Thursday, March 26, 2015

New Orleans in March

I must admit I felt a little ill at ease during my visit to New Orleans in March taking pictures all by myself.  It wasn't until I could talk a fellow photographer, to go with me out at night onto the streets that I felt safe enough to take my big girl camera with me.  As I get older I find that I am less courageous alone in crowds with what some people might think is an expensive camera.

I seldom have the opportunity to do street  photography. There is not much going on in the streets of Paris, Texas. For me, street photography is challenging because you only have an instant to make a decision to compose and shoot. I walked down the street stopping and shooting quickly. I had to up my ISO so the images are grainy.  The colors were difficult to balance with everything that was going happening. It just so happened that it was also St. Patrick's Day parade on the night we ventured onto Bourbon Street. It felt good to try and take some off-the-cuff fun shots.
































with my cell phone
La bonne vie!

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Snow day with the Birds

My husband, David, is a member of the Texas Master Naturalists.  I am not.  He can rattle off bird species as quickly as they can line up and fly off of our backyard bird feeder.  I can not. We watch the birds like some people watch TV.  But then, we live in the country.  What I do like is trying to take a few images of their antics while we are eating breakfast.  I realize now that I should have cleaned the windows Before it snowed.
Purple Finch and two Juncos
Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Junco
Junco and Female Cardinal

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal
Female Cardinal


Red-Belly Woodpecker

Sunday, February 22, 2015


This is a pinhole image using a paper negative. It was just selected into the Texas Photographic Society's  "The Alternative Processes Competition", juried by Christopher James.

About the Juror
Christopher James, author, artist, photographer, University Professor and Director of the MFA Photography Program at Lesley University College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA

Christopher James is an internationally known artist and photographer whose photographs, paintings, and alternative process printmaking have been exhibited in galleries and museums in this country and abroad. His work has been published and shown extensively, including exhibitions in The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The George Eastman House, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The first two editions of his book, "The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes" have received international critical acclaim and are universally recognized by artists, curators, historians, and educators as the definitive texts in the genre of alternative process photography and photographically integrated media and culture. A significantly expanded 850 page / 700 image, 3rd edition will be published in late 2014. Christopher, after 13 years at Harvard University, is presently University Professor and Director of the MFA in Photography program at Lesley University College of Art and Designs. He is also a painter, graphic designer, and a professional scuba diver. For more information, please visit www.christopherjames-studio.com.

Juror's Statement
From its inception, individual creativity and inspiration has prevented photography from being a single, identifiable, technology or process. Throughout its evolution, photography has been a slowly moving glacier of adaptation and obsolescence followed closely by a similar transformation influenced by the heat of science, society, technology, aesthetics, and cultural. I think of these influences and processes as I do the boulders in the woods near my studio… evidence of a glacier’s melting. Each overlapping transformation, such as our current analog/digital event, has ushered in an ever-greater democratization of photographic image making, adoption, and adaptation and each of these cycles have been identified by the same family name regardless of how odd the alternative offspring appeared. As well, they have always shared the genus and DNA of photography… that of making marks with light.

I believe the future of photographic, and photographically integrated, image making will find its inspirations and grounding in the syntax and philosophical foundations that embrace the physical act of making art. Contemporary alternative process artists, in the society of the antiquarian avant-garde, comprise a movement defined by humanistic sensibilities, cultural / critical perspectives, and craft in harmony with equally refined conceptual vision. In this light, alternative process image making, as a mode of artistic expression, is not about the technique used, the camera, or whether the original was the result of digital or film capture. Nor is it about the artifact or accident within the image that represents a contemporary artistic gesture, miraculously making an image artistic and meaningful. Alternative process image making has its heartbeat intimately allied to a tradition of making images by hand, using light and chemistry. It is driven by a curiosity to see where a process, or its integration with other media, will lead the artist and her imagination. In our current transformation as a medium we are experiencing the right time-right place gift of the unlimited possibilities of alternative photographic practice, making this the most exciting time in the photographic arts in over a century. It represents, in my mind, the new photography.

04-06-15  Show opens at Options Gallery, Odessa, Texas
05-08-15  Show closes

Link to Texas Photographic Society:  http://www.texasphoto.org/



Sunday, February 15, 2015

Pond Scum

It was the pond scum that caught my eye.  We visited the Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden yesterday.  A wonderful painter and sweet friend, Gail Wendorf thought perhaps the Art Practicum Class from TAMUC might enjoy meeting Cheryl Vogel and touring the grounds.  Gail, David and I spent a warm Saturday afternoon on a reconnaissance mission.  Of all the art and sculpture at the gallery it was the pond scum my eye kept coming back to see it again and again. I only had my cell phone with me to record my vision.

Here is a sampling of what I saw.










Thursday, August 21, 2014

On the road again....

Old Bridge in OK
I guess David and I are starting a new tradition.  Last August just about this time we got into the car and headed toward Oklahoma.  After several turns we found ourselves at the Arkansas Diamond Mine Park.  We had a delightful time digging for diamonds.  We came home sweaty, sun burned and none the richer but we had a grand adventure.









David at Beaver's Bend
This year we packed an overnight bag and headed north once again without an idea of where we might end up.  First order of business was lunch at Beaver's Bend State Park on the deck looking toward the river. We dipped our feet in the frigid water and enjoyed the sun on our backs and the birds of prey circling above our heads above the butte.

After lunch, David's homing device automatically turned east and headed for the mountains in Arkansas.  After traveling the roads less chosen by others who were on the interstate, we ended up traveling north on Hwy. 71 up to Mountainburg, Arkansas.  It is a beautiful stretch of road. Then the lure of a beautiful sunset lead us to Winslow and a charming bed and breakfast that looked to be an old motor court.  Winslow is at the top of Mount Gaylor in the Boston Mountains which are a part of the Ozark mountain range.




That night after everyone else was in bed we crept out of the cabin and went to an old tower area and took our first pictures of the stars in the heavens.  Unfortunately, I left the instructions on how to do such a feat on my desk in Paris so we had to wing it until we got what we thought were awesome images. We played until after midnight and the clouds took over the night sky.

After just a few hours sleep, we were up before sunrise and drove to Artist's Point to try and capture the mist in the valley.  It was lovely.

Sunrise over the Boston Mountains with my cell phone
I am so glad I am married to someone who loves to photograph as much as I do! It was a fun trip but we were two tired old people ready to get back home and sleep in our own bed!

Catholic Church on top of mountain
Old bar on the way home in OK

Old Vista Court Sign

Copyrighted Pictures

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