November Snow

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

When I woke up this morning, I was greeted by a sight we in the Greensboro area of North Carolina are not used to. Snow in November. Granted, it was just a little bit, but this is North Carolina and this is November, and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. Guess that as our economy heads south around here, our weather is going with it. I must admit it was rather pretty. So what does all this mean? Early winter then early spring or just a really long winter? Hope it's the former.

Photo Assistant

Producing a large photo shoot, which is what we have been doing for the past couple of weeks is directly related to the quality of the crew you have working with you. Here in Greensboro we are fortunate to have a group of freelance production people that are second to none. One of these is Phil Allison. I've been working with him for several years and he is as professional as an assistant gets, as well as being a good photographer in his own right. Phil can be reached at 336-253-8277.

Below is the whole crew. (left to right: Joanna (client), Sean (talent), Gail (stylist), Robert (talent), Phil (assistant), Sara (assistant), & Larry (AD/CD)). I'm holding the camera.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Steel Rigging

An out-take from last week's workwear shoot in Greensboro and High Point. We try to put people in realistic situations and in front of realistic backgrounds without jeopardizing safety, safety for our crew and for the actual construction site workers.

Of course, this is what was really going on.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Fashion on the Street in Old Greensboro

Fashion apparel shot done on the street in Old Greensboro. Fresh model on a "fresh" day. Actually, it was downright cold. Keep smiling Skyler.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Women's Basketball

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

It's that time of year when college basketball is starting to crank up again, both men's and women's. This image was from the Women's ACC Basketball Tournament from a couple of years ago in Greensboro. UNC versus Miami. And believe me, women's basketball is starting to reach the level of the men's game. I like shooting sports and I do get the occasional game to shoot. Must say I have been run over a couple of times on the baseline. It's always important to shoot with both eyes open.

Hiking in the Rain

Just finished up a week of location photography for a couple of outdoor fashion apparel catalogs. The weather was pretty good for the first couple of days, but went south pretty fast on Thursday and Friday. We were on deadline, so we shot anyway. Note for location shoots. Always have a rain coat and pants, several umbrellas, plastic bags and clean dry cloths on hand at all times. You never know when you might need them.

Next up. Edit approximately 15,000 images.


(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Caudle's Mountain

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

I'm double posting this weekend because I'm supposed to be on location all week, if the weather cooperates. One of the locations will be a local Randolph County landmark, Caudle's Mountain. Located south of Greensboro, Caudle's is a small mountain near Deep River that has been home to the Caudle family and their dairy farm for nearly a hundred years. When I was a small boy, my family bought fertilizer from it's owner and picked apples from the orchard that used to be on top. It is a beautiful place, the closest thing to being in the mountains in piedmont North Carolina. Over the years, the members of the family that ran the farm have died and the dairy is no longer in operation. All of us in the community have wondered what will become of it and wether it will stay a farm or fall under the developer's control. Fortunately, I recently found out that a neighbor has puchased the top of the mountain with plans to put a vineyard there and then place the land with the Piedmont Land Conservancy, where it will be preserved.

New Digital DSLR Camera

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

I haven't spoken a lot about camera equipment on this blog, because for one thing I don't think it's really important which camera you use. What is important is how you use it and what kind of photographs you produce. I do want to make a couple of comments about a new camera body that is available and how it changes the way I think photographically. Nikon introduced their D3 about a year ago and then recently they brought out the D700. I bought a D700. Both of these cameras bring to digital photography the ability to shoot very good images at very high ISOs.

The D700 allows me to shoot in very low natural light and produce stunning files. It has changed the way I approach things in a positive way. I'm not a tripod kind of guy. I find they slow me down and get in my way. The new camera lets me hand hold situations I could never shoot before. Frees me up to move and explore an image. It also allows me to use the available light more without having to light scenes. Believe me, I have spent almost 30 years lighting images, and there is nothing wrong with artificial lighting done right. But available light can be more natural, more real, and more moving in a photograph. Couple all this with the ability of digital cameras to shoot at variable ISOs on the same card, no longer having to worry much about filtration, and the recent advent of VR or vibration reduction lenses, and we have reached a revolutionary period in low light/available light documentary-style photography.

