somewhere between a handshake and two kisses

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about

Paige Green is a documentary and portrait photographer, whose storytelling approach to photography frequently addresses issues involving agriculture, land use, and food. Her work is featured in nine books and has been published in Glamour, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, GQ, Country Living, House Beautiful, and Culture. Paige lives in Petaluma, CA with a house full of boys.

  • Fun With Flowers…

    California Country Magazine asked me to photograph the orchids and the process of growing and shipping the orchids, at Rocket Farms in Salinas, California. I had never seen so many amazing flowers in one place. It was a fun adventure and now I am the proud owner of my very own orchid, although I am very nervous, because I am not so good at taking care of things that don’t remind me when they need water and food. But if Rocket Farms can take care of thousands and thousands of orchids then I should be able to keep one alive – we will see how long my little one will last.

    And for those curious photography minds who are wondering how I photographed these flowers… I held each one up in the air with my left hand so they were completely backlit by the light coming through the greenhouse ceiling and with my right hand I focused and pushed the shutter. It was definitely a shaky operation so I was happy for auto-focus and high shutter speeds. This assignment just proves the lengths I will go to, to avoid using tripods and lights.

  • 10 am – Faux Fur Coats and Vodka…

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    This is The Graziano, of Petaluma’s Graziano’s Ristorante, with his daughter Sonia.

    Together they are the perfect combination of traditional and progressive. He was born and raised and Italy – she was born and raised in California. He brought his mother’s recipe for gnocchi to Petaluma, and she brought the Martini Bar.

    And together they created the Vodka Lounge, which is unlike anything I have have experienced. Granted, our photo shoot was at 10 in the morning, not the normal Vodka Lounge hours, but even still… it was pretty amazing.

    The experience involves a glass ice box that you walk into, big comfy faux fur coats, and a blue wall of incredible looking bottles with very tempting contents. Unfortunately, I was working, and it was 10 am, so I only had a tiny taste of one, but the models certainly enjoyed the tastes and the smiles got bigger and bigger as the photo shoot went on.

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    One cool vodka fact I learned was that Petaluma has locally made Vodkas… like the blue bottle above. So there’s another product to add to your Made Here shopping list.

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    So the next time you are in P-town, or passing through, and you feel like having a unique tasting experience (food and drink) then check out Graziano’s. And if you get a chance to talk to The Graziano himself… ask him to sing for you, or even better, ask him to describe how gnocchi is made… it is an extra special and very authentic treat.


  • Messy… but cool…

    Here is just one more photo… well really there are 19 more photos in this one photo…. from my night at the JB Blunk Residency that I have been posting about… the photos that were lost but not really lost.

    Anyway, I wanted to try and show the amazing scope of the environment, but I wasn’t getting it with even my widest lenses. And I have never been able to afford a panoramic camera that I have wanted for years and years. So I decided to create a 180º sequence in photoshop using the Photomerge tool… which I have only used once before. For this photo, I stood on the railing and took about 30 photos, which are pretty borring on their own.

    And tonight I made this! It’s kind of messy… but really fun. I am going to clean it up and play with other merge options, but I thought it was useful to see how it looks before it is tucked in around the edges.

  • Just Like Fishing…

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    In my last post, I confessed that I “lost” some files. And just like fishing, those were the ones that got away… so I raved and raved about how great those photos were and I woefully mourned their loss.

    Well, today I found them.

    I think they were bigger and better swimming in my memory. But I did get the beautifully made bed photo that I wanted, so I feel a little better after-all.

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    Photography Lesson number 2 in 2009… save your files in the correct folders the first time.

  • J.B. Blunk Residency…

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    If you are an artist who is need of a quiet and inspiring place to recharge your creative spirit and make some serious art… then you should look into the J.B. Blunk Residency. You can read all about it on their website, so I won’t go into too much detail here… but I will say, it is absolutely amazing – inside and out!

    Everywhere you look you see something inspiring…. the view of Tomales Bay and Black Mountain that you can’t escape from if you try, the wall of handcarved wood, the sculptures in every corner, the huge workshop stocked with anything you need, the cozy wood-stove that warms your entire being…

    I was only there for one night and I am a believer.

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    And now for my confession… I was so proud of myself.

