Thursday, December 29, 2011

Near Future Project

Latent Dream: I want to write a book on Astrology. This desire has become stronger in the last few weeks. But more importantly in the near future - this image will  begin to become part of a project idea...whether this project ever comes to fruition is another matter. But there, I have said it! I want to use these in some sort of visual creative venture. Thinking about taking a little deeper of a dive into fiber arts and into 3-D things. All brought together with the camera. Mark my words, I will try to actually make this happen. I need a photo studio...yes. I do. And I may just be coming into the means to acquire one very soon. What a dream that would be.

Yuki-Akari

Yuki-Akari, "snow light" in Japanese. One of the many interesting facts I learned while reading "The Snow Tourist" by Charlie English. And it is here!! Finally, it feels and looks like Winter. Rooka apparently loves the snow and is much better able to march around in it than I am. She is in her element...my little snow dog. We should have named her Qanuk, "snowflake" in Yup'ik (also from book). A Naturalist and Other Beasts by George Schaller is arriving via UPS today, along with The Snow Leopard  by Peter Matthiessen. One Lord of the Rings book down and two left to go. I am so blissfully content in this little apartment, with my partially painted walls (an ongoing project that is often broken up by photo editing and reading and NYTimes crossword puzzles) and BOOKS. My mind tingles with new information and stimulation and I never want this little vacation to end. These are a grown-up's "snow days." I love it.  

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Pets Pets and Lamps

Oh this is lovely. I think this is something I am ready to try now (pet shelter photography). I've been thinking about doing this ever since I had a dream I did it and then I was given a link to a story about a woman that did it. However, equipment is expensive, and it's difficult to know exactly what to get that is essential when I would consider myself and my experience as "natural light" photography. So...research and maybe a purchase or two...one studio light and a standing reflector perhaps...so glad I got the flash with "remote" capabilities. Everyday I fall more and more in love with Rooka and I've become a "guardian" with the ASPCA. I like this cause - action!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Rooka!!

...Still saying, "I'm not paying attention to you." She's so cute though!! Little Rooka-Boo...my lovely. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Yay all around.

The portraits are finished! (And have been since Sunday...I stayed true to my promise!) And now I'm working on business cards for the studio. This is the one I'm leaning toward the most at the present moment. Because I absolutely love this photograph. And, I guess, in essence, I feel it best represents me as a photographer. So, yay! I'm off for the next week and Rooka and I will be spending time together, walking, sniffing, stretching, yawning, eating...you know...fun things. Alex has vowed to make me a logo for my studio because apparently doing so is impossible without illustrator and my current computer set-up will not allow such advanced work. Color-correcting in photoshop is about where her capabilities end. Another thing to fix in the near future. Classes start in January. YES! A perfectly timed vacation now to prepare me for all the fun things soon to come in 2012. 2012 will be my year of correct "yes" and "no." Wasted time irritates me. So does baggage. No more baggage. Mine or otherwise. Baggage does not belong in my life.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Painting progress...

Well, it isn't finished yet. Tomorrow though, it will be. I woke up the other morning with this in my head (and for me it is forever linked with Kill Bill). My god, I love Nancy Sinatra. And well-made movies...or well-made anything.

I guess I miss painting. Perhaps it is time to drop one of my jobs and return to long hours of chasing some artistic vision with these smelly tools and seductively textured materials...there will always be something so correct about this medium for me. Toxic and finicky as it may be. But so full of incredible chemistry, intelligence, intuition, patience and urgency...I could go on and on. A year and a half of painting "silence" goes by and with this I feel like I'm speaking a language again, that I haven't had the opportunity to speak in that long. And something is coming through correctly. This is not an example of my current preference for "concept" perhaps. Though I find it very enjoyable. It is straightforward. Perhaps the last year and a half have been about the mind. And now, more mind can be applied to this practice. It's just easy. Like a native tongue is. Maybe it is my native language. And it isn't about how it looks. It's about how it feels. It feels like a language I should use more often. I think there are new things I would like to say this way.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The upside to being sick...

...is that I have to sit on the futon all day and do something. That something turned out to be updating my website with some of the latest shoots. Yay. And speaking of latest shoots...here is a little goodie from a studio session with my two loves. Those two portraits will be done by sometime this weekend if it kills me!

Portraits & Family. :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Latest...

Latest projects! Commissioned portraits! And my hair. These portraits will be done soon, (finally have time to work on them, dear god!) and my hair is no longer anything remotely resembling this color. Woohoo. Changes. Progress. Fun.

And my photo studio needs a logo. Stat. That will be a holiday break project.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Happiness.

Sometimes, it is as quick and invisible as wind and it will just take something right out of your hands, out of your mind. The way time or distance can literally just take a feeling, a thought, a burden and remove it from you. In the best way. Or feelings and thoughts that cling, unwanted, can just be blown away if you aren't actively gripping them. And you find that you walk differently. Like a limp that goes away after a weight is taken off of you. And you act differently. I am so happy in this place right now. So far from where I've been before-not that those places weren't happy as well. But this, is better. Each is always better than the last. I move forward. That's what I do best. And as of the last couple of weeks, I feel not simply moved, but catapulted.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Happy Holidays...

'Tis the Holiday Season, and I'm just now starting to notice and enjoy it. Cue the Vince Guaraldi Trio and hang the lights! I'm thinking about just buying World Wildlife Fund adoptions for everyone I know. I don't know how many of them would like that though.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Things I Love.

"Mom, stop taking pictures of me. I'm going to pretend you aren't here." I love her. 

4 months, over 2,500 guests, 3,000 programs, more hours than I can count and 3 performances later...The Nutcracker is over. And the Civic Center did a great job of keeping personal cameras under control so there aren't any YouTube videos that I can post. But suffice it to say, there was some absolutely breathtaking dancing and I'm so happy to have been a part of that. Granted, I think I grew some of my first wrinkles and my hair may have gone permanently straight from pulling, but it's completed. Now I have some SERIOUS photo editing to get crackin' on and some painting to do. And some martinis to drink. Phew.