.

The reason for everything else on this page. (Go ahead — press the names.)

Lake daysBig TenLinus the dog
Heather and Carter, mid-laugh
FR 02 · f/1.8 · outdoorsthe home team
Corey and Heather on the boat
co-captain
FR 03 · Photographyroll 02 · the archive

Photography.

I don't take pictures to show things to other people. I take pictures to show things to myself.

Nikon Z8 and Photoshop. Light through a kitchen window, a stranger caught mid-laugh, the ten quiet seconds before anyone notices the camera. I keep the ones that feel like being there — not the ones that look impressive.

Nikon Z8Natural lightPhotoshop
▸ 01 · Kodak 400TX
A young firefighter silhouetted in the spray
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Steam locomotive under a column of smoke
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Two horses in morning fog
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A runner far down a green forest tunnel
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N Grant St sign against clouds
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Wash hanging outside a white farmhouse
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Stacked canoes by the trees
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Rail tracks in golden fog
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Old wavy glass window, green beyond
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Sunrise over a pond through bare trees
▸ 11 · Kodak 400TX
Golf carts lined up in morning fog
▸ 12 · Kodak 400TX
Stone arches in golden light
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Church steeple against storm clouds
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Brick facade in raking light
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Manhattan skyline with the Empire State Building
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Autumn trees, orange against blue
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Orange treeline over a plowed field
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Autumn highway disappearing into rain
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Tree-lined lane in yellow evening light
▸ 20 · Kodak 400TX
Power lines against a brooding sky
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Clouds reflected in still water
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Weathered see-saw plank, black and white
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Old brick mill window
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A row of white cabins in the trees
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Stone statue at the cross
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Rows of headstones in the rain
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Red-lit dugout bench
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Softballs on a bench
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Boxcars on the rails
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Portrait of a man showing a scar
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A horse in sepia
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Sunflower in sepia
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Porsche crest on a blue hood, clouds reflected
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Carter celebrating, black and white
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Soccer design piece — DOMINATE
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Carter fishing at the water's edge
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Carter at the creek
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Linus the dog, portrait
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Corey and the dog at attention
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Heather with a very large mug
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Corey and Heather, lake sunset selfie
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Heather, Carter, and the puppy at the lake
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The family in the garage, medal day
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Corey and Heather cheering on the couch
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A Corona and cut limes on a cutting board
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Night portrait by the water
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Corey outside on a summer day
FR 04 · Food & Coffeeat the table

Food & Coffee.

I cook because I love to eat. Fresh basil from the porch, good olive oil, too much garlic — always too much garlic — and a standing argument about whether the crust is the best part. (It is.)

The coffee gets the same patience. Beans weighed, water just off the boil, the slow pour that wakes the house before anyone else does. It takes time. It's worth it.

Slow SundaysPour overNo recipe
Three brown eggs in a glass bowl
FR 04 · kitchen counterfarm eggs — thanks, neighbors
A Corona and cut limes on a cutting board
quality control.
FR 05 · Booksno exposure
FR 05 — NO EXPOSUREwas reading. —C

Books.

Steinbeck on the nightstand, Hemingway in the bag, a fat Michener when I want to disappear for a month. Word pictures are as real as the photographs.

The stack never quite agrees with itself — history beside fiction beside whatever caught my eye at the shop. A few too many left unfinished, and a handful I re-read every year because they feel like old friends who always know what to say.

SteinbeckHemingwayWell-worn spines
FR 06 · Musicb-side
On the Lake — album art
summer recordturn it up.

Music.

A garage full of Nashville, blues at the campfire, some guy yelling at me on the highway. Fountains of Wayne straight into Ice Cube, and dancing with Heather in the kitchen when dinner runs late.

Music shapes the moment. It always has. Ask me what's playing — I'll have an answer.

EclecticNashvilleGrunge
FR 07 · Travel & Adventurewrong turns

Travel & Adventure.

The pontoon boat, out on the lake
FR 07 · on the water · summerthe office, summer.

Careful itineraries fade into wonderful wrong turns. It's about meeting different people and eating their food, listening to their accents, hearing their music.

I come home with too many photographs and a list of places I swear I'll get back to. The list, thankfully, never gets shorter.

No itineraryLocal tablesClose to home
END OF ROLL · margin notesin grease pencil

Lightning Round.

Quick calls, scribbled on the sleeve. Not up for debate. (Mostly.)

  • Crust over crumb. Always.
  • Black coffee. Unless it isn't.
  • Too much garlic.
  • Steinbeck over Hemingway. (Barely.)
  • Window seat, always.
  • Wrong turns over itineraries.
  • over most people.
  • The rest is negotiable.