Photograph is of an old seed cleaner at Julian Milling Company in Julian, North Carolina.

Fall Leaves

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

I pulled off on the way to work in Greensboro this morning and grabbed a quick shot of a tree I pass every day. The leaves this year are really spectacular around here. Don't know what that means in terms of our upcoming winter. I'm sure the old folks around here can tell me.

Model Headshot

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

A model headshot out-take from a recent oudoor apparel catalog shoot.

Family Paparazzi

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

I am a commercial advertising photographer, not a Paparazzi. I've never quite understood chasing celebrities around to get a shot. This week, I did shoot a job for a inhouse corporate magazine where I followed an employee for a day. She must have felt like I was a Paparazzi because I had my camera in her face all day. She was a good sport about the whole thing.

My family is a different matter sometimes. Growing up with a Dad as a photographer, my kids as well as my wife have always had a camera forced in their face, they are always the standin or the model when I need one. Sunday my wife and I went down to Chapel Hill (home of UNC) to see the kids, and of course I carried a camera. The image above is my Paparazzi shot of the family for the day.

Construction Worker

(copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

We are in the middle of Fall catalog work, producing apparel catalogs for outdoor, casual, and workwear clients. Even though we are pushing the clothes, we try to keep things as natural and believable as we can.

Friday from the Backyard

This is the view from my deck in the afternoons; young calves we raised for the feeder market. IE, we raise calves that we sell at about 400-500 pounds to other farmers to finish raising. Basically, our farm is a big cow nursery. Unfortunately, my wife likes to name all the cattle. Makes it harder to see them go.

And of course nearby are Marco Polo the rooster and Speckles the hen.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Lake Logan Canoe

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Canoe shot from an outdoor shoot on Lake Logan, near Waynesville, North Carolina.

Image Archive-Digital Railroad Trainwreck

For the past couple of years, I have been using Digital Railroad as an online archive for stock images. Two days ago, they emailed all their customers and announced that they were closing, immediately. Sorry, no advance notice, nothing. I have been trying to migrate my images to another archive site. So far, I have been only able to move 10%. I hope to be able to get to the rest, otherwise, I will have to reload all the images individually from my backups. Anyway, I hope I will be able to have a searchable online archive available sometime soon. Unfortunately, this seems to be a sign of the times in our profession.

Autumn Leaf

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Seems like everyone has a leaf shot. This is from a Sunday walk on the farm.

Greensboro Portrait

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Executive portrait shot recently in downtown Greensboro. From a project to show agency principles outside of their normal context.

Persimmons

This is the time of the year when God gives us a gift in North Carolina, and this year it was bountiful. That gift is a wild fruit known as the persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). You pick them up when they ripen and fall off the tree (never before), and they taste like, well, a persimmon. There is no other taste like a persimmon on earth that I know of. And, after you separate the pulp from the skin and seeds, you make a persimmon pudding, a North Carolina delicacy like no other. And the best recipe I ever tasted was from my step-grandmother Lucy. Yes, Lucy's persimmon pudding. Will make a man's knees go weak.


Above is Lucy's recipe in her own handwriting. She died in 2003 at age 103.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

More Fashion

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Another image from this week's outdoor apparel catalog shoot. Looks pretty warm considering we had a strong northeast wind blowing and it was in the low 40's. Guess the models were lucky we weren't shooting Speedos.

Fashion Catalog Photography

For the last couple of days I have been on location shooting an outdoor apparel fashion catalog. Moving from location to location quickly with minimal lighting, we have to be efficient to adhere to a production schedule and produce good images with interest and vitality. The solution is good models and a great crew.


(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Log Skidder

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

A log skidder works near my home in Randolph County, North Carolina.

