Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day


"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. " -- President Barack Obama

Scoutie Girl

Some photos of mine have been featured on Scoutie Girl!



Click here to read the post, and see below for the featured images! They're all available on Etsy.

New England Photography Open

Figured I'd post a little reminder about the upcoming opening - the following is from the Warwick Museum of Art website:


New England Photography Open Exhibition
Show Schedule: June 15 - July 14, 2007
Awards Night / Opening Reception: Friday, June 22nd, 7 - 9 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday Noon - 4:00 p.m.

The Warwick Museum of Art invites you to join us Friday, June 22, 2007 from 7 - 9 pm for the opening and awards night of the “2007 New England Photography Open.” This beautiful exhibition consists of photographic works from the New England area. There is no admission to the gallery, but a small donation to support the Museum is graciously accepted. The New England Photography Open will run through Saturday July 14th, 2007. The gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, noon – 4 p.m.

Contributing photographers from around the New England area have submitted their photography for this juried show. Juror, Shane Gutierrez, is a professional freelance photographer with over 20 years experience in the field. Besides landscape and portraiture, he’s interested in every genres of photography including alternative processes and camera work. Shane is also a digital photography instructor at RISD CE, Barrington Community School and South County Arts Association. He is the owner of Shane Photography in Warwick, Rhode Island.

The Awards Reception and Show Open will celebrate the contributing photographers to the show, including prizes awarded for First, Second, Third and several Honorable Mention Awards. Photography appreciators will find
something for everyone in this exhibit showcasing the distinctive imagery and creativity of gifted photographers.

Please join us to celebrate the amazing images and congratulate the New England photographers:

Lauren Bexley
André Blais
Maura Bonner
Diana Brennan
William Carpenter
Lenore Collins
Stephanie Ewens
Tracey Francis
Nicole Gesmondi
Nermin Kura
Jack Lenk
Lorna Stokes

New Toy

Recently, our local discount store moved to a new location. I was sad at first, because the original location is in walking distance and I used to find great deals there, particularly on gardening supplies. However, it turns out that the old location is now their clearance center - meaning potentially even better deals! I went in hoping to find a new glazed planter, but there were none to be had. (You really have to dig around for useful bargains in a discount store clearance center, I suppose.) I was ready to give up when I found something even better.... Polaroid cameras for $5! Of course, I couldn't resist getting one. I bought some film (more expensive than the camera) and played around with my new toy while in Rochester, NY for a wedding. It was really a challenge to slow myself down out of digital mode and try to carefully compose each shot to conserve film - especially since each frame costs over $1. It was also somewhat amusing to remember that there's no zoom. Well, aside from walking closer to or farther away from the subject. I did make several mistakes, like forgetting how to keep the flash from going off, leaving the camera on the wrong distance setting, or just getting too close to a subject. A few came out decently, though. I was pleasantly surprised by the colors - washed out, not particularly true - they gave a kind of retro feel to the shots. I'm looking forward to playing around more, maybe even finding some really old or damaged film and seeing what kind of funky results I can get out of it.

Here's one from today. I took the Polaroid print and scanned it, then messed around a little with the crop and orientation. The model is my lovely best friend, Amber. I hope you like it.

Rome Point

I went for a walk today with my husband, sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew at Rome Point in Rhode Island. It was a lovely day for a walk, but we noticed the beach smelled, well, fishier than normal. The culprit of the smell was something none of us had seen before - thousands upon thousands of dead sea stars had washed up on the beach. While most of them were pretty thoroughly dried by the time we got there, the smell still lingered. It was a bit icky, but really amazing, too. I'd never seen so many sea stars in one place before. We suspect a recent storm may be what caused the problem. I didn't spend much time photographing the scene, but here's a shot that illustrates the scale of it all.



In lighter news, prior to reaching the sea stars, I tried my hand at taking some more infrared photographs. I didn't have my tripod with me, but an obliging rock was at hand, and I quite like the perspective it captured.



What do you think?

Busy Photo Day

It was very nice to have a full day's worth of photo activities to do. I started at 8am up in Roger Williams Park, taking yoga portraits for Ellen, the woman who hosted my last show (at One Yoga Center). It was so much fun working with her and her student Denise. Yoga poses are wonderful to photograph, such interesting lines and dynamics. We had lovely light as well. Here are some photos from this morning:



My other photo task of the day was to prep and submit a photograph for the New England Photography Open Exhibition hosted by the Warwick Museum of Art. The first I heard of it was late last night, when I stumbled across a notice on craigslist saying the deadline for submissions had been extended to this Saturday! Luckily I had a few pieces available already printed, and just had to get them framed and ready to bring over to the museum. I'll know by Wednesday if my photograph made the cut and will be displayed at the museum. Wish me luck! Here's the piece I submitted:

Assignment #21

Alrighty, the final two assignments are ready!

