Put ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until puffed and golden. Remove from oven, and let stand for 5 minutes. With a flexible spatula, remove strata to
Emily Chaplin emilychaplinphoto.com 1. When you're composing a picture, take time to examine everything in your frame. Background elements can often ruin an otherwise terrific image and detract from the
Emily Chaplin emilychaplinphoto.com 1. When you're composing a picture, take time to examine everything in your frame. Background elements can often ruin an otherwise terrific image and detract from the
Each month, stunning photographs of North Carolina and the people who call it home grace the pages of our magazine. Three of our professional photographers share their easy tips you can use.
emilychaplinphoto.com
1. When you’re composing a picture, take time to examine everything in your frame. Background elements can often ruin an otherwise terrific image and detract from the main subject. Photography is more about subtraction, what you omit from the frame than what you include in it.
2. Change your perspective, physically. Try photographing from very different angles, high and low. Try standing on top of your car or lying down on the ground to take photos. (I never wear nice clothes when on assignment.) Interesting angles can make for the most compelling pictures. When photographing your children or pets, get down at their level or below to take the picture.
3. Try photographing into the sun. It’s counterintuitive but can produce spectacular images, even with an iPhone. To expose your subject properly with your phone’s camera app, move the focal and metering point to your subject. Or, for nice silhouette images, move the focal point to the sun, sky, or bright areas.
This picture was the result of a frequent experience I have when photographing: It materialized while I was waiting for something else. Before dawn, waiting for the Knotts Island ferry, I noticed two piers jutting out into the Currituck Sound. With a tripod and long exposure, I was able to create this image. I love the simplicity of the composition, the color, the mood, and the feeling of absolute stillness and silence the image conveys. — Emily
Joey Seawell
joeyseawell.com
1. Approach the person you are photographing as a person, not an object. Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation. You’ll gain trust and have a better understanding of who the person is, thus yielding a more genuine portrait.
2. Have two separate cases for your memory cards, one for clean and formatted cards and one for full cards.
3. Always charge your batteries when you return from your day of shooting. Nothing is worse than waking up to get that sunrise and realizing that your battery is dead.
I really love this unpublished portrait of Tommy Malboeuf and L.W. Lambert at The Cook Shack in Union Grove, who have both since passed. I watched these two amazing musicians and great buddies make the fiddle and banjo do things you wouldn’t think possible. This image was shot with a 4×5 field camera on TMAX 400 film. — Joey
Travis Dove
travisdove.com
1. If you plan on taking pictures of your food, grab a seat by a window, but don’t just sit in it. Instead, move all around the table and watch how your movement changes the way the light interacts with the plate.
2. In the world of digital photography, we can snap thousands of pictures and instantly see the results. That can help people learn on the fly, but it can also encourage sloppiness. One of my favorite exercises is to limit the number of pictures I can take in a given day to say, 36, the equivalent of one roll of film. This forces you to slow down and be more thoughtful about what you’re photographing.
3. Keep a list of the creative devices of photography such as the rule of thirds, diagonal lines, framing,
emotion, and reflection. Try to incorporate one or
more in each of your pictures.
In a visual sense, there are several things I liked about this picture. The leading lines of the stakes, the boat and horizon pulling your eye toward the subjects, the calm water that creates a crystal clear reflection, and the morning light that seemed to be falling at just the right angle. But, what made this particularly memorable for me was the fact that I had no idea I’d be making this picture when I woke up. I was working on a story about North Carolina’s boating history, and I had the pleasure of riding around with Down East native Jimmy Amspacher to several old docks in the area. The plan had really been to shoot old boats parked at these docks, but we ended up at one of them on Cedar Island at just the right time. A few pound net fishermen he knew were getting ready to set their stakes and they invited me along for the ride. Moments like this one are great reminders that my camera is a ticket to meet people and experience things I likely never would without it. — Travis
This post was originally published as sponsored content in coordination with BlueCross BluesShield.
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To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
Emily Chaplin
Joey Seawell
Travis Dove
