Oh, dear!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I updated here! I started using Tumblr more (Leather and Denim is my blog there, if you want to check it out!) and recently joined Pinterest (me), and have been trying to be more active in my groups on Flickr (my 'stream), not to mention the normal Facebook and Twitter song-and-dance....so I guess Blogger fell through the cracks. Too many sites to check; too little time in the day! :-O

Otherwise, not much going on. We recently experiencesd Snowpocalypse 2011...or, as I'm calling it, Mega-Snow vs Snowctopus...so I just got back to work from enjoying three whole snow days in a row. I felt like a little kid, all excited! My husband and I spent our time on the couch, watching "Monster Quest" episodes and working our way through the complete DVD set of "Daria" I got for Christmas.

Man, that show takes me back! But I've realized something, watching it...I'm so much happier with my own identity now than in high school. I'm genuinely secure in who and what I am now, and I feel no need to prove anything to anyone. If someone likes me, great! If they don't, oh well! It's very liberating. :-D

Collaborate and Listen

Merry Christmas!

Oh, Deer

And a happy New Year!

Winter Wonderland

The local Cuneo Museum sets up a Winter Wonderland every year on their grounds. And every year since we started dating, my husband says, as we drive by, "Oh, we should go to that!" And every year since we started dating...we haven't gone! Ha! Well, this year, for the first time ever, we actually managed to pack ourselves into the car along with our cameras and drive over there.

You drive through the grounds slowly, looping in and out among the trees and buildings. It's really amazing. Every tree is wrapped in lights. Lights are strung overhead, across the road and between the trees. And everywhere you look, there are sculptures made of lights on frames. Animals, cartoon characters, trees (palm and pine, ha!), and even whole scenes! Some of them flash on and off in a way that makes them seem to move! One of my favorites was the reindeer that "leaps" across the road. :-D

I had a lot of fun playing with the manual focus on my camera. I had my 50mm lens on, set to 1.8 the whole time, and I deliberately took out of focus shots to turn the bulbs into balls of pure light...light ball bokeh is the best thing about winter, photographically speaking. Lol! Almost makes me forget it's 8 freakin-degrees Fahrenheit out there right now! :-O

At the House on the Rock

About a week ago, my husband and I went to the House on the Rock in Wisconsin. They had a special event going on; part of Neil Gaiman's wonderful novel "American Gods" takes place inside the House on the Rock, so when it came time for their anniversary celebration, they invited Neil and his fans to come wander their hallways, listen to Neil reading, and attend a Costume Ball, among other fun events. It was really wonderful, but that place would be wonderful even without all the added shenanigans!

Starting in the 1940s, a man named Alex Jordan began building a home (designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong, as the joke goes!) on a large outcropping of rock. When people starting coming to see the house's unique architecture, Jordan began charging them a nominal fee. And that was the beginning. Now, his original 14-room house is only the base for a larger, sprawling museum of sorts. An eccentric and a collector, Jordan filled his museum with bizarre things, many of which have to be seen to be believed! Dolls, carousels (including the world's largest carousel!), replicas of shops and streets, a giant whale, fortune-telling machines, various automata and music-makers, glassware, antiques, dragons and Buddhas, pipe organs, replica crown jewels and suits of armor...and that's just a taste.

There is more there than I can ever hope to describe in just one blog post! Sheer craziness on an epic scale...we were in photographic heaven! Between us, my husband and I took quite literally hundreds of photos of the place!

If you live anywhere in the Midwest, or are even planning on coming to the area for any reason, I highly recommend taking a little day trip over to the House on the Rock. It might just blow your mind!

All the Pretty Horses

Welcome to Your Nightmare

Soul of Music

Camera Love

Some time ago now, I was strolling the aisles at a local antique show held periodically at the country fairgrounds. My husband and I were tired, probably hungry, and were almost done, having peeked into all of the booths in which we were interested and not found much. And then, right near the very end of the last aisle, I saw her. A beautiful black TLR camera. Approaching, I realized it was, in fact, the camera I'd had a mental eye on for some time but could never afford on eBay: a Yashica Mat 124G.

Lifting it and looking it over, I determined two things: 1) It seemed to be in pretty good condition and 2) There was no price tag. So, on the off-chance I could actually afford it, I asked, "How much for the camera?" She glanced up, seeming disinterested. "Twenty bucks." My response was an immediate "SOLD!" Yashica Mat 124 G cameras regularly go for at least $200 online, and sometimes upwards of $400! Thank Hera for antique sellers who don't do their research, eh?? Whether the camera worked or not, I figured, this was the deal of a lifetime and I could probably still get it fixed for less than buying one on eBay would have cost me.


