Category: Portraits

A Poignant Moment

Civil Rights, Greensboro, Portraits


As I was watching the first groups tour the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro last week, I noticed an elderly lady in a wheelchair being pushed along the counter of the old Woolworth building where the sit-ins began 50 years ago. The tour leader asked who she was and she told him she was Geneva Tisdale, a former Woolworth employee, who six months after the sit-ins began, was in a small group who were the first African-Americans to be served at the lunch counter. I had the opportunity to speak with her for a few moments. I first asked her if she remembered what day she was served. She shook her head and said she didn’t remember. I then asked her if she remembered what she ate. Suddenly the most incredible smile I have ever seen came over her face. She looked at me and said, “It was an egg salad sandwich.”

(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

Fincastles Diner

Greensboro, Portraits


Yesterday’s opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum was a historic day for Greensboro. I shot the events that took place around the lunch counter at the old Woolworth building and will post some images in the coming days. It was a moving experience.

Just down the street from the museum is another lunch counter, one you can still eat at, and everyone is welcome. Fincastles serves up lunch every day. Buttersteak sandwiches and great burgers and fries along with their signature sauce. And where else can you get serenaded as you eat with old Motown tunes by “Jaybird” Williams, the singing waiter.

(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

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Agriculture, Mill, Portraits

(Photograph copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

Neighbor Bobby Bradds loads hog feed at the local mill in Julian, North Carolina. It’s an old style feed mill where farmers can still bring their own grain and have it custom ground. Bobby raises “farm raised” pork for the local Greensboro market. His hogs are allowed to roam in a pasture and not shut up in commercial pens, part of the rising “slow food” movement in our area.

Work Image and Post-Processing

Photography, Portraits

(Photograph copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

This image is from a recent commercial shoot. For this blog, I do a considerable amount of post-processing to my photographs. I look at a blog as a venue for experimenting and trying new things. How much is enough? Actually, I think enough to produce the feeling that I’m after in a photograph. Digital imaging has made it easier to do such work, but it’s nothing new. In film days we used to do all sorts of lab techniques and duping processes to produce the looks we wanted. It just took a little longer and was sometimes a little messier. Even black and white master Ansel Adams talked about the negative being the score and the print being the performance. A raw digital file is merely an electronic negative and it is up to each of us to decide where to take it.

Pig Picking

Farm, Food, Portraits


It was pretty cold this past weekend, but not cold enough to stop neighbor Tommy Routh from continuing with his annual “pig picking” for friends and neighbors at Goat Lady Dairy in Grays Chapel. A 200 pound free range hog raised by his son-in-law Bobby, split in half and cooked slow for about 15 hours until the meat falls off the bones. This is the “whole hog”, with a choice of ham, shoulder, rib and tenderloin. I’m primarily a vegetarian these days, but I freely admit I did have to try some. Excellent.



(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

Winter Farming

Agriculture, Farm, Portraits


When cold and messy weather comes, most of us can duck inside and get away from it. On a dairy farm, it means dealing with it head on. Cows have to be milked and fed twice a day whether it’s sunny and warm or frigid and nasty. Michael Williams of Williams Dairy south of Greensboro, North Carolina handles it every day.



(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)