Not art...(one person's opinion)

I need to retract my statement that Emma's photo will be displayed in the Art's Center as it will not. The curator for the museum, the person who chose which photos would be displayed, said that it is a portrait, not an artistic print. So that leaves me greatly saddened as I was and still am very proud of the photo. I think it is one of my best pieces to date. It also leaves me with the contemplation of the question of "what is art?". Art, can be and should be many things. I think a portrait can be art, I also think that sometimes it is just a portrait. Many many people in the art world do not view much of any photography as art, they are pictures, not painting, sculptures, metal etc... Today I learned a valuable lesson for the road I am on. Some people see art where others don't and if it is the person in charge of the exhibit you are entering then you are out of luck. I will just continue my pursuit of what I enjoy and next time I will submit a flower! Have a great night :)

Summer #3

Oscar posed much like Emma did. My camera, a Hassleblad 500 c/m, gets amazing detail as shown here in the water droplets on Oscar's arm and body.

Summer #2

As promised this is a shot of Oscar and Lucie the same day I took the one of Emma that I posted earlier. Emma's is going to be displayed in the Arkansas Art's Center, a real museum! I am pretty excited to see it up on a museum wall and take the family there to show them.

Sprinkler fun!

Arkansas is hot and humid! We found some relief one day while Jim watered the lawn. The kids stripped and had a blast running and chasing and getting very very wet. The simple, beautiful joy of being little and hot with a sprinkler! This is a darkroom photo as well.

A moment in time.

I like this print of Lucie, (although I think it looks better in person), because the "vignette" around her makes me think of the print as if I am looking back through time at a moment. In fact, I am. Photos allow us to look at moments in time. This was a picture taken last summer of Lucie. Each print I create in the darkroom is Representative of at least three to four hours, some have taken me longer. I know people who have worked for eight hour stretches on one or two prints. It can take longer. There are steps and each step takes time. Once you see the print you have worked to create it will take you less time to create a second one but it will still take time. So each print is amount of time and I sure hope by the time I am done with it I still like it enough to have invested the time in it.

My art...

Hello to all of you who actually take time to look at my blog! Bless you for taking the time out of your day. This is a print that I definitely consider my art. It is a black and white negative of a daisy. I processed it using a Litho developer rather than the usually D76 that I used for the prints of Emma. It gives the print more grain and can be slightly unpredictable as far as the color tones that will come out from both the developer and the paper used. It is my first Lith print but I plan to do more. I like the effect especially on this type of image. I also used a filed holder for the negative which gives it the sloppy look around the edges rather than crisp straight lines.

Summer #1

This is Emma, again! We let them strip down and run naked through the sprinkler as it has been especially hot and humid here in recent weeks. The kids were delighted that I let them pluck a few elephant ears to play with. I am excited as I have a good shot of each of them with these leaves. I will be able to print a triptych of the kids. I am also very happy with this picture as while I was working in the darkroom with it my teacher complimented me by saying he thinks this is one of the best photos to come out of the darkroom in the past five years. Yes, he said five. He has been printing there for ten so I took it as a huge compliment. I will post the other shots as I finish them too.

Studying Nature

This is a shot of Emma I captured shortly after the rain had stopped at our house. She and Lucie went into the backyard and were playing with the Crape Myrtle trees. They would pull a branch and squeal with delight as the droplets of rain water fell around them. The sun was setting so it is creating a halo effect behind her. It was a fantastic moment to have a long lens and a camera to be an unobtrusive observer to their merriment and wonder. I will post the photo of Lucie when I have it done. These are black and white film photographs that I am learning how to develop myself in a darkroom at the Arts Center here in Little Rock. I am quickly falling in love with the process of creating a print that handcrafted by me. It is an empowering thing to control the photographic process from start to finish. All of the black and white images will have been printed by me in the darkroom unless I tell you they are not!

Not to play favorites.

In the effort to not only put photos of my girls up but also my darling son I found this one and think it is a good representation of Oscar. He is growing up ever so quickly and I find those moments when I pause and think, take this in...he will only be small for awhile. I am the mom who on a rare occasion that it was just he and I at the store will lift him out of the cart and carry him to the car, simply because he is getting bigger and heavier and I know I won't be able to carry him forever. So, I try to find solace in the moments when I see the beautiful baby he was changing into the fantastic boy he is.

Girl's birthday pictures!

Finally, finally right? These are the photos I got of the girls on the birthday. As you can see they wore special crowns and new outfits provided by their Aunt Heather! They are also holding their birthday dolls given to them from their grandpa and grandma. They really really really like them.

Yes, Emma is that much taller than Lucie. She just keeps shooting up and up. Lucie is average height for a 4 year old and Emma is in the higher percentile. They stood back to back all on their own as if I had asked there is no way they would have done it for me! They were also barefooted in the photo.

Overall, albeit a simple birthday they had enough fun to ask for another birthday the next day. I had to inform them it would be one full year before cake and candles would come again. This was received with copious quantities of attitudes and "oh, man!" exclamations!!

Emma's freckles

So Jim and I began to observe that ever so gradually day by day our daughter Emma is growing freckles. It is an ever changing, consistently increasing phenomenon. We absolutely love it!

So again, I am trying this out to see what it looks like and if it is something worth taking the time to do. Will anyone look at it if I tell them I posted new pics or added some comment about our daily life. Maybe, maybe not. This is a picture of a sunflower from our garden. I am so pleased with it as this is a straight camera shot, meaning no photoshop, cropping or post editing. I think it turned out rather nice!

Let me see...

I wanted to see what this would look like and if I really want to put this on the web.