The EOJ|JOE Blog
Day 3 of our expedition saw us up early as usual and on the road to Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello. We caught one of the first tours of the morning and I was able to get some early shots without too many people in them. Then we took a tour of the house which is fantastic if you’ve never been. Then we strolled the grounds a bit, enjoying his vegetable garden and fruit tree grove. Then we walked down the mountain to the visitor center which has a fabulous interactive multimedia installation that needs to be seen.
We then continued our trip on Skyline Drive. It is a beautiful area to drive and we kept a sharp lookout for all the Appalachian Trail paths that intersected the road. I’ve always thought about doing the entire AT but don’t know if I’ll ever get to. Maybe when I retire. 
Along the road there was a large Welcome Center at Big Meadows. We stopped and ate there and then figured out where one of the park’s waterfalls was. Miranda loves waterfalls and they are, of course, a great photo subject. We found the busy parking lot beside the trail. As we went down we noticed that it was going straight down at a pretty good angle for about 3/4 of a mile. We finally got to the bottom and got a few photos. There were too many people standing in front of the waterfall to get many photos of it, but I got some decent ones of the creek flowing away from it. Then we had to hike back out. It was a tough climb back up and lots of people stopped and rested at a few points. We did it straight out! Miranda led the way with me and my camera gear trying to keep pace.
We finished up Skyline Drive just short of Front Royal and headed out to find some wineries. First we hit Grey Ghost Vineyards, then Rappahannock Cellars and then Chester Gap Cellars. Had a great time doing that and got some good photos. I won’t talk too much about the wineries because I have something else coming about that.
We headed back to Winchester where we ate and setup our little tent for the night. We were asleep by the time it was dark and ready to tackle the next day.
The second day of the trip was one of our favorites. If you thought Miranda would love seeing the farm animals, she was going to be ecstatic later that day.
We headed off early and hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove along the beautiful roads and viewed some great views of the Blue Ridge Mountains at some pull offs. We kept going until we came to area around Natural Bridge. We paid our admission fee to see both the Natural bridge itself and the caverns. Natural Bridge is a huge naturally occurring structure that has been there for centuries. Native Americans thought it had special powers and George Washington himself surveyed the area in his early life and even carved some graffiti in the form of his initials in the side of it. We went under the bridge and along a natural walk to a small waterfall, then turned around and came back. Walking back up those stairs at the end was quite a workout.
We then headed to the Natural Bridge Caverns. There quite a few caverns in the Shenandoah Valley area. We explored the area inside with our guide who at one point turned off all the electric lights and it was the darkest black you could imagine.
We then headed to two more destinations that Miranda had found in a guidebook that morning. The first was a small zoo. We were disappointed in it and were concerned about the care of the animals in general at that zoo. In the “feeding” area, Miranda was able to feed some giraffes (her favorite animal besides dogs).
Our next stop was the Virginia Safari Park. This was by far Miranda’s favorite stop on the trip. It works like this. After paying an entrance fee, you buy small buckets of animal feed. You then drive your car in a 3-mile loop while animals come up to your car and feed from the containers. What kind of animals? There were llamas, camels, pigs, elk, zebra, bison, emus, ostriches, deer, and more. It started off with a bang as the llamas at the front gate knew the game well and wanted our feed. Miranda was intent on making sure she had enough to go around. She did most of the feeding as I snapped on my 15mm fisheye so I could take photos as I slowly rolled around the park. It can be quite disarming to have a camel stick it’s huge head inside your vehicle to eat out of your lap. Some of the elk had horns too big to even get their heads in the window! The ostriches and emus were a little scary too as their big heads pecked at the tubs. One camel grabbed the whole tub out of Miranda’s hands and took it with him. There were 3 animals we were not supposed to feed or touch. One was the bison… one was some big african cow we never saw… and the last was the zebras. They could supposedly bite. Well, everyone else was feeding the zebras anyway. Miranda was intent on following the rules as you can see from the photo below. She tried to keep it away from the zebra as it stuck it’s whole head in the car. Finally she gave in and was just careful not to get bit. Eventually you got used to coming around the corner and seeing an elk waiting for you to feed him. Miranda even kissed one of them on the nose. We then went to the feeding platforms for the giraffes which were in a separate place. The giraffes were ignoring everyone on the other side of the paddock when we got there, but one of them came up when Miranda was there. They must know animal people. We surveyed the damage done to the car’s interior. We probably had another bucket of feed on the floor and armrests of the car. They are not graceful eaters.
