Last weekend at the cabin

Reflections and bokeh often make lovely images

July - Alaska & Highland Water Tower

Coming soon.

June ~ northern lights

For the summer solstice I'm heading back to the land of the midnight sun, but the first weekend in June was the Twin Cities' first white night event, northern spark.

View of the 35W bridge, from the Stone Arch Bridge.

Under the Stone Arch Bridge, circa 1am.

some folks hanging out in the way of Debora Miller's large-scale projection, Murmur

Nice shadow puppets on the Gold Medal Flour silos

Jim Campbell's Scattered Light, a sculpture installed near the Science Museum of MN.  On view through July 24th

Observing from afar, and from within, around 2:30am 6/5/11.

May ~ yellow marshmallow sky

 

Here we are outside the store on the evening of a hot humid May day that busted into storm.  I don't like temps above 70s but the weather did give us a nice intermittent yellow and green sky with piles of poofy clouds.  I prefer this orientation, though the image was shot upside down.

Gear:  Nikon D90, Tamron 70-300mm VC

April ~ Recollection

Here are a few images from Fairbanks, AK in November 2010, made with 120 film.
 

I was fascinated by this truck in the woods.  I believe it's been sitting there for some time.

Notice the digital imagery of this same scene, from a few posts previous.  I'm a fan of both color tints.

I loved how the sun shone through the trees.

A happy accidental multiple exposure, made at the University.

Another view from the University.

March ~ Ortonville

 Bobb and I drove to Ortonville for a few days, mid-week of spring break.  Distracted, I forgot my own camera equipment and subsequently felt like a terrible, terrible photographer.  There were really quite a few nice landscapes along the way as well as in the general vicinity.  Greg lent me his camera to make a few images around the farm.

Just down the road.  Saturation reduced save yellow and some red.

Lights in the old house.

 Spices on the deck.

Goat!  They have two, both of whom are a few weeks pregnant.  Cabri posed, likely hoping for another pumpkin slice or orange rind.


Gear:  Canon Rebel XTI, Canon 17-85mm IS and 50mm f/1.4

February ~ lucem

Light.


Gear:  Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro D

January ~ new beginnings

For a combination of reasons including both my fondness for this particular blog as well as a current general lack of need for an entirely new site, I've decided to continue posting on this venue, beyond 2010. It's a good thing I had the foresight to name this space 365+ as the plus now comes into play beyond its original intent. Rather than the initial scope of last year's project, I'll keep to the looser structure of postings, generally confined to months.


I've been thinking about the clarity of vision, and am also consistently interested in the use of technology --one would normally associate with sharp results-- to make soft images. I'd rather this not be a gimmick but I also like pretty pictures. And, there's nothing wrong with pursuing an idea.

Color is warmed on the two landscape images below, while clarity is reduced in all three.


Wildcat Mountain State Park, Wisconsin.



Gear: Nikon D90, Tokina 12-24mm f4, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 D micro. Some of these images were also shot with film which currently remains latent, in a bag near my dresser.

December ~ ebbing light

The year draws to a close.

December sleeps with death. We descend into winter, dwindle on the past and anticipate a cleaner, brighter future where light overpowers the quiet dark.

A few weeks ago I saw Alaska when sun lit the crystal air for a handful of hours each day. Hints of vivid life permeated the still whites and greys. Along with a few curiosities after my return home, those images will close this project. Some were shot on 120 film, others digitally.

Thank you for following my visions, whether brief ends of shaky endeavors or unsteady beginnings. Every exploration meant something and I am disappointed by the flickering finish of this project. These past few months have proven difficult to keep up.

Please stay tuned for the final images as well as the promised end count.

~~
Sun sets at 3pm in late November Fairbanks. Light diffuses a frozen atmosphere.



These images were also shot with yet unprocessed film. I reduced the clarity on these to emphasize a hazy quality in the air. Each breath is crystal clean and strikingly clear, but I prefer to draw attention to the softness of the quality of light.

Gear: Nikon D90, Tokina 12-24 f/4

November ~ film

Here are a few delayed Holga (120 film) images from the State Fair




I like the bare effect of this panorama of three files blended in Photoshop.
Here are a few digital shots from the State Fair.


Gear: Holga 120n, Ilford film

November ~ cultivate

Several days ago I intentionally left out a covered cup of tea, curious to see what would grow. The gasoline-like color spectrum wasn't nearly as attractive in this image as the simplicity of the linear pattern graced with light. I also reduced the clarity to emphasize the overall color/line/light pattern as opposed to the minor details. It must be my black and white roots. Although, a hankering for a slight color tint prevailed.

