Big Little Tennis Star
I discovered 4-year-old Greta Jennison taking tennis lessons at the Middlebury Recreation Department’s tennis courts in 2010. She was so small, especially compared to her instructor Bob Crystal. I assumed one of my usual positions, down on the ground, to emphasize the size difference.
Hello Governor!
After Jim Douglas became Vermont’s Governor in 2003, he still lived in Middlebury because Vermont doesn’t have an official Governor’s residence. When he and his wife Dorothy marched in Middlebury’s 2010 Memorial Day parade, they were hometown favorites. I like this photo because the Governor seems as happy to see the crowd as they do to see him!
Water Sports
Middlebury’s Mary Johnson Children’s Center became a regular stop for me when I was looking for a fun standalone photograph. Here I found two 5-year-old boys, Chris Clark and Sean Martin, playing with balls and a water chute. My shooting position, down on the ground, was beneficial for capturing their excited expressions.
Memorial Day March
Civil War reenactors march in Orwell’s Memorial Day parade in 2010. The angle of the marchers enabled me to include their faces and the faces of the viewers on the side of the road. I am happy to include this photo as I rarely got to the Orwell parade due to my very busy Memorial Day weekend schedule.
Water Commute
Mike Sweeney, who drove the Addison Independent delivery van, lived across the lake in New York in 2009 when the Champlain Bridge was deemed unsafe and was closed. Before the state provided ferry service at the site, Mike got creative and used a small rowboat to commute to and from work. I squeezed into his tiny boat one afternoon to get his portrait.
Retired
Albert Gatow retired from the Waltham Selectboard in 2003, and he was interviewed in his home in anticipation of the solemn occasion. To me, this photo captured a quiet moment in a man’s eventful life.
From Head to Toe
George Smith, who operated the Bristol Town Dump Weigh Station, laughed out loud when I suggested he was bigger than his tiny office. He stretched his body across the width of the office, and I snapped his photo. A laughing face is captivating.
Dog Demo
Ed Blechner ran a demonstration of his sled dogs at Middlebury’s Chili Fest in 2010, and a delighted crowd gathered on the town green to watch. I was drawn to the multitude of faces and expressions, including those of the dogs.
Portrait with Ladder
Winston Howe, an apple picker from Jamaica, was happy to pose with his apple sack and ladder at Sunshine Orchard in Cornwall in 2003. I’ve always liked ladders and their interesting angles and was happy to include one in this portrait.
Calf Whisperer
Britney Hill waits with her calf for the start of her peewee class at the show arena at Field Days in 2002. It’s such a tender moment, one similarly displayed by dozens of other young farmers at Field Days, that I was very pleased to capture it.
Roger Layn
At Field Days in 2010, a new antique farm equipment building was dedicated to farmer Roger Layn. I arranged to meet him at the building, and it only took a few moments for him to present to me his wonderfully stoic, yet mischievous, gaze.
A Day at the Fair
For years, my paper’s advertising director had pleaded that I capture a single image that showed both the agricultural side and the fun side of Field Days. I finally found the shot in 2004 when I spotted two girls walking their calf past the show arena with the Midway’s Ferris wheel rising in the background. They walked along at just the right moment as I waited with this composition in my viewfinder. My advertising director was pleased!
Ruth Stone
Ruth Stone was an author and poet living in Addison County. In the winter of 2002 when I arrived to photograph her, she was sitting with her feet over a heat vent hoping to get warm. Wanting a natural moment, I asked her to stay where she was, and I snapped away. To me, the humanness of the moment demanded black and white, so I converted the original color file. The original had too many light sources to provide a good color balance, and black and white also put more emphasis on Stone’s resting face.
Man Overboard
One day in August of 2003, after looking many times, I finally spotted a young man jumping off the rock above the pool below Bartlett Falls in Bristol. He was jumping from the outcrop seen in the lower right of the photograph, and the few images I got did not really excite me as I viewed them on the back of the camera. Then I heard a voice to my left call out, “Hey Trent!” I turned and saw Skylar Atkins, who I had known from his days as a student athlete at Mount Abraham, standing on a long flat rock in the middle of the river above the falls. “You got fast film in that camera?” he asked. Not wanting to explain the details of shooting digitally, I simply said, “Sure.” “Get ready,” he said, and then he took a few steps back on the rock. I raised my camera, and he took a running start and then dove out over the falls and into the pool below. I took several shots and just hoped they were in focus. After seeing that they were, I noticed the group of three kids watching in the upper right corner. I think they, along with Skylar’s perfect form, really make the photograph.
