About me

My name is Maria Day French. I'm an American who has been home in Vermont, France, Maine, Cameroon, Eritrea, Italy, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Georgia (USA), California, and Qatar over the past four decades. I’ve always explored the world on foot and through the lens of my camera, but this process became more intensive in my desert home. In the three years before moving back to the USA in 2016, I walked many miles of Doha, falling in love, against all expectations, with the lines and the light and the creatures that manage to survive the heat. Upon returning to Vermont, I'm continuing to look for and share beauty whenever I come across it, most often on the street, farm, and trail. With a camera I can delight in moments I never even saw- a fairy crown from a drop of water, the light through a bird's outstretched wing. My work continues to travel internationally, as prints in many homes, on notecards, and recently in shows in Vermont and Dubai. Currently I teach art in four village schools barely on the way to anywhere, I occasionally lead camera workshops, and I take any excuse to head into the woods. (this photo ©Carla Cioffi from a gorgeous walk with her at Purple Island by Al Khor in Qatar, see her work at carlacioffi.com)

Questions and my usual Answers, also Comments and the answers I don’t always say ouT loud.

What equipment do you use and why?

I mostly use Pentax cameras, partly because of nostalgia for my old K1000 from the 90s, partly because when I was in the market for a DSLR I was spending most of the year in dusty hot Qatar and summers in cool misty Vermont and the K30 was a well-reviewed, affordable camera that was weather-sealed and could handle a wide range of temperatures. My collection has grown but is still mostly Pentax, except for my phone and a tiny Canon. I rarely use a tripod in nature and I am not interested in comparing the merits of various brands of equipment.

Do you photograph events or do portraits?

The answer to that used to be a hard no but events, commissions, and baby pictures crept into my repertoire over the last few years and I’ve found I love doing them. That said, I will not be accepting any more commissions until I have a teaching license in hand and possibly not even then, unless you are a friend I can’t say no to.

Where can I buy your prints?

Directly from me, as I have no plans to do any markets this year. E-mail me via the form on this website if there is one that you are interested in.

How long have you been taking photos?

I’ve been noticing things always and taking photos when the noticing coincided with a camera in my hand.

Where would you like to go that you have never been?

Yemen, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, Peru, Norway, Kamchatka, Montana, the Caribbean, Bulgaria.

Where have you been that you would like to revisit?

Laos, Auvergne, Wyoming, Oman, Italy, Dhaka, Taiwan, Macau, Louisiana, Cameroon. 

Wow that’s a nice camera, it must take some really nice photos.

Thanks. My camera doesn’t take the photos by itself.

You are carrying a camera bigger than a phone, you should go over there and take a photo of that church/building/view.

Thanks, but take your own photo. Telling me to go take a certain photo is like telling me to smile. Please don’t. Unless of course you’ve hired me to take photos for you, and then I would like to hear as much as I can about what you want the photos to include and convey.

That must be killing you to see that without your camera.

No, I’m fine, the most important part is being there and noticing it and enjoying the beauty when I see it.

If you could make a bed out of any kind of food what would that be?

I used to say flour- wheat or rice or corn- but ever since playing in thigh-deep mud along the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia in 2019, I’ll have to say warm chocolate pudding.