Category - Digest

Portals of Stone: Fountains Abbey

Sometimes, when I’m on a location and shooting the sights, something will light up in my mind’s eye… an idea for a treatment of the scene in front of me that will have to wait until I can get it in front of me on a screen, in Photoshop.

I had a lot of moments like that during the day I spent at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, England, last October.

sweet_postThe idea for reflecting the “night sky” in pools of water around the abbeys first struck me that night as I was leaving Sweetheart Abbey in Dumfries/Galloway Scotland, and I saw the lamp post reflect in a puddle.

After that, I kept an eye out for similar situations at other locations. And since then, I’ve given a great deal of thought to how I would make the starscape reflect in the puddles. I knew I couldn’t just replace the water with an inverse of the starscape; I’d have to find someway to make it look like it was really reflected in the water.

So it took a lot of trial and error with countless layers, but I think I’m finally seeing what I imagined that afternoon in Yorkshire:

Fountains_PA180726_HDR-IGSee more from this series at PortalsOfStone.com

Portals of Stone: Fountains Abbey

My day at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire last October – I was there from about 10AM till 9PM – produced some of the best work I did on that trip. I’m still finding my way through the files. Here is one of the massive nave, the main sanctuary of the abbey church, from the east end looking back at the west gate. The first time I walked through the west gate, I swear, it just took my breath away…
See more at PortalsOfStone.com

Fountains Abbey – Yorkshire, Englandmore at http://ift.tt/1koYz4J
@bekkymott @GreatBritain @instagood #medieval #UK #medievalworld #UnitedKingdom #GreatBritain #travel #ig_europe #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #architectur #travel #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood @instagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

More “Joy Of Making Music” Thomm Jutz & Craig Market

Nothing is more
beautiful than a guitar,
except, possibly, two.

— Frédéric Chopin

Last Wednesday night offered a stark contrast to the night before.

Where Tuesday night’s performance by the New Dylans at the Belcourt Theater was nearly an hour of screeching instrumentation and unintelligible lyrics, the following night at the Station in was a perfect example of how beautifully crafted songs played with exquisite instruments can produce a totally satisfying experience.

Thomm Jutz and Craig Market actually wrote together for the first time while Thomm was producing The 1861 Project. They co-wrote two songs for Volume 2, including “The Old Songs:”

Thomm and Craig kept writing after that, and over the past couple of years assembled a collection of co-writes that they’ve now released in a collection called “Nowhere To Hide.”

I was called in to shoot some promo stills late last year. The slide show above features a few of those shots and some from the CD Release Party at the Station Inn.

On stage, Thomm played a 1948 Martin D-18, and Craig played a 1937 D-18. It’s hard to describe how beautiful those two guitars sounded together. That quote from Chopin will have to suffice.

Or just listen to the CD and hear for yourself:

Need some photos from one of your live shows? Visit The Joy Of Making Music.com
T&C

G’Morning, Nashville

I had a 7:30 AM meeting in Belle Meade (the Starbucks, of course), yesterday morning. The sun was rising just as I got on the Interstate at McCrory Lane (Exit 192 – Pegram), and there was a glorious shot of the orange half-orb rising over the highway. Unfortunately I was not fast enough with my phone-cam to capture that at nearly 80 miles and hour. A few minutes later I settled for this coming down Hillwood Ave in West Meade. Processed on my (new!) iPhone 6 with Snapseed.

G’morning, #Nashville.
@NashvilleTN @ #january #nashville #nashvilleguru #musiccitysunsets #igersnashville #heartnashville #nashvilleTN #nashvilleinstagram #nashvilleincrowd #nashvillegram #nashvegas #tennesseeinstagram #tennessee #musiccityliving #musiccityusa #musiccity #615 #nashvillescene #nashvillesky #nashvillelife
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Streaming Into Nashville

Head-and-tail light trails on I-65 from the Chestnut Street overpass.

