In the Wilds of Suburban New Jersey: Portraits By a Young Man

Deer, four mornings before Christmas, Allendale.

Raccoon, January 26, Waldwick, about 10 p.m.

We can turn our lenses on sad things, or stately ones. Maybe we can somehow change our world, or it can somehow change itself, or karma can shake it, from being pocked with school shootings, when we want to look away and pray they never happen again, into a place where animals and people watch and are watched closely in their still and natural beauty, contented. These photos are by my young friend Ryan Cassidy, who captures owls, cardinals and woodpeckers with his observant eye. He must be quiet, or the moment passes.

If we turned the lens on ourselves, what would we see?