From Julia Boyce... "The beauty of a muddy farm"

I went up to visit Julia at her farm, but unfortunately it was still too cold out to really be muddy. So, I'm taking a little creative license with this one. Besides, this 2 day old lamb and his mother are so sweet... and they do express part of the beauty of a farm.



And last but certainly not least, from my sister-in-law Jeannie, "the bottoms of his [my nephew's] feet." Well, my nephew was less than cooperative, as he really enjoys kicking his little feet, but I think this one fits the bill. And I love the bright colors.



I hope you enjoy them!

Also coming up soon - the One Yoga Center in Foster, RI is hosting an exhibit of my photographs! There will be a gallery opening on April 20th at 5pm, so keep your calendars clear! Contact me for more information, and check back here for any updates.

New Projects

I've been busy the past few weeks planning and plotting and prepping for some new projects. Today I upgraded my "portable" home studio - I now have better lighting and a longer backdrop, perfect for some portraits I'll be taking in the next few months! I've used my new flash to do some portrait work as well, including this one of my mom. She's an author and needed an upgraded photo for her "author blurb", so I surprised her at a family birthday party with an impromptu photo session.



I'm also eagerly anticipating the "mud season", as I've got an appointment to go to a local farm and photograph their operations and, of course, the mud! This will fulfill one of the last few assignments left on my list, and it should be a lot of fun. And of course, I'll also be continuing my mill project!

Aside from these photographic pursuits, my husband and I have embarked on another big project - we're preparing to buy our first house! Wish us luck, and keep your fingers crossed that we find one with a spare bedroom that can convert to a permanent home studio/office!

Assignment #20

I know what you're thinking... What's this? Another assignment posting already!? It's true, folks. Aside from packing up the car, I'm pretty much done getting ready for my February 10th show! I am relieved, and now I have time to work on photo assignments! Not many left...

I've got two for you today, one from MrsRoDeBa - "Your street". Since my street is kind of a narrow back street with a lot of buildings under renovation, it isn't too scenic. Far too many dumpsters to be scenic. So I went with the literal interpretation of "Your street" and focused on the pavement itself.



And next, from my sister Lisa, "How about taking an uninteresting square foot of forest and trying to take the most interesting picture you can of it. It has to be a square foot you would usually pass by and not see." I'll admit, I didn't bring a measuring tape with me so this is probably more than a square foot. However the bit of forest in and of itself wasn't very interesting. But the light coming through it sure was. I also played around a bit with the color, because I miss green growing things.



Enjoy! And wish me luck, I've applied for a substantial fellowship that would let me spend a whole year doing solely photography instead of needing a part time job! I'm really excited about what i could do with that, and have one main project in mind as well as a few side projects. So yeah, here's hoping!

Assignment #19

I apologize for the wait - with the Picture Perfect Evening show in one week (!!!) I've been keeping myself very, very busy! But, I've only got a few more assignments to crank out on my list, and here's one of them:

From MrsRoDeBa, "Your shoes or your husband's shoes". Well, technically I guess this is just the one shoe, but I'm gonna let myself off the hook for now. My husband's old, beat up Converse that he hasn't the heart to get rid of.



And, since it took me a while between posts, I'll throw in a second shoe picture in as a bonus! These are my poor, beat up work boots.



Enjoy - and check back soon for an update on my gallery opening. It's been pushed back from late February to March, and I still don't have a final date. As soon as I find out I'll post the info here, as well as send out a newsletter. If you're not getting the newsletter and would like to, sign using the green box on my home page.

Assignment #18

I haven't abandoned you all I swear! For the past few weeks I have been busy getting ready for the Picture Perfect Evening event that's coming up, so I haven't had much free time to get assignments done.

To make up for it, today I'm posting 4 of them! I had to skip over some because some assignments were photos of Christmas decorations. Since I am really past due to take down my Christmas decorations, I figured I'd better get those assignments done!