After the park we headed into Lexington where we drove around a little bit and went up to the parade ground in front of the Virginia Military Institute where I snapped some more photos. We then headed towards Charlottesville where we stayed at a KOA for the night. Though we did stop at our first winery of the trip before getting there (Sugarleaf Vineyards). We also went out to eat at a great brewhouse in Charlottesville called South Street Brewery which had great food and good beer.
It’s been almost a week since we got back from our trip, but catching up on work has kept me very busy. I will try to sneak in a post now, but just on a bit at a time. We set out early in the morning from St. Simons and followed the voice prompts of the GPS to our first stop in Carrboro/Chapel Hill to meet my friend P.K. for lunch. We were joined by his little boy Fin at a little brewhouse. After a quick bite, we were off once more headed to Roanoke, Virginia. Fate would have it that a friend of mine had called the previous evening and we were talking about other mutual friends. When I told him we were going on a tour of Virginia for a week, he said, “Rob’s in Virginia right now. I think he’s ain Roanoke.” Well, Roanoke was our first stop. Not for any particular reason except it was about a days drive from home. I called my friend Rob Hodge and he said he was staying at his girlfriend’s sister’s farm in Roanoke and we should come and stay there for the night. We met up with them that evening after a day long drive. I have to say, there is just something about crossing from North Carolina to Virginia. It just seems nicer and the scenery is prettier… no offense to anyone living in NC.
We then went outside to see the farm animals and get some photos. There were sheep, chickens, ducks, peacocks, a horse, a cow and a llama. We fed them all some old bread and got some photos. I had fun using the fisheye lens to get some interesting shots. Miranda, of course, loved playing with all the animals.
The next morning we said our goodbyes and thanks and set off for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
This month’s Homes and Land magazine features a cover shot I did. Two weeks ago I received a call from an agent who needed me to take the cover shot for their listing. It was due at the end of the week, though, and it had been raining all week… and the forecast called for it to continue. I checked by the house a couple times waiting for good weather, but knowing it was not. I guess I was hoping for a safety shot. Finally, one morning I decided to go down and get ready for the shot. It was gonna be the best weather we would have all week, but it wasn’t looking great yet. I arrived and setup. As I was getting ready to shoot the sun came out from behind a cloud, the clouds behind the house opened up and I was able to get a nice shot of the house. I took it from a slightly elevated position on the back of my Jeep. I grabbed a bunch of shots in about 15 minutes then headed home. It was raining on me again before I even reached the city limits. I had been there at the perfect time and everyone has been very happy with the photo.
The June issue of Elegant Island Living is out on newstands. I was asked to shoot photos for two articles. The first was an article on cooking with unique vegetables. It was done by the excellent chef at Cargo, Jayson Ridinger. Food photography is always tough to do. So much of it comes out looking just brown and blech. But Jayson cooked some food for us that was colorful and pretty. We also had some great colorful ingredients that also livened things up. Terry McCarthy, the Production Manager of the magazine helped with the styling of the food and did a great job…. and the people at Cargo are just good people. Stop in there if you ever have a chance and are in Downtown Brunswick.
The second shoot was for Hope House. You may have heard of Amity House, the battered women’s house. Well, as it was explained to me, Hope House is like a halfway house from Amity House. It gives women a chance to restart their lives. They can stay at Hope House for up to two years. The homes they are provided are very nicely done. I was glad to be a part of a project that heralded this kind of organization.
I’ve got more things coming down the line. More magazine stuff…. more web sites…. more photo shoots… more design work.
