Freelance photographer Kholood Eid visited Martinez and Fairfield this weekend. This was the Very Important Thing I was doing on Saturday and the reason Virginia Holsworth met her at 5 in the morning to show off the creek and snap this photo. I am as yet unable to tell you what it all was for but I am sure you can guess it has something to do with beavers, and you’ll figure the rest out later.
I can honestly say that sitting for a thee hour photo shoot is the least wonderful thing I have ever done for beavers. My house is too dark, I was never supposed to smile, and I felt like a gorgon trapped under glass. But it’s for BEAVERS. I kept telling myself. You can do it for beavers!
I expected to do the talking thing at the beginning and tell our story and show the charming artifacts I gathered when the interview started. I’m used to that. I can be very touching when I need to. But she wanted to start with photos and catch the light while it was still “soft” or something photographers say, She tried shots in several in different locations. By the time we got around to talking I had been dissociating so long to get through it that I had to be prompted to be inspiring. And when she asked “Why do you care so much about beavers?” I honestly couldn’t think what to say.
It’s funny how little we actually “See” the way our home is surrounded with beaver-memorbelia until someone else is there noticing it for the first time. We brought the kids banner down to show her and laid it on the sofa. At one point she asked, “Is this usually where you keep it?” And we thought, goodness NO, we’re not FREAKS for god’s sake.
(Which of course we are, really).
With Martinez and Fairfield checked off her todo list, she heads off to the foothills today to capture some BDA’s. and then it’s off to Washington. Someday it will all be worth it I dare say and you won’t be at all surprised to find out where her photos find a home, but in the meantime could someone please explain to my neighbors and everyone walking by my house that I’m not nearly vain enough to hire a photographer to shoot photos of ME on the porch for three hours.
It wasn’t my idea I swear and I did it for BEAVERS!
