Truro Part 2
Great Pond, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Previously on this newsletter I had spent a wild weekend shooting at a waterfall, slipping and busting my tailbone, shooting a mellow wedding with a sore butt, then hopping into a rental car to drive to Cape Cod to do a workshop on photographing forms in nature at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. The workshop was fun. The artists I worked alongside were very diverse in their approaches. The themes we explored - basically trying to take on different perspectives while photographing nature, were very similar to what I was exploring with my thesis work in college. It was right up my alley. We all discussed different artists and different methods, and we took two long hikes in the area to take pictures and discuss heady things.
Great Pond, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Our first trip was to Great Pond in Wellfleet (as opposed to Great Pond in Truro or Great Pond in Provincetown). These guys love their ponds! I had no idea that ponds were such a big deal on Cape Cod. For one thing, they are an important part of the cranberry harvesting that they are famous for, but I also think locals let the tourists have the beaches and keep their ponds to themselves. They basically trade the tourists for a whole lot of mosquitos and great white sharks for snapping turtles.
Our second excursion was to The Dune Shack Trail in Provincetown. This trail leads through massive dunes to a secluded stretch of beach with a bunch of old shacks along the trail built in the early 20th century out of wood gathered from numerous shipwrecks along the coast in that area. Shifting shoals and sandbars in the cape make the coastline really dangerous, and these shacks initially housed workers to assist any shipwrecks right away. Then in the 20s, after the shacks had been abandoned they were purchased by a group of artists and writers to serve as an artist colony. Notable people who spent time at these shacks include Jack Kerouac, e.e. cummings, Norman Mailer, and Jackson Pollock. It should come as a surprise to no one that the shacks are now renovated and are crummy vacation rentals through Vrbo. Instert poop emoji.
Dune Shack Trail, Provincetown, Massachusetts
We took a long version of the trail, which made the whole hike close to 5 miles roundtrip, and it was the middle of the day, the absolute worst time of day to trek across some gnarly dunes, so it was fun but excruciating and my tailbone definitely let me know how bad of an idea it was. We barely saw any of the actual shacks, but it was nice to jump into the ocean at the end to cool off.
The only shack I saw
Instead of resting my sore butt that night I agreed to photograph a nice couple and the horses they were taking care of. It was a fun shoot and I love the photos but driving back to my room I had a bit of a realization that I'm pushing myself too hard. I was basically on vacation, but what did I do? I gave myself extra work. In addition to the workshop, going out to make work for the workshop, and this extra portrait session I also took numerous client meetings and booked three 2023 weddings on this trip. It's kind of silly.
Max and Amanda and their horses, North Truro, Massachusetts
Last night in town, Longnook Beach, Truro, Massachusetts
At the end of the workshop we all designed zines of the work we made and said awkward goodbyes and made promises to stay in touch. People lingered a little bit but I bounced out of there as fast as I could. I was spent. The zine came out cool but of course, it's hard to make a cohesive, well-thought out body of work in a couple of days so I'm not comfortable sharing it right now. I will retool it next month and share it with the public.
It was a good trip, I visited so many beaches and ponds, found cool, ultra-rare photobooks, met some cool people, had some good smoothies from BOL in Wellfleet, and had zero other good food. Honestly, I had so many disappointing meals that week. The vegan food in Cape Cod might deserve it's own newsletter. On my way out of town I stopped by an interesting looking place that had good reviews. I ordered an $18 vegan burger to-go and when I opened it up I CACKLED because it was served on AN ENGLISH MUFFIN. Like, a small, grocery store, Thomas's english muffin. It also had one END slice of tomato and probably THREE HANDFULS of arugula. It was hilarious. If you are going to charge more than $10 for a burger, vegan or otherwise, you better be using some fancy-ass bread.
I came home Friday night and then Monday morning drove out to Brunswick, Maine for a nice little wedding at The Brunswick Hotel. I feel so lucky to be able to shoot and celebrate everyone's love, but same-sex weddings feel even more important these days amidst all sorts of supreme court terribleness. The couple I shot on Saturday highlighted this by having Justice Anthony Kennedy's statement on gay marriage read aloud. It was one of the most powerful moments I've witnessed at a wedding, and I've seen a lot. So many tears.
Yale+Mace wedding, Brunswick, Maine
So this is all kind of messy. I've been working a little bit too hard to really focus on making good newsletters. I have an easier schedule in August so I'm confident that I'll have better things to talk about in here than complaining about burgers.
This week my family is moving into a new apartment and I'm shooing in Wayne, Maine, a town I didn't know existed until I booked a wedding there. Should be an adventure! Thank you for reading.