Tapestry

"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue . . ."

You may have clicked on the title of this blog post out of curiosity but, if you can sing along with the opening line above, I can identify you as a teenager from the 1970s -- like me. Carole King's album "Tapestry" permeated my teen years and I'm fairly certain today that I could put it on and know every lyric and take every breath with Carole. I believe that all of us who came of age "post-Elvis" have songs or albums (yes, I'm old and say "albums" rather than "CDs") that rocket us back to a place in our personal histories. And, isn't that just the greatest way to remember and look back though periods of your life -- through music?

"Tapestry" was MY album all through high school. I KNEW Carole King wrote those songs just for me. Of course, I ended up at Meredith College where every other 18-year old girl brought her copy of the album but it was till MINE. I love that, even today, I can hear songs from certain albums and immediately go back in my mind to the campus at Meredith. Back when I was a student, we hadn't heard anything about sunscreen or skin cancer so many of the girls waited for the first sign of spring and the first rays of sun so they could start on their summer tans. The four oldest dorms surrounded a quad where bathing suit-clad girls would sizzle like rotisserie chicken as soon as the weather allowed. And, since the dorms were not air conditioned and the windows were always open, we would put our stereo speakers in the dorm windows and blast the music out so it could be enjoyed while we baked. I can tell you the years that certain albums were released because I can remember walking back to the dorm hearing them playing. Freshman year was the Beach Boys "Endless Summer", sophomore year was Boz Scagg's "Silk Degrees", and my junior/senior year was "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac.

I needed to ramble and talk about music for a few minutes because I was thrown back in the past by a phone call I had from a woman near Ahoskie who wanted me to come to her house and take a photo of a "tapestry." I was intrigued, of course, and delighted to drive over and find this wall-size hanging of needlepoint panels that this woman's aunt had done of their family history. It was being passed down in the family from the Ahoskie home where it had lived for many years to another member of the family many states away and my photo was to be a remembrance for its current owner. The historian, the photographer, the "needlepointer" and the Carole King fan in me all combined to make this a completely enjoyable job. By the way, I have a take a moment here to savor another wonderful memory. I learned to needlepoint when I was about 12 years old at Camp Rainbow in the NC mountains and coincidentally my teacher/counselor was the talented Cheryl Martin from Conway.

So, the tapestry has traveled from his old home to its new one and the photos I took remain in Ahoskie. It also comes to mind what is always wonderful about being a photographer in a small town. You can specialize if you're a photographer in a city somewhere. You can choose to do only weddings or babies or fashion or commercial. In a rural area and around the small towns of NC and VA where I work, it's a surprise every week to see what calls I'll get. Some weeks I may have lots of babies or brides to photograph or it may be a week of framing and matting followed by a wedding or a commercial shoot. It keeps me on my toes and I like it that way. Because, you see . . .

"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue . . ."

For the Long Haul

You've all heard me go on and on (probably too much) about history and how seriously I take the fact that I'm preserving a family's history when I photograph them. I take it as an equally serious responsibility to preserve the photographs that we've taken here at Conway Photo as carefully as I can. I was reminded of this responsibility this week when one of my customers picked up a photo she had ordered from a sitting that had been done several years ago. This lady told me that her son didn't think it would be possible to replace this missing photo because surely we didn't keep our negatives and files that long. She told him that she knew Mr. Hedspeth and she knew better and, sure enough, we replaced her photo. In fact, this week alone I've had photos printed from negatives from a wedding in 1989 as well as this photo of Murfreesboro Baptist Church that was taken in 1991. You can tell a little about the age of this photo by just driving by the church now and seeing how the crepe myrtle trees have grown.

I felt like writing about this simply to say that it is important to me and everyone who has ever worked here to safeguard your past. We have negatives files back to 1947 and I've kept triple backups of all digital files since I switched to digital several years ago. I'm also devoting a great degree of serious consideration to what will happen to these hundreds of thousands of negatives and files when I one day close my doors. I'm not ready by any means to retire yet but I want to plan ahead for that event because I want to find some way to make this treasure trove of local history available to my customers who might want them. Figuring out how to do this is in my 10 year plan right now.

All this being said, I hope you'll let my inner, lecturing schoolteacher come out and share a lesson here. Whether your old negatives and digital files are with a photographer somewhere or in your home, pay attention to how they are being safeguarded. You never know what you or future generations in your family will want from them. We try to be careful here and (knock wood) have survived two fires in the studio through the years and have lost very few negatives. And, if you take lots of photos yourself as many of you do now, do two things for me. Store your negatives carefully and, if you are digital -- BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP your files and store at least one copy of your backup files somewhere else. And, for the sake of future generations who will be faced with a cardboard box of photos and have no idea who that bald baby is in the photo, write on the back of the photo a name and year to identify it.

Sorry for the sermon. I know everyone takes their own job seriously and has a cautionary tale and this is mine.

PPA Imaging in New Orleans

Lots of you already know that Joe and I are recently back from a trip that was a combination conference and vacation. We are both fearful fliers so it takes a lot to get us on a plane, but I really wanted to attend the Professional Photographers of America's Imaging conference in New Orleans. We went two years ago to PPA Imaging in Nashville and, while I am a dedicated and enthusiastic supporter of our state organization (PPNC), my first trip to a national conference really blew my socks off. The New Orleans conference was just as fun and educational as Nashville. The wealth of information at classes from some of the best photographers in the world -- simply overwhelming. And a trade show of exhibitors with all of the newest products. WOW! I'm back with a bag full of goodies and a brain full of ideas so I'm ready to go for whatever comes along.

Of course, we also enjoyed New Orleans as a city. We arrived a couple of days early so we could see the sights before the conference began. Loved the architecture of the city, enjoyed the food and was encouraged to see some of the rebuilding efforts following Katrina. Joe was in "hog heaven" with all the live music. He's someone who actually does hit the bars for the music, not the drinks, and he found plenty in New Orleans.

Since we were braving ourselves to fly anyway, we decided to go to Memphis while we were traveling -- a city we had both wanted to visit for years. This part was strictly vacation so we hit all the sights together. You can't go to Memphis without having a touch of Elvis-mania so we definitely visited Graceland and my music-loving husband had to be pulled kicking and screaming at closing time from the Sun Records studio, the Museum of Rock and Soul and, most especially the Stax Music Museum. I was really surprised by the depth of emotion that our visit to the National Civil Rights Museum brought out in me. It is built into the old Lorraine Motel which was the site of Dr. King's assassination and it actually left me speechless for a few seconds to walk around the corner and find myself looking up at that hotel balcony which was the scene of that famous photograph we've all seen a thousand times. A very emotional and sobering visit.

I took lots of photos, of course, but won't bore you with all of them. I'm sharing a sample which include a a little New Orleans architecture and above-ground cemetery, the house at Chalmette Battlefied (the Battle of New Orleans), the exterior of Graceland and the famous pink Cadillac Elvis bought his mother, and a happy husband on both Beale Street and at the microphone in Sun Studios.

We obviously survived the flights so maybe we'll brave ourselves to do this again. It will be easier for PPA Imaging next year; it's in Atlanta so we can drive if we want to.

History

Many people assume that I majored in photography or art or business in college which would probably have made more sense considering what I have ended up doing. But, I actually majored in history (go Meredith Angels!) and have loved the subject from an early age.

I don't know that I ever got a change to USE my history degree much except that I can play a mean game of Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit but, as I get older, I appreciate the place that photography allows me to play in the history of my clients. I heard a speaker at the PPA Imaging conference in New Orleans who reminded all of us photographers that what we produce becomes the tangible history of a family. We probably have all heard about family events or long-dead relatives and the stories are wonderful, but it's when we're able to hold in our hands a photograph of that person or event that we can better appreciate and understand it.

I am blessed that Conway Photo has been around as long as it has and that my father was a pretty careful keeper of records when he started the business. I have a bulging warehouse with over 50 years of carefully filed negatives and I am now adding to that stacks of back-up disk drives with digital images. When I have free time, it's a pleasure to look through some of these files and delight at the treasures there. And, it's really a pleasure that I can now scan a negative, bring it into Photoshop and many times produce an even better photograph from these files than were originally printed. Through the years we've replaced wedding albums and treasured family photos that were lost in fires and floods and connected people with photos that they didn't know even existed.

Others that appreciate history call in all the time with their requests and it's a great feeling when we can help. I'm called many times during the year for copies of the peanut harvest photos my father made in 1947. So many people who grew up in this area have an appreciation for our agricultural history and it's wonderful that my father had the foresight to create this series of photos.

When my mother died this past year, it was the nicest discovery I could make to find this vacation photo of her and my brother at the Wright Memorial. Though there is no one who can verify it now, I can tell by my brother's age that this must have been the famous trip my parents made to the Outer Banks when my father returned home from Japan after WWII.

Every year I'm asked to work on projects for gifts. This past year I pulled negatives from a 1955 wedding my father photographed to replace the original wedding album which has been lost. I know that was a special package under the Christmas tree.

And, I've already written earlier on Facebook about the special gift that Melissa Meyer asked me to create for her parent's Christmas gift using the negatives from her wedding in 2003 and her parent's wedding in 1976 along with the digital files of her brother's wedding in 2011. The final composite shows four generations of her family and I was as excited to work on it as, hopefully, Debbie and George were to receive it.

