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.

Office Portrait

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Environmental office portrait from a recent website redo for a local Greensboro company. This was an interesting job because I was allowed and encouraged by the art director to look for unusual and different angles. It's great to have the opportunity to think outside the box.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden in Greensboro

Coming off the first presidential debate held in Mississippi on Friday, Barack Obama and Joe Biden held a rally in Greensboro yesterday and it was an unbelievable event. Thousands of people (the police said 18-20,000 plus, it looked like a lot more to me) crowded in front of the Depot to hear the candidates speak. The diversity of the crowd amazed me. The skies threatened rain all morning but everyone remained and as Obama spoke people were lined up for blocks. Maybe there still is hope for North Carolina.

Yesterday's event gave me a lot more respect for full-time photo-journalists. I am primarily a commercial photographer, though I do editorial work for magazines. Normally when I shoot, I am in complete control of what I'm shooting, or at least close to it. The logistics of working around such crowds and security as there were at the rally and being able to come up with good coverage and good photos are extremely difficult. 

(images copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Friday Portrait

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Portrait of Devin.

A question that often comes up is how much post-processing should be done to images. For me, it is as "much as it needs" to give the effect I am after. I shoot in raw format, which is basically like using a digital negative. Every file I shoot is processed in raw conversion software (I use Adobe's Raw Converter) and corrected for color and contrast. If I'm doing editorial work, I pretty much stop there. If I'm doing commercial advertising or art, I may do a lot more. I am not in the least bit opposed to manipulating an image in Photoshop to create a feel that I'm trying to create, such as producing a gritty or poloroid type effect. I try to be subtle, but I can push things pretty far. Do I ever overdo things? Sure, sometimes; but usually I try to keep things under control. How much post I do usually ends up being determined by what mood I'm in that day. I will say that very seldom have I seen an image come straight out of a digital camera that didn't need at least some basic post.

ASMP-NC Presents Blake Discher's "I Stink at Negotiating"

ASMP/NC through ASMP national is proud to present an evening with Blake Discher, popular speaker at ASMP’s SB2, for his seminar, "I Stink at Negotiating".

When:
November 6, 2008 (Thursday)
Social: 6:00 PM
Program: 7:00 PM

Where:
Country Suites
3211 Wilson Drive
Burlington NC 27215

For more info, go to http://www.asmp-nc.org/DischerASMP0811PR.php

Scottish Castle

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

If there is one place I would like to be right now it would be Scotland. My family is of Scottish descent (circa 1750) as is my wife's. It is said that there are more people of Scottish descent in North Carolina now than there are in Scotland itself. During the "Clearances" of the 18th and early 19th century, thousands of Scots left Scotland and many settled here in North Carolina. Names such as Chisholm, McMasterss, McCallum and Wallace are prominent in our genealogy. We attend highland games. In fact North Carolina has the world's largest such games at Grandfather Mountain each summer. My older son is a piper and my younger son plays the flourishing tenor drum. When my older son was married recently, the males wore kilt.

One of my favorite spots in Scotland is Eilean Donan Castle near the Kyle of Lochalsh on the western coast near the Isle of Skye (where my family originated). It's a misty place that shouts "Highlands" and is near the Kyle Bridge that leads over to Skye. The day we were there, it was a normal Scottish day, slightly cool and rainy or as they say, "fresh". The BBC produced a television show back in the 1990's called "Hamish Macbeth" which was filmed near there.

Postscript: I got an email from Peter Hunter from Fife just north of Edinburgh. He had some very kind things to say about my blog. If Scotland interests you, check out his website at http://www.scotlandinoils.com

Fiddle Player

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

Scottish fiddle player from a local highland games.