&

This is so great, it just speaks for itself. One day.......


American Tintype from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

This is so true. Dove is on a roll!  I would be interested in seeing this with the men describing the women, as it always amazes me how much more critical we are about women, than men are.



 

      An hour spent with a friend at a bookstore = an hour well spent.  

love those shoes

So I didn't want to bug Tanya for a picture,  who was deeply interested in her magazines.  So I found this illustration instead.  It really does look like her, so this is her stand in.

stranger watching

I am loving my iPod.  I have had some downtime with my other cameras, and I'm not sure why.   My husband bought me an iPod as soon as they upgraded the camera, finally ( I was watching, hoping, waiting). It has encouraged me to get busy again, and discover a new art form as well.  I am taking a self portrait workshop in which I have only used my iPod, as well as for my 365 project.  I have to say it has also done wonders for me, as waiting is not my strong suit.  Now I always have picture to edit, and apps to explore, so wait on.........

I took these with the intention of posting them in color, but I am often drawn to monochrome instead.  So as you can see the monochrome won.

Daffodils,
all natural,
no sugar added

                     Soul shadows you everywhere ~T.G

Some one from my flickr group shared this, and it just made me weepy.  I love this stuff!  I have seen different variations, including taking a self portrait of yourself everyday for a year, or one picture of yourself every year to see how you change. And boy does his message at the end hit home.  Get yourself in the picture, and be part of the memory! Bravo.

These were taken for a workshop I am participating in called Now YOU.  You can read more about it here.  I can't believe I am sharing these, so I am going to do this quickly, then hit publish and let the anxiety begin.  I didn't process these in monochrome, but for this blog post, I thought it tied them together well and actually I really like the results.  Notice I really was avoiding looking at the camera, and if I had to, well it was going to be
silly, or illusive.   All photos were taken with my ipod, and processed with it as well.  Ok, so I am really going to do this, I'm serious, no turning back.  Ok, here I go........on your marks, get set......ok, one, two, three........... and, hmmmm, seriously why,  I mean, what am I...........hhhhhhh. Who really cares. and post.

My last post was about the inspiration I drew from Vivian Maier.  Here are some favorite shots I took.

Caught in the act?

True life mimicking art.  Notice Garfield.

The plan, visit the old west, go to global market.....

Nobody was harmed in the making of this photo, I don't think.....

Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

I won't lie, I love taking window shots, but you feel a little creepy.

I believe the sign said please don't feed the birds.......

I am so excited for this movie.  What a fascinating story, full of mystery, irony, and intrigue.  It was after looking through Vivians work that I was inspired to do some street photography of my own.  I loved all the
details that paint a different time in history.   She captured moments in time that I could only enjoy through pictures.  Her self portraits were lovely, creative, and mysterious as well.  Her and I share our desire for privacy, even shyness,  only she seemed to embrace hers, while mine is something I hold against myself.  I have heard others say her story was an encouragement to step out and share more, but for me it may just be the opposite.  Permission to be who I am.

Being apart of the Now YOU :: 52 of YOU community, I am getting to know some great peeps through their pictures and comments.  I have joined two other flickr projects, moderated by two such peeps. One is The Treehouse Club by Vanessa, the other is Mosey + Plod by Sarah.  Both promote the love of nature!  The Treehouse Club is based on 31 monthly prompts, that are the same each month, only your interpretation changes.  Mosey + Plod is based on Sarah's grandmother, who had a wonderful life habit of moseying with her girlfriends, enjoying nature, and friendship for a lifetime.  Sarah came up with the idea of doing something similar only miles apart.  The idea is you take a mosey/plod with your camera and then you share.   For the treehouse club, I think I will do one post at the end of the month of all my photos.  For Mosey + Plod, I will do them as they happen.  So here is my first mosey...... 

50 degree day sandwiched between much colder days went for a walk with my son in suburbia living a nomadic life of sorts, temporarily, nothing to tie us down had to put on rose colored glasses to find the beauty remnants of urban sprawl

I signed up for an online workshop called Now YOU :: 52 of YOU, it is a self portrait workshop that spans an entire year. If you are like me, you might be thinking why would anyone want to take a year's worth of self portraits.  How true.  So before you judge me {wink} here is why.  There is very little documentation of my life before I was an adult.  That made picture taking, or documenting my family's life, that much more important to me.  I love pictures, everybody's pictures, all pictures, they are a window into one's life, a moment captured.  That said, I do not like being in the pictures, pathetic, and cliche I know.  I have my reasons, for instance, I have never lost my pregnancy weight, and feel very uncomfortable in this body of mine.  Another reason is if there really is such a thing as not being photogenic, I would definitely fall into that category.  This is not just my own opinion, my family most often agrees.  When I am in a picture, I rarely look like what I see in a mirror, and in a really bad way.  When we take pictures, my kids will look at the viewing screen,  laugh, then say, sorry mom it's not good.     We will try, then try again.  It usually lends itself to lots of laughter because I'm just not photogenic.   So  a few years ago I saw a movie called The Family Stone.  I will try not spoil it for you, so I will just say at the end of the movie each of the family members received a gift, which was a black and white framed photograph of their mother from days gone by, during one of her pregnancies.  It was a precious gift, and it broke my heart.  It was a sad reminder that in all our memories I have documented, I am not in them.  I don't have photographs of old hair styles, a face without wrinkles, young hands, bad fashion choices, laughing, crying, interacting with my kids, my husband, my friends, my existence, proof that I was here.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I don't remember how I came across the Now YOU workshop, but when I did, and I saw that it was a year long workshop, with 2 shutter sisters,  I wanted to be apart of it.  I knew on my own I would never take self portraits, it feels vain, and very uncomfortable.  But through the workshop and the weekly prompts, it would be a good excuse, or permission if you will.  Through this process, maybe I would learn what angles work, how to light myself better, or maybe I would just come to peace with this self.  Either way, it would be a win win situation.

So here I am, taking self portraits, lots of them.  I am not so brave as to share them with people I know, but I do share them with the Now of YOU community.  While I will not be sharing them on my fb page,  I decided I might (I do reserve the right to change my mind, right?) post some of the photos here on my blog, maybe.   My ipod is full of these photos, and I would be horrified if anyone were to discover that.  What would they think?  Ah, change takes time.......

So here is from my first assignment, my first self portrait at arms length.  Taken with my ipod.

Martha Stewart is my surrogate mother. Everything I know, I learned from her.   I love the idea of
cooking, but not so much the actual act.  Same with baking, I love the smells that waft through your
house, the memories that you make with your children, and of course the deliciousness that follows,
but I don't love the actual doing.  That's where Martha comes in.  I discovered her when I was about
20 years old.  I was instantly smitten, with everything she did.  It was like magic, as if she read
my mind.  The baking and cooking was really just a bonus.  She took something that I found
boring (baking) and turned it into an art project.  Now I not only baked out of necessity, but also
for the art of it.  Marshmallows are a great example of this.  Who wants artificial square marshmallows when you can have homemade snowflake ones!  Below are 3 recipes for homemade
marshmallows via Martha Stewart.  They make great gifts as well as goodies for your hot chocolate bar. I saw the episode where Martha and Kim Reiner made the chocolate covered marshmallows,
which she also used to make her homemade fudge, recipe here.  I have planned to make this for several years, but have yet to do it.   Maybe I will actually accomplish it this year?  Enjoy!




1. Snowflake Marshmallows     2. Candy Cane Marshmallows  3. Chocolate Covered Marshmallows