The Cacao Road

My conception of this blog, from the beginning, was to be a window into and an outlet for the things that go on in my life outside of being a professional photographer - cooking, gardening and raising two kids. In my mind they're co-mingled anyway. Most photographers, of course, use their blogs as a marketing tool–marketing in the social mediasphere. That seemed a little redundant (what's the point of the website?) and I'm admittedly not the most social media savvy person in the world.

But I'm just back from a truly amazing trip to the Dominican Republic with Alex Whitmore of Taza Chocolate and I thought, what the hell, let's mediasphere this sucker. I've been shooting for Taza for many years now and think we all realized, at some point, that the growers and producers of the cacao beans was about all we were missing to tell the complete story - from "bean-to-bar" as they say.

A special shout-out to Alex for making it all happen and assisting me in my attempt to drink all the ice-cold Presidentes in the western Dominican Republic. And to Kate Cavallin and Emily Stone for much the same reasons. Lastly to all the farmers and cacao plant workers who were unfailingly kind and patient and generous.