These pictures are for the most part unedited. They include final images used at the Robbin’s Nest Farm (RNF) website and images that share the experience of the shoot. Read about RNF below the slideshow!
Nestled in the Shenandoah foothills, on the banks of the James River, lies a 400-acre horse-farm retreat called Robbin’s Nest Farm. Miles from the urban jungle, yet close enough for a weekend escape, its open lands call to me whenever the sky is bright and blue and autumn leaves start to drop.
I photographed Robbin’s Nest Farm in 2008. I shot once in the summer and again in the fall. At the time, I was living in Maryland, and Robbin’s Nest Farm was an easy drive just outside of Washington, DC.
Beyond the urban sprawl, I quickly felt like I was a million miles from my ordinary life. The rolling hills and open meadows conjured what seemed like memories of a life lived in the middle ages, working in an apothecary, with an herb garden in the back. I imagined riding horses through the woods, dressed in cloaks and leather boots. These imagined memories become so real whenever I drive through the rolling hills of Virginia.
Turning from the main road, you travel for a mile or so down a country lane dotted sparsely with mailboxes. When you see the white wooden fence, you know you’re at Robbin’s Nest Farm.
Dawn Lee, the owner, has converted an old building that once housed a butterfly collection into a comfortable vacation home. It’s called the museum, and the butterfly collection now lives at the Smithsonian Institute. I would stay here when I came for photo shoots. Dawn lives in a house a few hundred yards away.
In the summer, we’d play in the water and lean our backs against the current of the James River. We called it the apex of living. Dragonflies hovered and flitted above the water. Leaves rustled in the wind. From ancient pathways, water flowed down the river to meet the Chesapeake Bay.
We rode horses around the property, stopping here and there for pictures.You can bring your horses and ride the trails on the land, or you can explore the nearby James River State Park. Local cowboys help take care of the horses. They drive big trucks and know all about cutting hay and how to roll with the seasons in the hills.
When I came in the fall of 2008, I woke up one morning to find the land shrouded in a thick cloak of mist.The sun had yet to rise. I slipped on my boots and as many layers of clothes as I could, and headed out into the thick of it. I was freezing, but the thrill of the beauty kept me from caring that my frozen marrow might never thaw. The steamy breath of horses stood out against the dawning day. Sun rays bounced off millions of water droplets, casting a golden glow between the trees. All the horses were putting on their winter coats. And I was in a dreamer’s heaven.
Visit Robbin’s Nest Farm’s website at http://www.robbinsnestfarm.com/
LOVED IT!
