Entries Tagged as: photography

Shadow and Time

August 21st, 2012, Comments (5)

I've been musing a lot on time in the last few days, partly because of the 137 Days project I've joined, led by the fabulous Patti Digh (more on that later). And it made me want to share this shadow picture from a year ago, I called it "tuning fork legs" at the time. Shadows are so fun. I love noticing them when I'm out for a jog in the morning.

I happened upon this year-ago-photo because of a neat (and free) service called Timehop, which will email you each day with your instagram photos (and/or Facebook, Twitter, and Four Square posts) from a year ago. This has been especially fun because I took so many instagram photos of Annabelle over the last 15 months and it's fun to see what we were doing exactly one year ago each day. My, how she's grown!

52 Photos Project

July 26th, 2012, Comments (8)

Playing on Instagram recently, I discovered Bella Cirovic's 52 Photos Project. Each week is given a one word theme and the opportunity to capture and share a photo of that theme. 

Sadly, I saw the project after the theme "Circle" was used, which fit so nicely with this month's round theme, but no matter, you can still capture photographs with a circular theme now or move on to a this week's theme, which is "white." I took this picture last week for their "growth" theme. That's my little Annabelle standing in front of her growth chart tree that I painted on the wall. I just started adding the leaves marking her height with white contact paper.

Fall At My Feet

October 20th, 2011, Comments (9)

Beauty to behold everywhere. On my jog this morning, I was struck by the contrast of leaves and needles against pavement. Especially the pine needles. And the different types of pavement create such interesting backgrounds as well. So cool!

I'm also smiling at the play on words: fall, at my feet or fall at my feet. Simple pleasures that fall brings: fall foliage, nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, the smell of fires burning in fireplaces, children in "back-to-school clothes" they bought in the summer, sweatshirts and warm socks, warm drinks, candles, soup, and scarves.

Autumn Flowers

October 14th, 2011, Comments (6)

Oh, autumn. You dazzle me with your colors!

It's like this last hurrah of fall fireworks before the bleakness of winter hits. A mix of death in bare branches and dying leaves and brilliant life in full color. What an inspiring sight to behold.

Normally, I'm immediately drawn to the fall foliage, but this year, I've been noticing the fall flowers. Aren't they lovely?

Dear Photograph

September 29th, 2011, Comments (4)

A friend (thanks, Kim!) clued me in to this beautiful site, Dear Photograph. It seemed to fit so nicely with the history theme this month, that I had to share it!

The people who submit an image, hold an old photograph up in the same place, take a picture (I included an example above) and then include a message, which begins, "Dear Photograph..."

Check it out. The images and words are sure to touch your heart. 

Half-morning in photos

August 19th, 2011, Comments (8)

A snapshot of my Wednesday morning in photos, including a lovely red flower!

The morning moon hung like a whole note in the sky.

A parachute red flower turned alien pod.

My tuning fork legs led the way.

Mid-morning nap.

How was your morning?

p.s. I'm leah_art on instagram! Also, here's a great article on taking pictures with your phone.

Insta-creativity

July 29th, 2011, Comments (19)

What you lookin' at, Mama?

This is the little, nearly 3 month old munchkin who has been keeping me on my toes day and night. She's pretty darn cute though.

I've been itching to find more time to create, but my arms are often full and I'm only grabbing a few moments here and there for creating. You can always find creative outlets if you're looking for them though.

For me, that has often been through instagram. A small, portable creative outlet that I carry with me via my iphone, which also helps me stay connected to the outside world, while simultaneously helping me keep track of how long it's been since I breastfed the baby last.

I've been using instagram to capture lots of sweet moments with the baby,

but also the little bits of beauty I see around the house,

while out on walks or jogs,

or while packing art up to send off to a new home.

So much fun!

p.s. I'm leah_art on Instagram if you play there too. Also, I just got a tip from @LindaUrsin that SnapBucket is a great alternative for those who don't have an iphone! Thanks, Linda!

Blue: Guest Post by Susan Reep

July 19th, 2011, Comments (6)

What an apt theme for the month! The great painter and art teacher Josef Albers said “Color is like cooking. The cook puts in more or less salt, that’s the difference!” I think the cook put more salt in this Moorish tile because it can sure jiggle your eyeballs. Some of that salt was the color blue.

While I admire those who trend on the “less” side, thinking less is more, I tend to think if some is good, more is better. I got to see lots of this amazing tile work in March on a trip to Morocco and Spain, and as a photographer, I took hundreds of photos of course – but my aim was BLUE. More BLUE! The reason was simple – my daughter wanted blue photos for her walls. Since blue has always been my favorite color, I was up for searching out BLUE.

You know how giving yourself constraints in your work can amp up the creativity? Like grabbing a handful of magazines and doing collages in your art journal, constrained by using only what you find in the magazines? Searching out BLUE sure gave me a focus for photography and it made an already thrilling trip even more exciting.

I found lots of BLUE – but what did it all mean? What is it about BLUE? It’s the color of optimism – sunny skies are blue skies. Irving Berlin wrote the classic “Blue skies, smiling at me; nothing but blue skies, do I see.” Water is blue and calm; stormy waters are grey and green and black. Blue bloods are of the upper class. First place takes the blue ribbon. Brides wear something borrowed, something blue – blue for faithfulness and loyalty. And men wear dark blue suits for power. Things that happen infrequently happen once in a blue moon. But it’s not all good, because hard times and sadness intrude in the form of the Blues. Patsy Cline is “…crazy, feeling so blue.”