Julian Milling Company

I'm doing a lot of location scouting now, which is good because it means I have work coming up. Julian Milling Company is an old feed mill south of Greensboro still in operation. They still use the old mill machinery to grind feed and clean seed for local farmers. Old mills fascinate me; must be in my blood. My grandfather and his father and grandfather were all millers. They ran grist (or flour) mills, but they are very similar to feed mills. Some of my fondest memories are of going to the mill with Grandpa to grind our feed. We actually used this mill and I still buy hay and farm supplies from them.


(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Furniture Maker

Yesterday I was out location scouting. I went by my neighbor Bob Thomas's furniture shop located behind his restored log cabin. Bob is a master furniture maker and reproduces fine English style items. His best pieces are all hand carved and he has furnished prototypes for commercial furniture manufactures. Bob has been at it for over 50 years and his work is outstanding.


(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Williams Dairy

Rick Williams

About a mile from my home in North Carolina just south of Greensboro, Rick and Greg Williams operate Williams Dairy, a fourth generation family owned dairy farm. With their mother Jeanette, Rick's wife Barbara and son Michael, and one outside employee, the Williams brothers farm over 500 acres and milk a herd of about 250 Holstein dairy cows (125 that they milk with another 125 that they are raising). They grow all their feed (which is a considerable amount, seeing that some of their cows give close to 100 pounds of milk per day), raise calves and milk twice a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year.





The Williams' operation is rare now. At one time rural Randolph County, North Carolina was filled with family farms, but as the face of agriculture has changed and with the increase in development in the area, and the escalation of land values, working farms have gradually disappeared. Their lifestyle is like the one I grew up a part of, and I hate to see it go away. In fact, my father and their father shared equipment and labor for many years when my own family milked cows. Their grandmother was one of the best cooks in the neighborhood and she cooked huge amounts of good food daily for the farmhands. It's a hard way to make a living, but it's a way of life that is important and valuable, and for the Williams, it provides genuine satisfaction and independence. For that reason, I've decided to create an ongoing project for myself; that is, to document local family farms and businesses before they totally go away.

Greg Williams


Because of the cost involved with maintaining such a large operation and keeping the land in their family, the Williams brothers placed some of their land in the Piedmont Land Conservancy. The PLC seeks to preserve rural farmland through the use of non-development easements. Basically they buy development rights to land (which gives family farmers some value for their land), leaving the owners with the ability to continue to farm their land without having to worry about development pushing them out, and preserving large tracts of rural land for posterity. The Williams farm is in the PLC's Liberty-Randleman Farmland Protection Corridor. My own family is hoping to do the same with our land. For more info, go to http://www.piedmontland.org/.

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Jay Cooke State Park, Minnesota

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

From an outdoor apparel shoot, a view of the Saint Louis River as it flows through Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth, Minnesota. The water has almost a root beer appearance as it comes down the rapids because of the high levels of tannic acid that seeps out of the heavy peat soils.

Surf Fishing

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

This is an image from my files that was shot near the point at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, one of the best surf fishing spots on the East Coast. Hatteras Light is in the background and this photo shows it in it's original location. Because of beach erosion, the lighthouse was moved inland to protect it in a massive engineering project.

Tour de Lions

Earlier this year I shot the annual Tour de Lions bicycle ride. The Tour is a 75 miles bicycle ride sponsored by the Grays Chapel Lions Club through rural Randolph County, North Carolina. This year the ride attracted 390 riders. Proceeds from the ride go to the Lions Club's projects for the visually impaired. For more info and to register for next year's ride, go to: http://www.tourdelions.org



(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Football

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Along with the change of leaves in North Carolina, October is the meat of the college football season. I wanted to do something different than a standard football shot, stop image and everything sharp, so I shot an entire game at a shutter speed of 1/4 second or slower. Totally the wrong way to shoot sports. But, along with a lot of junk, I ended up with some really dynamic photographs.