Minds Eye

by Pam Risdon

While Cable and I were vacationing this summer at Pawleys Island S.C., we visited
our usual jaunts. The beach of course, Brookgreen Gardens, Huntington Beach Park and All Saints Church.
First I must say that Pawleys Island is full of tales and folk lure about ghosts and folks lost at sea. The church is no exception. We decided to visit All Saints at night. Just to add to the fun. We’ve been there a few times and it is a spectacular example of a graveyard.
Legend has it that a young girl named Alice Flagg, who is buried there, appears
at night. Her story begins in 1849. Her family was the prestigious owners of the Wachesaw plantation. She was being raised by her Mother and Brother who had specific ideas of whom she should marry. But of course Alice had other ideas and became engaged to a suitor named John Braddock.  John was a lowly lumber man who did not meet the approval of her brother. The brother was determined to have Alice married into SC  aristocracy.
Alice was given a ring and secretly whore it on a ribbon around her neck. She was set to marry John until the Brother intervened and sent her away to boarding school. Alice pined away for John to no avail. Eventually all that worrying whittled her down to nothing and soon Alice slipped into a coma and died.
She was buried at All Saints with a simple concrete tomb that bears the name Alice.
Tales have been told of rings flying off the fingers of visitors and visions of Alice effervescing through the grounds of the grave yard.
During our visit we didn’t see Alice.. per se.. or did we? We walked around, mostly Cable. I just stood by the columns of the church staring at the gigantic creepy spider dangling from it’s huge web. While he was creeping through the graves in the pitch black, I saw this very unlikely shadow over head. I looked up and saw this enormous bird. I wasn’t sure at first then figured it was an owl. I stood very still. I was calling Cable, in sort of a whisper. I was getting pretty creeped out by this time. I walked closer to discover it was in fact a  Barred Owl. I have never gotten this close to a wild bird before and was shocked that it landed and then sat on top of this tomb stone. We both were just amazed.

Here’s a testament to the Nikon D3s. He cranked it up to  12,800 asa. Yes that is correct twelve thousand eight hundred! We had a 200-mm lens wide open, HAND HELD. The original is in fact much darker. The real amazing thing is that when I opened it in camera raw and tweaked the shadows  it looks beautiful, considering that the scene was really dark. And the noise is minimal. The one on the right has been tweaked.

We think maybe the owl is in fact Alice.  We went back a second night and saw the owl again.

Amy Adkins holding her Alphorn

by Pam Risdon

I met Amy Adkins at the the Highland County Farmers market a while ago. Our country place is located in Highland Co. VA., or other wise known as- “Little Switzerland”.  A mountainous place, 2500 ft. elevation and then some. So, I suppose it’s appropriate for these folks to assemble and play there.

Amy and a fellow band member, The Stonewall Brigade Band were playing their Alphorn  for the public. I just thought it was wild to see this gigantic wooden horn and instantly invited her up for a photo shoot.  I’ll insert some back ground info another band member wrote for the article submitted to the local paper.

Written by David Taylor

The only exposure most people have to the twelve foot long wooden instrument from Switzerland called the Alphorn is through Ricola commercials.  For Amy Adkins the Alphorn is more than a stage prop for a commercial jingle, it is a gateway to another culture; a simpler time of high mountain pastures and rural living.
The Alphorn is the traditional instrument of Switzerland.  It is believed that the Swiss shepherds began making and playing these unique instrument over 500 years ago.  They are simple instruments.  Traditionally a tree growing on the side of a mountain, bent at the base by the wind and snow, was cut down.  The shepherd would split the tree in half and hollow out the pieces.  The two halves were then put back together, held in place by strips of bark, cloth, or string.  Alphorns are a bit more refined today, but the basic design is still the same; a twelve foot, three inch hollow tube, turned up on the end.
Amy began playing Alphorn in 1998.  She had been playing the French horn for twenty years and found the move to Alphorn as a natural transition using many of the same techniques and skills.  One of the great joys of Alphorn playing, any music for that matter, is the people you meet and the places you go.  Alphorn playing has taken Amy to many places, from the everyday setting of the local park, to the prestige of the Swiss Embassy.  Her most memorable experience with the Alphorn was playing on a farm in Augusta County and watching the cows come running to the sound of her music.  This is no surprise, the Alphorn was used by the Swiss to call home the herds, and flocks, and to calm the cows at milking time.
For Amy, music has shaped her life.  Amy continues to play in the Stonewall Brigade Band in Staunton, and several of the band’s smaller ensembles, and of course the Alphorn.

Amy Adkins lives in Staunton and works as a Case Manager for the Valley Program for Aging Services.  She plays for a variety of occasions such weddings, and festivals.  She can be contacted at 540-885-1760, or by email at alphornplayers@yahoo.com.

Through the course of our day in day out, we encounter some pretty interesting people and places to shoot, sometimes mundane, but that’s life isn’t it. I want to share stuff that might otherwise be edited out by the professional radar that we abide by and maintain to operate in the corporate business world.
Hopefully, readers will enjoy what we post, at least that’s what I’m hoping for.