Some cameras don't share all of their secrets with you right away.

As you get more and more comfortable with a camera, or any art material, you learn ways that you can stretch their powers, and create amazing new images.

It has been almost 2 months since I got my Polaroids Sx-70 from an eBay seller. I had heard that you could do long exposures with it, but I couldn't figure out how. 

The automatic exposure meter always gave me images like this:

While they are very cool in their own ways, it just wasn't what I had in mind. 

But I didn't give up. An extensive Google search lead me to some discussions on Flickr, which gave me a new technique to try. I had a chance to try it tonight, and wowzers! It works!

About a 10 second exposure. This would have been much better if I had remembered to close the closet door. It is still cool, being the first 10 second exposure with this camera!

A little self-portrait. This was about a 15 second exposure.

I will definitely be working on more of these. Many of you know that night photography is one of my favorites, and something I do quite often in the winter. This will lead to some interesting photos I hope!

~Peace~

I spent most of the day recovering from the weekend. I hiked more than I have in quite awhile, carrying more camera equipment and film than I would need, but I felt better knowing I had it there. 

I had a wonderful time with my friends over the weekend. We laughed, hiked, I took pictures, and we enjoyed nature in all of it's cold, rainy, fall-ness.

I managed to get all of the photos from the trip scanned in today.

You can check them out here:

We'll see where some of these photos will end up. It was a lot of fun focusing on just one medium for the weekend. I'm getting better at it. It's that whole practice thing I think.

I got in touch with the analog character a bit this weekend too. She is still shy though, but we are working on it.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too. 

~Peace~

I have always loved windows.

They frame the world that we look out at. 

According to some of William Gibson's books, they are quite analog as well. He imagines a digital world where many of the windows we see will not really be windows, but instead holograms showing us a world we would like to see instead of what we really would.

While I was sorting through images today, I came across these window and lack-of-window photos I took this summer during a photo workshop with Wing Young Huie.

All 3 were taken with a Hasselblad 501c/m and Ilford 50 Black and White film.

These two I took just a couple of days ago with my Polaroid SX-70 using Artistic Z film.

I think all of these images will find their way into this project somewhere.

Have a wonderful, thoughtful weekend.

Until Monday,

~Peace~

Today was a very cold, rainy day in this part of the world. Not very conducive to going out and taking photos, but a fine day to hide inside and work on artwork.

Aside from making more prints for the book at MCBA, I did get quite a bit accomplished.

I am submitting prints of 3 of my newer compilations to the members show at BLCA in October. I will post details about the show and the price of the pieces when I finish submitting them.

I also started working on a new compilation today. I'm not sure if it is complete or not, but it has potential. As I have said before, just like writing, creating the compilations takes just getting started, and then going back later and editing.

Working title: We Are Here

Late tonight starts my vacation from the internet. In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to 'un-plug' for a weekend. That specific weekend happens to be the one that is rapidly approaching. I am looking forward to a great time hiking around Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Lighthouse, and Duluth with some friends, listening to music, reading my book, taking pictures, and channeling that analog character that is a bit shy. There will be a blog update tomorrow. I am actually writing it tonight, but it will be posted on time tomorrow. I didn't want to fall behind with the blog. After I go to sleep tonight though, I won't be checking email, Twitter, or anything else until Monday morning. 

We'll see what comes of this weekend!

~Peace~

Just a photo tonight.

I don't have much else left in me besides a photo.

It  has been a long day.

Tomorrow will be a much more thoughtful, slower paced day.

For now, this:

Until tomorrow,

~Peace~

I've completed a month's worth of blog posts here! Pretty amazing…

There are many many times when this blog has kept me up way too late at night, but I am enjoying sharing all of these things. 

Today was more of a general "getting stuff done" kind-of day. I accomplished quite a few little things, just not much that I can show here so you could be impressed. 

I did have another one of those "light-bulb" moments, which has of course added ideas and plans…

Today, being a Tuesday, of course had a large chunk of time devoted to pottery. Tonight I finished trimming and finishing two covered bowls. Will they survive firing? Who knows! I hope so, but the main thing I am excited about is it is the first time since I have started working on pottery with my dad that I have finished a piece that consisted of two parts fitting together. I realize that this is because I have been practicing, almost always one day a week, for quite some time. 

As I posted last night I have created a couple of successful Polaroids with my Sx-70 camera and the Artiztic film. This is  because I have been practicing with it, trying different settings.

For this project, I want to have a few traditional silver gelatin prints in the show. I realize that to do this, I need to practice printing more. I know what I'm doing, I know the technique, but it has been awhile since I have seriously printed in my darkroom, and I know I need practice. 

So, that is one of the things I am going to try working on in the upcoming months. It is a great time to start getting in to this because, honestly, it is really hard to be in the darkroom all day when it is sunny and warm and gorgeous outside. It is much easier when it is rainy and cold out. I will try to post scans of the images I print. If you see one you really like, speak up! I am very willing to sell prints, and will price them quite cheaply. Every little bit helps me buy more supplies!

