Hay Bales

In January, we took an afternoon drive through the Shenandoah foothills in search of new wineries, an activity we had missed during in the cold winter months. Eric had his Nikkormat EL that he purchased at Goodwill for 50 bucks (what a deal!). Before reaching any vineyards, we found these:

The hay bales are very photogenic, in their own odd, abstract way! Hence the inspiration for the current header. We eventually reached Doukenie and Loudon Valley Vineyards. The latter was our fave. More affordable, less commercial, and more diverse in their sweet wines! But we did enjoy the duckies at Doukenie. Very sociable!

The Book

When I initially purchased The Art of Looking Sideways, by master designer Alan Fletcher, its primary use was as a doorstop. Its brick-like presence was assigned to me as required reading for a graphic design course in college. Needless to say, it didn't see much action for the first several years. It was a few years after graduating that I actually started to sift through the book, and what I found was quarkiness, randoms, and inspiration. Phaidon describes it as "An inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, curious facts, useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories." It is exactly that. When I am trying to get in creative mode, this is a go-to book for me. I highly recommend it.

To us, "looking sideways" means using a new perspective to experience the everyday; on art and photography, on places yet to be discovered by us. So now you know the inspiration of the name of this blog! It is possible we are infringing on some copyright laws by quoting the title, so who knows how long it'll stick! But they can't say we didn't give em credit.

Looking Sideways

Here we are. We decided we'd like to share our adventures - on the road, on film, on paper, online, underwater - in whatever shape they come. Enjoy our discoveries, and we hope you'll share your experiences too!