I found these ghostly ladies wanderingamongst the graves in Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery.

Every year Brynn Bonner, Sarah Shaber, Margaret Maron, Katy Munger, Kathy Trochek, Alexandra Sokoloff and Diane Chamberlain gather for a writer’s retreat weekend in NC. In 2009 they stayed at the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines, NC. I was assigned to photograph them for an article that ultimately never got published. I still had a great trip, and want to share the pictures with you here!

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/

Lizzy Ross, my sister and an amazing musician, needed an album cover with more edge and energy than the “sweet” look of her current cover. The deadline was the end of September, and we had one day to shoot.

It’s hard to picture her as anything but sweet, so we needed a way to bring out the edge in her. We met up at the Southern Rail in Carrboro, NC, for a couple margaritas, and to use the restaurant as a background for our shoot. We figured we only needed one good image, so we tried a variety of situations until we ran out of battery power. As they recharged, we reviewed our progress on my computer, pointing out what we liked and didn’t like. None of the pictures really stood out and said, “pick me, pick me!”

I began to worry. The deadline was tight, the sun was setting, and this was my last chance to come out before the end of September. Would we get something we loved?

In the back of my mind, I had an idea involving sunshine and the Volvo. On our drive back to her house, I spotted a wide, open field with the sun’s rays shining golden across the land. We veered to the left and situated ourselves in a random driveway. With Lizzy in the back seat of the volvo, playing her guitar, and the sun coming in from behind, I shot until the sun went down. It was our last chance, and there had to be a winner in there somewhere.

Driving home, late at night, down Crawford Dairy Road, I had a vision of the album cover design. What if I made rows of the shots from the Volvo, like a film strip, and added text? I had always loved U2′s Achtung Baby album cover with the pictures lined up in a grid.

I spent the next day at the Morning Times, putting together the cover with Adobe InDesign. Lizzy loved it. It worked. It embodied so much of the energy she wanted to convey. It was edgier, yet still warm and friendly. I sent the final arrangement to Lizzy, and she did the typography. There we have it, a real family business!

Listen to her music at http://www.lizzy.net.

We reached the mountain top around 5:30 PM. Clouds were rolling in from the west. Through a break in the trees, I could see faint ridges in the distance. Right away Sheila greeted us at the car with her David Bowie eyes. One brown, one blue.

She was my puppy a year ago, when I got her on a whim from a red wagon with a “Free Puppies” sign. We were riding bikes through downtown Wilmington, NC. Her blue eyes and puppy face melted my heart on the spot. When work demanded too much of my time to take proper care of her high-energy nature, she moved to the best place a dog could live, Pickard’s Mountain.

Now I was visiting Pickard’s Mountain with a mission to re-awaken a vision that had rumbled in my subconscious for years. The project started unintentionally when I photographed Andrea Reusing of Lantern Restaurant on an assignment for the Independent Weekly. I had never heard of slow food or thought much about eating local. I hadn’t even taken very many pictures of food, but Andrea hired me to do some shots. From there I came to know and love the world of educated eating.

I call the project Edible Earth. It is so many things in one. For me, it is a chance to visit beautiful places and meet inspired people who are forming new lifestyles through intentional relationships with the earth. I am so inspired and fired up by what they are doing with plants, composting, animals, new businesses, education and community. Being out in the clean, natural spaces renews my spirit. I simply love doing the work and  seeing the pictures that come from it.

For others, it is a chance to visit these places through my images. There are so many people who have never even conceived of the possibility of these ways of living, let alone these spaces existing so close to their home. For some these images can be eye-openers. For others they are reminders and sources of inspiration. Perhaps I can motivate people to get out there and participate in a community garden. Or motivate people to recycle, compost, and eat local produce. I have no idea of the potential repercussions of this project, but I do know I have to continue until they manifest.

After a show of Sheila’s latest tricks, I began my hunt for pictures. As I shot my way into the scene, I felt uncertain whether I’d get any good shots. I always feel that way. But something happens, I get warmed up, and then I just know what to do.

Margaret showed us her cob house, and it started to downpour. I crept around the outside of the house, looking for shots through the rain. Then I dashed, with my umbrella over my camera, to the red-roofed hut in the garden. From the hut, I took one of my favorite shots. Using a special lens, I was able to capture individual raindrops as they fell onto bright orange flowers. Flower power.

Wetness and grey skies make for vibrant contrasts and shimmering colors in photographs. Feathery leaves and red berries of an asparagus row entranced me with their dreamy, dewy nature. I envisioned them as the inspiration for an Anthropologie catalog fashion shoot. I still can’t decide which asparagus picture is my favorite.

Finding another delightful row of flowers, I lay down in the grass to shoot a withered, bent sunflower head. It’s round face popped out at me like an old man grinning. All the while, Sheila was coming to me with sticks and other throwable things for playing fetch.

My friend Kat found a black snake in the grass. She thought it was a pile of poo, until it moved.  We laughed and fell under the magical spell of purple okra’s mysterious beauty.

At last the sun set, the light faded, and we were hungry. I packed up my lenses and called it a day. With a thank you and a good-bye, we left Pickard’s Mountain.

For all my photo students: get inspired, look at other people’s work, try something new! Here is a repost featuring Jody Rogac, reposted from Too Much Chocolate, a photography blog featuring interviews with amateur and professional photographers.

“Sunday Showcase shows a collection of work from one photographer- from a startup to an established shooter- each Sunday. Ideally, it will be a nice place to visit, with coffee in hand on Sunday mornings, possibly as you nurse a hangover.”

Go outside!

Take Better Pictures! featuring Natalie Ross as your teacher and tour guide of the photographic realms. Come and play! Find out more info here.