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JOHN SEXTON & ANNE LARSEN PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER 2025

WISHING YOU A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Dear Friends,

As we celebrate this season of thanks and gratitude, Anne and I hope that all is well with you. We are deeply appreciative to have you as a subscriber to our email newsletter. It’s remarkable to think that nearly 25 years have passed since we sent out our first email newsletter–and even more amazing to remember that my earliest mailing list began as a handful of entries on 3x5-inch cards in a shoebox nearly half a century ago. Many of you have been with us from the very beginning. Your thoughtful feedback, ideas, and–at times–overly generous comments have meant more than you know.

Each November we typically publish a full-length newsletter, often accompanied by special print offerings at reduced prices. Ten years ago, we also launched our annual Black and White Friday event. We can’t claim to have invented the phrase, but we don’t recall seeing it used before our first offer in 2015. Its wide adoption on photography-related sites since then continues to make us smile.

Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo)
One of the many Wild Turkeys that call our hillside property their daytime home
A male turkey fans his tail and inflates his iridescent feathers
in a classic strutting display,
a behavior used to establish dominance and attract females.
© John Sexton All rights reserved
See the Fun Facts About Wild Turkeys section below

This year, 2025, has been an eventful year for the two of us filled with highs and lows. Our recent two-person exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California exceeded our expectations in every way. Just days after the conclusion of the exhibition, Anne took an unexpected fall and fractured her right elbow (naturally, Anne is right-handed!) It was extremely fortunate that surgery was not required, but the healing process and physical therapy took months. Anne hopes to soon return to the darkroom, where she can once again employ the subtle dodging and burning techniques that help make her prints so luminous.

Not to be outdone, I managed my own mishap a few weeks later and broke my nose–though I must admit I didn’t receive anywhere near the sympathy or care that Anne did! 😀 While my injury didn’t slow down my work, I did sport a “panda” look for a couple of weeks. Far more difficult, however, was the loss of our beloved cat, Boots, who was our loyal companion for more than 15 years. There isn’t a day we don’t imagine we see him turning a corner or hear his paws on our stairs.

Anne’s injury, which prevented her from working in the studio–mounting, matting, spotting, and printing–has put us further behind than we ever anticipated. As a result, this Thanksgiving message will be a brief one. We hope to return with a more typical, full-length newsletter in early 2026.

In the meantime, we wish you and your loved ones a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving and a joyous holiday season ahead. Here’s to hoping that 2026 brings better days for all of us–and for the planet.

With gratitude,

John & Anne

John and Anne in Yosemite Valley, Autumn
© Alexandre Naaman All rights reserved

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE WILD TURKEY

Surprisingly Swift Fliers:
Though usually seen on the ground, wild turkeys can fly up to 55 mph in short, powerful bursts.

Fleet of Foot:
On the ground they can run 18–20 mph, often outpacing predators long before taking flight.

What’s on the Menu:
Wild turkeys are omnivores with wide-ranging tastes—acorns, seeds, grasses, berries, insects, and the occasional small reptile or amphibian. In Carmel Valley, coast live oak acorns are an important seasonal favorite.

Nights in the Trees:
Turkeys roost high in trees on strong horizontal branches. Oaks, eucalyptus, pines, sycamores, and cottonwoods are preferred, and they often return to the same roost sites night after night.

Social Life:
Turkeys form shifting seasonal groups—large mixed flocks (or rafters) in fall and winter, and separate groups of bachelor males and hen flocks in spring.

Names for the Young:
Turkey chicks are called poults.
Young males are jakes; young females are jennies.

A Timeless Dance:
The spring strutting display—tail fanned, wings lowered, feathers puffed—is a visual and vocal performance used to attract hens and establish dominance.

Remarkable Eyesight:
Among the more surprising facts about turkeys is that they have three times better vision than humans. They can also see in color, and their eyesight covers 270 degrees.

Voices of the Valley:
A tom’s gobble can carry more than a mile on a quiet morning. Hens communicate with softer clucks, yelps, and purrs within the flock.

Turkey Emotions:
You can tell a turkey’s emotions by the color of their heads. Colors can change from red to blue to white, depending on how excited or calm they are. The more intense the colors are, the more intense their emotions.

Turkey History Facts–Benjamin Franklin’s Preference:
Among interesting turkey history facts, while Benjamin Franklin did not advocate for the turkey as our National Bird, he did prefer them to bald eagles. In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin called the bald eagle “a bird of bad moral character” because they steal from other birds. He called the turkey a “much more respectable bird,” “a bird of courage,” and “a true original native of America.”

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!!

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CONTACT US WITH QUESTIONS, OR COMMENTS:

John Sexton and Anne Larsen
Post Office Box 2338
Carmel Valley, California 93924

Voice: 831-659-3130

info@johnsexton.com
www.johnsexton.com

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