While having dinner the other night with friends, old and new, I mentioned I was a Photographer.  At that statement someone at the end of the table asked for a card…they had two friends in a desperate situation.  Their friends, a  newly engaged couple had only two more days before they would be once again separated by the great big Atlantic ocean. “Do you think you could possibly take their Engagement photos?”

Once again the planets aligned and though I had never met the couple before the session I found out that the location I chose for them was perfect.  I had them meet me high on a vineyard covered hill and drag along some glasses and a bottle of wine.  Not know before that the middle name of the young woman’s middle name is Margaux…her father is a wine enthusiast.

So I think that is enough chatter and background….here it is, Boston Thek Imagery’s first Engagement Shoot.  I believe all parties really enjoyed themselves…I may just take on a few more of these kinds of shoots.  The love and energy is infectious.

Being a lover of a good nights rest you would think I might find this disruption to my sleep inconvenient but honestly…I am grateful for the world that owning a dog has shown me.

I call it “Dog Hour”…those brief few minutes, in the early morning light before the sun’s intensity starts to be unbearable. All the dogs and their two legged companions leave the comfort of their beds and head in to the fields and forests.

Honestly I have gotten some truly amazing images in the 2 weeks we have been living this way. That beautiful golden morning light with it’s long shadows and finger like rays touching the yellowing fields.

The rest of the day may be a bit unbearable…but in those early morning and just as the sunsets…are pure magic.

Love seeing all this German pride.

I love finding photo opportunities like this one…”Fahrräder abstellen Verboden!” translates simply as…Bicycle Parking is Forbidden.  What rebels these two must be.

There is something wonderful I have learned while living here in Germany, it is a simple thing called foraging.   Besides living for and celebrating each season, I have observed that my German neighbors rarely let any free produce go to waste.  Be it chestnuts and walnuts in Fall or wild berries throughout the spring and summer months.   I personally believe it is a deviant joy that they partake in as many times when I come upon someone “foraging” in the forest, they have a guilty look on their faces.  I am sure picking grapes from the vineyard is frowned upon….but I also believe that to many locals cycling past…their call is to strong to be ignored.

This afternoon when Clover and I finally finished the domestic duties about the house we headed out into the fields surrounding the village.  One of our paths leads up right past a large asparagus patch.  Normally in Germany, asparagus or spargel is grown in mounds and kept absolutely hidden from the sun so they remain white and never produce chlorophyll.  This is a delicacy to most Germans and is hightly celebrated and made into delicious soups or more popularly just peeled  and steamed with potatoes and hollandaise sauce.

Today, we noticed that the mounds were uncovered and the asparagus has been let to go to seed.  I did have a moment where guilt ALMOST over rode my need for a veg with my dinner.   Remembering my ever handy poop-er scooper bags I carry for Clover, I succumbed to the need and started picking the baby shoots.  Vibrant and green, like is natures way I think they were celebrating their first chance to see the sun.

They are just about ready to hit the pot and I plan to share some of the delicious babies with my neighbor to help ease with the guilt.   I am sure like the tiny pat of butter that will melt on my green steaming beauties…that guilt will just melt away.

Hollandaise sauce anyone!!

Carrying an umbrella as a talisman to ward off any further possibility of rain, Clover and I set out on our daily journey.  Every where we looked the landscape was dotted red with ripening fruit.  I know the atmosphere was heightened by the water droplets still in the air, but it was spectacular.

Around each corner I found something amazing.  Hearing voices but seeing no one, I walked up a row of grapes to take a closer look.  High in an already heavily burdened cherry tree, like monkies, were 3 men in their 70′s joyfully, picking and chatting and most definitely eating this years abundant fruit.

I called out to them if it were OK for me to take a few photos of them.  Out of the foliage popped one friendly face with an affirmative reply.  We chatted a while about last years devastating fruit crop and how Mother Nature was repaying us for our patience.  Because of a late frost the bees never came out of the hives in time to pollinate and many trees went with out fruit…that meant expensive prices and many empty bowls.   He gave me a few good tips about where to walk deep in the Odenwald National forest which is just up the road.

With a laugh  and a few warm berries in my hand we wandered on…carried along by the scent of ripening berries warmed by the days sun.  It may take a few days for the stains to leave my hands and I hope the memories of these days stay with me forever.

