...was the title of a collaborative art exhibit that was put together on May 29 in a place called Cedar Grove. All I can say, without really looking it up on a map, was time in the car driving past Hillsboro,  about a half an hour in some direction from Carrboro, NC which is where a few friends met up to go.  Since I can't figure out how the hell to get the cursor to go down below the photos to say what's what here, I'll have to describe a few of the photos this way...(gotta say I hate the way this blog works...it's not user friendly to me.)   Well, anyway, the guy at the table below is artist Ken Rumble. I've never met him. 

This scene was found by following a pathway lined with a single row of shoes on either side leading to a large white wall constructed in a field with a door in the center. When you opened the door, this was  the scene.....The artist made no contact with the viewer; it made me think of the recent experience of seeing Marina Abramovic  a few weeks ago at MoMA, in NYC where she spent, was it 5 weeks, in residence 8 hours a day sitting in a chair across a table from whomever wanted to sit with her in a performance called "The Artist is Present."  In that scenario, there was continual eye contact, or face to face contact between artist and each individual viewer. I'm not attempting to link these two pieces or Rumble's intention here, it's just that these two events happened to coincide in my sphere of traipsing around in the world of art lately.  By the way, most of the shoes along the pathway were painted on, some had words and phrases painted on them. Many of the shoes in the pile seemed to also be painted.

Chance Murray, painter and musician. His paintings are fresh, bold, raw and what's truly amazing to me is that he just turned 20!

Last summer I took a road trip up north to Allentown and New Tripoli, Pennsylvania for a few weeks to make images at night at the home where I grew up and the farmhouse I came back from Northern California to live in for five years many years later.

The idea for this project began to form after receiving a grant to fund a large format printer on which I proposed to print a limited edition portfolio of night photographs. What set apart his series of night shots, which I'd been doing for about three years at that point, was these would be introducing lighting and enhanced ambiance...Needless to say, at the time, I had no idea what I was going to shoot.

Somehow, in a moment between minutes while laying on a sofa at a friend's house, the idea drifted up of revisiting my past, creating scenarios of vague memories, some of which I assumed would surface or be informed when faced with the present state of the locations...

I'm still not quite sure how "successful" the photos are to the emotional past they were to reflect or conjure up. The process of doing them was worthwhile: production support contributed by my friends that lives in the area made for wonderful adventures and enjoyable shoots....

Meeting the odd man who now lives in the Allentown home, alone, amidst an amazing mess of 10 years of clutter left, he said, from when his father died and he hasn't gotten around to getting rid of it.....

A lovely large family now occupies the farmhouse, having turned sparsely artist furnished rooms that my then husband and I inhabited with our infant daughter into a home befitting children of this century, but for the kitchen, that still bore a resemblance to the memories I had of it.

As far as making "art" within that intention of journey back? Quite honestly, creating images, instead of recognizing them as I more readily and easily can do, may not be my forte, nor will I probably follow further the direction these took me, but....

Revisiting a past that I knew could never possibly exist in the present was a launching pad for new experiences that make new memories creating an intriguing interlocking between the past memories, the present, and the future of how I might think about such matters.

When a month is graced with two full moons, the second one is called a blue moon...the once in a blue moon blue moon. The blue moon cycle is 2.72 years, making it a special, if not rare or unexpected occasion. The last blue moon month was May 2007 and the next will occur in August 2012.

Giving me directions to her house in Bath, PA., my friend Ruth said, "Look for an old barn with the word 'Sleep' written on it. Fascinating.The new night series I'm out here working on deals with memory, concealment, dreams...The barn was a really cool location, the image plan hatched, and in spite of a drizzle the next night, a crew of an old photo friend from Allentown, Ruth, and I went off into the late night. The barn is located on a two lane highway in what seems like the middle of nowhere, but is apparently the only way to get to somewhere, judging from the number of cars speeding through. The camera set up on the side of the road opposite of the barn, and time exposure of 30 seconds necessitated no traffic time every time we opened the lens. There are a number of red and white streaked frames, but it wasn't too bad. Coordinating and checking the varied strobe flashes, looking at each frame as it was shot, had me and my assistant Ron, running back and forth across the road, waving flashlights so not to trip into a hidden ditch along the side by the barn. All of a sudden, we see a cop car slowly drive up and pull into a turn out next to the barn by our car...it's past midnight. I'm standing by the camera at this point, dressed in the black night gown I'm wearing for the photo, wondering how to explain what we're doing out here without getting chased away. The cop doesn't get out of his car. I thought they're supposed to approach you, not the other way around, but this is Bath, PA for christsake so maybe it's different here. So there I am, flashlight in hand, traipsing across the road in a night gown in the middle of a drizzly night to face a cop. Weird. I came around the back of his car to the passenger side window to avoid standng too close to the road, and was about to tap on the window, when I looked in to see that the cop was absolutely oblivious to my being there....he hadn't noticed us there at all....not the flashlights, not anything....he was lost in his own world, focusing on the cigarette he was putting in his mouth. I just stood there, peering in at him for a moment, then turning off my flashlight, stepped back from the car window into the shadows to watch him turn off his dome light and drive off. Surreal.

