The Sites: Elodie Farms

My good friend Ashley Memory recently completed her first novel, Naked & Hungry; with a publication date of November 1, 2011, you can imagine that she's in full promotion mode.

Her story follows a man who has renounced a material life to live in a cabin in the woods, getting back to nature, and living off his land (which, unfortunately, also turns out to be a hazardous waste dump, thereby providing the driving conflict for the tale).  With a nod to the themes of sustainable farming and environmental protectionism, plus a nod to his mother's pet goat Bermadean, Ashley will be partnering with Elodie Farms for an event on August 6.

This past weekend, Ashley and I took a Saturday afternoon to visit Elodie Farms and work out some additional details for her event.  While she was appropriately more focused on the event itself, I was drawn in by the pastoral setting of the farm and its pastures.

The goats are milked by hand.

Elodie Farms' main focus is artisan cheese and goats' milk (you can buy directly from the proprietor at the Durham Farmers' Market as well as other Triangle restaurants and stores), but they also maintain a vegetable garden, along with a flock of chickens and ducks.  It is local and sustainable farming combined with educational agritourism, overseen by Dave Artigues. 

Despite the North Carolina heat, this was a great setting to capture some wonderful shots.  I can't wait to return in August for another round:

Chickens having an afternoon snack

The kids come to say hello

The Cheese House

A wary LaMancha keeps her eye on me

The Concepts: Reflections

Korean War Memorial, Washington DC

Many of my favorite pieces involve a reflection of some kind: windows, water, even the smooth granite walls of the Korean War and Vietnam Veterans Memorials.  Like a less vain variation on the myth of Narcissus, the reflections seem to force us to stop and take an introspective moment for ourselves. 

On the technical side of things, reflections can be tricky: you have to be careful to catch the light at just the right angle to minimize glare and maximize the impact of your image.  If ever there was a time to turn off your flash, this is it: using a flash will overexpose your subject and add back all that glare you sought to avoid when you positioned yourself for the shot in the first place. 

Edenton Sound, NC

 Moving on to the compositional side of things, you can let your creativity loose with this concept.  A reflection is an inherent dichotomy of what we see versus what we think we see.  On water, the reflected image is often distorted by the waves and currents of the surface, creating tension and movement in your work.  

Facade of Solow Building, NYC

In windows, you have a reversal - usually a mirror image - that puts an unfamiliar twist on something otherwise urbane and pedestrian.   It takes a somewhat interesting building and turns it into a very interesting city scape.  It salvages an otherwise dismally overcast day by concentrating that light into one space, capturing the glints and shadows of the sun and the clouds for you.

It's part of training your eye to find the shot in your surroundings; it's about not just looking at, but looking up and off to the side and maybe even through.  

"Reflections" - atrium of Museo de Reina Sofia, Madrid

The Shot: Vietnam Roses

Memorial wreaths.  Bouquets.  A single flower tucked into an empty bottle of someone's favorite beer.  An open card, its message laid bare for all to read.  A folded note tucked into the joints of the stone below, its contents known only to the writer.

In a strange parallel to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, these are The Things We Leave for Them.

All along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC are the memories of those whose names are inscribed on the towering granite panels.  This place is many things: somber, reflective, heartbreaking - but mostly, it is overwhelming.

I sat at my table for a long time trying to write this paragraph that would attempt to capture the range of emotions that this place evokes.  I tried and I tried...but I couldn't do it.  Nothing was adequate.

So I shall leave it at just this image.  Just a simple pair of flowers, small in comparison to the wall it leans against, minuscule in comparison to the sense of loss that one has when staring at all of those names and all of those lives lost forever.

The Collections: New Additions

New shots from a recent trip to Washington DC have been added to Architecture, Fauna, Flora, Food, People, and Place.  Please use the links to the right to peruse at your leisure.

The Shot: Spring Blooms at Sunset

While spending time in Asheville a few weeks ago, I took advantage of a free evening to go explore the Grove Park Inn (lover of F. Scott Fitzgerald that I am, the pilgrimage seemed necessary).  Visitors and guests of the resort mingle throughout its historic grounds, which look out over Sunset Mountain and the Blue Ridge of the Appalachians.  I had plenty of time to linger, wander, roam, and wait for the sunset.

As I meandered down towards the golf course from the inn, I came upon a tree just beginning to bloom.  The sun was starting its descent and shone through the still-visible branches towards me.

Most people will avoid looking directly into the sun -- and that's good advice for the most part (shadows, solar eclipses, glare) -- but you have to know when to buck tradition and stare it down.  This was one of those times.  

Adjusting my exposure setting as low as I could to compensate for the direct lighting, I tried to capture what I was seeing there on the hillside.

Sometimes you get really lucky - this is perhaps one of my favorite shots ever: