Wavelengths

Also in July, I provided the photography for designer Rebekah Meek's redesign of Wavelengths Salon's website. Wavelengths is a Durham institution - the place where I always dreamed of going when I was a pre-teen (when it was still haircuts from mom sitting on the bathroom counter). I had a blast spending the day with the hilarious and wonderful stylists, doing some goofy portraits...


...and some more "serious" ones. Fortunately, that's about as serious as those ladies get.


I also did a few interior shots of their new space - unfortunately, the new stations hadn't come in yet, but we were locked into the date. I've been back since, though, and it looks even more amazing.


Check out Rebekah's final site here.

Backlogged

Okay, I promised you some photos from some of my shoots over the last, oh, six months. And while I've been equally busy attacking my back pain lately in hopes of being able to continue to shoot for many a month more, I do try to live up to promises.

You may remember the beautiful Kumin family, who I first photographed in Boston a few years ago when Noah was just a newborn, and then several months later with his very flexible mom. I got to take a trip to Boston this past July to meet the newest member of the family - meet Jesse!











Can't wait til next time, guys.

Prints for Sale

I'm just starting to list some Durham prints on Etsy, to see how that works for me as a vending option. While I don't think of myself as a "fine art photographer", I get asked about my Durham prints enough that I decided to try out Etsy as a venue for selling them.

Happy shopping! I'll be adding more prints soon.

The Doctor's Orders

Dear Lovely Readers,

I feel so blessed to have been as busy with work as I've been for the past many months - especially in a recession, especially in the field of photography, especially after I almost folded and got a "real" job because things were so slow last winter. I feel like a sprinter who's just finished a race and is struggling to keep her feet underneath her body as she slows down, gasping for breath, who really wants to sit down but knows she can't, not just yet.

For better or worse - or more accurately, a bit of both - I am being forced to slow down, in the form of a several-week break to deal with almost a year of increasingly horrible back pain. A few weeks ago, this was a seriously distressing thought - what kind of freelancer intentionally turns down work, especially when momentum is so good and only getting better? But thanks to York, a photographer friend, I'm now heading down a path that I feel great about, and have turned my back on the prospect of surgery in spite of the medical world's bossy prescription for it. This path of healing is going to be a lot more vague, a bit longer (I think), but I feel confident about it. For my fellow back pain sufferers... look into Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS). If you're like me, you'll recognize yourself immediately, and potentially avoid years of suffering.

The silver lining to this time "off" (quotation marks called for because of my longish to-do list of business-related items) is that I plan to get a foot-hold on the blog again, both umbrella love and shake the frame. I look forward to sharing images from some of my gigs and projects over the last several months.

Looking forward, too, to savoring Fall as a consolation prize for sacrificing summer to an insane workload. I mean it, people. Get your jackets and scarves, I expect to be found sitting on a porch or a patio, drinking hot toddies somewhere with you soon.

Feeding America in Ohio and DC

More faces of food agency recipients across the US - June, 2009.

And We're Up!

Check out my Durham city guide. Thank you, Grace!

A Photo Love Letter to Durham

Almost a year ago, right around when Matt and I moved to Durham and began exploring the town that I'd previously only really known up through high school (imagine finally getting your license at 16 when you've grown up on a farm out in the country, and suddenly being able to drive yourself "into town", which for me meant Durham's Ninth Street district, or the Durham Arts Council where I did theater with the Young People's Performance Company), I decided I wanted to write a Durham guide for one of my favorite daily blogs, Design*Sponge.


Durham has oodles of amazing design, I thought, and set out making a long list with a commitment to photograph every single listing as a personal project and editorial challenge.


Well, after putting the project off through a busy fall, and then waiting patiently for the more foliage-heavy spring, my guide will be running tomorrow, and I'm trying not to be too hard on myself for not meeting my goal of accompanying every listing with a photo! When you see its length, you may understand; there is just so much incredible stuff going on here, it would have taken me months to do it all justice. So instead, the guide will be accompanied by my top selections of pictures, with a few outtakes here. I just hope I don't piss anybody off too much when I inevitably leave off a listing that should have made it. I feel like there's still so much to explore.




I should note that my guide doesn't even begin to touch on the fascinating history that makes Durham what it is today, though it's worth exploring. For a start, I recommend Gary Kueber's Endangered Durham, a blog dedicated to the pursuit of creative alternatives to the demolition of historic structures. As he lays out building by building's history, a larger story of Durham begins to unfold.



What a classic Durham juxtaposition: the high-security prison on the left (an idea conceived when nobody ever believed Durham's downtown would ever amount to much ever), and the sparkling new Durham Performing Arts Center, home of big-name musicians and Broadway musicals, on the right.


Here's DPAC at night:


My heart breaks for buildings like this one. Fingers crossed that someday, someone with a little start-up and some entrepreneurial drive take a chance on this place, just a block east of luxury condos. It's gonna happen.


I kind of adore both this shop (Ox & Rabbit) and its owners, Bryan and Erin, who I met while photographing for this project, and whose wedding I'm going to be shooting in August near Asheville! I love what they've done with the old soda fountain from McDonald's Drug Store, which occupied the space for decades.


OMG, their merchandise is just so tantalizing....





Vaguely Reminiscent, which has items for the very young (bins of rubber toys, intriguing painted boxes) and the design inclined (stunning jewelry, shoes, frames, etc.); one usually finds oneself in a ballet of squeezing past other customers in their intimate space to take it all in.





The Regulator Bookshop - which reminds me, I've got Domino's Book of Decorating on hold for me right now! My childhood neighbor, John Valentine, owns and runs this place.




Apparently whenever I'm at Pinhook I'm out of photo mode and just completely, absolutely, enjoying myself... I never seem to remember to take any photos of the inside, as gorgeous as it is. Check out their website to see some for yourself. What did we all do before this bar?


JC's Kitchen (I'll give you one guess as to what JC stands for): "Where the food is annointed and you won't be disappointed!"


The Federal - Saturday afternoon (or anytime, really) staple.


And its neighbor, the James Joyce. My sister, who spent a year in London, swears by their curry fries.


Heather Garrett's fun interior design shop, smack in the middle of downtown's Main Street...


I love this little padded sitting nook behind the table:


Golden Belt offers more and more events every month... I love popping into all their artists' studios on Third Fridays.



Matt at Dain's Place enjoying a cold one:



American Tobacco's man-made river:



A big thanks to Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge - I admire her hard work so much, and am grateful she let me put together Durham's guide! Check back tomorrow for a link!