Months ago I wrote a grant proposal that I wanted to create night images that went beyond what I have been doing for the last three years, which is photographing scenes lit only by moonlight, or street lights or whatever source was already there illuminating the image I was making. My paperwork stated I'd now be working in a new way, adding my own light sources, and make a limited edition of 16"x24" archival pigment prints so please give me the money for a wide bed printer....and so they did. Now, beyond the steep learning curve of this new printer which is still in its very large box taking up much of my work room because I can't bear to deal with it, I had no idea what was gonna get lit up in the dark...
More about the series I'm about to explore in Pennsyvania, where I grew up, in a few days once I start it, but for now, here is last nights re-shoot of something I did in Maryland where I stayed for a few day earlier this month and again last night on my way north. After a lovely supper with his family, my photo friend Scott Robinson whom I've know since our days in the trenches called Los Angeles, and I re-shot this because I didn't like what I was wearing in the first version...hadn't paid attention to "wardrobe."

The important lesson for me to remember here is the need to sometimes really push yourself into action to get out the gear, set it up and know you'll hit stride, although it's late at night, you've had a bit of wine, and would rather just talk about maybe re-shooting some other time.

Last evening while leaving the Common House of a co-housing community in Carrborro, where I was meeting with photographer friends, I notice a large dark yellow wagon to the side of the door, looking quite interesting in it's setting of fence, houses and darkness behind. I mentioned to my host that I was going to stay around and photograph the scene, but had to go to my car, parked outside the walkways, to get a tripod. It was rather late, and I spent a quiet 15 or so minutes shooting the wagon. I wasn't all that excited about the results in the camera viewer but thought something might look better larger....turns out, they sucked.

Lately, I've not been so drawn to shooting at night, and this less than satisfying experience with the wagon solidified the notion I was done shooting at night, at least in the way I've been at it for the last 3 years.

The walk back to my car was very sweet; the night was quiet, still and damp from the Seattle type weather we've been experiencing lately here in our part of NC. When I got to this area, my awareness heightened and soared....I sensed a soft coalescence of air, space and some unidentifiable quality that drew me to stay and photograph.

The night still calls me.

It's New Year's Eve and I was hanging out in my digital "dark room" as usual, but thinking about what movie to watch a bit later with some vodka concoction...yum, when my friend Eric called to tell me I had to go look at the moon, how beautiful it was with the whatever planet below to the side, and if he had a tripod, he'd photograph it probably surrounded by trees, and would I pleeeeeze go out and shoot it. He's a good friend, and I have a heavy coat, so here is what turned out to be my last photograph of 2008.
I'm glad he called.

Happy New Year to everyone.
May all your good dreams come true, all your creativity be flowing.

For years, I've made it a tradition to create my own holiday cards. Occasionally, however, the muse of good ideas skips out on me and I trawl through the racks of commercial offerings hoping to be drawn to an image I like with a message I also can live with. Or vice versa. Sometimes it comes together, other times, my Virgo nature kicks in and I skip sending out cards all together rather than settle for something less than "perfect." It almost came to that this year. No inspiration was bubbling up, nor were there any cards on the rack that called to me. One was close, until I saw it was drowning in sparkle. Not a love match. So looking at my bulletin board in my studio the other night, I was drawn to a photo I did long ago during a candle ceremony at my meditation center in LA where I then lived. It became my card that year. For this variation, I added words with Photoshop. My procrastination precluded getting them printed in time and I couldn't deal with my printer to make them myself (don't ask) so I had them made up as 4x6 prints at the local Wolf's Camera, and hunted down those cards with the frame to slip in the picture of your kids or dog/cat and send off to all the aunts and uncles. Five stores later, I found some that looked ok. Horray. Done. Out the door into the mailbox....whew.

