This is how the FARM Institute gets their flock of turkeys into the barn before a hurricane. I’m so glad I was there for this:
I like the one in the middle who’s completely confused and going the wrong way.
Vineyard Gazette
Oak Bluffs Fireworks: This Time With Tripod
I’ve never actually been assigned to shoot fireworks; I always just photograph them for myself, and so I never want to drag a tripod with me to the beach or the docks or wherever they’re being held.
But I was on duty to photograph the annual August show in Oak Bluffs, so the tripod came along. I then spent most of the time trying to figure out the right exposure for fireworks + people silhouettes. I think I got it right for…maybe three total exposures. Definitely one of those days you’re grateful for digital.
The Fair!
I won a blue ribbon at the fair for a photo I took of the racing piggies last year (and an honorable mention for a draft horse photo. Because draft horses are the best)! Unfortunately, the piggies didn’t return this year; they were replaced by “jumping frogs,” which were, frankly, just not the same. Oh well.
There’s still lots of good things to photograph at the fair:
We all know the Lord of the Rings; this is the Lord of the Chickens.
Here Comes the Fair: The Parade
Since this year marked the 150th anniversary of the fair here (read Remy’s fantastic article here), the Agricultural Society went all out with festivities. These are from the parade, which was held a few days before the fair began:
Here Comes The Fair
Possible Dreams and the Impossibly Beautiful Sunset
I photographed the Possible Dreams auction on Monday night, which is an event that raises money for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. As opposed to most auctions, where you bid on things, this auction offers experiences–usually of the one-of-a-kind sort. The things that are offered are also one-of-a-kind. Possible Dreams raised $231,000 (give or take a few hundred dollars) this year.
But for me, the very best part of the assignment was walking outside of the tent afterwards to find this sky:
I mean, wow.
When the sky turned more pink, I took this photo [which I cropped afterwards] from the base of a fountain in the park:
Here are some photos from the auction itself:
Norman Bridwell (author/illustrator of the Clifford the Big Red Dog books), his wife Norma, and Marc Brown (author/illustrator of the Arthur books). Both authors are longtime donators of Dreams to the auction. Childhood books ftw!
This year Norman Bridwell donated a painting he made of Clifford reading an Arthur book on a Vineyard beach while the Island Home comes in. Aww!
Artist Meg Mercier works on the final item of the auction, a plein aire painting of Ocean Park with the Possible Dreams tent set up. Mercier began work on the painting at 3:15 p.m. on the day of Possible Dreams, and finished about a half-hour before the event ended. (I wish I had a lens wider than my 20mm, because I really wanted the tent itself to be more obvious in the background. Oh well.)
Marine Homecoming
I’d never photographed a veteran coming home until this week (though I photographed one returning to work back in April, which remains one of my favorite assignments ever). Chris Brown, a Marine when he’s in combat and a special police officer when he’s back home on-Island, came back from his second tour on Tuesday. Every police department on the Vineyard came to meet him at the ferry docks, along with his family (of course) and many, many representatives of the veteran groups here.
Stormy Weather
Y’know when you get fantastic, amazing light?
Right before a massive thunderstorm. I can’t wait for the September nor’easters to get here.
Have you ever seen clouds like this before? I hadn’t. It was like a river in the sky—so pretty.
The clouds aren’t as defined in this one. But they’re still there, and still beautiful.
Cows!
Remy did a story about raw milk for the Tuesday paper, so I went out on assignment to the two dairy barns on the island (got a flat tire on the way; that made for a much more eventful morning than I needed). The two farms are about as different as could be, as evidenced by the photos:
History
Yesterday I went along with our reporter to photograph David McCullough.
This was at once a fantastic assignment and a crushing one. It was fantastic because I very much admire David McCullough; I think we need more writers like him to make history more accessible to people. But it was crushing because all I wanted to do afterwards was tell my grandfather, who loved history in general and Mr. McCullough’s work in particular (particularly the John Adams book and miniseries) that I got to go on this assignment and see the house and the backyard shed where David McCullough does most of his writing (on a typewriter from the ’40s)…and, of course, I couldn’t.
David McCullough talked about his own grandchildren during the interview; he described being a grandfather as tasting a new food you’d never had before and realizing it’s the best thing in the world. And he also talked about how there is no such thing as the foreseeable future, a thought that I found comforting, even though on the surface those aren’t very reassuring words.
The interview was, needless to say, one of the best and most thought-provoking I’ve had the privilege of sitting in on, which was a good antidote to being completely overwhelmed by emotion during the hour or so we were there. David McCullough’s grandchildren are lucky, just like my cousins and I were (and are).
On a lighter note, I now hope to one day also have a neat little shed in my backyard where I can work on projects.