First, from my best friend Amber: "How about taking pictures of holiday decorations, but from a different perspective?" The end result of this challenge was a slightly different perspective than normal, and a very different method than normal. The perspective is from as high as my tripod would take the camera, right up at the tippity top of the tree. Being short, this was a new perspective for me! The method was infrared photography, which makes the needles of the tree look whitish, and gives a really deep tonal range to the inanimate objects in the photo. As always, click on the image to see a larger version.



Next, two assignments from my mother-in-law, Susan. The first one is "a photo of your husband's hands hanging an ornament on the Christmas tree".

This one was tough, mostly due to the uncooperativeness of said husband! No, not really, he was very nice and helped me out. But his hand got tired trying to stay still in one position while the "arteeste" solidified her "vision". So I let him off the hook after a few shots. No pun intended.



Next from Susan: "a photo of the tree from the bottom up." This one was an interesting challenge because straight up from the bottom turned out to be pretty uninteresting. There were some tough limitations to overcome, like having to be a certain distance away from whatever gets focused on. Also, a lot of things that look cool in three dimensions look terrible and kind of busy in two dimensions, and the branch structure of a Christmas tree is apparently one of those things. Not to be daunted, I decided I'd take a photo from the bottom up, by focusing on the bottom and panning upwards as the shutter went off. The result is this odd mix of motion blurring and bright Christmas colors. I kind of like the dizzy festive feeling of it.



Finally, one assignment that isn't Christmas related but the result of opportunity knocking. My friend Darcy's assignment got pushed to the front of the line purely because of an interesting location, good light, and a cool textured background. Her assignment was "shadow" and here is one of my favorite photos to come out of a recent trip to an old textile mill. Thanks again to my "model" husband.



And, in closing, something completely different. My mother recently made the comment that there seem to be two kinds of artists. Those who see shapes/lines and those who see color. I think I definitely fit into that first category. That's why I love black and white photography so much. It allows you to look past the distracting colors and see the shapes and patterns in the image. But I'm curious - what kind of artist are YOU? When you look at a piece, do you see shapes? colors? textures? Leave a comment and let me know.

Assignment #17

Another photo assignment tonight - this time from Julia Boyce. She's got one more after this one but it definitely involves a trip outside, so it'll have to wait until another day. It should be fun though!

Tonight's assigment is... "The written word"



"Hope" was the first word that sprang to mind, and I thought it was a good one, so I went with it. My husband suggested "cogitate", but it didn't end up looking as nice :-).

Enjoy!

Assignment #16

More assignments today from my friend Steph!

"you know those mornings when it's all foggy and dewey out? maybe you could take a picture then"

I recently went to see the seals that annually visit the rocks off of Rome Point in Narragansett Bay. The day was very foggy and misty, perfect conditions to take a photo for this assignment. The photo itself is of the rocks the seals haul out on (if you click on it to enlarge the image and look closely you can see a seal arching it's back just below and to the left of the flying gull). I loved how the misty coastline fading into the background silouetted the gull, and the soft lighting from the overcast day.



Next up "beaded drops at the tips of the branches"

I must have taken 30 photos of droplets at the tips of branches while on this same walk to see the seals. Here's one of my favorites:



Enjoy!

Assignment #15

Ok, I'm finally recovered from the holiday madness and ready to post a new assignment! I was also finally able to crank out some challenges from my best friend Steph, who was the first to respond and has been very patient waiting for me to find subjects to fit her assignments.

First off - "I would love to see you take a photo of sunset farm!"

Had to wait until after Christmas for this one, as a framed print of this shot was her gift and I didn't want to spoil the surprise! Without further ado, Sunset Farm's Kinney Bungalow at sunset.



Next up, "even though spiders are yucky....maybe you could take a picture of a neat spider web"

I thought this web was neat because it's all lines, instead of the usual dewey circular pattern that is a popular photographic subject. I hope the thin webs show up on your monitor - if not you may want to calibrate it so that you're sure your contrast and brightness are correct. It may also help to click on the image and view it larger.



Enjoy!

New Photography Fun & Games

So obviously I couldn't stay away for my whole "vacation" :-P

But, I'm just starting to play with a new technique and it is too fun not to share! Just tonight I started experimenting with ways to make a photogram (see description here) using digital means. Tonight's experiments involved a extremely bright metal halide lamp, an old scanner, and some flower petals. I am intrigued by the results and will post more details on the technique once I get it honed down. I'm going to try a few other methods, so we'll see what comes of it all.



Hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year!

