"We Got One ..."

So I'm working on this story series for the Morning News about the origins of Thanksgiving.  Part one was on the history of it -- it's not what you think -- and in subsequent parts, I wanted to challenge two of the chefs who do cooking features on the show to cook a period Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, in the days before industrial scale turkey farms, it turns out that the main course was often whatever you could get, and that meant venison was a big part of the typical meal.  But where to get venison for the chefs to work with?

Fortunately, I live in a small town in Southwest Virginia, where deer hunting is more than just a recreation for people; it's a social right of passage and a centerpiece of one's autumn life.  Newcomers quickly learn to not schedule work in November, when just about everyone is to be found in the woods rather than on the job site.  I don't hunt myself (frankly, I don't have the time), but some friends of friends were willing to let me have what I needed for my story.

On Thursday evening we got the call: "We got one!"  Black powder season had just begun, and Travis Patterson had wasted no time getting his first buck.  He wasn't too happy about the rack -- one antler was damaged or stunted; he thought maybe it had caught it on a fence at some point -- but it certainly served my purposes.  So while they patiently accepted my photography and ignorant questions, they dressed the deer and handed over a haunch and both ribs for me to take to the chef.

That's Travis on the right, and his brother Dennis on the left.  Bryce Patterson, 13, Dennis' son is in the middle.  Not long before, Bryce had gotten his own deer in bow season, shooting it within 15 minutes of going out ... to the annoyance and amusement of the adults.

Bryce holds the front hooves to keep the legs out of the way while the others work underneath the shoulder.

The light shines through the hole where the bullet -- a .50 caliber, Travis said -- hit.

Dennis works to provide me with the cuts I needed.  In the end, there is little that goes to waste.  Travis speculated that, rather than mounting the imperfect head, he might have it stripped to a skull trophy.

Shave for the Brave

https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/9105/2014

Restoring the 611 ...

 

https://www.facebook.com/Fireup611

Interview on House Mountain

About Leicas Again ...

At Photokina -- always a thrilling time, along with the Perpignan Visa pour l'image festival at about the same time each year -- Leica is announcing a range of items.  However, one caught my attention in particular: the new Leica S (Type 007).

The new Type007, next to its predecessor, the 006, which will still be produced as a more economical (a relative term in the $20,000 range) version of the camera.

I've not mention the S (or S2, as it was named when first introduced in 2009) because it's spectacularly expensive, involves a whole new lens system (also spectacularly expensive) and is aimed at studio photographers who would be transferring from the (also very expensive) medium-format film and digital systems from, say, Hasselblad.

But now, it comes with video ... which is interesting.  4K video.  As the link above, from the Leica Forum says: "The information from Wetzlar is a little bit sketchy, it’s not clear if the 4k video resolution comes from the complete sensor of only a limited sensor area.


"If this is an interesting option for the target group of professional photographers – I don’t know. And if professional film makers are interested in a 20,000 € photo camera for medium format shooting? We’ll see…"


Me, I'm uncertain why a "cinematographer" (irony quotes to indicate my doubts whether a title originally geared to describe people shooting film in big cameras like the old Mitchell applies to someone capturing HD video in a DSLR) would drop four times the money he could spend on, say, a Canon D7 Mark II to buy this.  The video had better be really spectacular.

But, being the huge Leica fanboy that I am, I really hope it is ...

The Memphis Belle

The B-17 used in the movie "The Memphis Belle" came to Roanoke Airport on Labor Day, and we were given a chance to fly in her along with several veterans who actually flew B-17s in World War II.  Of course, it made a nice story ...

Though hot, it was a beautiful day on the airfield, with a stunning sky of perfect clouds for photography.

Before the flight, the veterans gathered in the shade under the wings, where we had a chance to interview them.

Jeff Baker was a waist gunner, handling a .50 caliber Browning like the one behind him, for 28 missions.

Leo LaCasse, a pilot, made a career of the Air Force, despite injuries from frostbite at high altitude.  Now 94, a retired Brigadier General, he has since lost full use of his legs.

The civilian, volunteer co-pilot looks for traffic as we cruise over Roanoke.

During the flight, one vet demonstrated how he used the Morse key on the plane's radio.

A dummy 500 lb. bomb in the bomb bay reminds us what the Memphis Belle's main mission was 70 years ago.  To the right of the bomb, a narrow catwalk to get from the main part of the fuselage to the cockpit.

Flint Knapping

This actually happened back on July 19, but the flag rally seemed more urgent to edit ...

A group gathers annually at House Mountain, outside of Lexington, to learn, study and generally share their interest in knapping -- the method by which ancient man made tools and weapons, flaking small chips of stone off a bigger rock until a razor edge is developed.  We spent some time with them, talking, learning and generally enjoying the event and the atmosphere ...

 

Of course, if you make an arrowhead, you need an arrow and a bow.  People were also handcrafting those, as well as spears and spear-throwers ...

And finally, we of course had to get involved .

Her handiwork ...

150 Years Ago ...

During the Civil War, on this day in 1864, Union miners were tunneling under Confederate trenches in Petersburg, Virginia.  They would pack the tunnel with explosives, creating one of the more memorable moments in a war full of them, the "Battle of the Crater."

In Lexington -- about 160 miles west and 150 years later -- there's not really a battle so much as a testy debate.  Washington and Lee University -- the final home, job and resting place of Robert E. Lee -- decided recently to remove the Confederate battle flags that had been displayed around a sculpture of the Southern leader in Lee Chapel, the location of his tomb.  The move came after a protest letter from a group of law students at the university, a letter that contained a number of other demands, most of which were aimed at reducing the near-saintly status of Lee at the institution.

This brought out protesters, inspired by an ongoing battle over the flag and its display in Lexington.

A rally like that is something I could not resist as a photographer.

Living historian David Chaltas, who does an interpretation of Lee ("I won't speak as Lee here," he told me, gesturing to indicate Lexington), was one of a number of speakers, most from the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  He explained that he had ancestors on both sides of the war.  "I'm equally proud of both."

Brandon Dorsey, commander of the local SCV chapter that organized the rally, acted as the master of ceremonies.


"It's not about a few flags in a small chapel in Lexington, Virginia," said another speaker, Frank Earnest, a past commander of the SCV Virginia Division, in a quote that summarized for me why many were willing to turn out for the rally.  "They want to change the whole structure of the United States of America."

Wayne Jones, who passed me his card after I shot this portrait, describing himself "in the persona of JEB (James Ewell Brown) Stuart."

I left the rally, proceeding in its amiable way, to return home for lunch.  Such is the way of protest in Lexington ...

Draw, Mister

We went to the Virginia State Championships for the Cowboy Fast Draw Association on Friday ...

Some of the very nicest and most welcoming people I have ever encountered.