Matthew Rakola Matthew Rakola

Adventure School

Last weekend the family headed down to Mountain Shepherd Adventure School in Catawba, VA. Adjacent to Jefferson National Forest and the Appalachian Trail, Mountain Shepherd sits on 100 beautiful acres of mountainous forest. Here, owner Dina Bennet teaches students of all ages about everything from basic hiker safety to wilderness survival. Interwoven into the shelter building, fire starting, bug eating (!), water gathering, signaling and more is the most important lesson of all–both in the woods and back in civilization–maintaining a positive mental attitude. Keeping yourself alive starts with keeping your head.

Oh, and the cute pups, comfy lodge and s’mores didn’t hurt either!

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Matthew Rakola Matthew Rakola

Water Rescue

This past weekend I headed up to Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, PA to completed my open water SCUBA diving certification. This has been on my bucket list since I was ten years old and I’m very happy to be part of the underwater club.

After my last dive I hung out a bit, floating around topside (trying to keep my camera out of the water) and captured some images of the rescue class that was underway. It’s a difficult, fun and ultimately rewarding class that I hope to take in the next year or so. Huge thanks to One Ocean Scuba in Silver Spring, Maryland for teaching me the ropes and keeping us all safe. If you live in Maryland and you’re interested in learning to scuba dive, or if you’re just looking for a great local dive shop, you should definitely check them out.

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Matthew Rakola Matthew Rakola

The Fossil Hunters

Alex, 2016. Calvert Cliffs State Park

Time seems to stand still when you’re dealing with increments of a million years. Maybe there’s some perspective to be gained by standing on the beach holding a 15 million year old tooth in your hand, knowing that it has survived volcanoes, and ice ages, storms and wars and mass extinctions.

Similarly, five hours on the coast looking for fossils goes by in the blink of an eye. At times, walking the beach with your eyes glued to the ground feels like a walking meditation. You have to be “present” to spot the little dark triangles–the fossilized shark teeth–that you’re after. At other times it’s adventuring. Wading in the surf, scrambling over downed trees, slipping on soft, bluish-gray clay. It’s a mix of different sciences–geology, paleontology, meteorology, oceanography, etc– with long lonely walks on the beach.

While I didn’t really understand this when I began the project, the Fossil Hunters series is about passion. The hobby seems to attract passionate people (some may say “obsessive”) of all ages and backgrounds who want nothing more than to spend hundreds or even thousands of hours on the beach and creek beds, day and night, literally leaving no stone unturned. Some love the hunt. Others love the science, the latin names, the eras and epochs. For others it’s a romantic idea of finding something that hasn’t see the light of say in 10 million years. A welcome distraction during this pandemic era, it’s no surprise that the hobby has exploded in popularity since covid, getting people of all ages outdoors at no major expense other than time.

Passion is also contagious. Even now, I’m not sure if I’d shooting the project to support my photography career, or using my photography career to justify a new hobby. But passion can also lay dormant, buried under the weight of the daily grand. When I was ten years old I was sure I was going to be a paleontologist. The plan was to discover my first new species by twelve, and then find a real living dinosaur by fifteen. Part of what attracts me to fossil hunting is how it taps into my younger self, reminding me of less complicated times when my “job” was just to learn and explore.

This is part One of the project. Check back!

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Matthew Rakola Matthew Rakola

The Fossil Hunters Project, or Long Walks Alone on the Beach, Part 1

If there’s one thing I love, it’s a good personal project. Something interesting and twisty and turny to sink my teeth into. Which, segues really conveniently to sharks, and more accurately, (fossilized) teeth.

The Fossil Hunters (working title) is a new project I began in late spring, 2021, documenting the wide variety of folks who explore the western coast of Maryland’s Chesapeake bay in search of fossilized shark’s teeth, whale and dolphin bones, and whatever else they can pull up. The art of fossil hunters traipses across multiple disciplines from paleontology and geology, to meteorology , climatology, and biology. On its journey it brushes up against anthropology, local tourism, commerce, ecology, and, coming full circle, art.

This is a part 1 of sorts, as I plan on exploring this topic from various angles and in a variety of mediums. Stay tuned!

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A personal project documenting Wheaton, MD in the year 2020.