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.

  • Baby Goats at the Farm!!

    In 2001, my first job out of college was at the Atlanta Zoo. I have always loved animals and as a kid I read lots of books about zoo keepers, I read the magazine Zoobooks and I went to Zoo Camp… so naturally I wanted to give being a Zoo Keeper a try. But when I went for my interview and they told me I would be working with goats and sheep in the children’s zoo… I turned up my nose. I thought, who cares about goats and sheep. I saw them merely as stepping stones to the more interesting animals, like orangutans, until I met Laverne. Laverne, the African Pygmy Goat, stole my heart. And from that day on… goats and sheep have played a reoccurring theme in my life.

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    Now, I think there is almost nothing I love more than baby goats… and at Windrush Farm, my fiance’s mother’s farm and where we lived for 2 years, there are three new baby girl goats. We went over today to help out around the farm, but those babies make it really hard to be productive when they are so ridiculously cute. My gardener friend Rebecca couldn’t resist them either.

    If you have never had the chance to know a goat, I strongly recommend it.

  • Farm Fashion (session 1)

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    Mimi and I had our first trial photo-shoot for the Wool Book (click here to read more about the project.)

    The main idea is to create a book with patterns for wool garments, created by Marlie, with stories and background information about local farmers and the agricultural region we live in, written by Mimi, and portraits of the farmers wearing the garments, taken by me. While we all agreed this would be a great way to promote the local farmers and educate the readers… we were a little uncertain about our ability to turn farmers into models, because most of the farmers we know are not so keen to be photographed, let alone model. So we decided that before we delve too deep in the project, we should test our idea out on our very own farmer… Mimi. Mimi is a great farmer to start with because she is definitely not a fan of being photographed. I would say she tolerates it at best, but typically she would prefer to remain out of the photo spotlight. So I knew it was going to be a challenge to make her feel comfortable enough that the photos look natural and show off all the important qualities: her sheep ranch, the gorgeous sweater and the amazing person that she is.

    So we picked an afternoon last week and I arrived with my Rollei and a box of 400 fuji film. The session started out a little awkward for both of us… me bumbling with equipment and ruining two rolls of film, simply by not paying attention while I was loading it. And she claiming she didn’t know what to do. But the big clunky camera saved the day again. Because I am not very fast at working the nobs and I am useless with a tripod, I was forced to slow down and that gave us time to talk and laugh and ease into this task at hand. To make the shoot better, the clouds rolled in and gave us perfect moody light and I think it is fair to say that we both had fun. At the end of the shoot, I confessed that I didn’t know for sure if we had the ultimate shots, but if nothing else, we had a good practice and we could try again if we had to.

    However, after scanning in the film tonight, I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised and for a first attempt at farm fashion, I think we did pretty well together.

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  • Not for Everyone….

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    Blurry photos are not for everyone, but maybe they were just perfect for my friend Micah’s Birthday party (member of The Yard Dogs.)

    I think digital has made people more brave about taking photos in low light situations. Situations that they wouldn’t dare try with film. Well, the daredevil that I am, I took the risk. Last week I showed up with nothing but my Rollei and 400 speed film to Micah’s party in Oakland… why? Well, Micah is probably one of the most unique individuals I have met in a long time and I expected his friends to be much the same. There is nothing digital about them, so I wanted my photos of the event to be unique too. And well, Calumet didn’t have any higher speed film, so I didn’t have many options. And to be honest, as I sat in the very dark backyard, I wasn’t sure what I would get, if anything… and because of that I didn’t even get out my light meter… I just decided to open up as wide as I could and set it as low as I thought was reasonable…. and my results…. well, they definitely are different.

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    Happy Birthday Micah. You throw a good party.

  • Soulcraft meets the Rollei…

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    and sheep….

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    ….and chickens.

    I spent last Saturday hanging out with Sean Walling, the soul behind Soulcraft bikes. He wanted photos that were realistic and natural that he could use to promote his custom built road and mountain bikes on his website. But Sean was also open to playing with different set-ups and he was definitely into using the natural environment around his shop, which included lot of critters. The chicken photo is for Sean, because at this point he called me out by saying, “This is for your blog, this isn’t for me anymore.” And well, maybe it is a little of both. I mean who would not want to ride a bike that is chicken friendly. Everyone loves chicken. And we happen to live in what was once the chicken capital of the world, so really, it was unavoidable.

    Unfortunately, there was not a cloud in the sky all day, so I spent most of the day setting up photos in the open shade behind the studio and working with the natural light inside his shop. But the real fun started as the sun was setting, and the photos I took in the final 30 minutes of sunlight with the Rolleiflex far surpass anything I captured in the 6 hours prior. Now I know why some photographers don’t even bother with the middle parts of the day.

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    And now for a direct comparisson between the Rolleiflex and the Canon 5D…. Same settings, same light, same position…

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    Which do you prefer?


  • You Decide…

    Here’s the scoop, The Bluebellies Band needs a band photo. But all the band members have packed schedules and some members live farther away, so finding time is difficult, let alone finding time when the light is actually good as well. But for the last two Sundays, they have been recording their first album (coming to stores near you soon) in Sonoma, at a funky studio that is surrounded by random buildings, rusty farm vehicles and industrial grape vines… perfect for a band photo…. especially when the band sings a lot of songs about chickens.

