Having a Seat With History

On February 1, 1960, Franklin McCain and three fellow freshmen from North Carolina A&T State University sat down at the white’s-only lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, NC, and asked to be served. They were denied service and thus started one of the most historic sit-ins of the Civil Rights era.

The Greensboro Four, as they became known, returned over the next several days to the counter and asked to be served. Each day they were denied service. And each day the number of African American students accompanying the Greensboro Four at the sit-in grew, to nearly 300 by weeks end, and led to other sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters across North Carolina and throughout the south.

Today, the Woolworth’s building in downtown Greensboro, which closed in 1994, is being turned into the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Part of the original lunch counter remains intact. A section of it also resides in the Smithsonian.

On February 1, 2010, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum is scheduled to open, which just so happens to be the 50th anniversary of the historic sit-in.

Delectably Deluxe

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on the North Carolina Travel Guide, an annual publication put out by the North Carolina Department of Tourism.

One of the stories in the upcoming issue features the restaurant Deluxe in Wilmington, NC.

Now, Where Did I Leave Off.......

It’s seems like forever and a day since I last updated my blog.

So, in the spirit of getting things going, I’m starting with a very easy post: Cooking with Karin.

These are a few samplings from our latest recipes for Viking.

That was easy, now wasn't it?

Pedaling Pictures

I’ve been very fortunate of late. Most of my projects for Journal Communications have been here in North Carolina or just over the border in Virginia. This close proximity to home has allowed me to drive instead of getting on a plane and traveling halfway across the country.

This also means I get to carry more crap gear with me when I travel. I’m only limited by the amount of equipment I can stuff into my Honda Element. And trust me, I can stuff a lot into my car.

One of the stories that seems to be a recurring theme in the Journal magazines is biking.

Most of the communities Journal features are trying to attract young professionals and one way is to lure them with stories about the plethora of outdoor activities available: kayaking, hiking and biking.

Whenever there is a biking story, or any outdoor story, I try to travel over a weekend, since most people are likely to be outdoors on their days off. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

And that’s where my bike comes in.

I’ve worked up a rig on my bike that allows me to mount a camera just above my handle bars which I use to take pictures while I’m riding. I use a magic arm to position the camera and run a cable release to the right grip on my handlebar. As I’m riding along the trail, I just click away, capturing other riders as we pass.

There are also days when no one can be found for miles. So yes, sometimes I have to shoot pictures of myself to use as stock for the Journal magazines.

But the tradeoffs are worth it. The magazine gets photos of bicyclists. And I get a little exercise.

Here Comes the Bride

So my friends Jeff and Vicky got married a week ago.

I’ve tooling around with the idea of shooting more weddings so I asked Vicky if I could shoot a few bridal portraits of her.

With the wedding date fast approaching and Vicky and my schedules getting tighter and tighter, we finally found a weekend when we could both be in the same city at the same time.

We had no set plans on where to shoot, so we drove around Wilmington and scoped out a few locations. We shot in front of a fountain downtown, under an overpass near the battleship, on a pier, in an Irish Pub called the Dubliner and in the now infamous photo booth.

All in all, we had fun. And that’s what made it a great shoot.

 

Thinking Inside the Box

I can’t take credit for coming up with the idea for my photo booth. It’s an idea I’ve had rolling around in my head for a few years ever since I saw Frank Micelotta use one to photograph stars backstage at the 5th Annual TV Land Awards.

Ever since then, I’ve been looking for an excuse to build one. That excuse happened this past Saturday.

My friends Jeff and Vicky got married this past weekend. For their wedding, we decided to build a photo booth.

There were a few logistical problems to be solved:

Portability - Since known of us owned a trailer or van, we had to be able to break it down and move it either in my Honda Element or Jeff’s pickup truck.

Sturdiness - It had to be able to handle drunk people. We knew there were going to be plenty of them around.

Looks - It had to have that photo booth look. I didn’t want to have a curtained off area and call it a photo booth. If we were going to do it, we had to do it right.

But the problem that loomed in front of us, and we really wouldn’t know the answer until the day before the wedding, how do we get it there? You see, my friends were getting married on an island.

Jeff and Vicky were getting married on Bald Head Island. It’s a small island off the coast of North Carolina near the town of Southport. You take a passenger ferry to the island and, since they don’t allow cars on the island, you either catch a tram to wherever you’re staying on the island or you take a golf cart.

At first we thought we were going to be able to get the photo booth on the ferry. That was until the porters got a look at it. They nixed that idea in a heartbeat.

The next possibility was the barge that makes daily trips to island carrying supplies. Only, it was about ten minutes away and our ferry was departing in about 25 minutes. It didn’t leave a lot of time to dilly-dally.

When we arrived at the loading area for the barge, we checked with the attendant to see if we could load it on the barge and ship it across. She wasn’t sure. It had to be secured on deck and if it couldn’t we were going to be out of luck.

We needed to check with Jack. “Where’s Jack?” “He’s on the barge.” “Where’s the barge?” “Hopefully on it’s way back from Bald Head.”
Precious minutes were ticking away and we had a nervous bride-to-be and five carloads of stuff that had yet to be loaded onto the ferry.

We didn’t have much time.

Luckily, the barge finally appeared and we were able to locate Jack. “No problem. We’ve got a few chocks that we can use to secure this and it won’t be any problem. Pay the attendant and bring me your receipt.”

We’re cooking with gas!

We got the photo booth to the island and over to the reception area.

On the day of the big wedding, Jeff and I raced over to the reception tent and set her up.

It was a huge hit! Bigger than we thought.

Originally we were going to make prints and give everyone a little souvenir to take home with them. No way now. We had over a 1000 photos taken in the photo booth at the reception. There was no way we could print that many photos.

We also learned that the maximum capacity is about 8.

All-in-all, it was well worth the effort. Now how do we get it back? We’re still working on that.