We wanted to have a little hint of what each person contributes to the Scene, and here are a few samples to show you.

Jason Sanford, Ash Vegas

Erin Brethaur, photographer

Katy Wadington, parenting editor

Mackensy Lunsford, food writer

Carol Motsinger, fashion writer

Acoustic Syndicate, back in action after several year’s break, still have a loyal following in the region for their folk rock music. I’ve done a few photo sessions with them lately for their upcoming record as well as their soon to be finished new website. Here is a sneak peek from one of the sessions. One of the images will be featured on the cover of their first CD in 8 years which should be released this fall.

When jazz pianist Vijay Iyer was in Chapel Hill with his trio, I had about 10 minutes on a winter day (think bare trees, lack of color) to get a shot of them. Vijay is one of the most critically acclaimed artists in jazz right now, with a tour schedule that doesn’t often leave him 10 minutes for anything, so I was glad to have the opportunity. If you don’t know his music, you should check it out. Howard Reich (of the Chicago Tribune) wrote “By now, there can be no doubt that pianist-composer Iyer stands among the most daringly original jazz artists of [his] generation”. The American-born son of Indian immigrants and a 2011 Grammy nominee, VIJAY IYER (pronounced “VID-jay EYE-yer”) was described by The Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years,” by The New Yorker as one of “today’s most important pianists… extravagantly gifted,” by Pitchfork as “one of the most interesting and vital young pianists in jazz today,” and by the L.A. Weekly as “a boundless and deeply important young star.”

We managed to do a shoot in front of Memorial Hall on the campus of UNC just before their performance, and we were lucky to be able to catch that bit of color that comes from the setting sun. Here are a few of the images from that shoot. One of them was used in their CD “Historicity” and I’ve seen them come up in publications all around the world since then. Sometimes these magazines even remember to include my photo credit!

When I was working on a stop motion video for the Crash Test Dummies, I needed to photograph Brad Roberts, who basically, is, the Crash Test Dummies. The day I arrived at Brad’s apartment in Soho,  NYC was in the middle of a brutal heat wave, and it was over 100 degrees then. Needless to say we had to keep “dabbing the talent” as a result, and I enthusiastically shot Brad until he said “I’m about to expire”…

Brad had already given me plenty of his time and energy, and you can see the final results in the video here. Below are some still images from that video that I like all on their own.

Last, but certainly not least, are some photos I took of my husband, Steve Cohen’s, band that plays around Asheville – Ol Hoopty. This is a great group of people that are always open to anything when I photograph them, and here are a few favorites.

Together with stylist Chris Bryant, I have been working for the past two weeks doggedly to finish A LOT of shots of food for babies through 3 year olds for Becky Cannon’s upcoming mega book “grow healthy. grow happy: The Guide to Natural Baby Care”.  While composing and shooting the photos, I’ve learned a lot about the ways you can prepare healthy, appetizing food for babies that doesn’t come from a jar, and that tastes good too…almost makes me wish I was going to have a baby to try these dishes out on (but not quite). We were able to set up a make shift studio in Becky’s dining room that provided plenty of nice light for most of the shots, trying as always to make the food “real” vs. painting all kinds of icky “enhancers” on it. We shot long and hard days, culminating in the last day’s schedule that had six 10-12 month old babies showing up 30 minutes apart for back to back portraits in the summer garden (created in the fall garden on an October day). The crew scattered picked flowers all around and I bet you can’t tell it wasn’t shot on a summer day.  It’s been a while since I’ve photographed babies so it was fun to use all those tricks I’d accumulated over the years that I used to photograph children a lot. We were amazingly lucky to have such happy little cutie pies show up, so Becky will have a plethora of shots to choose from.

Below is a combination of food shots from the book, setup shots and the baby shots.

Here is our set that we used for most of the food shots – a dining room table propped up on two other tables to get the right height.

Chris making a “bedside table” set in the hallway consisting of sofa pillows stacked on top of my camera bag.

It was interesting to go through years of never printed images with “What would work with Billy’s wacky sensibilities?” in my mind. I wanted to show images totally different from the Asheville colorful images I’ve become known for, and these definitely fit that description. Here are samples – I hope you will get to Dwellings to take a look not only at our work, but because you’ll find all kinds of things for that wish list, I’m sure.