110 Circle Drive is new construction in the Heights are of St. Simons Island. It is listed by Alice Barlow of Hodnett Cooper Real Estate.
I photographed this house last week and also took some Virtual Tours of it. Beautiful house and very well constructed.
I have finally finished with the new Laurel Island Plantation website. This is a big site that entailed a lot of work. A lot of the photography and all the virtual tours on the site are also work I did.
Even though the last iteration of their site had just recently been done by a big firm in South Carolina, the company wasn’t real happy with the way it worked. It had some very poor navigation and the design competed against itself. The biggest obstacle was trying to get this large site to provide all the information within a couple of clicks. I used a great navigation bar that accordions open for the subpages. Works perfectly in this application. I also used some javascripting that allows additional information to be displayed without leaving the site.
Sawyer and Associates has been a client of mine for quite a while and they are great to work with. I’m very glad and honored they asked me to redo their site. They are very happy with the outcome.
The link for the site is: www.laurelislandplantation.com
The May issue has been out for a couple weeks now. I shot a number of photos for their “Do Something New” series. The series showcased a number of people who were going to try a new experience that was outside their normal realm.
My first shoot was for the local owner of a bicycle shop called Monkey Wrench, Chris Beaufait. He’s a guy’s guy and went to New Horizons for a mini day spa. I photographed him getting a facial. The photos came out great. Afterwards, I went by Monkey Wrench to get a simple photo of Chris for the article (one without facial goo all over his face!). He started goofing around and got on a little girl’s bike with a big wrench in his hand. I thought, alright, let’s make this fun then. I threw a flash behind him aimed at the wall with a blue gel on it to try to add some color to complement the pink bike and give it a cool effect. Everyone loved the shot, but it ran pretty small since it didn’t have a lot to do with the article… though it was the Art Director’s favorite shot and she put it in anyway.
The next shoot was for the owner of Accent’s, a boutique on the island. Karen Hendrix is a “girly-girl” and she was going kayaking. I met her at SouthEast Adventure in Brunswick and got a great shot of her as she got in the kayak and pushed off from the dock on her way. I was laying on the dock to get the shot and someone later asked me if I was in the water when I took it!
The last shoot in the series was for Rob McGalliard and Wendy Robinson of McRobins, a clothing shop in Redfern Village. They were going to the St. Simons Health and Fitness Center to go through their Boot Camp. They climbed obstacles, ropes and cargo nets and were pushed the whole way by an ex-Army sergeant. Those photos are below.
I was happy with the number of shots run, as well as how many ended up being full page photos… an indication that the Art Director liked them, too.
I’ve got more on the way soon. Stay tuned.
Well, I am way behind in my blogging! I’ve been busy but it is no excuse. I have told myself a dozen times to get on it, but something always comes up. So, I’m gonna update you on what’s been happening a little at a time. Don’t want to overload you.
Since the last time I have blogged a lot has happened including finishing up this web site for a local attorney. It is the law firm of Ligon, Middleton and Lindberg. I did the photography and site design for this site and it is exactly what they were looking for and they were very happy. To see the whole site visit: www.attorneyligon.com
I’ll post some more things this week as I get a chance.
This past weekend was great with some beautiful golfing on Jekyll Island. Miranda and I loved it. It was so pretty out there and we saw all kinds of wildlife. Probably our new favorite course and we plan on making Wednesdays our “Golf After Work on Jekyll Day.”
This was certainly a new one for me. I was approached by someone to photograph an up-and-coming rapper/singer. He’s a 20-year old that goes by T-Man. They wanted to get some shots for a new album they are releasing. They wanted beach photos and we scheduled a shoot for a Saturday morning. The light was really bright out that morning and by the time we were shooting it was 10:00am and the sun was blaring. I was able to get all these shots in that bright sun using my off-camera flashes. I wanted to give them an edgier look for an album.We shot near the pier at Gould’s Inlet, the Johnson Rocks and in the dunes.
The clients are very happy with the results and the photos are being used in his advertising and album work right now. Here are just a few of the ones I liked. Good Luck, T-Man.
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