Just a simple story from my daily walks out and about my village.

A while back in an earlier blog (Getting the Shot and Meeting the Locals), I told you a story about meeting people while out on my wanders.  In that story I mentioned a farmer who found my sun hood for my wide angle lens.  I mentioned in passing I had lost it out in the endless fields that surround my town.  Then, months later I ran into the man and his dog in the fields and he told me he had found the piece to my camera.

Well, this tale isn’t so much about this man…as his Lil’ Terror Jack Russell Terrier.  This little bugger seems to have radar for Clover and I.  True to the breed he seems to ALWAYS  be up to something on the farm.  If you hear the geese angrily squawking….you can bet that dog is chasing them around their pen.  He is adorable and friendly but on more than one occasion I have seen it take up to 4 farmers to get him to return to the farm.
One day last winter, now that I think of it, this was actually my introduction to the farmer, I was passing by the farm snapping away with my camera.  Like lighting this little white Terrier raced up to Clover and before I had a chance to get him back on his leash….they were off.  Round and round they went, through the barn and up the stairs into the open front door of the farm house.  You can imagine my shock!  How the heck was I going to get my dog back. I stood there mouth open when my cries for his return when unanswered.
Sauntering up to me came the farmer.  I giggled in embarrassment and gestured at the house.  He said…where did they go?  I answered laughing….”if I know my dog, I would check your bed or the kitchen”.  At that moment there was a holler inside the house and with the swoosh of a broom out came the 2 little invaders.

This morning’s walk was no different.  I was quicker when I recognized his little streak of white coming across the fields with the poor farm peddling his bike in tow, and I got Clover secured.   I also got up the courage to ask if I might capture a photo of the two who have now become a part of our daily life here.

This is a long time coming I believe.  I have hinted about and gave you some bits and pieces and ideas about my village, but I thought it deserved more.

This piece was written for JPG Magazine a few months back and now want to share it with you.

Here begins, “Ladenburg…Where my Heart Found a Home”:

What city do you live in?

I live in a 2000 year old Roman village in Germany, called Ladenburg….I say 2000 years, but I believe it was established long before perhaps as an encampment by the Celts.

The neighborhood I live in is reasonably new. What use to be fields surrounding the walls of the city have with time become neighborhoods. My location is a little special as it is on the walking street to the cemetery. In most countries this may not be a favorable location, but in Germany, visiting your family members who are no longer with us, is an important daily ritual….thus forcing the entire town to pass by my house at least once a day… giving me ample opportunities to make friends and know the many faces of my village.
What are some adjectives that describe your neighborhood?

Along the tree lined streets are tall multi-dwelling homes, like town houses, each with their own garden. It is reasonably quiet, as are most German neighborhoods. I guess most Americans would call it “overlooked”, as my husband does, but for me…I call it intimate. I love having my neighbors close by so everyone can interact daily.

How long have you lived there, and what brought you there?

I believe I have been here now about two and a half years. My husband’s job has kept us overseas for about 12 years now so we have been blessed to have lived in many wonderful towns and countries in Europe.

What is your favorite thing about this place? Your least favorite?

I LOVE living in a village. It is my first experience with it and the feeling of community even for me, an outsider, is wonderful. If I ever feel lonely or perhaps a bit blue I just wander into the Old City, (downtown) and there I find many smiling faces wishing me, “Good Day or Good morning”. How can I stay sad or lonely? My dog Clover and I make a daily wander to the local beach along the Neckar river which is filled with dogs from the village looking for a friend to have a play date. Us “parents” will sit and chat about our 4 legged children, (as if they were real children) and for me these moments are priceless. I get a feeling of community, I get a free German language course and I get to burn out some of that Terrier energy all in one fell swoop! There are so many wonderful things about my village that I could go on forever.

What I don’t like??!!! That I know I can not live here forever.
Do you feel that you belong there?

