Arann’s favorite book is The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono.
Dan’s favorite book is The Secret of the Old Mill, by the Hardy Boys.
(please click on their names to see the musicians in action.)
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…Susan is the one on the left. They are still best friends today.
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She has chosen to live…
And we are all so happy about it.
This is her mom dancing… back when life was a whole lot more simple, back when she couldn’t even imagine being a mother, back before she knew how much she could love another person… and this is the song she was dancing to…
Talking Heads This Must be the Place
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Happy Birthday, Juliet. I hope it is the perfect birthday, filled with all of your favorite things.
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I am excited for my friend Rebecca, because this week she got pigs at the garden she runs in Sonoma.
Thinking about her pigs stirs up all my pig memories, and gives me an excuse to post an assortment of random photos in an attempt to stay true to my Rolleiflex Advent Calender.
It makes me think about the most incredible pigs I have ever met, who lived at Parducci Winery. They would chase each other just like dogs, play king of the castle on their deck, roll over to have their bellies scratched, and run in and out of the water as their caretaker sprayed them with a hose to keep them cool. They changed my perception about pigs forever.
And it reminds me of the amazing stories Novella Carpenter tells in her awesome book, that you should read if you haven’t yet, about her crazy adventures raising pigs in Oakland, and then coming to terms with butchering them, and ultimately her complete joy while eating the meat she worked so hard to raise.
Which makes me think about the photos that I took at Town Hall last summer and how beautiful ham can look, let alone taste.
And finally it reminds me about my best friend, since 5th grade, Betsy, who has given me an assortment of pig gadgets and gizmos for the last 20 years. It all started when we met a girl at basketball camp. After we introduced ourselves to her, she said, “Betsy, I have a pig named Betsy. I go out in the yard and call, ‘Suuuu-weeee,’ and she comes running.” You can imagine the joy that gave me then, and still gives me now, every time I tell that story.
I could keep going with the pig memories, but that is enough about pigs for now.
Congratulations, Rebecca. I can’t wait to meet them soon.
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I attended a natural dye workshop in Missouri with Rebecca Burgess, for her book on natural dyes. While the landscape and the plants were definitely pretty…
…I often found myself distracted by the other people in the workshop.
I know that these portraits will not make it in this book, but maybe the next book can be about Natural Dyers… because I have found them to be a pretty visually unique group of people.
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…of Petaluma, for ProjectHERE.
I plan on really getting going on the project in January, so please send Petaluman Artists and Farmers my way.
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These Rolleiflex photos are from Jennifer and Brandon’s wedding which I photographed forever ago (it was only back in May, but it feels like forever ago.) They didn’t ask for film. I just shot a few rolls because it was a small wedding and we had lots of extra time to play, but because the film was for me and not for them, it took me until now to scan them. But it was a nice surprise when I did, because I just love some of these photos.
But I especially love this last one. It is a real moment of them taking a time-out from all the activities on a John Deere fleece blanket. It is probably not the one that will make it in to a frame at their house, but it is one of the ones that I like best, because it is honest and real… and those are qualities that I admire most in photography.
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(not sure why but the photos look better when you click on them.)
somewhere between a handshake and two kisses 
