Months ago, long before my new website was even close to completion, I toyed with a concept. If that day ever came, I would send out an announcement made from peas and carrots. A plan of execution evolved quickly and would later be implemented. 6″ stick-on letters that were colored green would be attached to an orange surface, and then with laminated strips of cardboard and hot glue I would painstakingly construct perfect corrals around every letter. These would be surrounded with cooked sliced carrots filled with peas and then carefully removed, and without effort I would have a perfect sign.
I enlisted the support of my friend, Kevin Twomey who in addition to having great vision, is also one of the best technical photographers on the planet. As that Saturday morning approached, I promised Kevin I would cook and place all of the sliced carrots at home so that once I got to the studio, all we would have to do would be to fill the letters with peas remove the corrals and shoot. I predicted we would be done in an hour and could go out for an early celebratory lunch.
Unexpected challenges began even before leaving the house. With my wife’s help, I peeled, sliced and parboiled nearly 20 pounds of fresh carrots, and still that wasn’t enough to thoroughly cover the entire surface. Already running late, I needed to stop at a supermarket to buy a few large bags of frozen krinkle-cut carrots to supplement (this turned out to be a good thing). Once at the studio, I found that it wasn’t as easy as I expected to fill the corrals, and worse yet, they were very difficult to detach from the surface and lift cleanly without disrupting the edges of the letters. Hours of pea coaxing with chop sticks ensued. Hunched over a low set, my shoulders began to burn. I wondered if herding peas could be even worse than herding cats, and still the letters, my message, was busy and difficult to read. It was approaching 2 in the afternoon, we hadn’t broken for lunch yet, and what I hoped would be a bold unmistakable ALL NEW ! was still looking weak and confusing, and with the exclamation point was reading more like ALL NEWL. Suffering from low blood sugar level, still far from happy, I covered the field of carrots and peas with damp paper towels and we finally broke for lunch feeling somewhat resigned and dejected. At that point I feared my concept might never be fully realized nor be worthy of sharing despite the hours I had invested.
Back at the studio following our late deli lunch, with a corned beef on rye in our bellies and fresh eyes, the image on the monitor didn’t look so bad. On Kevin’s suggestion, I decided it was best to concede the exclamation point. We prodded peas for another hour or so and came away with an image that I believe was worthy of showing.
lower photo: Kevin Twomey