(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Recent portrait headshot of young Greensboro woman.
Author: danrouth
Greensboro, NC based commercial and editorial photographer.
A Wild Horse Named Rienzi
My wife’s wild horse Rienzi sprints from her corral to join the cows in the morning at our farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina. Rienzi is a 28 year old wild Mustang mare my wife and I adopted from the BLM when she was a yearling. She came from near Lake Tahoe in California and is named for a famous horse ridden by Philip Sheridan during the Civil War (Sheridan had his Rienzi stuffed and placed on display at the Smithsonian Institute). Our Rienzi spends her days grazing with our cattle herd and her nights in her 100 year old stall originally built for mules (she comes in on her own every evening). She’s in excellent shape and very docile. She was trained to ride, but we don’t ride her anymore except for the occasional bareback jaunt by my son Devin. I think she really thinks she is a cow now; she is definitely a herd animal. Rienzi is lucky, but a lot of her cousins aren’t. Right now there are thousands of Mustangs in BLM holding pens, removed from government land. Some will be adopted, but it seems that many are to be sold for meat. Most of this removal is unnecessary and pushed by big western cattle interests. Several groups are pushing the government to stop these removals. Information on supporting wild horses and their preservation is available at http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/. Go there. Wild horses need your help.
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Shitake Mushrooms
(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
I saw these mushrooms at the fall open house at Goat Lady Dairy. Several people were there demonstrating sustainable agriculture. These were grown in western North Carolina on red oak logs.
Track Images from the Files
I was going through some local Greensboro track and field file photographs on Friday trying to get things organized. Shown are a few selections from the group.
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Facebook Revisited
(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
For those readers who are not aware, I was banned by Facebook back in May for no apparent reason http://danrouthphotography.blogspot.com/2009/05/banned-from-facebook.html. I have tried repeatedly to contact them to find out what I did and to request that my account be reinstated, all to no avail. A friend of mine from our local ASMP luncheon group, Jennifer Westmoreland, has been kind enough to create a “Facebook Bring Back Dan Routh” group. The URL is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144586647668 for any of you that are interested. Your help by joining would be appreciated. I can always rejoin Facebook with a new email address, but I spent a lot of time building a group of friends that I would like to keep. Evidently I did something that Facebook didn’t like, I did not spam, or post inappropriate items, etc, but I would like to at least be told by the folks at Facebook how and why I was disabled. In fact, the whole thing is pretty silly, because those that know me really well know that personality-wise, I’m not the type of person that gets banned from anything, ever.
Jennifer’s website is at: http://www.jwestmorelandphoto.com/mp_includes/body.asp.
Please give it a visit.
Combining Corn
Yesterday, neighbor Earl York, Jr. was combining corn at Melancthon near Liberty, North Carolina. The York family runs a seed, fertilizer and farm supply business as well as growing corn, soybeans and small grains. This particular field of corn was yielding close to 130 bushels per acre, which is not anything close to a record, but really good for a year of partial drought. I’ve shot farmers and agriculture all over the country (one of my most favorite subjects) and although all farmers are busy and under all kinds of pressure to get things done, I have never met one that would not stop their machinery, get off and come over to shake your hand and talk briefly about their crop. Earl was no exception.
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Youth Sports. Kids at Play.
I’m not a youth sports photographer as such, I don’t do youth leagues, but I do enjoy shooting kids at play. These are from a group I shot showing youth sports and recreation opportunities for the City of Greensboro.
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
College Student Portraits
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Studio portraits of young college students.
Rising Meadow Farm
I went over to my neighbors’ farm Sunday for their annual open house. Ann and Ron Fay run Rising Meadow Farm near Liberty in Randolph County, North Carolina along with their daughter Beth and her husband Winfield. They raise sheep for wool and meat as well as a few goats, cows and the occasional llama. Sunday they had several people there displaying wool products and processes as well as another neighbor demonstrating his working border collie sheep dogs. For info on their farm, go to http://www.risingmeadow.com/index.html.
(photographs copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
Cow, Up Close and Personal
(photograph copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)
My wife often picks up apples in the evenings. She feeds the rejects to the cows, and they certainly appreciate her efforts. In fact they appreciate them so much, they often get a little overly up close in their attempts to get to them.
