photography, instagram and keeping a sharp eye

I have always liked taking pictures as a hobby– first as a child with a little Kodak Brownie camera, moving on to my Dad’s hand-me-down Minolta SLR, going digital with my beloved Cannon Powershot in recent years.    

fungus on a downed limb out the road today

And although I enjoy shooting, photography never interested me much on gallery walls; at least it never did until I shared studio space for a couple of years with a class-A photographer friend, Brenda Kleinfelder.  We were lucky enough to travel to Manhattan years ago, where we spent many memorable hours museum-hopping together.  There she introduced me to the likes of Weegee, Sally Mann, and Diane Arbus to name just a few.

One thing that attracted me to the idea of blogging was the excuse it provided to take lots and lots of photographs.  As you have probably noted, this blog is (usually) heavy on images, light on text.  A picture is truly worth a thousand words as I see it.  Just have a look at Denis Shelby’s outstanding street photography, or the work of Rick White in Japan, Christi on Lopez... the list goes on and on!

Annton’s recent post about her love affair with Instagram resonated with me.  I picked up the habit a little over a year ago, posting photos taken on my phone-camera and following a variety of other Instagramers.  My little Iphone camera actually takes better pix than my Cannon.

During these stressed out days of packing up both house and studio, photography (plus drawing of course) is an effective way to maintain my visual acuity until I can get back to my dyes and brushes again.

The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.
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"The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way". -Diane Arbus

Free Toys

There is time here in Denver to do some exploring and experimenting with the fabulous Photoshop Elements.  These photos of poppies blooming wild on the morning walk trail and big old cottonwoods were doctored up with a background from Free Photoshop.org. 

I like the way these free toys can add a patina of age to my digital photos, and am only just scratching the surface of possibilities.

House of Seasons

My photography project for our Tongass Rain Forest Festival is completed and I want to show you how it turned out.

Because this object represents Southeast Alaska, it had to be supported by a pile foundation.  I made the pilings from driftwood K helped my gather from Sandy Beach last Saturday.

This is a detail of the pile caps.

 House of Seasons - photos printed on cotton with fibers and sticks, 20" tall by 4"x4"

The winter face is my favorite.

Detail of the top, showing the fabric 'bead' closure.  The box opens, with additional content on the interior, but I am not able to get a decent photo - I will leave that to your imagination!

Thanks to Janet Edmond's fabulous book, Beginner's Guide to Embroidered Boxes, for some of the techniques I used in constructing this box.