As I prepare to fly to to the Midwest in the morning to photograph a wedding, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Missouri Photo Workshop featured one of my photos from the week I spent in Trenton in 1995. It’s a cherished memory because of what I learned and the people I met. I had such a great experience!
This week, I participated in the second annual Arts Day in Strafford, Vt. Nearly 100 students from the five schools in the Orange Windsor Supervisory Union spent the day with ten artists, who showed the kids their specialties. It included painting, drawing, sculpture, print-making, calligraphy and performance art. The nine students in my class did portrait photography of each other, kindergarteners and school officials who were in town for a meeting. It was rewarding to see so many exploring their creativity!
The other day, I received a royalty statement for three of the books I did photography for. While sales didn’t warrant a check, I began to tally in my head the number of books sold over the years with my name on them. All told, a dozen titles published over a 15-year time span reached over 100,000 copies! Just like the work I produced, it’s an accomplishment I’m proud of. Below are a few of my favorite book photos.
From top: Weaned piglets nap in a pile at North Hollow Farm in Rochester, Vt. The farm has separate areas in the 1886 barn for the pigs to sleep and eat. (LIVING WITH PIGS); Three-year-old Brad Jones enjoys a rolls in the cold water and mud on a Spring day at Fat Rooster Farm in Royalton, Vt. His dad, Kyle Jones, later brought Brad into the house and gave him a shower with his clothes on. (HARVEST); A group of Shetland yearling rams walks down a pasture path at Maple Ridge Sheep Farm in Braintree, Vt. Farmer Linda Doane said her rams are more docile when kept together in a group. (LIVING WITH SHEEP); As the sun melts the morning frost, apprentices Janet Van Zoren, left, and Tali Biale carry artichoke roots they dug up back to the barn at Fat Rooster Farm. (JOY OF KEEPING A ROOT CELLAR); A Columbian Wyandotte hen scratches for seeds, insects and pebbles in the woods behind the chicken coop on Carrie Maynard’s property in South Royalton, Vt. (LIVING WITH CHICKENS)
While in Boston on Saturday to celebrate my daughter’s 12th birthday with her friends, we ran across the Dog Tag Memorial near the Old North Church. The memorial honors those who lost their lives while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq — it was interesting to watch the girls as they looked for names and reacted to the display of rows and rows of tags.
Yesterday, I photographed Santa and Mrs. Claus’ visit to the Tunbridge Library. It’s a decades-long annual tradition, with Euclid and Priscilla Farnham in the roles. I’ve been the event’s volunteer photographer for a few years now — it’s always fun to watch the kids’ reactions!
My daughter had her first shift today at the Tunbridge World’s Fair as a helper at the Tunbridge Historical Society’s Log Cabin on Antique Hill. A short trip down the road to pick her up turned into several hours of walking around to see the sites. I was glad I brought my camera, and even happier to see so many familiar faces. As one friend said, “See you next year!”
My family and I just returned from a ten-day vacation on the New Brunswick coast, at Canada’s Fundy National Park. The Bay of Fundy’s tidal changes are the greatest in the world — the difference between low and high tide’s water levels are as much as 48 feet!
From top: Following the boardwalk to the shore, my wife and daughter walk through the woods to Fundy National Park’s Point Wolfe at low tide. Once heavily logged for shipbuilding in the 1800s, the area became a national park in 1948; At low tide, fishing boats at the marina in Alma, New Brunkswick, look as if they are in a bathtub after the drain plug was pulled; at low tide near the Cape Enrage lighthouse, the sky is reflected in one of the rocks. Mariners gave the area its name due to the long reef that caused many shipwrecks; My daughter skips rocks on the bay with one of the many flat rocks she found while walking the beach.
Last week, I was honored to be a part of Arts Day, a new district-wide gathering of students from five schools to work with artists in Strafford, Vt. The kids participated in eight workshops in calligraphy, painting, sculpture, felting and photography. My part was to work with ten students (including my daughter) as they photographed the day’s activities with their cameras. Above, my students are shown documenting the other photography workshop taught by Amy Donohue. I am working on a slideshow of the students’ photographs to give away (the cover is below). Contact me if you’d like a copy.
My report is a little late, but Laura DeCapua and I were very pleased with the opening for Our Town: A Snapshot of Tunbridge Residents in 2011 at the Tunbridge Public Library on Jan. 15. Our portrait subjects and other friends from Tunbridge came as well as friends from work and surrounding towns. Their enthusiasm was a great reward for the work we put into the project.
If you’re interested, we are selling a 5″x7″ paperback book with all of the photos from the show in it. Go here to order a copy. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the library.
During the last three months of 2011, fellow photographer and neighbor Laura DeCapua and I did portraits of two-dozen of the residents in our small town – Tunbridge, Vt. Our Town: A Snapshot of Tunbridge Residents in 2011 opened with great response on Jan. 15. The show continues at the Tunbridge Public Library until March 10. Below are three of my favorites.
From top are: Floyd McPhetres, Joan Feierabend and Baxter Doty.