10-APR-2008
Thursday's Totally Informal Transglobal Challenge for April 10, 2008 - "Into The Light"
As I sat down to a lovely quiche and salad supper at my friend's apartment on Tuesday, I found myself looking into the light of the late afternoon sun. She wanted to pull the blinds but I begged her to keep them open. If you're a regular visitor to my galleries, you know that I am a lover of light!
To see other PBasers' responses to this Thursday's Challenge,
CLICK HERE.
09-APR-2008
Welcome spring!
I took this photo on Sunday, the second warm day of the season for us here in the Detroit area. Everyone was out, including yours truly. After such a long cold winter, it felt dreamlike to be able to shed coats and even sweaters. There are few pleasures as sweet as those first moments of feeling warm sun on your bare arms. And we've been lucky. The warm spell has continued. I know we can still get one more snow, but at least we now know spring has not forgotten us. She is here to stay.
An update about the "Photographic Essay" workshop with David Alan Harvey that I'd hoped to participate in this June. I got word today that I'd been accepted! Since it is an advanced workshop that required one to submit a preliminary portfolio of work, this acceptance makes me feel very good indeed. Now I can't wait until June 7th! Don't forget, I'll be in Charlottesville, Virginia for "Look3: Festival of the Photograph" (June 12-14) and would sure love it if other PBasers would join me there. I think it looks pretty awesome. Check it out at
their web site.
08-APR-2008
Dreamscape #8
CLICK HERE to see the "Dreamscapes" gallery in which this composite appears.
They just keep coming. Some, like this one, take a bit of doing, while others come together pretty easily. I sure am having fun! There is nothing I love more than creating composites, especially ones that include the human element. I feel so fortunate to have the time to devote to my passion. So many of my PBase friends have to fit their passion into bits and pieces of time, what with jobs, families, and assorted responsibilities. But me? I can spend uninterrupted hours--days even--pursuing all things photographic. Hey, there are definite advantages to being old!
April 8 is the deadline for entries to a competition/exhibit called "The Artful Nude." Sponsored by the Center for Fine Art Photography, it is being juried by Kim Weston, Edward Weston's grandson. The exhibit will be held at the Center in Colorado in July-August 2008. I'm still discerning which of my many nudes to enter but I'm definitely going to include a few of these Dreamscape images. If you move fast you can enter it too. Just
CLICK HERE to check it out.
07-APR-2008
Dreamscape #7
CLICK HERE to see the "Dreamscapes" gallery in which this composite appears.
This is a variation on the calla lily/nude theme I started two days ago. To create it, I started with Dreamscape #5, deleted the figure, the white spider web on her bum, added a different figure and played with opacity, curves & contrast.
I feel like I'm riding a new wave here, the wave that rolls into creative abstraction. When I started this Dreamscapes gallery on April Fools Day I was going someplace else entirely, but the joke's on me! Art has a mind of its own: it always takes me where IT wants to go, not necessarily where I wanted to go. That's what I love about it. My own creative ideas are narrowly defined by what I've done or seen before. To go beyond that, I have to let go of my expectations and just ride the wave. Like a surfer, you catch a wave never knowing where it will take you, or how long you can stay with it before it throws you off into deep water. Well, let's see how long a ride I get this time...
05-APR-2008
Dreamscape #5
CLICK HERE to see the "Dreamscapes" gallery in which this composite appears.
I listened to the Kronos Quartet as I created this composite and I truly think their innovative musical genius pushed me beyond where I would have gone on my own. My thanks to Pat Carrabre, weekend host of "The Signal" on CBC Radio Two, for featuring the Kronos Quartet on Friday night's program.
If you go to the
Kronos Quartet's web site and click on the image in the top left corner of their home page, you can listen to excerpts of their music. To check out "The Signal, " including having the option of listening to it live on your computer,
CLICK HERE. The Signal comes on seven nights a week and I rarely miss it. It's hard to describe their programs. All I can say is if you like experimental music, it will make you very happy.
04-APR-2008
Dreamscape #4
CLICK HERE to see the "Dreamscapes" gallery in which this composite appears.
I could get addicted to this! Are you like that? When you're in the middle of a series, especially a new one, do you find yourself thinking about it at odd times throughout the day? As with Dreamscape #1, I hatched this idea while driving on the expressway. Maybe I should just go for a drive every day to get my creative juices flowing!
Today (Thursday) was a BIG day for me. I finally mailed my
"Dualities portfolio" submission to Lenswork Magazine! They sure make you jump hoops to submit your work--LOTS of items on their Submissions Checklist. But they say that half of the portfolios they publish are unsolicited, from people like me who are not in the gallery or art photography world. Why don't you try too? You've nothing to lose except lots of time and the cost of postage. And they encourage international submissions.
CLICK HERE to check it out. In my opinion, LensWork is the finest quality photography mag around. By the way, they only publish portfolios made up of B&W images.
So hold my submission in good energy, will you? And I'll do the same for you when you submit YOUR portfolio.
03-APR-2008
Thursday's Totally Informal Transglobal Challenge for April 3, 2008 - "Water"
This composite is not only my response to this week's Challenge, but the third in my new series called "Dreamscapes." To see my Dreamscapes gallery,
CLICK HERE.
To see other PBasers' responses to this Thursday's Challenge,
CLICK HERE.
02-APR-2008
Dreamscape #2
I guess maybe this IS the start of a new series.
01-APR-2008
Dreamscape #1
If this image looks familiar, it is. But with a twist. I'll leave it to you to figure out what's different.
My creative juices always start flowing when I read well-thought out, well-written books or articles about photography. Right now I'm reading "Inside the Photograph: Writings on Twentieth Century Photography" by Peter C. Brunnell (2006 Aperture Foundation, Inc.). This book contains 34 essays by the respected Princeton University professor and curator, Peter Brunnell. Each essay studies a particular photographer. The four who have spoken most deeply to me thus far are Emmet Gowin, Jerry Uelsmann, Harry Callahan and Walter Chappell. There is something both intimate and dreamlike in the work of these men. Even when they're taking straight photos, what happens is unexpected.
And so it was for me today. I was driving north on the freeway to go get my wheelchair-accessible minivan repaired when this composite came to mind. But not as I'd created it last July. No, now the building had one of my nudes in its windows. As soon as I got home I sat down at my computer and started trying out different images from my
Winter Nudes portfolio. When I saw the way this one looked in the windows, I knew it was exactly what I'd had in mind. I wonder if this is the start of a new series?
Gawd, I love the act of creating!