    We arrived in perfect time, right before the sun disappeared for the evening, so I ran around and photographed every possible angle – inside and out. And then after the sun was down, I sat in front of the fire and edited all the photos to perfection.

    I was so happy to have such a head start on this project that I didn’t realize I hadn’t copied the files to my computer, instead I was editing them from the card reader. And then… I promptly erased the card so that it would be ready to go for my sunrise session. But I didn’t realize my mistake until days later when I franticly searched for those perfectly edited files.

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    So that explains why the only photo I have of the bedroom is the one with the messy bed – while beautiful even messy, it is not exactly the scene you would put in a brochure. I took a zillion photos the night before, with the room all perfect and the sunset shining through the window… and all of those photos are gone. I am heartbroken and haunted by all those lost photos. But… the good news… I learned my first lesson in 2009.

    Copy files first – then edit – then double check.

    Argh.


  • Just a Nice Photo…

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    Lou really enjoys the Christmas present we got from Arann’s mom.

    He is not such a little guy anymore.

  • The One I Was Waiting For…

    This is it.

    This is THE photo from my Christmas 2008.

    As soon as I pulled these children’s glow-in-the-dark dinosaur footie pajamas from my stocking – I had a vision.

    Me… and the Christmas tree.

    So I went in the living room with Arann… positioned him where I wanted to stand… got the camera all ready… then we carefully changed places… and he pushed the shutter… only one time.

    It took a lot of patience to wait 2 1/2 weeks to see this image from my Rollei… and because Arann only took one photo… it was either going to be the photo of the year… or it wasn’t…. one of the two….

    And… the verdict is?

  • Bringing in the New Year…

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    The Green String Farm Band played at Rocker Oysterfeller’s Speakeasy in Valley Ford on New Year’s Eve. It was an amazing occasion complete with a four-course prohibition era dinner, consisting of classic dishes from the 1920’s and 1930’s created with locally produced ingredients. The costumes were amazing and when combined with the atmosphere inside the historic Dairyman’s Bank (1890), it was easy to forget what year we were bringing in with our celebrations.

    If you ever are in need of a fun place to go for dinner, and you are up for an adventure, then you should check out Rocker Oysterfeller’s. The food is phenomenal and they are continously trying new theme nights that make the occasion worth the drive. And as an extra bonus, you can find Arann Harris singing it up out there every Thursday night in 2009.

  • Some of The Best of 2008… Now Bring on ’09!!

    Thank you to everyone for all of your encouragement and support!! It has been an amazing year and I am very excited to see what will come in 2009! Happy New Year everyone.

    With Love,

    Paige

  • Making an Exception for Tradition…

    This is my extended family. Every year we all meet at my Grandparents’ home in Carbondale, Illinois. This year for our family portrait, I wanted to emphasize how far we all travel in order to continue our Christmas family traditions. And to summarize for you: the total number of the miles traveled by all of my 17 relatives and their spouses in order to get to Carbondale, Illinois is: 31,327 miles (32,025 if you count the dogs’ journey) and 64,050 for a round trip.

    Those are a lot of miles and that is a huge carbon footprint… and that doesn’t include all of the presents, and wrapping paper, and trips to the mall.

    Being a person who cares a great deal about the environment… the crazy amounts of consumption that occurs in one week is embarrassing… but at the same time… I feel incredibly lucky. I feel lucky because:

    • I have an amazing family, and we have wonderfully bizarre family traditions that we have carried out for as many years as I can remember…
    • I know not many people have such a strong extended family, especially one that is so spread apart…
    • and because I know that these traditions will not last forever, so I better enjoy them while I have them.

    So, for the spirit of Christmas and for the love of family, I try and contain my environmental gripes, and I wholeheartedly throw myself into the crazy seasonal consumerism as much as possible. But I still do little things to try and make myself feel a little better, such as shopping at the local Carbondale stores, instead of the big box stores and chains, and wrapping all my presents in newspaper and reused paper, and preventing my paper-plate-loving relatives from adding to the overcrowded landfills, just because they do not want to do dishes.

    And in the end… traditions make it all worth while. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for bringing us all together for all these years, and for teaching us the value of family. I wouldn’t want it any other way.