Monica Donovan » photo a day

Photo of the Day: Sugaring

monicadonovan — Tue, 27 May 2014 15:00:53 +0000

I shot maple sugaring for Food & Nutrition magazine a few weeks ago – here’s a fun outtake from my friend Andy Carr’s sugarhouse, Backwoods Alchemy in Enosburg. His awesome dog posed in front of the sugarbush for me while I made some photos. Many thanks to all the great sugarmakers who let me hang out, Burgess Sugarhouse and Echo Hill Farm included!

Photo of the Day: Katheryn

monicadonovan — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:00:48 +0000

One of my favorites from a shoot with the beautiful Katheryn McGaffigan last August. Katheryn traveled up from Brooklyn and we had a great time wandering the islands, making gorgeous portraits and soaking in summer sunshine.

Summer is Coming!

monicadonovan — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:27:42 +0000

Photo of the Day: Spring Day, New Zealand

monicadonovan — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:07:35 +0000

With all the dreary weather today I thought I’d share a bright image from early spring in New Zealand, as my partner Judd and I traversed through Mount Cook National Park last December.

Photo of the Day: BTV 50 – Aram Bedrosian

monicadonovan — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:39:26 +0000

This past New Year’s Day, at around 4 A.M., I found myself in a basement nightclub on Broadway in New York, riding my second (or perhaps third) wind of the night after being in turns impressed and shocked by my very first Touchpants performance. In addition to veteran performers such as Phish drummer Jon Fishman, the band also included Aram Bedrosian, a supremely talented bassist hailing from Burlington. Though I’d met him several months before, it was my first time seeing him live onstage. I’m not a musician, but it doesn’t take one to know that Aram kicks ass on the bass.

Aram is a soloist, ensemble player, teacher and composer – you can occasionally catch him guest-playing with visiting bands such as Beats Antique, and he’s about to release a new album, A Dark Light. Check out a preview of the album here and stay tuned on his website for details. He’ll also be playing with Touchpants again at Nectar’s on April 20. Cheers!

Photo of the Day: BTV 50 – Jane Beaumont-Snyder

monicadonovan — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:45:48 +0000

Several months ago I had the beautiful and charismatic singer/actress Jane Beaumont-Snyder up to the studio for some portraits. Trained in classical voice, dance and acting, Jane has also dabbled in poetry, massage therapy, astrology, organic farming and philosophy. You may have caught her wowing the audience in Spielpalast Cabaret, Orkestriska’s Box and host of other plays and performances, or treating Church Street to her soprano melodies. The photos were so fun to go through – I had her sing a bit, and there were some wonderfully expressive images. My personal favorite, though, is this one: a quiet moment between photographer and subject.

Photos of the Day: The Royal Butcher

monicadonovan — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:16:12 +0000

Last year Royal Larocque was kind enough to let me visit the Royal Butcher in Randolph as a part of my farm-to-table project. After months of photographing vegetables, farm workers and cute farm animals, I thought it was time to include some of the messier aspects of food production in my story (I started with chicken slaughter to ease into the subject).

For most of us that eat meat, we tend to consume it while giving as little thought as possible to how meat gets to our plates. As you can imagine, it’s not pretty to slaughter and process cows, sheep and other animals, and I found myself witnessing a whole other aspect of food production that I’ve never seen before. Despite the mess and blood, the workers at the Royal Butcher were unfazed, professional, and went about their work with great focus and attention to detail.

A cow peeks through metal bars while waiting for processing at the Royal Butcher slaughterhouse (abettoir) in Randolph, Vermont.

A worker at the Royal Butcher processes a cow. After using a ‘percussion stunner’ on the animal, it is bled upside-down for several minutes. Here, the cow is being skinned; next it will be eviscerated and cleaned.

Meat hangs in a freezer at the Royal Butcher. Before being cut into portions the meat must go through an ageing (ripening) process, which increases tenderness and develops the flavor before sale.

Photo of the Day: Lauren

monicadonovan — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:30:41 +0000

Another pick from last fall: A portrait sitting with the lovely Lauren, using only natural light and shot a few feet away from my house.

Photos of the Day: Mud Volleyball

monicadonovan — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:03:28 +0000

I’ve had a crazy busy few weeks – lots of shooting – but wanted to share a couple favorites from an assignment for The Essex Reporter last weekend. Full of sunshine, frogs and of course mud, I had a great time hanging out with these guys and getting action shots. This would be my second ‘sports’ assignment ever, the first being a memorable Quidditch tournament at Middlebury College.

New BTV 50 portraits and farm story work to be posted in the coming weeks… Cheers!

Photo of the Day: Star Dairy

monicadonovan — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:39:39 +0000

During my visit to the Northeast Kingdom a couple months ago, I went to meet Ivy Pagliari of Star Dairy, and her cows. Ivy, who recently started her micro dairy based in Hardwick, sells raw milk and was gracious enough to host me for a visit and some photos. Find out details about her micro dairy farm here, and I’ve updated my farm to table section with some new images as well. Happy Fourth everyone!