You'll excuse me a minute today for reflecting on all this. I have had Melissa and Kevin Meyer much on my mind this weekend, and I know I am joining all of her family and friends in prayers for Hinton's recovery.

Cameras

I've had so many comments and questions about the photo I created using my old cameras so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about each of them. Starting left to right leads you first to my Brownie. I don't think it was bought FOR me so my father must have bought it for some other reason though I don't think he ever used it professionally. I, however, dragged it to summer camp and 4-H meetings and school events for years and I'm betting that it still works great. The second camera is the Crown Graphic -- a monstrously big camera that shot 4x5 sheet film. All of the old B&W photos I've been posting on FB lately were probably taken with this camera and it's also the camera I used at the first wedding I photographed. I always envied my father and brother at weddings back then because they wore suits with pockets large enough to hold film holders and flashbulbs. My dresses didn't have pockets but I got to be pretty adept at shooting and holding a box of flashbulbs under my arm at the same time. The third camera is a twin lens reflex camera and I actually cheated a bit here. I shot with a twin lens camera for years but mine was a Yashica. This camera in the photo was an older model of my father's and I thought it looked better in the photo than my old Yashica. The fourth camera is my Minolta 35mm that saw me through all my years working at the high school. I probably shot hundreds of rolls of B&W film working at Northampton of ball games, clubs, student activities, etc. It was a great little camera and I can't imagine selling it though I haven't used it for a while. The fifth camera is a Hasselblad -- a beautiful single lens camera that I used for weddings and location photos for probably 20 years. I actually used several different single lens cameras during that time -- mostly Bronica and Rollei -- but I pulled out the Hasselblad for this photo. The final camera is one of the Canon digital cameras I use now. I have several digital cameras but I stick with the Canon brand because all of my lenses are compatible. This is probably my favorite lens -- an 85mm, f 1.2 -- just a beautiful, sharp piece of glass. Hope that explains a few of the questions you've asked. The one thing it should definitely explain is the pain in my neck and shoulders from carrying some of these around all these years. Remember to add a flash to most of these and they can get quite heavy. It's why I keep the ibuprofen in my car so I can pop one on the way home after a long wedding.

Degrees of Separation

I feel a little bit like I've been cheating on my blog lately by spending too much time with my Facebook page. What does that say about the state of things anyway?!?

At any rate, it's been a long time since I've posted on my blog but I had something I wanted to share and I knew that I'd never be able to fit it into FB. Facebook forces you into a marvelous economy with words that sometimes doesn't mesh with my Hedspeth talk-iness. Anyone who remembers my father or my Uncle James know that a Hedspeth can talk the hind legs off a billy goat and I know I'm often guilty of that. And, if you know my cousin Jim, you know that this talking thing did NOT skip a generation!

I've always been fascinated by the idea of "Six Degrees of Separation." I'm not sure I completely buy it but I DO believe in what I consider the Southern version of that which is if you put two Southerners in a room together and give them ten minutes, they will find 3 people they know in common. Try it sometimes; it works.

I had a most serendipitous encounter while reading a book by the wonderful North Carolina writer, Marianne Gingher. It's called "A Girl's Life" and is basically about her childhood and growing up in Greensboro. I love her book and was really enjoying this one as I read it because she wrote of so many universal experiences in a young girl's life. As I was reading along and starting a new chapter, my mouth literally dropped open. I don't have the book here with me right now so I can't quote it directly but she starts out by saying that one of the highlights she remembered from her pre-teen years was being asked to be a junior bridesmaid in her distant cousin Billy Jenkins' wedding to Autry Brown in Potecasi, NC. All the locals here in Northampton county know why I was stunned since we probably all know Billy and Autry Jenkins and have driven through the sleepy patch of road that is Potecasi hundreds of times in our lives. My next thunderbolt was in realizing that my father photographed this wedding which means that I have the negatives. A quick tour through the dusty ledger books delivered the precious envelope to me, and I've printed out a few photos from this wedding that show a young girl who I assume is Marianne Gingher. I absolutely love looking at old wedding photographs. Look at all the details that place it in time -- the bridesmaids' hats, the men in white dinner jackets,the tablecloth -- it's all wonderful. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing it, too. And, it was too long to put on Facebook.

Linley

I had so much fun with Linley Johnson when I did her bridal session at NC State. I had never even been to State's arboretum and it was beautiful with lots of places to take photos. But, we really had fun when we hit the Free Expression tunnel on campus. We didn't even try and avoid the pedestrians and skateboarders; we just used them in the shots as they whizzed by. Thankfully, Linley was not obsessed with keeping her dress spotless so we had a great time challenging each other with what we could do next. The composite photo from the tunnel is mine for the studio and Linely has a gorgeous portrait from the arboretum for her wall. All those tunnel shots were just screaming out to me for a video so it's included here.