05.17.05

Floor in the prop shopt at work. Lovely shades of gray.

I work as a large and special events stagehand. It is a profession where I can put my jane-of-all-trades skill set to use. I do a little prop building, as well as a setting up events. The shop that we work out of is a gray, dingy, old warehouse near the football stadium just where a highway ends into town. Just crossing the main street here is a real challenge. The people I work with however are wonderful. You could not find a more talented, creative crew. Maybe I will post some shots of the amazing events we create. But today was a gray day and all I seemed to notice was the floor.

05.15.05

Hot parking lot where I was working for the day. One of the gigs I have been doing is what my son calls "little houses shows". They are bank branch openings all over the tri-state area. We go out and set up a few customized carnival type games for the bank in their parking lot. The bank attracts a crowd and signs up a few new customers. At the end of the day I bring home to my son a foam toy house (one of the game prizes) that he can use with hot wheels cars. This shot is from behind the "storybook" prop. Again what I am in love with is the textures and different colors and of course the excuse to play with my new digital camera.

05.13.05

Alley behind where I work. I love the layers of textures.

05.14.05

The hood of my filthy car. Lol - some helpful soul had inscribed the the back end "for the love of god, just wash me!" Ok, so I guess a car wash was a bit over due.

05.12.05
Wall in the back alley near my son's school.

It was recently made overly obvious to me (by my now 9 year old son) that what my photoblog really lacked was words. "Ok," was my answer, "but it's just supposed to be about photos." "Mom, you are telling a story", he retorted, "and the photos are only half. It needs the words." He is right. So in some sort of attempt to make up for only half a story, I am going back and adding words to my previous posts. When I can finally update with new photos (after my non-Linux computer is fixed) I will be adding words to the new ones as well. That way my son can have his complete story.

This pic and this whole blog were inspired by the fact that I finally got my hands on a digital SLR. See many years ago, in the mid -70's, I trained as a photographer. I was lucky enough to take workshops with the best of the best (Vanderzee, Adams, Michaels, Glover, and many more). I was also lucky enough to earn my photo degree in a place where there were several creditable photography teachers. I easily became one of the top students and worked for a few years as a photographer. Then came grad school (where you could not use the darkroom - it was for undergrads only) and a bad marriage to an artist that insisted that he was to be the ONLY artist in the family. By the time I had a son, and had separated from the idiot artist, all I really wanted to do was once again explore things visually. In the meantime, photography had gone all digital and I now again knew nothing. Sigh. So when I could, I scraped together enough money to purchase a basic pocket digital camera and started documenting my son's life. But that was not enough. The camera was very limiting and what I really want to do was make serious images. I took me over a year to save enough for a low end digital SLR. When I did, I went image happy. The first thing I had to do was learn how the darn thing worked. I made the decision at that time to carry a camera around with me 24/7 and I have seldom over the years broken my "rule". Digital is amazingly different than film. It has its own limitations and its own set of fun quirks where the rules can be deliberately broken. I also had to learn to use a basic photo editing program and become computer savvy. Although I am mostly purist when it comes photos, I did after all have to get the images out of the camera and present them well on a screen. Ouch. So I again started at zero and started blundering through.

A bit about how I work: As, mentioned, I am mostly a photo purist. What you see in my work, is exactly how an image entered my lens. There are no Photoshop tricks here. I do color correct and crop a bit, but that is it. I have a perfect color memory. It is like having perfect pitch, but with color, so it makes me a bit of a color/pattern junkie - I am hardwired for it. I am also hugely attracted to old things and nature in an urban setting. I found that for me old has a much more interesting energy and history than something shiny and new. I live and work in an old, sprawling, gritty, urban city but somehow have managed to carve out a bit of Mother Nature for myself as a way of finding inner quiet and just dealing with the day to day. Enough about me - from now on it's all about the pictures.

LA. 2/2/09 - Happy Groundhog Day