Poet and editor Jim Schley is a "FOLD" (friend of long duration)—as of this month, he and I have known each other for fifty years, since we were seven. This is the solar house designed by his wife Rebecca Bailey that he and Becky built themselves with the help of a number of friends on the back side of a ridge in central Vermont. A spectacularly beautiful spot.
As with many small publications, TOP has to watch pennies, and, as you know, color reproduction is expensive, so we'll switch to black-and-white now.
...There, that's better. TOP readers Rob Strong and Eli Burakian, both accomplished pros, both friends of Jim's and/or Becky's, and both really friendly guys. We had lunch at an excellent Nepalese restaurant in Hanover that came with excellent conversation. I wrote about them a few days ago.
This picture of Jim at the Vermont store where he and Becky get their mail (Becky had to work the days I was there) actually looks a bit better in color, but you know how it is—black-and-white is so much more popular, and we have to bow to mass taste.
This is a cool thing. The students at a local architecture school built a trailerable caravan for Jim to use as a miniature mobile office. It's where he writes poetry (his book is called As When, in Season
These few shots represent only part of my trip—I saw family members and another old friend too—but as I've mentioned I hardly photographed at all. Only a few dozen exposures in all. The "Southern Tier" in New York State (where I did hit peak color as they call it) was particularly enchanted, but I'm relying on my memory for that (and yes, you can actually do that. Well, I hope you can).
On the last day of my trip I got to stay with my old friend Steve Rosenblum and his family (he's an eminent cardiologist, but more importantly a photography enthusiast, and a regular reader and commenter here), and Steve knows David Turnley, my friend Peter Turnley's twin brother. It was really nice to meet David at long last, after hearing so much about him over the years and being so familiar with his work. He's quite different than Peter in some ways but the brothers also have a lot in common, including some spookily similar mannerisms. Our conversation with David was intense and wide-ranging, and centered not so much on photography but on policy, people, and politics. David, like Peter, is primarily concerned with the human condition and the state of the world. He's now teaching at the University of Michigan.
Steve is laughing here because the restaurant we were in was very dark and I couldn't find any light for a portrait. David said, "maybe I can help with that," and wandered around looking at his hand at face level to see the light. We tried a few places when David said, "let's try the kitchen!" and walked right in. I'd hesitate before going into a restaurant kitchen without permission, but of course it's nothing to a guy who's shot everything, everywhere. Meeting David with Steve was a nice cap to the trip.
Mike
"Morning Coffee" is a blip about nothing in particular auto-published weekdays at 3:30 a.m. Central Time to be in time for morning coffee breaks in the UK and Europe.
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Read this post while drinking "my" morning coffee. Loved it. Enjoyed the photos and story. It just made me smile and, maybe, a little jealous as I did so. But, that is why I enjoy TOP... :-)
Posted by: Glenn C. Riffey | Saturday, 11 October 2014 at 10:57 AM
So, Mike, how did it feel to return to your NEW home?
Posted by: Mike R | Saturday, 11 October 2014 at 07:01 PM
I like your cost cutting idea but I'm thinking there must be at least some man hour costs associated with converting the photos from color to B&W. Could we the readers help eliminate some or all of this cost by just adjusting our monitors to view in B&W on select photos you identify?
Posted by: David | Sunday, 12 October 2014 at 12:19 AM