07-OCT-2007
new gallery--Karoline at seven months
As many of your comments have noted, Karoline is at peace and seems ready to take this next step into motherhood. I offer her my deepest gratitude for allowing me to document and share with you this intimate experience. It is such a privilege!
I've just posted the new gallery "Karoline at seven months."
CLICK HERE to see it. May the birthing be gentle for the baby, Karoline and her husband. I look forward to bringing you a new gallery of Karoline and her baby in a few months...
05-OCT-2007
Karoline at seven months
Have you ever felt like you'd died and gone to heaven? That was how it felt late yesterday afternoon to work with this young woman who'd asked me to take portraits of her in her seventh month of pregnancy. Not only is Karoline beautiful but she is an athlete--we'd met at the gym--who feels so good in her skin that she could not have taken an awkward pose if she'd tried. Every move was utter perfection. I've already spent four hours editing a good number of the photos and the only ones that didn't work out were my fault not hers. But many DID turn out and I look forward to posting a gallery of the best of the best within the next couple of days. I'll be giving Karoline CDs with her copies, but she agreed to my posting them here too. Oh, how I LOVE taking photographs of people!
I don't usually say this, but to get the full effect of this photo, I suggest that you look at it in the original.
05-OCT-2007
a second chance
As I scooted by the gelato store on this hot sunny day, there she was again. And the shadows on her crossed leg were exactly as they'd been the last time, only sharper. (See my photo entry for October 2). So I was given another chance to take the photo I'd come to wish I'd taken in the first place, one in which I focused exclusively on what interested me and left the rest out. Happily, she was willing to let me try again.
How often are we given such opportunities, not just as photographers but as human beings? The trick is to see it as a second chance...and take it. Pride must be set aside as we admit to ourselves that we didn't get it quite right the first time. But here we are with another chance to put into practice what we'd learned.
In relation to this particular photo, some viewers might prefer the first version. And that's fine. But as the photographer, this one says what I want to say and that makes it a success in my eyes.
04-OCT-2007
Bring back memories?
Did you ever wonder where they got those yucky tiles that were used in all the old school halls? It's like there was some perverse tilemaker that only had contracts with schools. I see them every week and they still bring back feelings of anxiety about such things as remembering my locker combination, the possibility that the teacher might call on me for homework I hadn't done, and whether or not Alvin Y. really liked me like all the girls said he did. As I've said here before, it's amazing anyone survives childhood!
My thanks to all you wonderful folks who have responded to my request for your suggestions as to which photos I might submit to the
2007 Black and White Spider Awards competition. There's still lots of time to share your views. Just
CLICK HERE to go to my new gallery called "Black & White Revisited" where 48 possibilities are posted. Thanks again for your help.
03-OCT-2007
new gallery--Black & White Revisited
What a lot of work it is to go through your photos with an eye towards entering a competition! I've just spent hours and hours for three straight days working on this project. Since I'm rather prolific, just paring down to 48 possible photos was a real task. And these were just the ones I wanted to place in a gallery so I could get feedback from my sister and brother PBasers before making my final choices. The competition I want to enter--the
2007 Black and White Spider Awards is quite expensive, so I'll be limited as to how many photos I can afford to submit. Anyway, if you feel so inclined, I'd appreciate your checking out my new gallery and giving me your opinions. It is called "Black and White Revisited" and can be accessed if you
CLICK HERE. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
By the way, this photo and the others in my new gallery are in low resolution, but the photos I submit to the competition will be as high rez as they allow.
02-OCT-2007
more light & shadow
Will I ever tire of light & shadow? I suspect not. At least not as long as photography is my artistic medium of choice. I recall the years I worked as a painter. Then everything was color. I couldn't have cared less about value--what visual artists call light & shadow--and that proved to be a weakness in my work. It wasn't until I went back to school in my mid-30s, this time in fine arts instead of social work, that I began to see the importance of lights and darks even when working in color. Later I focused on pen and ink drawings and value became my best frend.
So now I've traveled much the same road with photography. Color was everything to me when I started out. I remember the
very first photos I took with my brand new Canon Rebel XT were of flowers, brilliantly-hued flowers. It took me over fourteen months to develop my eye so I could see light as the single most important element in any photo. And now that's almost all I see. So when I was scooting down the street last week and passed this woman sitting at a table outside the gelato store, it was the pattern of light and shadow on her crossed leg that caught my eye. When I asked if I could take her photograph, she kindly agreed.
And now I'm going through my galleries trying to find what I consider the best photos to submit to the prestigious
Black and White Spider Awards competition. It is SO hard to see your own work with an objective eye, especially since each image carries memories that others wouldn't know anything about. I'm afraid my attachment to certain images might have more to do with the stories they remind me of than their intrinsic value as examples of good black & white photos. So I'm going to put up a gallery with my possible choices. As soon as I do so, I'll post the link here. I sure could use some feedback from my PBase friends!
30-SEP-2007
It's not over yet!
I start October with a reminder--to myself if to no one else--that the joys of summer are not over yet, at least not here in Michigan on the shores of Lake St. Clair. Yesterday was a warm sunny day that saw children still playing on the beach and boats of all shapes and sizes dotting the horizon as far as the eye could see. Folks in this part of the world don't let go of summer until we have to. Yes, I did see one man driving out of the park with his boat on a trailer behind the car, but that was the exception not the rule. The harbor at our communty park was still full of boats as September 2007 waved its final goodbye. But when beautiful October says its farewell in 31 days, things will look very different indeed.
You'd think that the older I get, the more comfortable I'd become with the process of letting go. And in some ways that's true. Except for a few specialized items (music CDs, photography equipment & books), I stopped accumulating material possessions long ago. Recently I've been working one day a week--with the invaluable and paid help of a friend who loves bringing order out of chaos--on going through all the stuff that has filled up the closets and drawers of this old house where Ed and I have lived since 1971. In many ways it's been like an archeological dig. Talk about memories! But once I've seen and remembered, for the most part I'm content to let things go. We give away whatever can still be used, organize what I choose to keep, and fill lots of black plastic bags with the rest. It's been a satisfying project and I'm finding it delightful to live in a less cluttered environment.
So, letting go in and of itself is not my problem; it's just letting go of summer that I find hard. Ever since my childhood summers on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, that season has been my favorite. I guess no matter how old I get--I'm now 65--this will be true. Maybe each of us has a season that reflects our natural way of being in the world. What is yours?