The new Asheville Scene mentioned Working Girls Studio & Gallery in their premiere issue – take a look and stop by next time you’re in downtown Asheville!

Here are a few shots from the book:

The Team, drooling…

Conclusion – the GX1 was really fun to carry around in my purse with no effort involved at lugging it around. However, it just didn’t compare to what I could to with my big ole Nikon. Duh, you could say. I guess it’s like anything – results require effort! I need a viewfinder to look through, and it’s hard to hold a tiny camera still. Mostly I worked on a stop motion video idea I have, but below are a few shots from Easter weekend. Now if I can just find the right shoes for my NYC trips…..

I am very excited to announce this very unique opportunity! I am hosting a workshop for photo enthusiasts September 20-25th in a 400 year old hacienda in central, mountainous Mexico that Kelley and Stephen Wilkinson (of Asheville) have spent 10 years renovating into a breathtakingly beautiful vacation retreat – Hacienda Las Trancas (www.hacienda las trancas). This is in a very safe area of Mexico and the weather should be divine as the elevation is  7000′. The large hacienda staff will take of cooking fresh authentic Mexican meals for us (many items grown in their organic garden), taking us on horseback rides, transporting us from the airport to the hacienda, and basically being there to assure that we have a wonderful vacation. All  levels of photo enthusiasts welcome!

Here are the basics:

September 20-25th, 2012

Cost: $1400, which includes:
    All meals
    Luxury accommodations at the hacienda
    Photography instruction, including a private session
    Transportation to and from the Leon airport
    Transportation to and from San Miguel for a day trip
    Horseback riding trail ride guided by hacienda staff
    Access to mountain bikes, jacuzzi, heated pool and commercial exercise facility.
    Onsite spa features 6 massage therapists who offer wonderful treatments (additional fee, priced      very reasonably).

Photography Instruction:

I will be offering demonstrations, slide shows covering basic elements of photography including composition, lighting, point of view, storytelling, and working with your subject, and offering one private session per person, to answer specific questions you may have about technical or artistic issues. While the basis of this vacation is photography, you will have plenty of unstructured time to explore on your own, get a massage, read in a hammock or go for a hike. It is above all a luxurious and rejuvenating vacation.

There will be a maximum of 15 people that can sign up, so I expect this to fill up quickly. A $400 deposit is required to hold your place. See below for more detailed info:

Here is a sampling of what we will do:

We will be greeted by the Las Trancas staff with welcome margaritas and a delicious mexican dinner served alfresco.

There will be several classes focusing on photographic topics such as composition, lighting, working with people, point of view, and telling your stories. Also I will discuss software including Lightroom, Iphoto and Photoshop as well as “Digital 101 – how to organize your images on your computer”.

I will have many demonstrations showing lighting tips and composing your images.

I will  offer one on one photo instruction appointments.

You will explore the hacienda with the group and on your own with your camera – capture the wildlife, the flowers blooming, the mexican people, the intense colors and textures of the hacienda and its landscape, etc. – the photo opportunities will be endless.

We will visit photographer’s heaven – beautiful San Miguel, about an hour away, to take pictures as well as relax, explore and shop.

You can take a horseback ride on the hacienda’s well trained horses, stopping along to way to take pictures. Optional, of course.

Soak in the nearby natural hot springs that the staff can take us to nearby.

Have the horse back riding staff do a demo for us with the horses running in the late afternoon sun, dust kicked up in the dusk “magic” light. Beautiful photos!

Enjoy an afternoon of massage appointments set up for us to cap off a busy morning.

Celebrate our week with a slide show of guest work to show off all your new photo skills and get feedback from the group.

While the focus of these trips is for you to learn ways to improve your photographic skills, there will be plenty of unscheduled time to relax, rest and care for yourself (as well as edit your photos). We will have approximately 2-4 hours of scheduled photo time per day with the rest unscheduled and open to spontaneous experiences.

Depending on the number of people that sign up, rooms will be may be booked with two people in each. The bedrooms are huge and gorgeously appointed, so this should not be a problem. There is also a gym, volleyball court, hiking trails, a pool, a hot tub and lots of hammocks. If you are interested in the photography but have a companion who is not, they can still come and have a wonderful vacation at a discounted rate.