Raoul Dufy, the French fauvist painter, said “Blue is the only color that maintains its own character in all its tones…it will always stay blue.” Whatever that really means, it seemed to match a mosaic detail from Gaudi’s Parc Guell in Barcelona.

The Ukrainian Cubist painter Kasimir Malevich said, “I have broken the boundary of color limits, come out into the white; beside me comrade-pilots swim in this infinity.” Taking swimming literally as in blue water, and then emerging into the white of the clouds in the blue sky gives a surrealistic meaning to this photograph of the swimming pool at the Hotel Xaluca Dades in Boumalne Dades, Morocco. To me, it makes it much more than a swimming pool. It makes it infinite with endless possibilities.

Moroccans use vibrant colors, and these blue doors on the orange building seem to have been painted simply to justify Vincent Van Gogh’s quote: “There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” I don’t know what Van Gogh meant exactly, but both colors pop out with such vibrancy when used together.

This magnificent chimney from a Gaudi building in Barcelona just screamed out for the blue centerlight in this Jack Kerouac quote from On the Road: The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everyone goes, “Awww!”

Awww. You can feel the passion as Kerouac’s words speed up faster, faster, reaching, reaching ever farther, like art, color, life.

I used to be like that, speeding faster and faster, until I got a little older and started going slower, slower. Now, all I know is whether that blue centerlight pops or not, I like blue and it makes me feel good.

I made a little book matching my BLUE photographs with quotes from artists (mostly) talking about color (mostly), but I maintained artistic license to add as I wished. For example, for this blue door, I chose Temple Grandin’s statement, “A door opened and I went through it.” That’s what art is about and it’s what life is about. I just happened to go through a lot of blue doors on this trip.

:::

Susan's Background:

I grew up in Los Angeles in a family of artists.  (My father, Edward Reep, is a nationally-renowned watercolorist with paintings hanging in museums across the country, as well as a World War II combat artist, with works in the Pentagon and the Smithsonian.  My mother, Pat Reep, is a well-known quilter.)  After living in Northern California, North Carolina, Virginia and Morocco, my husband and I settled in Bakersfield, CA.  I’ve been married for 41 years and have three children and ten grandchildren.  After retiring from teaching seventh-grade, I’ve been able to focus solely on my art.

I realized early-on that photography would be my medium. My training was not formal: I learned to “see” from growing up with art all around me and from listening to artists.   I asked for my first camera when I was seven, and I’ve been taking pictures every since.

My focus in photography has been to find both beauty in nature and beauty in the mundane.  My primary subject matter has gravitated over the years to travel and nature in all its aspects because I am a documentarian at heart.

My web site  http://susanreep.com/ 

Blog: http://susanreep.com/blog/

Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanreep/

BLUE: Photos from Spain and Morocco:  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2263540

Represented:  Metro Galleries http://themetrogalleries.com/?page_id=4

Gratitude for the Small Things

April 30th, 2011, Comments (13)

To finish up the month of Small (can you believe it's the end of April?), I thought it'd be nice to take some time to reflect on all the small things we're grateful for. It can be so easy to get caught up in the things that stress us out, bring us down, frustrate, or sadden us. But there's always much to be grateful for, even if those things are very small.

Perhaps this weekend you can make a short list of the things you are grateful for. Start with five things. If you feel like continuing, stretch that list to 15, 25, 50, or even 100 (I've done this, you can too!)

I took a long walk yesterday, moving slowly, but oh so grateful for the movement, the gorgeous day, and the colorful scenery. One of my favorite things is flowering trees that bloom in Spring and my neighborhood is currently filled with them, all so beautiful that it makes me giddy. So right there, are several small things I'm grateful for: mobility, a long walk, gorgeous weather, beautiful flowering trees, and taking pictures with my iphone. Some other things I'm feeling grateful for today are my sweet husband, soft kitty paws, the white noise of the air purifier, ice water, and Alba pineapple quench lip balm.

So tell me, what are 5 small things you're grateful for today?

Look Up, Look Down, Sparkles Giveaway!

March 19th, 2011, Comments (44)

Earlier this week, I went on a walk. Oh, glorious Spring! It was so nice to be outside.

One of my favorite things to do on a walk is to take along my iphone and snap pictures. Simply having the camera with me helps me see things in new ways. It reminds me to look up at the sky, to look down at my shadow, and to notice the little moments of beauty that are everywhere.

It also got me thinking about how creativity can be inserted into the smallest bits of time, like a short walk. This is the idea behind Sparkles, Jamie Ridler's creative e-course, which brings you 31 days of quick-to-read, 5 minute exercises from lots of inspiring, creative guides (including myself!) I love the idea behind this project because it's so true, creativity can be brought into your life, even when you feel like you have no time for it. And even when it feels like five minutes couldn't possibly enough, time can impossibly expand once you begin, and you'll be amazed at what you can get out of it.

Here's a sparkly idea to get you started: Go out for a short walk with a camera. Focus on looking up and taking pictures of what catches your eye. Or try focusing on your shadow or the shadow of other objects on different surfaces. You'll be amazed by what you see when you start paying attention to these things. 

*Giveaway!*


Sparkles registration begins March 22nd and I'd love to give away one spot in this course! Even if you don't win the spot, I highly recommend checking it out. It'll be a great, creative adventure!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post, before 12 pm EST on Monday the 21st, telling me your favorite way to bring creativity into your life when you just have a little bit of time. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday. Good luck!

Update: The giveaway is closed, but you can still join in the fun. Sparkles registration is now open!