Short Picture Stories from Noble Coast Photography

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Cameo Appearance

The first documented cameo carving dates back to 350 BC. Early cameos were worn by royalty in Greece and Italy and usually carved from a variety of gem stones. Eventually the cameo became a popular jewelry piece within the Roman Empire. With that, the cameo craftsman started to carve cameos from glass and less precious hard stones. It was in the 15th and 16th centuries that shells started to be used to create jewelry cameo carvings. Large conch shells were imported from all over the world to become Italian fine art jewelry. In the mid 1800's Queen Victoria of England forever popularized the cameo as it became her favorite jewelry.

Even today cameos are a popular jewelry piece found in many personal collections. In Italy, you can still find artists carving shells into beautiful cameos. The modern Italian cameo artist uses the same assortment of small hand chisels and files that have been used for centuries to create their jewelry from the hard sea shells.

During a visit to Pompeii, Italy I had the pleasure to meet and watch 70 year old Saverio work his artistry on some shells. In his broken English, Saverio told me he has been a cameo artist since his teen age years and some of his tools are older than he is. While one of Saverio's heavily calloused hands held the shell, his other hand chiseled the relief image to produce a beautifully detailed work of art.

Thank you for viewing the blog and have a great week!

John

Web: www.noblecoastphotography.com

Phone: 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotography@gmail.com

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Home Grown

During the first half of the 20th century communities in the United States established "Victory Gardens" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden. The Victory Garden was a private or community vegetable garden planted and harvested to reduce demands on the country's resources during the war years. In 1943 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House grounds. The Victory Garden movement proved successful as more than 20 million home gardens supplied 40% of the produce consumed in the United States. Many things changed after the end of World War II and the White House Victory Garden was replaced with green lawn. The Clintons brought back the idea of a White House vegetable garden. This effort was mainly resigned to potted plants on the roof of the White House because the White house grounds were deemed too formal for a full vegetable garden. Since then, with the many benefits of a home vegetable garden now rejuvenated in public opinion, the Obamas have planted the largest White House vegetable garden on the south lawn.

As vegetable gardens have made a comeback at the White House, so have they in many private homes all over the United States. It has been reported that the demand for vegetable seeds is up 22% since 2008. Because of economic and environmental reasons, the number of homes planting a vegetable, fruit and or a herb garden is growing at an approximate 10% rate per year! For the people who don't have room in their backyard or don't have a backyard, a community garden is often the answer. Today's community gardens are usually managed by a professional staff and sometimes require a membership fee to join. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/

The number of families planting a summer vegetable garden continues to grow every year. And why not? People are looking for healthy organic alternatives to what they find at the local supermarket. Whatever the reason, the increasingly popular home vegetable garden can provide families with local grown fresh vegetables and a healthy safe source of food. Anyone want any tomatoes?

Thank you for viewing the blog and have a great week!

John

Web: www.noblecoastphotgraphy.com

Phone: 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotography@gmail.com

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

An Evening with the North Mississipi Allstars

The Neighborhood Theatre http://www.neighborhoodtheatre.com/ located in the funky arts district of NODA http://www.noda.org/ of Charlotte, NC http://charmeck.org/Pages/default.aspx continues to impress with great music acts at some of the most reasonable ticket prices around. I went to see the North Mississipi Allstars http://www.nmallstars.com/ put on one of their fun jamming shows and they proceeded to blow away the audience.

The band is composed of brothers Luther Dickson on guitar, Cody Dickson playing drums and bassist Chris Chew. The trio have been playing their rootsey blues themed music together since 1996. All three of the musicians have had side projects since forming the North Mississipi Allstars. Most notably, Luther has been playing lead guitar for the Black Crowes while Cody and Chris are part of the Hill Country Revue. Luther and Cody are sons of the late legendary Memphis music producer Jim Dickinson. Jim Dickson introduced his sons to the sounds of country blues at a young age and the Memphis blues influence is present in many of their songs. The band's most recent album, Keys to the Kingdom http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Kingdom-North-Mississippi-Allstars/dp/B004GX18OO is a tribute to Jim Dickson.

Thanks for viewing the blog and have great week!

