Ciderfest 2007

Hello Friends,
Today on the menu we have a visit to Ciderfest 2007.

Ciderfest is a gathering of friends in Strafford Vt on Columbus day weekend. The gathering was started around 2000 by my good friends Mat and Ethan as a chance to catch up and hang out with old and new friends. The organizers Mat, Ethan, Allison and a few other folks start on Thursday with setup of the outdoor cooking area, building of the dance floor and preparing the cider press. Mid day on Friday more people start to show up and by the end of the weekend there have been maybe as many as 150 people coming and going.

During the weekend there is: contra dancing, a tango workshop, waltzing and more to the music of the Ciderfest Band.



The cooking and eating of good food from the Ciderfest Kitchen.





Good ol' hangout time around the campfire, with a good game, or jamming with friends.






There are also a few other things we have on the schedule.

• Apple cider pressing
• Apple fritters during the Saturday evening contra dance
  
• The Sunday morning hike and group photo
• The Ultimate Frisbee game and the dip in the pond after
• Enjoy a beautiful fall weekend with friends

Well friends that's all for now, I'll see you all soon.
~will


P.S. Katura, I made a well liked Chocolate Stout Cake. Which said to wisk the cocoa into the Stout, why??

Working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Co.

Good Monday to you all,
As some of you know I work doing lighting, sound and technical support for theater and this week I was working on a performance by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. Merce Cunningham started choreographing modern dance in the early forty's and is considered by some to be greatest living modern Dance choreographer. It was great to see him working with the dancers and sitting offstage during the performances in his wheelchair. He is now 88, but the love of dance is still very much alive in him. At points he would lift himself up off his wheelchair and dance a little with a smile on his face.


The dancers where AGMA Union and under their contract there wasn't any photography allowed so I only got a few photos and I didn't take any of dancers in a way that they could be recognized.

Backstage during the show.

Backstage during the show as well.

One more backstage shot.

I was playing around with my camera and light (I seem to do that a lot) and used a string of blue rope lights that where used to light the up stage crossover to make this image.

Blue rope light aka "Ethereal Blue"

This shot is of the boom lights. Boom lights are lights mounted horizontally on vertical pipes on the sides of the stage used to light the sides of the dancers. Usually there are three lights on a pipe one at about shin hight, one around four feet and one around six to nine feet. The shins are used to light only the dancers and are cut off the floor, it makes the dancers appear to float in space, the Mids help to define the shape of the body and give it depth and the Head Highs do much the same as the Mids but with a different effect because they are pointing down to as much as a thirty degree angle.

Inversed boom lights.

After seeing the dancing in this show I can't wait to get out and dance soon.
I hope you all got a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather we had this past week, high eighty's and bright sun, fall colors... Good stuff. I was stuck in the theater for most of it, but I did get a little sun yesterday at Ciderfest. More about Ciderfest soon. Enjoy life,
~will

Gile Mountain

Hi Everyone,
It's been a busy couple of weeks of both work and photography. I have for you today a set of photos from a hike I did up Gile Mountain two weeks ago. I spent the afternoon strolling up the mountain looking for hidden gems where the light fell. I got to the top and climbed the old fire tower and spent the three hours till sunset eating my picnic dinner and playing with light. The sunset was at 7:57 with a series of bursts of color, some of which you see below. My god-father Brown, his wife Cyn and my brother Del joined me in the tower just after sunset and we hung out talking till it was dark. We then made our way down the mountain by flashlight and the sounds of night things.

That's all for now, enjoy!
~will

The trail on the way up Gile Mountain.

One of the jems in the afternoon light.

Birches on the trail.

Ferns lining the trail.

Fungus on a tree.

Maple leaves turning red.

As the sun was setting.

Just after the sun set.

About fifteen minutes after sunset.