I did get two rolls of film scanned in tonight. Here are a couple of images, fresh off the scanner:

They are both from our little road trip over Labor Day weekend to Mundelein and Madison.

Until tomorrow.

~Peace~

I had an amazing weekend.

We spent more time with the Combat Paper project and the Warrior Writers. Good things are happening (see previous posts if you don't know what I'm talking about!).

I also managed two pretty successful polaroids with my new Sx-70. 

I would like to put some polaroids in my upcoming show. They just need to be the right ones. I'm thinking I'll know it and everything will fall into place when I see the right images.

For now:

~Peace~

Today I finished the Holgapalooza entry (it was due today!), worked a lot, and hung out a lot more with the awesome people with Combat Paper and Warrior Writers. John came with to hang out with them tonight. My quilt was hung on the wall. After all these years, it was awesome to see it touched by so many people. I believe John and I both are forever entwined with these two organizations now, and I am excited to see where those paths will lead in the future. 

I worked on processing a few more Holga photos in the process of completing my entry. They all have interesting qualities. You may see them somewhere else soon.

I'm hoping to catch up on some much needed sleeping and dreaming this weekend. I doubt that will happen, but I can hope! Perhaps Monday someone will let me sleep in around here!

Until next week.

~Peace~

There are times when you are doing something, and suddenly you realize that you are on your path. That you are doing what you are meant to do, at least at that very moment of your life. It is overwhelming, and you realize that you will go to great lengths to be able to continue doing what you are doing, but you feel a sense of purpose.

Today was an art day for me. In so many more ways than I expected. 

I started out volunteering at Banfill like so many normal Thursdays. After my shift was done there, I went to MCBA where I volunteer to take photos of their exhibits. There are many times I go and there are other workshops and things going on in the classroom while I am there, and today there was a flurry of activity. I soon discovered that it was the Combat Paper residency during the Week for Peace event. Since MCBA thought it would be good to have some photos of the creating, I got to nose around and check out what they were doing, and I got to meet some amazing people.

First of all, Combat Paper is doing a very amazing thing. Veterans have a chance to come to a supportive place, and in a very cathartic way, to take their military uniform, cut it, destroy it, run it through the beater, and then turn the resulting pulp into a beautiful sheet of paper, a fresh, creative start. Taking something that stands for destruction, and turn it into something of their own. For some it is an awesome experience. For others it is very bittersweet. Watching it was happen was so powerful. I was honored to be able to take some photos of them working. 

As they were cleaning up for the afternoon, I got a chance to talk to them, and ended up telling them a bit about my Waiting Ribbons project and the quilt I ended up making as the last piece of the show. The quilt used up John’s duffle bags and many of his uniforms. They asked if I could bring it, so I’m planning on bringing it tomorrow. I chatted with one of the artists for awhile and discovered that he was over in Iraq at the same time John was. We talked a bit. It is so hard to describe, but there was so much that wasn’t said, that was just understood. You felt that way with everyone there. It was amazing. He gave me a book that they are bringing around on their tour called Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense. He told me to share it with John. I know it will be hard to read. I am anxious to start though. I got pretty choked up when he gave it to me. Honestly, I cried most of the rest of the time I was there, finishing photographing the exhibit and driving home. 

It was, and still is very emotionally overwhelming. I am honored to have been able to meet them and to see what they are doing, and to have them ask to see what I made. As I was leaving, I realized that being an artist really is what I am supposed to be doing. I love what I am doing, I love taking photos, I love volunteering at MCBA, and it keeps leading me to so many different things. It is so hard to describe, but as I left, even though I was crying, remembering  a lot of feelings I hadn’t for a long time, I had this huge sense that everything was as it should be. 

Many times, as an artist, you doubt yourself, you doubt what you are doing, you doubt that it can make a difference, you doubt that it will be seen or heard or felt or read, or touched. You doubt that anything you do will matter.

Today, I didn’t doubt.

There will be other days that I will doubt, and I hope that I can come back to this post and remember the feelings I had today.

For now, I’m going to enjoy this feeling as long as I can, knowing that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

The rest of the evening I spent with my husband and some very wonderful friends. We walked around the Walker Art Center, saw The Quick and the Dead exhibit, wandered the sculpture garden at night, had a wonderful dinner with lots of conversation and wine. 

Everything felt right. 

~Peace~

Tonight I did a couple of polaroid self portraits. 

It makes me think a little of the analog character in my dialogs…which is still pretty non-existant, but that will be fixed later. 

The self portraits have been an interesting aspect to add into this project. I haven't tried them much since college. 

In a nod to all of my photography art history lessons where we discussed Cindy Sherman's work (she is one of my favorites) I did not attempt to hide my shutter release cord.

I realized a bit too late that there is quite a bit of dust on these scans. I will fix that and repost them here again, but for now, I don't have the brain power to fix all of the dust spots. 

~Peace~