Here she is, my baby:

However, I purchased this camera in November. I don't personally do a lot of shooting in the colder months of the year...on the one hand, I have a weird phobia about taking my expensive, delicate gear out into the kind of brutally cold temperatures we get here in Chicagoland, and on the other, I'm generally just so depressed by the grey and the cold that I just don't feel like shooting. So my prize sat in a place of honor on my "camera" shelf, unused and untested, waiting...like me!...for spring. But spring came and went without her being used, either...around that time, I was much too wrapped up in the wild wonderful world of Polaroids and The Impossible Project film to want to lug one more camera along with me...especially one I was just testing.

And then, finally, in July, I got off my behind and went for it. I located a manual online, printed it out, and poured over it. I acquired and installed a new battery and loaded some Kodak T-Max 400 b&w film. And then...I shot. A few images at a time, here and there, over the next couple of months. (If the camera worked, I didn't want to waste the film on crappy photo subjects, now did I?) Then, once the roll was spent, I sent it off to Dwayne's Photo for processing, on a recommendation I found online.

It came back a few days ago. SUCCESS! My darlin' works! Other than a few double exposures near the beginning of the roll, when I was still figuring out just how the darned thing worked, everything came out crisp and lovely. I just love it when a plan comes together. :-D

Polaroid Week, Part 2.1

Don't Fence Me In

Polaroid Week, Part 1.2

Polaroid Week, Part 1.1

It's that time of year again, everyone! 'Roid Week! Whoooo! I'll be posting my favorites over on Flickr, but also some of them here, as well! I love 'Roid Week, and Polaroids in general!!

"Café"

Bowl Full of Sky

In Living Color

Highland Park Theatre, Highland Park, IL

Just thought I'd upload a little bit (or a lot bit, ha) of color to brighten up the mid-week doldrums! As soon as I saw the bright, multi-colored facade of this movie theatre, I knew I had to take a shot with my Polaroid! Came out wonderfully, if I do say so myself.

She's A Rainbow

Last year I joined a wonderful Etsy group called the Female Photographers of Etsy. It's a lovely, helpful, and supportive group of other female artists, and I'm happy and proud to be part of it.

Well, one of the members came up with the idea to put together a book of our work. We tossed around a lot of ideas and finally settled on doing a color-themed book. Each photographer who wanted to participate picked their top colors and then either shot new photos or found older shots from the archives to contribute. A cover was picked, the layout was completed, and now, finally, our book, titled "She's a Rainbow," is available for purchase right here on Blurb.com!! (Shout out to the ladies who did the hard work! Thanks, ladies!)

It features the work of 58 female photographers, and is 256 pages long. The price is a bit high, but we're only selling for cost at this point, not making any profit. It costs a lot of money in quality paper and ink to reproduce our photographs well!

I have 4 images in the book. So go buy it!

Golden Hours

One of the benefits of having an Etsy vintage shop is that it gives me an excuse to style lots of wonderful still-life product shots. One of my favorite things to do right now is to arrange a piece of jewelry on a vintage book. Case in point:

"You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by." --J M Barrie

Oh, and, that watch is for sale here, if you like it!

Infinitely Gentle

“I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle,
Infinitely suffering thing.”

--TS Eliot

Waiting for Turkey

Don't let her dejected expression fool you; she had more than her fair share of turkey! She just thought she needed more, the little glutton!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Big Shop Update

I've been lazy the past few months...taking photos, editing them, sure...but not adding them into the Etsy shop! Well, I've remedied that! I uploaded a bunch of new photo prints to my shop, including the image above, and some recent Polaroids that I've been particularly proud of! Enjoy!

Poppies for Remembrance

A huge thank you to all our veterans...one of whom is my father, and another of whom is my husband...for everything they've done to serve and protect our country and rights over the many long years. It is appreciated. Hoo yah and semper fi!!

'Roid Week, Day Four

~~The Lost Garden~~

This shot overexposed a bit because I was shooting in direct sunlight, but I really love the way the overexposure gives the shot a washed out, dreamy look. Yay for Polaroids!

'Roid Week, Days 2 and 3

A bit late uploading these, but here are my 'Roid Week shots from Tuesday and Wednesday!

Tuesday: Hello!



Wednesday: In the Stacks

Dreaming of Paradise

Last year at this time, my husband and I were getting ready for our honeymoon trip to Hawaii. As I sit here and gaze out at the overcast sky and the icy rain, I can't help but wish for another Hawaiian interlude. It was really an amazingly lovely place. You think you know how wonderful the trip is going to be, but then you arrive and realize that it's just so, so much more so than you dreamed.

Sigh...I think I'll spend some time wrapped in my favorite photos from our trip.