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I have been spending a lot of time in the darkroom. 

Honestly, it feels good to be back in there. There is something about it. Something so basic. This will sound cheesy, but it is kind of like coming back home after a very long vacation. I'm printing on Ilford Fiber paper, which honestly, when your prints are good (and I mean pretty perfect tone wise!) it looks gorgeous! I love it! A friend, and excellent photographer, Cate Vermeland once described it as a moody paper. I have never heard a more fitting description.

I've been spending quite a bit of time in my own darkroom printing some traditional black and white photos that will go in my show in September. I'll post more about which ones soon.

Last week I also assisted a very good friend, and my former professor, Laura Migliorino, at Anoka Ramsey Community College while she was teaching the pinhole photography class. We had a blast! 

I'm planning on spending quite a bit more time today in my darkroom as well. We'll see what I get printed!

The rest of the last few weeks, I have been finishing up processing photos from a sweet little photo shoot I did for a friend.

Here is little Miss Anna!

You can see more from that photo shoot here.

And of course there was this fun little photo shoot with my Little Guy that I just finished as well. Little people are so much fun!

You can see more of those photos here.

 

Until next time,

~Peace~

There are times when I am a bit obsessed with Google Reader. In it I can categorize, read, keep track of, and share so many blogs and so many beautiful posts.

Then, there are times when I don’t have time to check it for a week and when I finally get around to it, discover that I now have 1000 unread blog postings that I have subscribed to, plus another 500 posts that my friends I am connected with have shared with me. Around that time I generally run away screaming to hide somewhere in a little overwhelmed heap.

Occasionally, when I do have the chance to read through my subscriptions, I do find amongst all the fluff and cooking blogs, (there is nothing wrong with being obsessed with cooking blogs!!) something that really makes me stop and think. When that happens, I’m going to try and link to it here, because maybe you need it too, or maybe I just need a better way to bookmark it and find it again.

Last week I found this blog post by Susannah Conway. She teaches some pretty awesome sounding photo workshops online called Unravelling. I think that someday I’d like to take one of her workshops….

She posted this blog about ‘letting go’ and it seriously made me cry. I needed so badly to read something like that that particular day. Reading it again now makes me a little weepy still, because I still need to hear it. I think I always will for one reason or another, but I’m getting better, little by little.

Life is Letting Go ~ http://www.susannahconway.com/2010/06/life-is-letting-go-2/

I have been working on the text portion of this project. 

Certain images have dialogs that go with them. The dialogs are typeset in 14 point Standard Medium Condensed font and then printed onto the images using an old Chandler & Price tabletop Platen press. 

I must say, I really enjoy playing with ink colors!

I have been trying to give myself more time to write lately and really work through the text for this project. It is a hard part. I'm always a bit uncertain about sharing what I write, but I know it belongs with some of these pieces. 

I keep pushing forward with this. We are almost to the 2 month point, which kind of scares me! But I am trying to keep an even pace.

Next up, more framing!!

Until next time,

~Peace~

Moving a few things back home now that the condo is off the market…

So far, 28 is pretty fun!

I have been thinking of things to post here for quite a few days now. Many posts. They don’t make it past my brain though. But I thought I really needed to post something today.

Today, is my 28th Birthday. Not that numbers matter really. I have never been one that has been hooked on age and numbers like that. You are as old as you act, and I generally don’t usually feel or act my age!

But it is amazing when you stop for just a minute and think of the time in between the whole ‘being born’ and where you are at. I had an impromptu pool party with some of my family today, which was super fun, but reminded me a lot of just that. It has been quite the journey to here, and I’m looking forward to the rest. Onward!

Today it was also made official that we took the condo off the market. I got my keys back from the lock box, we breathed a sigh of relief, there are a few more things left out on our counter now, and we are going to buy paint. I don’t know how long we will really end up here, but here we are. There are far worse places to be. I don’t think I mind this so much right now.

Thank you to all my friends and family for all of the Birthday love :) You make me feel so special and I love each and everyone of you! I’m amazingly lucky to have such a crowd around me!

Now, I’m shutting off my laptop, grabbing my book, and waiting for my husband to get home to continue the Birthday adventuring!

~Peace~

Please tell me what I am waiting for, and why any type if decision making has been so hard lately?!

Awhile ago my husband and I decided it was time to try and sell our condo and buy a house. We have called this little condo our home for 8 years, at least 4 years longer than we originally planned. It was time, we thought, for something new. Something with a bit more space, a yard to grow veggies in, a basement for my darkroom.

For the past 3 months we have kept the condo spotless, allowed appointments to show it whenever they came. After 3 months, and discouraging market news, I was finally ready to give up, figuring this just wasn’t the right time. We made up out minds to redecorate a bit, make things new again if we were going to be there awhile longer. We planned a trip to the hardware store this weekend to look for paint chips.

I decided we would officially take it off the market once we hit 100 days. For some reason I wanted to hit that milestone before sending the email to our agent and our mortgage agent that we were giving up for now and thanks for all the hard work anyway.

Wednesday I got a phone call that someone wants to come look at the condo and could they make an appointment?! They are coming today.

Really??? After all that deciding? After making the decision that it was OK to give up?

I’m still convinced that those decisions will stay the same. That we will still be looking at paint samples this weekend. That we will spend another year or two there. But I did still clean just a little bit harder for today. It is so hard not to get your hopes up…

Somethings just look better on film. Old cars I think are definitely one of those things.

My dad has a lot of friends that have cars in the Back to the 50's car show that took place over Father's day weekend this year. We had a bunch of them up at the restaurant for breakfast, so I took a few photos.

These were all taken with my Polaroid Sx-70. I just love the look of them….

 

I have a couple of rolls of film to be developed from this weekend too. I'm sure I'll post a few more shots when I get the film done.

Until next time,

~Peace~

We had so much fun going to Rock the Garden at the Walker Art Center this year! OK Go was by far the best of the line up, though we did enjoy Sharon Jones and the Dapp Kings (she has so much energy!). Retribution Gospel Choir were pretty good. It was great to hear a few favorite songs by MGMT, but there stage act was nothing compared to OK Go. 

 

We had gorgeous weather for being outside, the acoustics are great near the Walker, and we were with some very awesome fiends :) It couldn’t have been better!