Fees include all meals, instruction, transportation to and from the Leon airport, horseback riding, a day trip to San Miguel and lodging. Other expenses you could expect are private massages (about $25/hour), transportation for individual day trips,  and any alcoholic beverages that you would purchase during the week. There are wine and liquor available for purchase at the hacienda.

Deposit Due Upon Booking: $400, refundable until August 15th. It is strongly suggested that you buy trip insurance to cover you in case anything happens that makes you have to cancel, as well as cover you during the trip. I need a minimum of 10 people, so please don’t delay if you are interested so that we can be sure the trip will happen.

Total Fee: $1400 per person ($1000 after deposit). Depending on the number of people that sign up we may offer discounts for double rooms with upcharges for singles.

Call or email Lynne Harty for more information at 828-777-7073/lynne@lynneharty.com

TO GET VERY INSPIRED GO TO THE LAS TRANCAS WEBSITE:  http://www.haciendalastrancas.com
Also see information on beautiful San Miguel: www.internetsanmiguel.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Allende.

What to bring:
Camera (digital DSLR is best), tripod, laptop, card reader and flash drive.

I hope you can make it! Please forward this email to nice folks that you think would be interested in this opportunity.

All photos of Hacienda Las Trancas are fro
m the hacienda’s website.

I talked to meet with my liaison at the Ranch before leaving for home, but we never were able to connect, so it was after I was back in Asheville preparing to meet the inevitable winter (after leaving the summer like weather we’d experienced at the Ranch) that I was able to send a link to the last two stop motion videos I had made – one for the Crash Test Dummies and one that featured 5 Walnut Wine Bar and the tunes of Ol Hoopty. End result: three weeks later I’m back on a plane headed to San Diego to spend a week at the Ranch photographing everything possible for a stop motion promotional video.

I never imagined I would be lucky enough to go there twice in one year, much less three times, so imagine my excitement at being able to go back with the objective of showing what it feels like to spend a week at the Ranch with my photos. Having been 7 previous times, I felt like I really knew what I needed to shoot to show that feeling – including wonder, peace, awe, appreciation, relaxation, contentment and satisfaction. I aimed to show the beauty of the Ranch – in the landscaping, the architecture, the incredible attention to detail in the decor, and in the natural landscape that we explore every morning at 6 am on the pre-breakfast hikes up the desert mountains. Starting your morning with a 2-7 mile hike, followed by a delicious healthy breakfast awaiting you, is almost a guarantee that you are going to have a wonderful day. Now follow that up with yoga classes with some of the best instructors I’ve ever had, classes for body sculpting, stretching, African dance and even hula hooping – there is an endless variety offered for every taste. Next, yet another delicious meal, some of which originates in the Ranch’s organic garden, and all is beautifully presented and deliciously healthy. The afternoon offers even more things to do (such as the photography classes that I teach), but typically by this point if I’m not teaching, I’m taking time to read in a hammock, check email, get a massage or move between the roof top hot tub and ice cold plunge pool (now that makes you feel alive!).

It’s easy to wax poetic about all the virtues of a week at the Ranch, but back to the photo assignment… After shooting practically non stop over the course of a week, I realized that I could have used a second week to really capture it all; alas, I had a “real” life in Asheville to return to.  When I was hired I thought I would have about two months to create the video, but on my last day at the Ranch, my “boss” asked me “What would it take to get this video finished by the 23rd ( a mere 13 days later)?” Oh my. I had shot over 9000 still images, and even though I had been editing every day on my breaks and nights before going to bed, I still had over 7000 to edit when I left the Ranch. Beginning when I got on the plane in San Diego to head home, I edited the images down to about 1500 over the course of the next four days. Next, I had to find music that I could get the rights to use that would give the feeling and message I was after – no small thing.

Well, mission accomplished, though admittedly this make continue as a work in progress – already thinking of footage I’d like to substitute when I go back in July to teach again. Here it is on Vimeo as well as on the Ranch home page.