Streaming Into Nashville
January 31, 2015 – from the Chestnut Street bridge over I-65@NashvilleTN @ #january #nashville #nashvilleguru #musiccitysunsets #igersnashville #heartnashville #nashvilleTN #nashvilleinstagram #nashvilleincrowd #nashvillegram #nashvegas #tennesseeinstagram #tennessee #musiccityliving #musiccityusa #musiccity #615 #nashvillescene #nashvillesky #nashvillelife
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

A “Band On The Brink” – An ‘Industry’ On The Edge

Last night, a rogues gallery of characters from Nashville’s business and creative communities assembled at the Belcourt Theater to deliver what could be considered a start-of-the-New-Year self-assessment:

bannerThere were three parts to the evening that did a surprisingly good job of hitting any number of moving targets.

The first part was a short documentary film describing the origins, history, demise and resurrection of a band called “The New Dylans.” The film was the final, compiled installment in a year long effort to document the reconstitution of a group that broke up in the mid 1990s – and uses their tale as an object lesson on the State of The Music Industry in Nashville in the Digital Age. Read More

Greetings, New Subscribers….

…and welcome to your first edition of The Weekly Digest.

The Troubadour Logo - it's a long story...

The Troubadour Logo – it’s a long story…

(Oops. I got so wrapped up writing this this morning that I forgot to tag the relevant posts for this week’s digest – I thought I’d done that already. It should have included the first two posts below (Jeff T and Melrose Abbey) Doh!)

I’m sure there’s a better name for this recurring missive, but despite my vaunted creative genius that’s the best I’ve been able to come up with so far.

I am pleased to see that there have been a notable number of new subscribers to this list in the past week – which is even more notable because I don’t know who any of you are.

Most of the subscribers to this list are friends and family – people with whom I have had some form of personal contact since I started the list several years ago. But lately, I’m seeing new subs from people I don’t know, whose e-mail addresses I don’t recognize,

I[tweetable alt=””] recall reading somewhere that your ‘fan base’ isn’t really growing until it begins to spread beyond the people that you know personally [/tweetable]– so it is gratifying to see that my reach has begun to grow organically beyond a certain inner circle.

I am involved in several realms of creative endeavors. My most recent business card (I make up new ones all the time) identifies me as:

Paul Schatzkin
writer·photographer·musician·artist

…and each of those categories represents some measure of both accomplishment and aspiration.

Read More

The Quirang Isle of Skye

Another recent submission to the Scotland From The Roadside page. This is “The Quirang,” a craggy valley on the northern edge of the Isle of Skye:

The Quirang – Isle Of Skye, Scottish Highlands @IsleOSkye @visitscotland @GreatBritain
#Scotland #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #tweegram #picoftheday #instadaily #jj #beautiful #bestoftheday #followforfollow #f4f #like4like #likeforlike
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Portals of Stone: Fountains Abbey

It seems important to remember that the monks and masons who built these enormous cathedrals were dedicated to the contemplation of the infinite and eternal.They are truly monuments to the spiritual foundations of Western Civolization.

The entire (still evolving) collection from “Portals of Stone 2014” is here.

The West Gate of @FountainsAbbey in Yorkshire, England – October 2014@GreatBritain @GetOlympus @Welcome2Yorks

#Medieval #medievaleurope #Europe #stonebuilding #castle #fortress #abbey #ruins #instatravel #travelgram #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #picoftheday #instadaily
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Approaching The Isle Of Skye

I’ve been sharing some photos to a Facebook page called “Scotland By The Roadside.” There are a lot of very talented photographers on that page. Lately their posts have reminded me how glad I am I don’t live in Scotland in the winter.

This is a photo from our trip to Scotland in October, 2012, from just after we crossed the big bridge on to the Isle of Skye:

@IsleOSkye @visitscotland @GreatBritain
Just over the bridge, coming into the Isle of Skye in the #Scotish #Highlands – October 2012#Scotland #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #tweegram #picoftheday #instadaily #jj #beautiful #bestoftheday #followforfollow #f4f #like4like #likeforlike
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49