continuing my portrait series of ‘progressive’ or do-good folks in south east ohio, which isn’t so much on the blog I guess.

Paul Strauss owns Equinox Botanicals and is a farmer, herbalist, botanist, you name it.
His back story is really interesting and is immediately more interesting to me than a picture but I’m trying to make good portraits nonetheless.
Paul dropped out of school at 16 and left NYC where he was born and raised, did some soul searching on the west coast and new mexico, and ended up in appalachian ohio where he has been for about 30 years.
Asking how he ended up here … “I was leaving Taos, New Mexico and some people that picked me up when I was hitchhiking told me about the area and the variety of plant life it has” He checked it out and was sold. I asked him if he had ever read works by Carlos Castaneda. He smiled …”I read every book by the time I was 21, and you can bet I tried every plant in those books as well.”

He’s got more than 1000 acres in the rural town of Rutland and a nice cave and waterfall to boot. As he will say though “The land has him, he doesn’t have the land”
The whole time we were walking down to the waterfall I wondered if it was really a good idea to be bringing a battery pack and softbox, lightstands, my camera that isn’t even paid for, and mini speedlights down into this slippery, steep madness.

Either way I walked away with nothing broken, just a muddy softbox, and I actually got some nice photos I think.

As I shot this I was trying to not get overwhelmed by the beauty and expanse of the scene and still make the light look ok on Paul while inside the cave. I kept bumping my head on the ceiling in there as well, and am pretty sure my head is full of dirt now. I was also standing next to the rusty remains of a bed frame that a convict who escaped from a nearby mental institution lived on in the ’30′s. He was there two years.

Not sure if the portrait really does any of this justice, but anyways I had a good time and worked out of my comfort zone, so the day’s not a loss. I am always so appreciative of folks like Paul because unlike documentary photography, which I do more of, he actually has to take time out of his day to work with me in making a portrait, as opposed to just letting me hang out and take photos of daily life. This is something you where you have to stop working, take time out of your day, and sit in front of a camera … for a kid in class. This isn’t gonna be published or promote your business or anything. People like him are volunteers and I’m the beneficiary. Hopefully they like talking with me and like the pictures so they get something to .. but anyways…

On a side note, I was late getting to Paul’s place because I didn’t understand quite how ‘out there’ it was … and my tank was running near empty with no time to stop. Not that, for the last 30 minutes of my drive, there was even a station to fill up at. Luckily, as I pulled out of his driveway with my tank even closer to empty and the light on telling me things were about to get dire, especially with my cell phone giving me no “Bars” … yea it’s even Cingular what the hell? Aren’t I supposed to be connected like EVERYWHERE?”), that little gas light stayed on for another 30 minutes and my lil’ Saaby kept on moving through the green hills of springtime in Appalachia with nary a sputter. So I reached a little town, I pulled into a Marathon, bought some liquid gold cocaine (or gas, whatever), hopped on the highway and made it home. Tomorrow I should be able to make a picture without having to drive anywhere …. could be nice.