Harry Scott's Dream Home

Harry Scott loved wood. In fact, for many years, he made his living in the lumber business, selling wood to the railroad. Harry also loved fishing, so much so that when a piece of property on the Little Red River in Arkansas, at the exact spot where a world record brown trout had been caught a few years earlier came up for sale, he purchased the property with a plan to build his dream home there.

Harry’s fishing camp.

Given his love of wood, it had to be a log home and also a home that reflected Harry’s love of the outdoors. Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, he spent many happy hours hunting and fishing in the hills around his home. To put his plan into action, he started attending log and timber home shows around the country looking for the perfect company to turn his vision into reality.

The back of the houses faces the river.

Paul Stinson from Pioneer Log Homes of BC remembers the first time he met Harry. At a log home show in Branson, Missouri, Paul had just finished setting up Pioneer’s show display, with their signature massive flared western red cedar logs, when Harry walked up and boomed, “Where have you been all of my life!” That meeting started a two-year relationship working together with several architects to design the home.  Harry’s love of wood led them to hire Tom Julian of Julian and Sons, which specializes in high-end millwork, cabinetry, and gunrooms for numerous celebrities and The International Safari Club. Julian and Sons did all of the cabinets, flooring and millwork for the home.

Harry’s gun room.

Harry told Tom that he didn’t want any straight grained wood in the home; he wanted burls, knots, splits, checks, and wood that showed the most character. Paul remembers that the first two entry doors were rejected because they looked too slick, so he went to Julian and Sons and asked to see their scrap pile. He picked out several of pieces of wood that showed wild grain with splits, checks, and knots everywhere and told them to build the front door from those rejected pieces of wood. Of course, Harry loved it!

 While the house was being built, Harry lived across the road in a little cabin and visited the jobsite daily, talking  and joking with the workmen and often frying up chicken for their lunch. Harry had a meticulous eye for detail and would often point out a board that would ultimately be sealed up inside a wall that was just a fraction of an inch off.  In one instance, the lead carpenter intentionally placed an interior board high up on the wall several inches off and then pretended not to notice when Harry pointed it out.  Harry became agitated and growled, “get me a ladder’” and proceeded to climb up to find a note from the carpenter on the bottom of the board.  No one knew exactly what the note said, but Harry burst into laughter.

 He hired numerous artisans to produce stained glass and wood carvings of animals for the house that reflected his love for the outdoors. One unique feature in the master bath is a tub that is carved from a massive boulder. Harry had an artistic eye and took great joy in the process of creating his dream home.

But sadly, it was not to be. Harry passed away from a heart attack before the home was finished. After the funeral, Harry’s two children asked Paul to finish the home exactly as their father had envisioned it.

 The house stands today completed just as Harry Scott had imagined.

Hot Chicks from Georgia

I was working in Nashville, Tennessee when I got a call from a new client about a proposal I had submitted to photograph some of their agricultural products in Georgia.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect since the company produced products for the poultry industry, everything was to be photographed on site, and I had never been to a poultry farm in my life.

Since Nashville was not too far from the site, and I had only a few days left to finish up there, we made arrangements to meet up in the town of Moultrie, Georgia the following week. I booked a room at the hotel close to the site.

On the designated day, I met up with the representative from the company at 5 AM in the hotel lobby and headed off to breakfast with the chicken people.  The little restaurant was packed with poultry farmers, representatives from Tyson Chicken, (all dressed the same with blue shirts with the Tyson Logo and khakis), two representatives from my client, Brock Chore Time, and myself.

The waitress knew everybody there except for me, but with typical southern hospitality, came over to our table and said, how y’all doin’ and to me, what’ll you be havin’ Hon? I ordered the same thing everyone ordered which was something like the “Farmer’s Special.”  Because I travel quite a bit and deal with all sorts of people in my work, I normally feel that I can carry a conversation with anyone but this was different.

The conversation throughout the whole place was about a serious chicken disease that had been found in the county and how one chicken farmer’s whole flock had to be destroyed. Even though I have a degree in biology, I didn’t understand 90 percent of what they were saying and had absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation.

Thankfully the waitress soon arrived with our food and I realized that the plate she set in front of me could feed several farmers!  Three eggs, a huge country fried steak, grits, biscuits, and fried apples. Everything was delicious but I wasn’t even able to eat half. The company rep had me load all of my equipment into his truck so we wouldn’t have two vehicles on site.  I would find out why later.

We then headed out to the poultry farm.  I unloaded my equipment and then the company rep handed me a package of coveralls, booties, and a hat to put on.  It was warm outside, but much warmer inside the poultry house.  We worked through photographing several different products and then we had to go another farm.  All of the protective clothing was removed and placed into an incinerator where it would be burned.  We drove to a car wash where the rep thoroughly washed his truck and headed off to farm number two.  We visited four different poultry farms that day with the same procedure after each one.

The rep told me that he thought I had done a good job and wasn’t afraid to get “up close and personal with the chickens” unlike the last photographer they used.

Through the years, I’ve done several more assignments for the company including turkey and hog farms, but that’s another story!

