The Wairarapa Times-Age ran an article on my ‘Moon over Martinborough’ blog last week. They asked me to pose sitting awkwardly on our fence, pretending to do a blog post with the olive grove behind me and a bottle of our oil beside me. I always write blog posts this way.
There was an absolutely enormous version of it on page 3, plus a cropped version on the front page.
Here’s the front page image. The article itself is no longer online.
What do you think? Does this picture of me on the fence look totally dorky or just slightly silly?
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I didn’t think it was dorky till you put the thought in my head! I reckon a bottle of pinot next to you, with a full glass, would have looked more natural than a bottle of olive oil, but then that would not have conveyed the same message.
Don’t worry, looking fine and congrats on the front page! Off to read the interview now…
Wow! Congrats Mr Blogstar – remember the old adage – any publicity is good publicity.
Not dorky but you do look slightly off-balance as if at any moment you might topple off the fence. Hardly surprising really and after all which would you save first – yourself or the laptop??
Congratulations though – you’ve made your mark in Martinborough! Sounds a gorgeous place to live!
Another PR hit – congratulations. I think you could have ditched the bottle of olive oil but that’s what you have photoshop for. You look totally at ease and I admire your ability to blog in the open air!
It is a good picture and quite perfect on the newspaper. I loved the article written up about you too. I for some reason find it interesting how people lead such interesting and fascinating lives. From Detroit to Tokyo to New Zealand? Not needing a tractor. You live and learn pretty quickly. The grove is beautiful.
yes, it is a bit staged, as some newspaper folks are wont to do. you probably could have done without the olive oil… 🙂 but hey, front page! not too shabby. 🙂
Now you come to mention it, maybe the photo was staged, especially with the oil, but “Dorky”? Not at all. It did show some of your beautiful surroundings and your elegant lap top! Placement on the front page, in colour, plus the heading grabbed my attention and sent me to look you up!
I explored your site and joined up. That’s the best thing that’s happened for ages! Jared, your postings are so well written – from outrageously funny to very moving.
Sooo, relax, enjoy the publicity, and congratulations on making the headlines in the paper and for your award.
Definitely not dorky! Congrats for making the front page!
By the way, did you buy your cabbage trees locally, or were they already established?
Thanks! We got our cabbage trees at Akura Conservation Centre in Masterton.
You look great. The bottle of olive oil does look staged, but I see that it was all cropped for the final front page. (We are about three weeks away from our olive harvest over here. It doesn’t look like a very good year in terms of weight, but sometimes we are surprised at the ratio of weight to actual oil – so fingers crossed.)
Good for you ! It helps to put on one picture all your activities (event if the oil bottle disappeared from the front page). Because people see first of all, pictures when they read newspapers or blogs. So they see the picture in the right corner. So they read the article. So the blog. But trust me : they never think about your acrobatic blogger pose… until you mention it 😉
May be the same pose in an olive tree would be more significative… Don’t you think so ?
They wrote :”Jared Gulian’s blog has one thing that so many blogs lack – it’s very well written (…)”
And I do agree ! Very well written and often hilarious 😉
Last but not least : I’m learning a lot of english words or expressions when I’m reading your blog.
Congrats !
Never dorky. Always delicous. You and the olive oil.
I see you sitting in the corner of the chook house leaning back in an old paint spattered farm chair. Bottle of Horse Paddock at your side, feet up on a small bale of hay..oh, and a dirty glass. He takes a swig, wipes his mouth on his shirt sleeve just as Henry starts poking around the door…AND HE WRITES…..
Well, you look a bit uncomfortable, really. I do wish they’d done a bit less staging, really. In this area, they may have taken a photo of you against the fence and another pecking away at the computer. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing.