Figure 1 – Greg Lambton-Carr at City Lights Coffee, Charleston, SC, (c) DE Wolf 2014.

My wife and I were escaping a very cold rain one afternoon, when we wandered into Charleston’s City Lights Coffee at 141 Market Street.    For people like me, this is just what you are looking for in a coffee shop: excellent coffee (made by people who care), wonderful coconut cake, and if you are looking for something more substantial breakfast and lunch.  It is just wonderful.  The cafe also features the work of local Charleston artists.

I love the ambiance of genuine coffee houses; so I asked proprietor Greg Lambton-Carr if he would pose for a picture against the apparatus and paraphernalia of coffeedom (Figure 1).  He was gracious enough to agree, and then my wife commented “watch out this is liable to appear on his blog” (which BTW it now has).  This immediately led to the question of what my blog is about, and it turned out that Greg is himself a professional photographer and blogger.  He is a South African, fairly recently settled in Charleston.  He works in both film and digital media.  His work can most recently be found in Oblique Magazine and Charlie Magazine.  I highly recommend a to Greg’s website.  There you will find wonderful examples of his fashion work (including underwater fashion shots), charming portraits, and wildlife photographs.

So what was meant to be a quick espresso and coconut cake on a cold afternoon turned into a warm discussion of photography and gravity waves.  As I’m writing this, back in Boston I find myself wishing that I was back in City Lights Coffee.  So anyone who gets the opportunity should really do so.  You won’t forget it!

Figure 1 – Leon’s Mens and Boys’ Wear, Charleston, SC, (c) DE Wolf 2014

I’m in need of a mood boaster today; so I am going to post my favorite photograph from my recent vacation.  I worked a little outside my usual workflow on this trip.  Usually I take my pictures and then, at night, I work them up.  So I tend to stay current. I took my tablet with me and was planning on processing my images with LightRoom instead of PhotoShop; but I wound up without a way of transferring the images from my camera onto my computer.  This had two consequences.  First, I had to keep the images in my head – constantly mulling them over unil I got home.  And second, when I got home I had this large stockpile to go through.  It kind of puts everything in a different perspective or light.

On this particular day, it was raining, and I had left my camera in the car, while we had lunch.  Heading back to the car in a drizzle I was struck by this faded painted sign on the wall of a building and thought yes, this is a picture.  One point about cloudy days is that you can think pastels; you can think Kodachrome.  So I went back to the car; hesitated for a moment as to which lens to use, went out, and took the picture of Figure 1.  Don’t know about you, but I love it.  And I knew that I would love the results as soon as I looked at the LCD screen on the back of my camera as I was meticulously removing water drops.

I’ve been fairly strict with myself about processing – pretty much doing it in the order that the images were taken and as a result this was an image that I had to wait to process. For me it was worth the wait.  Oh and as for all the blah blah blah that you don’t care about.  Taken with my EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens, IS on, ISO 800, no compensation, at 41 mm, 1320th sec. f/9.0.

Figure 1 – Simple Gifts, Antique cooking utensils, Charleston, SC, (c) DE Wolf 2014.

The phrase “simple gifts” refers to the Shaker song by that name and to the theme derived from it in Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring.”  At a deeper level it refers to the pure beauty that may be found in simple, often utilitarian, things.  And photographically this theme has been wonderfully dealt with in Linda Butler’s portfolio book “Inner Light: The Shaker Legacy.”

While in Charleston, we went on a tour of the exquisite  Heyward-Washington House.  This Georgian double house structure was built in 1772 by Thomas Heyward Jr a patriot leader in the Revolutionary War and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In May of 1791 George Washington rented the home – hence the name.

When we entered the house, I asked the tour guide about the photography policy and was pleased to learn that non-flash photography was allowed. Later the guide asked why I had not taken any pictures.  Perhaps she did not notice the gloominess of the day and the fact that we had been touring the home like troglodytes albeit with sunny dispositions.

But then I went into the kitchen.  The kitchens were detached to prevent the danger of fire.  In the kitchen I found some antique cooking utensils hanging on the wall and the Shaker theme came immediately to mind.  The result is Figure 1.

“Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.”

Joseph Elder of the Shaker Community of Alfred, ME

Figure 1 – Palmetto Carriage Horse, Charleston, SC, (c) DE Wolf 2014.

I actually learned an important lesson about photographing horses while I was in Charleston last week.  I have tried to take pictures of horses over the years and the results have never been very successful in my view – something was lacking.

Charleston has these horse drawn carriages and wagons that ferry people on historic tours of the city.  I apologize to all you romantics out there.  But this does not look like a happy situation to me – that is from an equine perspective.  And I gather that these carriages are just as controversial as the Central Park carriages in New York City.  The bottom line appears to be that either a 2000 pound Palmetto horse or a pair of mules pulls something like thirteen people through town.

I found nothing photogenic about any of this.  We have a carriage pulled by a team of Clydesdales in the Fourth of July parade in our home town, and the horses really appear to be happy and proud of what they are doing.  I’ve snapped away at this; but never got anything that I liked.

Then I came across the very self assured, beautiful, fellow resting in front of the stables shown in Figure 1.  He almost appeared to have a smile on his face, and I took several photographs of him.  As I came around on his side, I realized that he was intently looking at me, following my every move.  He was engaged and for once I liked the end result.  I can contrast what I consider to be a successful image with one I took more head on.  Eye contact and engagement were lost.  The horse loses his persona and becomes an object.

The point is obvious.  Animals are people too, and just as you have to engage with a person to do their portrait justice; so too with horses, and dogs, and cats.  I have a friend Karla Cook, who is wonderful artist and one of her specialties is pet portraits.  I just love these pictures.  I’m guessing that she could have told me this.