Full Attention
In January of 2013 Middlebury College students presented their work with Lego robots to a large group of kids and adults in Bicentennial Hall. The Science Center has an enormous glass wall that provides great light. I got down to table level to better include a spectator and a robot in the same composition, and I fired away. 5-year-old Juliette Hunsdorfer provided the face of wonderment.
Drivers on Display
For safety reasons and because of the standing room only crowd, I was always confined to the small announcer’s box at the Demolition Derby at Field Days every year. At the 2009 event, I leaned out the open window of the box and saw a group of drivers awaiting their turn to kick up some mud and cause some destruction on the track. I liked the expressive anticipation of this group.
Future Farmer of America
Driving through New Haven in April of 2004 I spotted 2-year-old Palmer Guthrie on his toy tractor. I quickly turned the car around, and thankfully found his mother outside with him. She allowed me to take some photographs, so I laid down on the ground, my frequent position for my work, and snapped away. This Future Farmer of America was very serious about his play.
The Music Woman
I'm a big fan of musical theater. In 2009, when I found out Town Hall Theater Executive Director Doug Anderson was about to stage one of my favorite shows, The Music Man, I asked him if I could document the production. I attended at least one rehearsal a week and produced many interesting and fun photographs (and met my future wife). I especially liked shooting in the rehearsal studio with its wall of mirrors which allowed me to get both sides of a scene. Here, Music Director Lindi Bortney works with the barbershop quartet of Glenn Andres, Frank Wright, Jeff Wulfman, and Christopher Diehl-Noble.
Lunch Hour
I was at Ferrisburgh Central School in October of 2003 doing a story on the school’s hot lunch program when I turned away from the kitchen and looked across the gymnasium/cafeteria. Bright sunlight was streaming in, and it beautifully illuminated angelic kindergartner Emily LaLumiere as she went through her lunch and laughed with her friends.
From Shine to Wine
At New Haven’s Lincoln Peak Winery one day in September of 2010, I was lucky enough to catch Erich Marn cleaning out a fermenting tank. I used a ladder to look down on his work. The polished interior of the tank reflected his face in multiple ways and made an image of an ordinary, everyday chore into something more interesting.
Watching Ewe
Sheep have faces too, and they can even be very expressive. Here, a group of sheep on the Thompson/Duclos farm in Weybridge eye me suspiciously as I poke through some shrubs to get a shot of them and their sprawling barn which was a great photographic subject in itself.
Opening Day
New York and Vermont held an opening ceremony for the new Champlain Bridge in November of 2011. For the ceremony I was corralled in a small space on the bleachers with other members of the press. There wasn't much to do but wait for the Governor and other dignitaries to take the stage and make remarks. I looked up and saw a group of Vermont construction workers walking across the bridge heading to the ceremony. I bumped elbows with other photographers as I quickly raised my camera and took one of my favorite photos of that year. The strong lines of the handsome bridge along with the determined looks from the workers make this image stand out.
Beeman Welcome
Over the years I attended several naturalization ceremonies hosted in the Beeman Elementary School gymnasium. In 2014 a group of schoolkids stood and sang during the ceremony to welcome the new citizens. The black curtain and the American flag made a perfect backdrop for these fresh-faced kids caught in a patriotic moment.
The Porker Heels
The Platt Memorial Library in Shoreham was planning a summer of 2011 “Kiss a Pig” Fundraiser. In February they selected the piglet that would become the lucky pig that would get kissed. Organizer Kathleen Hescock took the piglet (Runty the Porker) out for a walk after a snowstorm. I assumed my frequent position on the ground so I could get both Hescock and the piglet's face in the same shot. Fortunately, Hescock and Runty expressed the levity of the moment.