Losing My Religion

On one of my recent trips, I found myself about 30 miles southeast of Washington, DC, in Charles County, MD.

As you drive through Charles County, you come across a lot of historic churches. I couldn’t turn a corner without coming across a church that wasn’t as nearly as old as our country, if not older.

For instance, St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco was founded in 1641 and is the oldest Catholic Parish in continuous service in the United States. The church and cemetery are beautiful among themselves. But the church’s founders could not have found a more picturesque setting. St. Ignatius sits on a hill overlooking the Port Tobacco River, in a perfect position to catch the evening glow of the setting sun.

Christ Church in LaPlata, MD, has been rebuilt numerous times. It once stood in the town of Port Tobacco until about 1904, when it was moved, stone by stone, up the road to LaPlata.

The Mt. Carmel Monastery in Port Tobacco was started in 1790 by four Belgium Carmelite nuns and is the oldest Carmelite Monastery in the United States.

Each church has it own history. They all have their own fading statues in their cemeteries. But most important, they each have their own unique beauty.

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.