Billy Sproul

Lynne Harty

In addition to showing my work, Eli Corbin’s and Kathryn Phillips work, we are also excited to showcase the talents of artist Billy Sproul, with his zany sculptural pieces, and mixed media collages of Travis Medford. Please join us this Friday, December 2nd from 5-8:30 for our opening of the studio and gallery. We are anxiously awaiting the hanging of the beautiful metal sign that Billy Sproul has fabricated for our space as well – it should be up by the opening this weekend!!

Eli Corbin

Katherine Phillips

When we began, we worked with David Cohen to create a logo for us – David had the idea of creating a silhouette of Eli and me by photographing us first and then he created the first sketches. Girls being girls, we weren’t happy with our wardrobe, poses, etc., so I decided to shoot some more images and create the new silhouettes myself in Photoshop. Then we chose the colors we wanted in the logo,  gave it to friend and designer extraordinaire Sheri Lalumondier, and asked her to work her magic with the colors, figures and fonts. To tie it all together we decided to liven up the dark stairwell leading to our studios by painting the steps the same colors as our logo to entice people upstairs. Since we are truly “working girls” and can’t always be around to have visitors, we will simply hang a sign at the bottom of the stairwell on the gate that says “open – come on up” or “closed but call us for an appointment”, rather than having strict hours of operation. We do plan, however, to have open hours on Thursdays and Fridays on a regular basis.

Watercolor painter, Kathryn Phillips, will be sharing the paint studio with Eli – we look forward to working with other local artists as well to offer them a place to exhibit and sell their work,  create new work, and teach classes. Eli will be in charge of that part of the business, so you can contact her for more information on that.
I am excited to have a place to sell my work as well as have a downtown location to shoot in. To see samples of my print work, please go to my website. As always, I’m available for commissions.

It’s a wonderful space with a wall full of windows that bring in beautiful light, particularly in the late afternoon, and we plan to not only use it as a working studio, but also as a place to offer workshops and classes. The idea is that when we’re able to be here regularly enough, we will have open hours when we invite the public in to see what we have to offer – our art work.

It’s a big undertaking but we’re excited about it. Stay tuned for more info. For now, here is a photo of the space.

After that, I began posting messages on Facebook that said “Show up at 5 Walnut between 5-7pm tonight to be in my video”, and so many friends and clients did just that. All I told them was that the window in the bar was their stage, and to “do something”. While mild panic crept over the faces of a few, most people got to work with their ideas. And there were the many folks who simply wondered what the heck was going on and jumped in front of my camera for their cameo.

“I’m Not Kidding” is short hand in our household for “you won’t believe it, but it really happened this way”. The video would never have come together if I hadn’t found the PERFECT song for it by Asheville’s own Ol Hoopty – a song they wrote called Dance.

Here is a radio interview I did with Lesley Groetch on 880 the Revolution a few weeks ago where I talked about how this all came about.

The video is here if you’d like to see it, and I hope you will.  As always, I appreciate your comments.

I just got back from yet another blissful week at Rancho La Puerta – this is the best “working vacation” I take all year. While the format is the same each year that I go – I give a presentation on “Self Expression Through Photography”, teach “Digital 101″ and “Photographing People in Nature”, and lead a photo walk with demonstrations, I seem to feel obligated to shake things up each time. I constantly recreate the self expression talk, based on what I’ve been experiencing and thinking about over the past year, and this year I included samples from the HATCH mentors we had last April, Sylvia Plachy and Gerald Slota, as well as work and a video by JR, the photographer/graffiti artist who has “pasted” his huge images in various unlikely settings all over the world. If you have the time, I highly recommend that you watch this video about JR on the TED page, which shows a talk that JR gave about his acceptance of the TED prize – $100,000 to make the world a better place. Lofty goal, huh? I first read about JR in the NY Times last year, and I find his work to be immensely inspiring.

I had more students than in years past, and really enjoyed working with them all. I love it when people run up to me at dinner and show me the photos they took, using the tips I had given them in class – what a kick! I was talking to my liason at the Ranch, Victoria, about creating a “photo week” at the Ranch when I go next July that is more photo intensive, forming our own group for a sunset photo hike, private dinner, slide show of student work, photo contest, etc. The Ranch will help me promote it, and in turn I will try to get a group of people together that want not only a wonderful relaxing vacation, but that want to learn how to take better photos too. Best of all, we will be able to get special discounts as a group. So, if you are interested in staying informed on this, please sign up to follow my blog and I will post any info I have about it here.

