In addition to Pemi’s talented full-time staff, we are fortunate to have several people, all experts in their fields, come to Pemi this summer to offer their unique expertise to our campers. Whether they join us for one day or for a couple weeks, their talents are sure to broaden the experience for many boys.

They are:

Andy Bale is a professional photographer (and comes to us through certain connections we have with Dickinson College). He remembers his introduction to photography this way: “I began photography some 23 years ago as a sophomore in high school. I was never good at sports and I was average when it came to academics. But I had an amazing photography teacher who instilled in me the desire to work hard. That dedication brought to life a creative passion I had never known. I received my BFA in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design, and after college bounced around from job to job, ranging from studio manager to a custom fine art platinum printer. In 2001 I was given a rare opportunity to teach a photography course at the college level and after one semester, I was hooked. I was finally able to pass along those skills and talents that were once shared with me, and in 2003 I went to work on my MFA at University of Delaware. I’ve been teaching and pursuing my own fine art photography ever since.”

Andy will be at Pemi from June 26 through July 10. He writes, “In teaching photography at Pemi, it is my goal to show campers a completely new way of using the photographic process. Photography is unique: unlike with most other art mediums, every camper will arrive at camp having past experience with a camera and a certain knowledge of photography. It is my job to erase what they know about photography and begin fresh. I want to steer them away from photographs of pets and friends and give them a new appreciation of the power of photography. I have some wonderful projects planned, including pinhole photography, cyanotypes (one of the first photography processes invented back in 1839), minor darkroom skills, and digital light painting at night with flashlights.”

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Paula Goldberg, a physician assistant by profession, has been affiliated with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History for the past 22 years. She has volunteered and done contract work for the museum’s Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion since 1996. Paula has a special interest in spiders.  She loves spending time in the natural world and at Pemi. Paula is also on the Board of Directors of City Wildlife, a new group helping urban wildlife, in DC.

Paula and her family have been members of the Pemi community for several years. She worked as Associate Nature Head with Larry Davis from 2003 to 2006 and tries to return every summer for at least a few days.  Nate Erwin and Paula, with the support of Pemi, initiated the North American Butterfly Association July 4 Butterfly Count at Lower Baker Pond, which has been conducted every summer since 2004. She plans to return to Pemi for a weekend in mid-July for the 7^th-annual NABA Butterfly Count at Lower Baker Pond, and hopes to lead at least one spider walk!

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Nathan Erwin is an entomologist and manages the Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian Institution. After graduating from the University of Delaware, he spent five years working as a forest pest entomologist in Maryland, and four years working for the Rachel Carson Trust. He began working at the Smithsonian Institution in 1992, and continues to have many adventures with exhibits and the natural world. At the invitation of Paula Goldberg, Nate journeyed north in the summer of 2004 to visit Pemi, and with Paula initiated the first official butterfly count in the area. He’s been returning every summer since to continue the count and to visit with his newly acquired Pemi friends. Nate plans to be at Pemi in mid-July to conduct the butterfly count with Paula and all interested Pemi campers and staff.  It will be the count’s seventh year, and he’s looking forward to it!

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Phil Landry has been a full-time fly-fishing guide and instructor in Arkansas and Tennessee for the last six years.  After he received his master’s degree in education from the University of Texas, he decided he would rather teach in a boat than in a classroom.  A Pemi veteran, Phil spent four years as a camper and five years as a cabin counselor on the shores of Lower Baker.  He looks forward to teaching fly tying, fly casting and taking campers fishing in his jet boat, which he will be bringing up to New Hampshire this summer. Destinations will include the Connecticut River and some nearby lakes. Phil will be with us for the first week of August.

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In her spare time, Zosha Livingstone-Peters is a fashion designer, fine artist, and textile designer whose chosen medium of hand-painted silk translates with ease and beauty into home accessories, fashion and fine art. Zosha has been painting on silk for twenty-one years, and is continually inspired by the natural environment. Her background in silk painting includes some global sales in select boutiques as well as current online and regional sales. Zosha is a 1989 graduate of Pratt Institute, and lives with her three sons, one daughter and husband in Salisbury, Vermont.

Zosha’s father and brother are Pemi alums, and her son Max Livingstone-Peters will be a fifth-year camper this season. Zosha is profoundly excited to be volunteering her time at Pemi this summer and to begin teaching the fine art of painting on silk to Pemi boys. Zosha will visit on Saturday, July 10, to share her passion with any boy who signs up for her silk painting workshop. Participants can expect to create a beautiful piece of fine silk art by first stretching silks on wooden frames, and then delving into dye blending and painting, using beeswax as the resist. Boys will come home with a unique piece of abstract fine art, which can then be framed or sewn into a tie, bow tie, silk scarf or cushion cover.