Assignment #14

First of all, some non-assignment news of sorts. Today I went to Hartford's Wadsworth Athaneum to see the Edward Weston exhibit with my friend Darcy. It was very cool, though we were a little suprised that so little of his well known works were shown. We did enjoy watching his technique evolve from the softer look of pictorialism to the sharper lines of modernism. And we enjoyed getting to see some of his very few color transparencies - very cool. My favorite was a shot of dunes in Oceana. Click here to see a somewhat digitally screwed up scan of the one I'm talking about (unfortunately the official website did not have this particular shot).

And, to get back on track, today I got to work on some really challenging assignments from Julia Boyce of Locust Leaf Farm. Both had lots of possibliities as to how they could be interpreted, each with their own unique challenges. Without further ado:

"1. Choices"

I thought about doing a comparison shot of sorts, like health food vs. junk food or something, but instead I went with the actual thought process behind choices. And I do believe this qualifies as "photomanipulation" :-P



Next up, "2. Pure enjoyment"

I thought smiles at first, but instead decided on something that, to me, expresses the joy of the Holiday Season. Colorful lights dancing around got the message across, I thought.



For those who are interested, the technique I used to capture the moving lights is a fairly simple and quite fun one. You need a dark room, a camera you can set for a long exposure, and a light source. Press the shutter button and move the light source around in front of the lens - slowly or quickly depending on the effect you want. In this case, I used a flashing light source to get more of a sense of joyful movement, rather than smooth lines.

Two more suggestions from Julia remain on my list and I hope to get to them soon.

My Own Assignment...

Edit: I noticed this morning that the photo links were broken - they're fixed now :-)

I've taken a break from assignments for tonight in the interest of working on a few photos I've had sitting on my hard drive just begging to be used. So, I'll consider it working on my own assignment - I'll call it "playing catch-up"

Here they are, let me know what you think!





Hmm, methinks working on everyone's assignments has swayed me slightly further away from black and white images :-)

Assignment #13

Hey all, one more assignment photo for you tonight. Sorry its just been one at a time lately, between the holiday season and some other photo projects I'm a bit slowed down.

Tonight I'm featuring the last assignment from shanana77 - "images of light coming through blinds". This one has been on my list for a while and I haven't been able to get a shot of blinds during the daytime yet! So, in the interest of actually getting her assignment posted, I cheated a little. This shot was taken at night and inverted to get a feeling of light rather than darkness coming in from behind the blinds. It has a bit of a surreal feeling to it - I stared at it for quite a while before posting and my eyes kept switching back and forth as to what they "saw" in the image. It's simple and abstract, and a little bit different than what I'd normally do!



And in case you haven't found it yet, there's a new gallery up showcasing the carousel work I've started doing - check it out!

Assignment #12

Well, I said I'd have new assignment photos posted this past Friday but wasn't able to deliver - sorry about that! We were at a wedding this weekend and had a marvelous time but the assignment schedule suffered as a result.

But, as "they" say, better late than never! So here is my friend Matt's photography challenge - "taking pictures of regular, everyday objects... but covered in leaves... like mailboxes, or street signs, or maybe even a small car?"

I unfortunately didn't get to his challenge until after most of the leaves had been blown away or cleaned up, so there were no leaf-covered mailboxes, street signs, or small vehicles. There were several steps of stairs at Roger Williams Park that were covered in leafy drifts, so I hope they make an acceptable substitute! I kinda like the interplay between the cold hard concrete and the fluffier, warmer piles of leaves.

Photo Assignment #11

Things are getting a bit hectic with the holidays and a couple of photo jobs coming up, but I did manage to get at least one person's assignment done today! I actually took photos for a few assignments but don't have the time to go through all of them this evening, which means more will be up tomorrow!

For tonight, I'm featuring my friend Keith: "Take a picture of your morning and evening; like, one image which sums it up (well, one for morning; one evening)."

It took me a while to figure out something for the morning, because most of my work-day mornings are spent stumbling around, showering, and getting dressed. Aside from trying to keep things G-rated, I wouldn't say either of those things "define" my morning. Then it hit me, the perfect summation of my morning - not wanting to get out of bed...



As for my evenings, I can almost always be found behind the camera or in front of the computer screen working on photos. Since it's impossible for me to take a picture of me taking a picture (I only have the one camera, ya see), I opted for the computer route. It's sad but true, working or playing on the computer does sort of define my evenings. At least I enjoy it!



You'll notice my morning picture is in black and white, and that my evening picture is in color. This is pretty representative of my brain power at those respective times - I am at my most alert and creative in the evening, and at my foggiest in the morning :-)

Enjoy!