This year my trip felt busier than usual, and I had to “schedule” down time to just relax and read my book (fantastic one by the way – “Cutting for Stone”) in one of many beautiful resting places – the gazebo, the hammock, the pool…you get the picture. I enjoy hiking most mornings up the mountain through the desert terraine, among wild horses, cows and wildflowers, followed by a delicious organic breakfast and various classes such as yoga and body sculpting. My friend and author, Kathleen Flinn, was the guest chef at the Cocina Que Canta, the cooking school at the Ranch, and I was able to take her cooking class, in which we made all kinds of wonderful things, including whole wheat artisan bread, homemade pasta, fruit tart with whole wheat crust, and other yummy dishes. We also made time to take some headshots of Kat for her upcoming book. Hopefully she will come to Asheville’s Malaprops Books to promote it next fall.

Here are a few scenes from our hikes and around the Ranch.

The classes I teach on photographing people in nature, “digital 101″ and the demo sesssions come easily to me – I’m talking about what I know. It’s the nighttime presentation that stretches me each year – “Self Expression Through Photography”, and every year I feel compelled to re-create it, sometimes from scratch. Maybe, I’m thinking, it’s because with every passing year my life changes, evolves in one or many ways, so my ideas change and make me feel that what was true last year isn’t true this year. So here I am again, trying to decide how I think other photographers express themselves through their photography, but then I’m forced to ask myself the same question.

I can’t say I have the answers yet. I have, however, had the privilege to spend time with two amazing photographers that were gracious enough to share themselves with some “groundbreakers” (up and coming photographers) and a few other lucky people, including myself, and they have added to the self expression stories I plan to tell. Sylvia Plachy and Gerald Slota came all the way to Asheville from New York for HATCH, and I was able to spend time with them both – they couldn’t be much more different (I encourage you to look at their websites) – Sylvia is a photo journalist with an impeccable talent for catching not just “the” moment, but oh so many of them. Gerald, a fine art photographer, makes sketches of the scenarios he wants to act out, using his little wrapped in a baggie point and shoot camera simply as a vehicle to capture the intricate and sometimes wicked scenes in his head.

To tell the truth, while I was inspired by these immensely talented photographers, I was also discouraged, as I just don’t measure up. I wandered Paris the following week after HATCH looking for those shots that I was sure Sylvia would have seen that were eluding me. I was thinking of the advice Gerald had given me to leave my big fancy camera at home and just use a small camera, to really focus on the image and leave the technology behind. I couldn’t do it! Neither one – leaving the big camera, nor finding the clever moments. UGGGGH.

Where’s the happy ending to this photo story? That life keeps happening and I keep shooting. I’m no Sylvia Plachy nor Gerald Slota but I have my good moments, and some good ideas, and hopefully I won’t stop looking for those moments.  Gerald said that I really lit up when I was talking to him about how much fun I had working with stop motion, and he was encouraging me to begin a new project with stop motion. So, that is the plan….

Now back to the self expression presentation preparation – where’s my muse?

Here is a photo of Sylvia, Gerald, the groundbreakers (Matt Brown, Ashley Florence, Alex Palmour and Liz Wells) with Brie Castell, my co-chair for Hatch Photography. It was a great experience – if you missed it, make plans to be at HATCH next year. And here is a shot of my wedding taken by my friend, Dot Griffith.

SEE YOU THERE!

What made the entire project less overwhelming was the wonderful product made by Adobe called Lightroom. I had just upgraded to version 3, and what a worthy upgrade purchase that was. I was able to create collections that I could quickly drag selected photos to, and I could easily move them around to put them in the right order. The new print module made it very easy to lay out the pages, and I was able to print two pages on each sheet of paper which were centered so that it just required a few chops on the paper cutter to make the pages the same size and correctly lined up. Finally, I took my book to Will at Henco in downtown Asheville, and he quickly punched the holes to make a spiral binding. Voila! Done.

I’ve already created a new folder called “Year Four” so that I can just drag images there to eliminate the hours of editing next year. Maybe next time I’ll spring for one of the WHCC beautiful bound books.