Author: danrouth

Greensboro, NC based commercial and editorial photographer.

Bird Hunting

Hunting
Saturday I tagged along with Cory Routh, his dad Larry and neighbor Austin Capps for a few hours of upland bird hunting at Blue Horizon Quail Preserve near Randleman, North Carolina. Ricky Nixon along with guide Chad Robbins manages about 200 acres of land set up and maintained for good quail hunting. It brought back memories of my Grandpa King, who absolutely loved to hunt birds. While shooting is a big part of the equation, it is most fascinating to watch a really good dog work. Ricky’s English pointer Banjo is a master hunter and is the star of the show. He finds the birds, he points, and he retrieves every time. Ricky’s wife also fixed one of the best stews I’ve had lately for lunch. For info on Blue Horizon, go to www.BlueHorizonQuailPreserve.com.

Preserve owner Ricky Nixon.

Guide Chad Robbins.

 (Photographs copyright 2012 by Dan Routh)

Snow in Bryce Canyon

Landscape
A lot of the time people equate red rock and Utah with hot and dry, but that area does indeed have winter. In the image above, a winter snow has dusted the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon and adds something extra to the famous formations. Hot and dry. The morning after these were shot, the temperature was -5 degrees F. But it was a dry cold.

(Photographs copyright 2012 by Dan Routh)

Rick Smith, Still Hanging in There

Personal, Photography
(Image courtesy of and © Richard Smith)
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a special 40 year retrospective of the photographic work of long-time Greensboro photographer Rick Smith. Randolph Community College’s photography department honored Rick by hanging a show of his personal work going back some forty years. Rick was in attendance and gave a short talk on design, photography and how he has combined the two over the years to produce his extraordinary imagery. There was a large crowd there, including many former clients, associates and friends. The president of RCC presented Rick with a plaque in honor of the time and energy he has volunteered to the photography program at the school.
All in all it was a very special and moving evening. Rick was the first person to hire me as a commercial photography assistant. I worked as his apprentice. A large part of my photographic knowledge, in lighting as well as design, is directly because of his tutelage. Over the past 35 years, he has been a boss, a teacher, an associate, a competitor, the best still-life shooter I have ever known, a mentor, but most of all a friend. God bless you Rick.

(Black and white photographs copyright 2012 by Dan Routh)

For all those interested, Rick’s images will be on display in the RCC photo department in Asheboro, North Carolina until February 28, 2012. The public is invited to stop by and view them.

A Pile of Stones

Family, History

If you walk around in the woods in Grays Chapel, North Carolina, especially in the winter, it’s amazing how much evidence of the history of the area you can see. These images are of an old stone dam on Bush Creek some 300 feet long and 20 feet in height. A lot of the stonework is intact but the center of the dam was breached by a long ago hurricane and the creek now flows freely through. For some people, it probably just looks like a pile of rocks, but the rock work is beautiful and it is very special and significant  to me on a personal level. My great-great-grandfather Isaac Routh built this dam in the late nineteenth century and it held back a five acre pond which powered a grist mill. Isaac and his son Wes ran that mill until it burned in the 1940’s (replaced by a nearby engine powered mill) and the pond remained until a hurricane caused a breach in the 1950’s. Wes’s brother, my great-grandfather John T. Routh, learned his profession as a miller here before he moved on to his own mill business in Bonlee in Chatham County.

(Photographs copyright 2012 by Dan Routh)