This Month’s Featured Articles…

Farming is part of the fabric of the northwest corner of Connecticut, so it’s not surprising that Englishman Dr. James Shepherd and his wife, California-native Katherine (known as “Shrevie”) chose this area to put down roots and fulfill their dream of owning and operating a farm. After eight years in Botswana and Nigeria with James’s work with the Center for Disease Control in the areas of HIV and TB and Shrevie’s as a grants officer for the US State Department, they moved back to the [...]

On a weekday morning before a luxury product shoot at her studio in Salisbury, CT, on Salmon Kill Road, I talked with Sarah Blodgett about her lifetime career as a commercial photographer and her new passion for wildlife photography. How did you decide to become a photographer? I was born in New York City and lived there until I was five when my parents moved to Pine Plains, NY, and I became a country girl. My father was a successful commercial photographer who also did [...]

Odds are, you are probably related to someone like my brother. Given the choice between buying groceries and buying tickets to see the band Phish, he’ll bum a hot pretzel off the guy next to him at the concert. At this point, he’s seen them over eighty times, including consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden leading up to the past five New Year’s Eves. Awhile back, I asked him why he was so devoted to the band, and he described it in almost religious terms: [...]

What does it take to lead? Is it purely tenacity? A hunger for commanding attention? Perhaps certain individuals are simply born with the spirit to lead, an innate sense of urgency to muster people behind a cause, an urgency that overlaps the fear of failure or societal rejection. Edward R. Murrow, the grandfather of this modern business I find myself in, once said, “If we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not [...]

“And the OSCAR goes to …” But, hold on. Before we start handing out eight-and-a-half-pound statues, let’s begin with how we get there. The OSCARS … the Academy Awards … are presented every year by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). That esteemed body is made up of 8,469 individuals who are professionally related to the film business. They are directors, producers, actors, wardrobe masters, make-up artists, composers, editors, etc. – divided into 17 “branches” that cluster together individuals by the specific role [...]