Missouri Timber Home Shoot

I was  trying to find the home on a hot Friday afternoon in June, weary after driving straight through from an assignment in Nashville, Tennessee  in a driving thunderstorm.  I was already running late, my GPS wasn’t recognizing the address, and then, to make matters worse, the local sheriff  decided to pull me over even though I wasn’t breaking any laws, to find out what I was doing driving through his little town in Missouri in a motorhome.

The reason he gave for stopping me was that he thought I had an expired license plate. He realized that he was wrong once he got closer and saw the current sticker on my license plate.  After a long series  of “twenty questions” and a computer check of all my information, he sent me on my way with an apology.  I think he had been watching too many episodes of “Breaking Bad” and his imagination got the better of him.  Anyway, I was now way behind schedule, and was starting to feel a bit stressed and worried that I would be losing my light soon.

When I finally pulled into the driveway leading to the house and barn I relaxed a bit because the property was absolutely beautiful  and tranquil, with rolling hills leading up to the red barn and house .

 When Pam answered the door and asked me in, I immediately felt more at ease, even though we had never met and had only talked on the phone briefly a couple of times.

She gave me a tour through the house as we discussed options for different angles for the photos and for the food that she was going to prepare for photos of the kitchen and dining areas.  It became obvious to me that she loved people and loved to entertain.  In fact, she and Jerry built the timber frame home on land that had been in his family for many years to serve as a sanctuary for friends and family to come and get away from the fast paced life in the city.

 The kitchen was definitely not just for show as Pam prepared one of the best Mexican meals ever and then set up a beautiful photo with fruit and pastry dough in her baking area.  After capturing a few interiors, I set up lights for evening exteriors.

 The house just seemed to glow after the sun went down with the interior lights showing through the large banks of windows. I marveled at the gorgeous reflections across the water as I worked my way around the house to capture exterior photos in the waning twilight. 

The next day, I was up at dawn to get some early morning exteriors and then moved inside to meet up with Pam and a welcome cup of coffee.  As we worked our way through the inside of the house, I noticed a banjo case tucked behind the desk in Jerry’s office.  Since I play banjo, I inquired about it I found out that he plays the  banjo and that Pam and Jerry had considered having musicians come to their home to play concerts for friends, but weren’t sure how to get started.

Ironically, many years ago, I used to have a music show on a local NPR station and  one of the things that we did was to promote concerts for traveling musicians.  Many of them were house concerts.  I gave Pam a list of all of the musicians that I knew that might be interested in coming to their home, and a few suggestions on how to get started.  I spent the rest of the day finishing up the interior photos.  When I was packed up and ready to leave, Pam gave me a hug and said “this has been so much fun, I’m really sad you have to go!” She also handed me a bag of freshly baked cookies for the road.  She promised to keep in touch and to keep me posted on whether anything worked out with the music shows.

 Just  this week, I was happy to receive an email with photos and a report of a terrific house concert they had with musician friends of mine from Michigan, Red Tail Ring!   They had a great turnout and many of the attendees have promised to return and bring their friends along with them.  Pam and Jerry  have named their venue “The Red Barn Rhythm House” and have shows scheduled well into 2020. I have entered their schedule into my calendar and am planning to make it to a show next time I am through that part of the country.

Snowed In!

We left Indiana on January 4th, headed for Vermont and New Hampshire to photograph 2 log homes for Log Home Living magazine.  Typically, we travel in a motorhome to assignments, but based upon the weather forecast and the warning from the homeowners that a motorhome wouldn’t make it up their driveway, or through the small covered bridge on their road, we decided to look at other options.

 My lighting kit to photograph a log home which I’ve developed after many years of  experience photographing architectural projects, is quite bulky and heavy and essentially takes up several storage compartments on my motorhome.

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Since I had way too much lighting equipment to fly, we packed up my trusty Toyota 4 Runner, armed with a fresh set of Blizzaks, with about 500 lbs of lighting equipment, survival gear, cross country skis, and set out for New England.

 First day was uneventful.  We made it near Erie, Pennsylvania where we found a great restaurant and a hotel to spend the night.  After coffee and a quick breakfast, we headed out  into light snow. By the time we hit Buffalo, NY, were driving into the teeth of a major blizzard with snow coming down about an inch an hour.

 We got to the first home in Vermont, and after meeting  the owners, took a few exterior photos since the sun had come out. We then  had a quick tour, dinner with the homeowners,  and then set up to do some evening photos.  Temperature was around minus 10 degrees.

 Spent the night in an historic lodge, found another great spot for dinner and settled in for the night.

 Next morning, grabbed a quick coffee and at first light, headed over to the home to do interior photography which took all day.  The next morning we headed out for Franconia, New Hampshire to photograph home number 2.  Called the homeowners, who lived on top of the mountain and they told us that the snow was coming down in large quantities and there was a good chance that roads would be closed soon.

 Got to the home just about noon, had lunch and a quick tour and set up for interior photography.  By 5 PM, all roads were closed on the mountain,  phones weren’t working, and we weren’t able to get in touch with our hotel, the historic Franconia Inn just miles away!

 The homeowners were incredibly gracious, took us upstairs where they had a large suite for friends and family to stay on ski trips.  They made us a terrific dinner and we discovered that one of the homeowners was a winebroker and she opened up several bottles of terrific red wine! What a great place to get snowed in!

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