Violin Girl: Field Day

There once was a girl who played the violin. One day she went to the field late in the afternoon, with her violin, for a little bit of country fiddlin' thing.






Sometimes, even serious musicians behave a little badly.

"Bow or Arrow?"




"The Backhand."








With that, let's welcome spring and bring back the sun!!

The Best Camera

I continue to be amazed at how good these tiny smart phone cameras are, given how tiny they are. Are they going to replace my big cameras? Of course not. However, when the Kodak moment presented itself, the "Oh, I wish I had a camera with me!" was quickly followed by "Duh, I do have a camera with me." Jarvis has this trade-marked, I think, "The best camera is the one that's with you." Couldn't agree more. (all images taken with iPhone 3Gs or 4).

It Excites Me So

I believe it was Edward Weston who said, "Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual."

Perhaps a magical sunset. Or a foggy morning where objects are reduced to simple shape and form. Those "Oh, I wish I had my camera with me!" moments.

One day at breakfast I noticed the African Violets blooming quite nicely. I had to grab my camera to make a few frames. Ahh... such simple pleasures.

Dramatic Lighting

Some say photography is all about the light. Others say photography is all about the shadows. I agree. Without light, it would not be possible to make photographs. Yet, without shadows, the light would probably be, well, boring. Sometimes a little bit of light creates a lot of drama. What do you think?

Miss Madi

My friends Jenny and Lindsay invited me to photograph Miss Madi. The cameras just loved her. We caught the last moments before sunset. There's something magical about the last rays of the day.

Road Trip with Shannon and Violin Girl

Shannon and I went on a road trip together. We brought Violin Girl along. Destination: house in the wood. I asked Shannon to style the shoot, and she came up with the most amazing concept. Painted sticks and precisely 167 origami cranes on strings. Take a look, 'the crane' and all...

Serendipity in Black and White

I've not shot film since going digital in 2004. There were about a dozen rolls of film in my possession that have been sitting in the fridge even though they all expired in 2006. Recently I came across a creative exercise in David DuChemin's Ten More, to shoot monochrome as a way to learn to see lines, tones and gestures without the color. David even suggested shooting black and white film with a manual camera, to give color and all the digitalness a much needed break. I was itching to pop a roll into my Nikon FE, my first camera given to me by my dad in 1983. However, I needed a partner in crime, someone crazy enough to hop down the block with me because, "hopping down the block on one foot is a lot less silly if you find a friend to do it with." At about the same time my friend, the fabulous Shannon Sewell, also found her long-since-forgotten film camera and some expired film. So we conspired to go on a little serendipitous adventure together.

We went down to the Old Town section of Portland and just wandered around to see what interesting subjects would come our way. True to the spirit of serendipity, a group of monks in their red robes appeared in front of our eyes to cross the street. Well that red color would really stand out in the black-and-white---NOT! That became the running joke of the day, "I wonder how that would look in black and white." Color contrast was to take a back seat because of the medium, yet I did not know how to shoot for black-and-white because of my unfamiliarity with it. I had few expectations because the film was so expired in the first place. I was ready if nothing turned out at all. Yet we went through the exercise of carefully exposing and composing the shots, because it was not free like shooting digital. Except we kept wanting to chimp--to look at the non-existing LCD to make sure we we got "the shot." Several times I clicked the shutter and nothing happened because I had forgotten to advance the film after the previous shot! It was interesting to return to film after so many years of shooting digital. Personally, digital has helped me become a better photographer.

It took a good week and then some before we would see the prints. Boy what a surprise! They turned out way better than what I had expected. I was beyond thrilled and I will let the images speak for themselves. Somehow the prints came back in sepia, which was also, serendipitously, unexpected. Incidentally, my flatbed scanner is so old that it no longer works with the new computer. So I "scanned" the prints with my 12MP digital camera mounted on a tripod...