Treehouse in Vermont

August 7, 2018 at 9:33 am

I’m discovering all kinds of photos as I look through (just) my digital archives — some 90,000 photos. Buildings that never got published. I’m going to do more regular blog posts for a while. Fun! Discovering hidden gems.

This is a wheelchair-accessible treehouse for students at the Yestermorrow Design-Build School in the Green Mountains, Vermont, designed that by rarity — a good architect — John Connell. I shot it in a visit to Dave Sellers, John and other Vermonter builders in Warren, Vermont, in 2005.

I got a ton of great photos in just a few days there. More to come.

Check out the timber framing and other courses at yestermorrow.

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Troop of Skunks in Garden Yesterday

August 6, 2018 at 12:49 pm

I was in the shop yesterday morning and Lesley called: “Lloyd, come here quick.” There were five (5) teen age skunks scurrying along like in a conga line. Baby skunks are cute!

There was no parent present, they were just scurrying back and forth, emitting chirps. Skunks just wanna have fun! Skunks are supposed to be nocturnal. Maybe these guys had snuck out from the den in the bright morning sunlight. Hey, mom’s asleep, let’s party!

By the time I grabbed my iPhone, there were just two left. The chickens were out, and there was a bit of back and forth. Garden comedy.

There’s a video of the two of them on my Instagram account: www.instagram.com/lloyd.kahn/…

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Shelter’s Seven Building Books

August 4, 2018 at 3:30 am

Shelter publications published its first book in 1970 — 48 years ago. In that amount of time, we have published about 50 books — about one per year. It seems to take us forever to do each book, but what we’ve learned is that when we put in the time and money to do books this way, they tend to have a long shelf life.

These are our seven building books, starting with Shelter in 1973. Each of these has over 1000 photographs and is densely packed with information. They form a body of work, and I’m pretty proud of them.

In a way, this is the end of an era for us. I’m going to a different format with our next two or three books: smaller size, larger and less photographs, less text.

Shameless Commerce Department: They are all available at www.shelterpub.com, with free shipping and a 30% discount for three or more books. Stores get a 50% discount (plus shipping charges) for bulk orders.

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Custom Home Built on British Columbia Island by Lloyd House

August 3, 2018 at 3:30 am

This is my favorite home in the world. Built by Lloyd House and featured in Builders of the Pacific Coast, it’s on a small island in British Columbia. When I first saw it, it took my breath away. It was just perfect. The materials, the size, the shape, the way it fit into the environment as if it had grown there.

Funny thing: After 40+ years photographing builders and their buildings, I meet the builder of my dreams, and his name is Lloyd — House!

Even though we seldom see each other, we’re good friends. He’s built dozens of wonderful buildings in his career — most of them shown in the above book.

BTW, this is my favorite of all seven of our building books. It’s a story, an odyssey, from start to finish, hanging out with these wonderful people in British Columbia and documenting their unique creations. My intent was to take the reader along, riding shotgun, in my excursions to this land of wood and water.

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Stop, Children, What’s That Sound…

August 2, 2018 at 3:34 am

Photo of me in 1965 in Providence, RI, shot with my Nikon by Linda Connor. I was on a 30-day cross-country hitchhiking trip — a “vision quest.” When I got home, I quit my job as an insurance broker and went to work as a carpenter.

I started out to write a book about the ’60s because most of the media coverage (TV documentaries, books, exhibits) in 2017, prompted by “The Summer of Love” theme, didn’t coincide with what I saw happen:

1. in the ’60s
2. in San Francisco

I began by making a list of the ideas and concepts that I learned about in the ’60s. A lot! It was surprising.

Then I thought that if I’m going to take people on a trip — my trip — through those years, I should explain who I am, my background, so readers will know “…where I’m coming from.”

I’m starting with scenes from childhood. Focusing on the past is fun. It’s opening up a suitcase of memories and I’m having a good time remembering good times.I recall scenes from past years, then I run out to the computer and type a few paragraphs about the ’40s, the ’50s, a few about Pacific High School in the ’60s, a few about the Haight-Ashbury district — in no particular order. It’s not an organized way to write a book, but as I go along, the book is taking its own form.

A builder I know once told me, talking about each house he builds, “I fire the bullet and then try to catch up with it.”

I’m starting by describing growing up in San Francisco, what the city was like then, grammar school, summer vacations, high school (in the Haight-Ashbury district) and college and surfing days….

This will be the way I saw the ’60s; I’m not trying to be comprehensive or complete about the era. You can’t make a cohesive narrative about the times because the times weren’t cohesive. It will be purely what I saw happen.

If any of you experienced the ’60s directly, your memories are welcome here…

Note: I’m going to publish the book, bit by bit here. I’m not ready to make a real book out of it yet. I have two other books to get done first.

The posts will all be available under “THE SIXTIES” tab at the top of the blog, so if you want to read about the era, they’ll all be in one place.

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Barn on Outskirts of Telluride

August 1, 2018 at 11:39 am

With this new blog format, I’m opening up random folders of photos and posting ones I like. This was shot on the outskirts of Telluride in 2003 when I went there to do a presentation at a Bioneers conference. I’m trying to do a post every week day.

BTW, I’ve been using Google Photos, which automatically downloads all my digital photos in one backup folder. Right now there are over 90,000 of my photos in storage. It’s an amazing system. You pay a small amount for storage. I can then go in and search for “barns” and it will come up with all the barn photos. I used it in my driftwood book: typed in “beach,” and it came up with hundreds of of beach photos, many of which I would not have found otherwise.

Wikipedia: “…The service automatically analyzes photos, identifying various visual features and subjects. Users can search for anything in photos, with the service returning results from three major categories: People, Places, and Things. Google Photos recognizes faces, grouping similar ones together; geographic landmarks (such as the Eiffel Tower); and subject matter, including birthdays, buildings, animals, food, and more.…”

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