Dereck Johnson, of Plainfield, N.H., adds maple sap to a boiling pot of sap at his home in Plainfield on Feb. 28, 2018. In a given year Johnson can make four gallons of maple syrup from the five maple trees on his property. "Every once in awhile you have to express gratitude from the tree for giving up its blood as well as forgiveness for doing this," Johnson said after collecting all five buckets at the end of the night. (Valley News - Carly Geraci) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Dereck Johnson, of Plainfield, N.H., adds maple sap to a boiling pot of sap at his home in Plainfield on Feb. 28, 2018. In a given year Johnson can make four gallons of maple syrup from the five maple trees on his property. "Every once in awhile you have to express gratitude from the tree for giving up its blood as well as forgiveness for doing this," Johnson said after collecting all five buckets at the end of the night. (Valley News - Carly Geraci) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

THE YEAR IN PHOTOS

Valley Newsstaff photographers and interns are sharing the stories behind their favorite photographs of the year. More of their favorites can be seen in Photo Galleries. Former photo intern Carly Geraci shares her pick below.

The day before I took my favorite photo for the Valley News was just like any other day as a photo intern. An assignment in the morning left my afternoon free to find a stand-alone feature for the paper. I headed south on Route 12A and saw smoke coming from someone’s property. After passing the house I made a U-turn and pulled through a driveway to find a Santa Claus-looking man burning dead brush and small branches in his backyard. I would later learn that this man did in fact dress up as Mr. Claus.

He introduced himself as Dereck Johnson, of Plainfield. We started chatting as I photographed him tending the fire. Before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed. Johnson walked toward the side of his garage to check on the sap he had been boiling in his makeshift sugar shack. I photographed him pouring the thick maple syrup that had collected at the bottom of the pot. He then refilled the pot with sap he had stored in nearby water buckets. Johnson said he repeated this process every half hour. We then went back to the fire.

I photographed the sugaring process once more that day. The second time it was nearly dark and made the photo hard to read. Once I got back to the office, I went through the images with Photo Editor Geoff Hansen, and we both agreed that the photo was an “almost” and could have turned out better if there was just a little more light in the sky.

It was late February, and the sugaring season was short; Johnson had made it clear that he would be boiling sap around the clock as long as the weather permitted. Hoping for the best, I showed up the following day at the same time. Sure enough, Johnson was jamming to Bob Marley as he watched the steam evaporate. This was the only time during my internship where I did a second shoot for a stand-alone.

The sun started to set as Johnson and I were talking. It felt as if we had known each other for years. He then got up to do his routine with the light almost completely gone from the sky. After capturing that moment, I followed Johnson around his property as he went from tree to tree checking on the buckets collecting sap. I hung around to chat for a bit more before leaving Johnson and his sweet maple syrup for the final time.

— Carly Geraci