John

Web: www.noblecoastphotography.com

Phone: 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotgraphy@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Smallest "Boys of Summer"

Although the first organized baseball game was played in 1846, it wasn't until 1938 that Carl Stotz created a baseball league for children. Today, Little League Baseball http://www.littleleague.org/Little_League_Online.htm is the world's largest organized youth sports program. Not only is Little League Baseball being played in all 50 states, kids in more than 80 countries are playing Little League Baseball. The basic goal of Little League Baseball remains as Carl Stotz intended; give children a game that provides the fundamental principles of sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork.

At a T Ball Little League game you will get a chance to see the youngest baseball players learn all about "America's Pastime". As Dads coach and pitch to the players, you will hear Moms and siblings cheer on the future major league stars! The Little League organization in Cornelius, NC http://www.cornelius.org/ has some great coaches and along with the beautifully manicured baseball fields, these little guys get to feel like Derek Jeter for a day!

Thanks for viewing the blog and have a great week!

John

Web: www.noblecoastphotography.com

Phone: 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotography@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Tuscan Beauty

Traveling through the country sides of Italy you get to see many small towns that offer unique charms. San Gimignano is located 35 miles south of Florence in the beautiful Tuscany region of Italy. The town is enclosed within the many towers and walls that were built up during a time of good fortune, 1100 - 1300 ad. The cultivation of saffron contributed to much of the early prosperity in San Gimignano. Still today, the naturally produced saffron from San Gimignano is considered the best in the world. Vernaccia wine is another local specialty being produced at the vineyards from this area. The dry white Vernaccia wine is recognized as one of Italy's highest quality white wines.

The old towers and walls of San Gimignano provide a unique skyline for visitors and it's 7,100 residents. Quiet narrow cobble stone streets bring you to views of beautiful country side vineyards and homes with laundry hanging from their open windows. The variety of country side vistas along with the 12th century architecture create extraordinary beauty.

Thanks for viewing the blog and have great week!

John

Web: www.noblecoastphotography.com

Phone: 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotography @gmail.com

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Early Birds

A great thing about living on beautiful Lake Norman http://www.visitlakenorman.org/, in Denver, NC http://www.denvernc.com/index.html is waking to the many sounds of nature. Every morning we hear a choir of birds chirping for their breakfast. In addition to small mockingbirds, sparrows, cardinals, finch, and blue jays we see and hear blue heron, mallard, owls, and some very loud red tailed hawks. When you see these birds make their nest, feed and care for their young you begin to realize how many creatures are sharing their small world with us.

The non profit Carolina Raptor Center http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/ is located in nearby Huntersville, NC http://www.huntersville.org/ . The Carolina Raptor Center is a place where injured and orphaned birds of prey are rehabilitated and then released back into their natural habitat. The Raptor Center is home to over 23 species of raptors and is one of the only centers in the Southeast that cares for the American Bald Eagle. Over 700 orphaned raptors are brought to the Carolina Raptor Center for a chance to grow and fly free.

I had the opportunity to do some nature photography at the Raptor Center and I was able to get up close and personal with some of the beautiful residents.

As always, thanks for viewing the blog and best wishes for a great week!

John

Web: http://www.noblecoastphotography.com/#

Phone 704 905 9403

Email: noblecoastphotography@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Back to the Blog!

It's been a while since the last blog, and my apologies for the inactivity. However I've got lots of news to share with all of you!

First, we've introduced a new Noble Coast Photography logo, courtesy of Lucander Design, https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lucander-Design/106829236110126 . Nils Lucander is the owner and the genius behind Lucander Design. I've known Nils for about 15 years and during that time Nils has helped me with a variety of marketing, graphic design and advertising projects. Nils always provides me with high impact marketing work that deliver results. I call Nils my "home run hitter" for marketing!

Here's the new logo, like it?

Some other news is that Noble Coast Photography is now working with new computer hardware and software systems. David Iannnarelli of Iannarelli Photography helped me spec out and create a state of the art "digital darkroom". I'm enjoying learning my way around the new computer and working with the new software. The new "digital darkroom" is certainly delivering some beautiful photographs for everyone. If you need some help with graphic computer systems, David aka: "The Digital Guru" is the guy! iannarelliphoto@mindspring.com

One other bit of news is the opening of the Noble Coast Photography home studio. I can now handle most any studio photo work. I've been doing some portrait photography and product photography at the home studio and it's been great being able to work in my own studio setting.