Yes, absolutely! It is strange as I honestly don’t really belong anywhere. I have been constantly on the move since I was a kid. First foreign exchange, then college, then I married a soldier moved to Germany and have not stopped wandering long enough to plant real deep roots, but the shallow roots I did cultivate in each place….each tiny root has been painful to remove. Here in Ladenburg…I have forced down the closest thing to tap roots yet, is it age that makes uprooting so much harder each time? I do not know, but here in Ladenburg…. when I walk through town, connecting with it’s people, answering questions about my dog or my camera…I feel those root tendrils grow, thrive and spread. I am proud to say that I have made many close friends with the residents. One life long resident recently said to me, “Laura you are more Ladenburger than most Ladenburger’s”. I was so honored to be told that and I wear that title with pride…. “LAURA the LADENBURGER”.
What is the most common misconception about where you live?

I hear lots of misconceptions about Europe and being an American living here…Some of it is true…that at times it is hard to break through and form a real connection. I have been told by people in many cultures that since they are not as transient as Americans and they tend to stay in the same towns all their lives, near their family units and friends….so for them it is hard to fit in an outsider. BUT once they do…once you learn the secret handshake and are invited into the inner sanctum…you build friendships that are for life. People ask me all the time what do the Europeans think of America…it’s people..it’s president….THE WAR….I try to say, that I have found…when it comes to meeting people….it seems to be understood that there are People…and then there is Politics…I prefer to connect with the people.
What is a special fact about your city that you have to live there to know?

Carl Benz, of the car company Mercedes Benz lived and died here. That one of the largest Roman Basilicas in Western Europe lies under it’s streets and houses. That we have the most amazing poppy displays each year around the village.
What aspect of your city do you secretly love?

I LOVE it’s location…in the valley between two hilly ranges covered with vineyards and castles. A stones throw from the national forest of the Odenwald. Farms and vineyards surround us providing us with an endless supply of fruits, vegetables and most importantly WINE! The river Neckar, which has always been of great importance to people as it connects with the busy Rhine, now also a magical guide through the landscape for walkers and cyclist alike.
Anything else you’d like to add?

If you get a chance….and are coming to Heidelberg…. mark little Ladenburg on your map and come for a cake and coffee…..wander her cobbled streets….and then come to the river and look for Clover and I…we will be the one’s with all the cameras.

Have you ever asked yourself that question?  “WHY AM I HERE?”

I often ask myself why was I at a certain place at a particular time.  Why did I stop and speak with this man or pet that dog…or take that certain photo.  What was the connection?  Why did I open this dialogue?

Recently I had many of these “life” questions answered for me in a sad and shocking way.  The writing couldn’t have been bolder on that wall for me.

A few months back, while I was escorting an elderly friend to the cemetery to visit her late husband, I was introduced to an amazing spirit.  Upon our first meeting this man dropped to one knee, right there in the cemetery, and he serenaded me.  Luckily I had the sense to sheepishly lift my camera and capture that moment.

On another day I had a young photographer visiting  with me and I decided to show her the ancient Jewish cemetery located inside of our town cemetery.  There we came upon this man, Karl Heinz as I learned was his name.  He had his tiny granddaughter with him and was bringing her to visit his Mother, her Great Grandmother who also rested in this place.  Though an intimate moment,  something told me to steal away this moment with my lens.

I would see Karl Heinz on and off for the next year…a disc of these images sat on my kitchen counter for him yet I always seemed to forget to take it along with me on my walks for the day we had yet another chance encounter.  The opportunity just never seemed to present itself.

One winter’s morning I headed out and I turned left when I normally turn right and there in front of my friend Karl Heinz house was the mortician and his large dark car….wheeling a gurney out of their home.  All the air seemed to leave my chest…it couldn’t possibly be.  Perhaps there was an elderly family member I was unaware of who has passed during the night.  Sad and shocked faces of neighbors gathered about the street.  I looked to their faces for answers but could only find the one I didn’t want to find.

Later in that week I got the courage up to walk to the cemetery and read the announcement board.  With eyes full of tears I read: “Karl Heinz Weick, dead at 68″.

I told several neighbors the story of my meeting Karl Heinz and that when the family was read, I had photos of him that I would love them to have…when they were ready.   The family contacted me and were enthusiastic to have the images…he had told them about meeting this American woman and her camera and that she had taken photos of him.   These were the last photos ever taken of him.

I am honored to call Karl Heinz friend even if it was but for a short while.  To me he eptiomized that saying, “The candle that burns the brightest, burns the shortest”

Now I know, WHY I was there that day….WHY I stopped and talked with this particular man….For the honor of photographing him, as he was in life…for the very last time.