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    So while they were getting set up in the studio, I wandered around and scouted for locations. Because of the time change, I had to wait at least an hour until the sun was lower in the sky. You would think with all the extra time I had prior to the shoot that I would be perfectly ready and calm and so when they finally emerged from the studio, I could simply push the shutter and come away with the perfect expertly-composed- super-creative Bluebellies Band photo. Not so. My first location was not ready, because the sun was too high in the sky…. so we quickly moved to location number two (see above). But I was not exactly convinced about the spot and my tripod wouldn’t go high enough, so I didn’t really get as much of the environment as I was hoping for. But they all look good, with a tad more directing, the photo might just work.

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    And then my second shot (supposed to be my first shot), which I was thinking would be super arty with the fence and the industrial grapes (see above), would be perfect for their ‘Dirt Bag Wine Country Living’ song. But I am not so sure my intentions transfer as well as I was hoping… well, until they got more comfortable with the camera (see below)….

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    And all of a sudden they are The Rabid Bluebellies so maybe this photo is more appropriate for one of their other songs… ‘Llamas Ninja Fighting.’

    Anyway, I can’t decide and I need some input. I would love to know what you all think… this is a multiple choice test…

    A) photo #1 is the best

    B) photo #2 is the best

    C) photo #3 is the best

    D) none of the above… please hang up and try your call again.

    E) I hate multiple choice and I want to express my own opinion.

  • More Sheep Shearing with the Rollei…

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    I just got around to scanning these, they are from the sheep shearing day I wrote about earlier. Those photos are digital and these are from the beloved Rollei.

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    Look at the detail in the ringlets…. I love it. But as you can see, I still need to work on how to use the Rollei because…..

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    ….. you look through the top lens, but photograph through the one below, so you don’t get exactly what you see in the viewfinder and therefore I don’t have the sheep’s feet. I guess that means I have to practice. That word practice used to make me cringe when it was said by my childhood piano teacher or my basketball coach but now it makes me excited, so I think that is a good sign.

  • Don’t Leave Home Without It….

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    Almost every time I leave my house, I ask myself, “Should I bring my camera?” Because none of my cameras fit easily into my pocket, so I debate if the outing is really worth lugging around such a big clunky piece of equipment, especially now that my camera of choice to lug is my Rollei and for that I have to bring a light meter as well… so on a hike it is not ideal.

    But inevitably, if I don’t bring a camera, I will wish I had… so I am trying to do better about not asking and just bringing. And last week when I went on a hike with my friend Rebecca and our dog friends for her birthday, I, without a second thought, stuck my Rollei in a bag and soon into the hike I was glad I did….

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  • It’s Spring and I got dumped

    Well, technically I didn’t get dumped… but a loved one who I happen to be match-making for, on e-harmony, got dumped today… and maybe it is fair to say that I got a little too involved.

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    I know this has nothing to do with photography, so I will keep it brief… but I wanted to express how bummed I am and how I have lost my faith in internet dating. Me, I am in a relationship and never got to experience the on-line love scene. But I have always thought it would be fun… it is the stuff future fairy tales will be made of… no more Cinderella… it will be “lonelyman51” meets “rightforu27” and live happily ever after.

    Well until drop-dead-fred dumped “us” tonight. But he didn’t even know us. He didn’t know how incredibly funny “we” are and beautiful at that. And to make it worse, “we” weren’t even given a chance to ask why “we” were dumped. There were only lame multiple choice options that said things like, “Good Luck,” or “If only we could have met…”

    No, I wanted answers. I wanted a rebuttal… I wanted to let him know what a huge mistake he was making… And now I want to be done with the whole process. Heartbroken and disillusioned and 50 bucks wasted, I am over the whole thing. I am officially done with internet dating for other people.

  • learning to watermark

    For some reason, I was not really into the idea of watermarking my images. I am not sure why, maybe I didn’t want to take away from the photo or maybe I didn’t want to imply that I did not trust people to use my images without giving me credit… but in the last couple of weeks I have noticed my photos popping up on people’s sites and some of the photos being used are ones that have been taken off my sites without permission.

    Granted most of the people using my photos are friends or family, but some are people I have not met or given permission to use the photos. So far all of the photos I have found are being used for innocent things like: myspace or facebook…. but photography is my business and therefore if people are going to use my photos, I would like to at least get credit. Because you never know…. maybe someone might see the amazing photo and wonder who to call in order to have such awesome photos taken of them. Like this one…

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    This is my friend Lindsay and she uses this photo for all her profile photos for all the myspace/friendster/linkster/facebookster sites…. and after spending a considerable amount of time searching for a suitable date for one of my loved ones on match.com, I have realized that there is a need for good profile photos… a big need.

    So now…. I watermark. And I even have learned how to make an action in photoshop so that the process is smooth and painless.

  • wide and low light love

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    I got a canon 5D…. yay.

    Low light….yay.

    Huge screen….yay.

    Full sensor….yay.

    And my wide angle lenses are wide again…..

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    In the photo above you can see how wide…. from where I was sitting I could not even see Chad (the guy on the left), but with my 16mm lens and the full sensor of the canon 5D, it looks like he is right in front of the others… that was a fun surprise.

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    I have had lots of practice/play time with my new camera because The Bluebellies, my man’s band, is recording their first album, so I have been documenting as much as possible… to see lots more of my photos of The Bluebellies and to hear their barn shaking music check out their myspace….

    http://www.myspace.com/thebluebellies

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