An elongated figure dances, but this also reminds me of an idea that occurred while flying home from Alaska: to work with waterway aerial imagery.

Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro

Nobember ~ mini road trip

To meet a Madison-area friend for dinner, JP and I drove from the Twin Cities area to Black River Falls, WI, where a large orange moose holds sentinel.

With little manual control on my compact camera, I Played with the flash and a low-ISO setting combo for this look.


We ate dinner here. The top image might be more amusing if it were composed slightly more to the left, better displaying the dark space where "resta" should have been. But, oh well. Eye roll please. . . you can rant all you want.


Gear: Canon SD1100IS

November ~ boots

I haven't worn these boots for a while, but they were fairly well broken in--or, broken--during a semester in Italy six years ago. Purchased in Venice after the heel separated from a previous pair, these tramped all over that country and beyond.

This also reminds me of when my grandmother died, four years ago. It was the first experience with death for my cousin's very young son, who had, incidentally, just learned to tie his shoes. His parents were trying to explain to him that grandma wouldn't be tying her shoes anymore. He looked blank for a moment, brightened and asked, "Grandma wear boots?"


Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro, Nikon SB-600

November ~ cracks in the horizon

I had a lot of fun shooting a variety of images with this ceramic mask, made a few years ago by a roommate.

Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro

November ~ blues

Glass can do great things with light.


Gear: Nikon D90, Tokina 12-24mm f/4

November ~ shadows

Many little figures live in this home. Sometimes they tell quiet stories.


Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 D

November ~ a recount

I've been meaning to count posts/images to see where this project lies, numerically. Have we hit 365 yet?

Stay tuned, kids (or, you could count for yourself, but that might be asking too much of our time/patience/attention span-strained culture. Also, be aware that an entry may have two images that were counted as one).

If we haven't yet hit the magic number, I'll try to plan something fun for that upcoming event.
If we have... um, well, I'll still try to plan something fun.

October ~ multiplicity

The final stretch of the year has hit hard with lacking motivation. However, I realized that even though my traditional equipment has lain still, I have been making pictures. A lot.

October's offering of images is a collage of these photos. The subject may appear self-indulgent, but, the venue of a personal photo blog leans that way, anyway. These photos were all taken with my phone, day after day, as self-portraits sent to my boyfriend. They could be read as a bare comment on picture texting and the projected image of oneself. Fake but also real. It's me and it's part of a relationship and how I often see or present myself to this other person. I thought, a lot, about whether I wanted to put this out there. But, the notion of self-perception and image as well as technology's role and even the idea of multiple selves or the simplicity of the visual effect of a grid... all of these facets interested me.

Not much post production on these aside from sizing, some cropping and slight levels adjustments. Some are a bit blurry and in many the color is odd, but they are very quick... just, picture texts. Culled from dozens, some repeat poses or lighting.

This may be the start of a series of self-portraits in 2011.
Gear: mobile phone LG VX8360

September ~ last offering(s)

Please accept these last few images from September. Personally, it was a photographically generating rough month. Push through it.

shot early on, more light and color studies ~



Sometime mid-month, as I cleaned a pan, an interesting pattern of suds, faux cross-processed ~



Near the end of the month, studying in a coffee shop, lamp light crossing a page~
From Sharon Irish's book on artist Suzanne Lacy, each of these words and phrases are pulled directly from a page in the below reading. They move into one another. Consider space and movement. The image is composed of two soft pics of the same page layered next to each other with one horizontally flipped, then blurred to emphasize the light and color.

"commercial centers with public walkways that create climatically controlled layer of movement and pedestrian circulation, surveillance, interaction and profit from the street level glass as the space narrows"


Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro, mobile phone LG VX8360

Incidentally, I often had this Pomplamoose cover of Earth Wind and Fire's September! floating through my head this month. Enjoy.

September ~ where we stand

Looking over this month, and further back, several images reference feet. That was by no specific design. Noticing trends can guide work into the future with a nod to the past. While pursuing an interest in body imagery a few years ago, I made some photographs similarly composed, paying attention to line and the shapes referenced and formed by the skin and the contact of touching parts.

Feet are what we stand on--a foundation. They keep us upright and moving forward. Election time is upon us, of course, but I'm also thinking about the flux of personality and choices we make about who we are. Visible shapes here also reference other body parts. Origins.

These two photographs were made with an altered white balance to warm the lighting. I shot several with a flash and preferred the quiet, unobtrusiveness of the dark. Magnifying the subject's softness with a diffuser filter at time of shooting--the point was not to emphasize the details of veins or skin variations, but the shape and form of these body parts--I reduced the clarity further in CS5, and also reduced saturation.


Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8 micro, diffuser filter