by the Artist
On a subzero Saturday morning last weekend, the Carpenter and I met the homeowner at the Bald Eagle Barn https://www.applewoodremodelers.com/baldeagle-barn project. I needed to take a photo of the guys for an upcoming White Bear Press article (hats off to Shannon Riley who wrote a beautiful story) featuring the barn build.
Saturday was at the tail end of the some of the coldest weather we have experienced in many years. We arrived a little early to prepare. I asked the Carpenter to set up one of the kerosene heaters to position directly in front of the guys. (I envisioned hours of photoshop work to fix red faces) He thought it was a crazy idea. But it worked. I came close a couple of times to backing into the flame and melting my snow pants! (hey all for a good shot!)
It took some time to get the lighting and best locations figured out. We had to make due with small spot lights on saw horses.
When we were ready I sent the Carpenter to retrieve the homeowner who had been outside snow blowing his driveway. He came in and said… “I’m just sweating” He proceeded to take his coat off and he was steaming! Clouds of vapors surrounded him. All the years I’ve lived in MN I have never seen that. I thought.. “oh no!” This is a photo challenge I haven’t run into before! Well he put his coat back on, jauntily wrapped a warm scarf around his neck and was good to go. No more steam thank goodness!
After almost one frigid hour I had a good photo. The homeowner was a lot of fun to work with. He has good energy. The Carpenter was a bit stiff.. but then it was so very cold!
Anyway… we got it done and ended up celebrating that night with the homeowner and his lovely wife at a nice place in downtown White Bear Lake. We had a great time getting to know each other and talking about the project and how wonderful it had turned out.
It was a good end to a good day, and what has turned out to be a wonderful project for us and the homeowners. We are blessed. And we have new friends!
You can read the article by clicking here– https://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/news/wright-was-right-form-and-function-fuel-design/article_271abfe2-2fbb-11e9-bf4a-6779106af3be.html Or if you are local it will be in the 2/13/19 White Bear Lake paper edition.
