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.

  • The Bluebellies at The Mystic

    Just a moment to brag about my man’s band, The Bluebellies, because they happily climbed onto the big stage at our hometown venue, The Mystic, on Saturday night. It wasn’t their first time under the bright Mystic spotlights, but it still is a big deal, so I wanted to document the occasion well for them.

    The hardest part of photographing shows is always capturing the stage, as well as the crowd. Arann always wants photos that show lots of people… but without using flash, it isn’t easy. I stuck in one of my attempts, just to show how many people love them.

    So the next time you hear about The Bluebellies coming to your town, you should grab your friends and go watch them play… but only if you are ready to dance, laugh and hear lots of songs about chickens.

    To hear samples of their music and to see more of my Bluebelly photography checkout their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/thebluebellies.

  • Another Comparison…

    I apologize for being repetitive… but now that I have said sorry… here I go again… these are the Rollei’s version of the same weekend adventures… and my conclusion on the battle between film and digital… I like both. I think both have the potential (depending on the human making the decisions) to take really beautiful photographs… but they are different. They create different photos… and depending on what you want to photograph, you have to make the call. Or not, like me, and just lug around two obnoxious cameras and see what you get.

    Here my cold friends are admiring the view for me, while I fiddle with the Rollei’s knobs, I think at this point, as their heads were blowing away, they would have preferred I stuck with digital.

    And this is for Frank, he wanted the kiss…. and he almost has it.


  • You can’t always get what you want

    but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

    That’s the way the Rollei goes… you win some, you lose some, or at least you get something entirely different. This may not be the photo my mom was hoping for when she stood beside this ginormous geranium bush in SF’s Botanical Gardens… it seems my Rollei was tired of taking boring touristy photos. The… “here’s me next to the___” photos… so it added some flare, literally. Good thing this wasn’t for a real assignment, don’t know that an editor would take this, but you never know.

  • Weekend at the Beach

    My assignment this weekend… photograph a few of the beaches in Sonoma County… the problem: the wind chill factor felt like it was about 10º and blowing at about 50 mph… so not the most conducive for enticing people to visit… especially when the article is coming out in the summer and photos show people all bundled and windblown… but it was fun nonetheless and these are my favorites.

    I must be gaining confidence because I had the nerve to interrupt this young couples’ kissing session to ask if I could photograph them… but the double-fur-lined hoodies in the grass were irresistible.

    This is my dear friend Heidi who went to great pains to take this photo… it was definitely not candid… as she would have preferred to check the view from the car.

    Not normally a sunset kind of photographer… but sunsets with kites are pretty cool.


  • Easter Sunday in the Hunting Room

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    Another year, another Easter, another Sunday in Todd’s Hunting Room.

  • Deborah turns 90

    To celebrate Deborah’s 90th Birthday… 99% of her family members turned up for her party in Oakland, some traveling as far as NY. I arrived at the end of their festivities to take portraits and it was fun to see everyone so happy and throughly enjoying each other.

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    But one of my highlights was from the week before, when I went to Oakland to meet Deborah and find a good spot for the portraits.

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    During the visit she shared some amazing stories about growing up in Berkeley for most of her life and being caught up in the social turmoil during the 60’s. I am so envious of her generation and in awe of all they were able to experience in a lifetime.

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  • Featuring Bulky Knits

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    These are some of the fun shots from our Wool Farm Fashion – Shoot #2 (to see session #1 click here.)This time we were doing product shots, which isn’t as fun for me as working with farmers/models, but it is still pretty fun. It is much harder than you would think to make everything look perfect but natural and beautiful at the same time. But I think we are off to a good start.

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    Marlie was inspired by the rows farmers make in their agricultural fields near her home in West Marin for this sweater.

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    Not only is Marlie a fiber artist, but she is also a fantastic ceramicist. So it is really cool that she has found a way to combine her two arts into one, like in the sweater above.

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    And finally Cassie, the love-monster, helps us out by doing what she does best. Although, you can’t tell from the photo, Cassie is completely stressed out at this moment. I saw her sleeping there and decided it would be a good photo… and of course as soon as we starting moving unwanted background objects out of the way, she decided she should move too… so we had to convince her that staying still was a better idea. In the end, I think she understood us when we promised her lots of diet breaking treats as soon as it was all over.

    To find more of Marlie’s handwovens and ceramic creations go to her store in Pt Reyes Station… Blackmountain Weavers.


  • Taking the Rollei to Press

    I received my first assignment (post-grad-school) for the Petaluma Magazine this month and I decided to bring the Rollei along. The pay isn’t great but it is enough to cover expenses of film and processing, and since this isn’t a full time gig, or even one I could think about supporting myself on, I decided to have fun and hopefully get a good published portfolio out of it, which will help for future magazine gigs.

    This story is on a new restaurant in town (Petaluma) called the Walnut Park Grill and basically this magazine just gives new restaurants a good plug so the photos need to do the same and be well groomed and happy. Here are three of my favorites, I don’t want to reveal too many, but I am pretty sure these ones won’t make the editorial cut… I don’t think they show enough of what they want to show…

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    ….like lots of people dining at the restaurant instead of a beautiful sky…..

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    …or the owner of the restaurant instead of the handsome Hungarian manager…

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    …but how can they resist this one… cute kid, with cute red hair happily eating a french-fry… I couldn’t resist… I was all packed up and had already said my good-byes but the red hair pulled me back for more.

  • my next project

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  • The Snatch and the Clean and Jerk

    I went to my first weight lifting competition this weekend at the 2008 PWA Championships, to photograph for my friend Chad, who also happens to be the base player in The Bluebellies. I didn’t really think much about what it would be like before I arrived, but just maybe I imagined overly beefy guys with wax jobs and fake tans…. wrong event. This was definitely not that.

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    Right away, I noticed that there definitely were muscles all around me, but generally everyone looked pretty natural. Also there was an impressive variety of ages, ranging from about 16 and to over 70. To be honest, I had no idea what the lifts were or what they were being judged on, until Chad explained what was going on.

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    The first lift was The Snatch, where they basically have to go from the floor to over their heads without stopping in-between. It is the hardest lift because this lift “requires coordination, torso (core) stability, and explosive power of the legs to generate the upward momentum required to snatch hundreds of pounds overhead. Tremendous speed is required to get underneath the bar after the second pull,” according to wikipedia. That would explain why there were a lot of mistakes and very upset lifters. The second lift was The Clean and Jerk, also know as the “king of lifts” because the lifters can add more weight. But Chad said it was an easier lift which would explain why there were happier lifters after this round. I guess the judges wanted to break their spirits and then build them up again. Below, Chad is demonstrating how you are supposed to get a very heavy bar with very heavy weights from the ground over your head… you have to jump, of course.

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    My favorite aspects of the day were the faces the lifters made on their way up… and the outfits. The outfits, which Chad says can only be purchased on-line, are a perfect way to express your patriotism or your spiritual beliefs. Below are my winners: The second place winner for the 2008 PWA Most Photogenic Award goes to… the most expressive face guy who reminded me of Mr. Incredible……and (drum roll please)…. The 2008 PWA Most Photogenic Champion, First Place Award goes to… the Mohawk Guy, with great facial expressions and the Jesus lifting suit.

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    I can’t wait until June!