Purple Coneflower

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

A late summer purple coneflower from the garden.

Changing Tires

I stopped by Routh Oil Co in Lineberry, North Carolina, south of Greensboro on Saturday morning and Eric and Justin were hard at work installing a new set of tires on a neighbor's car. Justin pulled the old tires off and installed the new ones, while Eric put the new tires on the rims and balanced them. Working together, they weren't exactly like a NASCAR team on a 30 second pit stop, but they got the job done nevertheless.





(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Mom's Pineapple

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

My Mom has been growing a pineapple on her back porch to see if she could produce an edible fruit. After three years of care she finally had a mature pineapple. We recently harvested and cut it, and I can honestly say it was the best pineapple I have ever tasted; sweet, moist and full of flavor. She's got another one going,... maybe in three more years.

Workwear Fashion Photographs

Fashion images from men's workwear catalog jobs.

(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Photograph for a promotional ad from the Reading Room of Wilson Library on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a beautiful room filled with rare books.

Figs Revisited

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Still-life of figs from our farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina. These ended up as preserves for the winter.

Yellow Race Cars from the Files

From my files, several yellow race car images. A Lola T-70 coupe above on track at Road Atlanta and below are Michael Schumacher's Benetton Formula One car and an SCCA Dodge Viper.


(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Downtown Greensboro Architecture

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Photography of architectural detail of columns from the Depot in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.

Commercial Casual Fashion Photography

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Photograph is a commercial casual fashion image for an outdoor apparel catalog.

View from the Train Window

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Photograph is from a recent train trip my wife and I took. As you travel along the tracks, vignettes flash by the window at an amazing rate, fractions of a second to document life along the way. True snapshots.

Torchlight Portrait

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Portrait of my son's friend Cally lit by torchlight.

Transportation

The North Carolina Transportation Museum is located in Spencer, North Carolina. The museum is on the grounds of the old Southern Railway Spencer Shops. Though it is by far a railroad museum, there are all types of transportation and vehicles on display. I love to visit there and see all the textures and designs in the old equipment and buildings.


(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Advertising Photography

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Trade ad photograph done for the State of North Carolina at a local university.

Road Between the Corn

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

A long driveway runs between fields of corn near Liberty, North Carolina. The image is sort of ironic. This particular location was used several years ago in the filming of the movie "Children of the Corn, II".

New Butterfly in the Parsley Nursery

A Black Swallowtail butterfly dries its wings after emerging from its chrysalis (below) on our back deck in Grays Chapel, North Carolina this past weekend. My wife plants parsley especially as a host for the butterfly caterpillars. We normally hatch several each season.


Below is a swallowtail caterpillar feeding on parsley.

(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Gathered Eggs

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

The daily take from our modest flock of chickens on our farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

Asheboro Attorneys

Attorneys Alan Pugh, Robert Wilhoit, and Darren Allen sit for executive portraits from a recent website redo. They make up the law firm of Wilhoit, Pugh & Allen in Asheboro, North Carolina. The partners were kind enough to provide an internship for my son Tristan this summer, who is a law student at the University of North Carolina School of Law, in Chapel Hill.

(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Coon Hunting

On Wednesday night there was a full moon (almost), and my wife stepped out on the deck and then rushed in to say, "They're running!". I went outside and heard the deep bay of Walker hounds running a coon (raccoon). Suddenly the bays turned more excited and I knew they had treed, and just across the road.

Coon-hunting was a very popular activity in my community in North Carolina for past generations, but not many people do it anymore. Guess folks don't care to trudge through the woods at night chasing dogs, basically just to hear them run. A couple of my neighbors still do, however, and we allow them to go across our property. Let me say that where I live, it's really not hunting, it's more of a race. The dogs chase the coon till he goes to a tree and then the "hunters" take the dogs somewhere else and start again. No guns. These races can go on for miles, and Mr. Raccoon is tired I'm sure, but left unhurt. Coon-hunting has become more high tech as well. These days the hounds wear safety collars with flashing lights so they can be seen, as well as GPS units so their owners can track them. Important, because some of the dogs can be worth hundreds or thousands.

(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

RCC Post Processing Seminar

On Monday I had the pleasure of presenting a short seminar to the commercial photography class at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina. I worked with the class on digital post-processing techniques in Photoshop. My intent was to get the students to experiment with what is possible with post-processing and to push things a bit. Photoshop is a tool, and by understanding what is possible, a photographer can make decisions on what is the most efficient way to produce a photographic illustration. I don't advocate Photoshop as a do-all, and we did push the envelope a little, but by learning what you can do, you can then decide what you should do to an image. I was impressed by the quality of the students I worked with and it was quite an enjoyable day, and I would like to thank the folks at RCC for having me. Above is an image of one of the students I did during the day as an example, a simple portrait against a plain brick wall and then pushed a bit.

(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Poultry Portraits

When I was very young, my grandfather raised all sorts of farm animals; cattle, mules and horses, hogs, and various types of poultry. My father went into the dairy business, so we dropped the other animals and concentrated on cows for my teenage years and then into my adult life (and we still have around thirty head). Last year my wife and sons convinced me to buy some poultry, so we now have about twenty five chickens and guinea fowl. We free range them in our barnyard and garden during the day and put them up in a coop at night. Surprisingly social, the members of our small flock fascinate me. Though I am not so sure where poultry ranks on the intelligence scale, they are interesting to watch. Each bird is an individual with its own personality. And, we get close to five dozen fresh eggs a week. More if we can find the guinea nests.


(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Greensboro Skyline Photograph

(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

Photograph of the Greensboro, North Carolina skyline at night. The Amtrak Depot is in the foreground.