As technology changes the way they take pictures, it changes the ways the Smiths share them. They shoot with three digital cameras. With their computers, they employ negative and flat bed scanners. Printing with archival inks on archival papers, they are marketing what they call affordable fine art photography.

Both Mara and Ford participated in America 24/7, the largest digital photography project in history. North Carolina 24/7 included eighteen of their photos. In 2006–2007, Mara was one of three female photographers who recorded the daily lives and visual stories of Polk County, North Carolina.

Ford holds bachelors and masters degrees from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Mara has an English degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. She has taken a darkroom course at The Light Factory in Charlotte, N.C. and a Landscape Photography course at The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Ariz. Both have attended Kodak field courses in the national parks.

To date, the Smiths have produced ten books, including two for Globe Pequot Press, two for McGraw-Hill, and a national Children’s Choice Award winner for Peel Publications, ABC All-American Riddles. In 2007, they produced Focus on the Foothills, a 100-page photobook on Polk County and the surrounding area. In the past few years, the Smiths have published their first novel, “Endangered,” and three annual editions of “Winning Wines,” all of which can be purchased locally and found on the couple’s website, www.livesimplywithstyle.com.

To get to Walnut Creek Preserve’s Nature Center from the Tryon and Columbus area, take NC Highway 108 E and turn left on to NC Highway 9 N toward Lake Lure. Follow N.C. NC Highway 9 N for 5 miles and turn right onto McGuinn Road (at the Exxon Station). Go 1 mile to the intersection with Big Level Road; turn left, go 2/10ths of a mile and take the first right onto Aden Green Road.
Follow Aden Green for 4/10ths of a mile and turn left on Herbarium Lane and into Walnut Creek Preserve. Take the first left on to Conservatory Lane, which takes you to the parking area for the Nature Center.

For more information or directions from another location, please contact the Pacolet Area Conservancy at 828-859-5060 or e-mail: landprotection@pacolet.org.

– article submitted by Pam Torlina and Mara Smith