Then, two nights ago, I fell in love with a scene I'd been looking at for a few weeks as I drove from my drive-way up to the road. A neighbor with a forested front yard had strung colored lights on a scrawny little pine tree. It was endearing, but I didn't find it special enough to bother dragging the camera out into the night. I've also been rather lethargic during these early darkness times; wanting rather to be in the house, much warmer and cozy. But....wow....it was so appealing as I passed it this time, heading home. The night silent and still, the air soaked with a fine mist created a scene embued with a life of it's own........a mysterious space surrounded by large old trees, this ungraceful little tree wrapped and glowing with light.



I shot it as a sequence of frames set at different shutter times, counting up to over a minute on bulb setting to get the darker areas to show some detail in the shadows, then did some short exposures to get the lights not blown out. Later, layering two of the raw digital frames after doing some fiddling with Photoshop, I carefully brushed in the less exposed string of lights from the second layer which I hid behind the main image. It took some time and small brush sizes to get the darker lit tree exposure to blend in realistically with the original level of light surrounding it.

Now I was faced with having an image I wanted to share, but I mailed outthe other one....what's a girl to do?....At 2am this morning, an e-card design was born in Photoshop....today I was able to share my new night photo with all the rest of my friends online. Yaaaay technology.

Happy Holidays to everyone....Let hope ring out in 2009!

A friend of mine who lives out in the boonies told me how cool his pasture looks when the moon light is spilling everywhere, and I should come out to shoot during some full moon time. So I went this month. On the way out there, I had to stop when I noticed the clouds were swooping so dramatically around in the sky. As usually happens, I couldn't quickly find a road or driveway to pull over into that gave me a full view of the sky and wouldn't get me killed by passing cars. The twilight faded more than I hoped when I finally found a spot, but it still was worth the hassle, I think.

My friend was right about the moonlight on the pasture, and said the view from the barn was good; he and his friends sit up there, have a few beers and watch the moon rise sometimes. (The other side of the barn was set up to watch the sun set, by the way.) Anyway, after noticing the scene in front of me while he got absorbed in the moonlight, I asked him to just stay there and stop breathing when I said,"Now." I'll be damned, his torso is still a little soft focus. I still haven't figured out how to pull this off, but I like how it turned out having a figure in the composition.

While stumbling around the barn with only a small flashlight on the way to the doors, I noticed, well, more like almost fell into, a hand made boat that the owner of the property was storing there....I love when you find stuff you never in your life would think to bring to a shoot. It's that serendipity that the universe loves to toss into the mix and you can decide whether or not to go with it. Of course, sometimes what crosses your path is just something to step over and walk on by, but I loved the idea of a boat coming into the composition to add a bit of mystery.

"A few days after that night, Jean emailed me:

About half an hour after you left, the nightly barred owl chorus began with an intensity befitting the full moon. As if on cue the coyotes (apparently the teenagers from the spring litter) joined in for one of the most delightful and bizarre choruses I've ever had the hair on my neck stand up to."

While parking the car on a side street in Raleigh a few weeks ago, I saw this old building and knew it would be a great location for a night shoot. I asked my friend Chandler if he wanted to go with me, firstly as a bodyguard, (I didn't know the neighborhood,) and I get so involved in shooting, I don't pay attention to what's going on around me. Once in LA I almost had my camera stolen that way) and secondly because he's been interested in learning stuff in photography and previously helped me while I shot a Civil War re-enactment at night. As an afterthought, we talked about having him be in the photos, and he came up with the suit and hat. (He's an actor when not a newly sworn-in lawyer.) I asked him if he had an old chair around, and he found a really nice one in the basement of his family house. The intention for this shoot was to practice adding extra light to the long exposures by way of hand held strobes, in this case using an SB-800. Usually I use only available light and occasionally "paint" with a flashlight. For the top 2 photos, I popped the strobe, which was set on TTL, two times, then added a warming gel for the figure, popped one time, then switched to a blue gel, ran around to the side and popped it twice to get the wall. The tree branches got a few pops without a gel. The photo of the figure in the pool of light was just a find.....it was there. I added a strobe pop for the foreground of the leaves and single white crepe myrtle flower. For the portrait, after the strobing, Chandler continued to sit while the camera stayed open for about another 35 or so seconds gathering more ambient night light. (I don't use a stop watch, which is probably stupid. I like to just count heartbeats til I get to around 54 to 90 or so, based on how dark it is. Shooting digitally, I can also see what's averaging after you shoot a test frame to get into the ballpark) The sharpness of the face was compromised, but the alternative choice of shooting him separately lit only by strobe on another frame and merging him into the shot, would have resulted in a slightly unnatural juxtaposition, my photographer friend Scott in DC said when I called him about the problem. I'll probably try it next time, though, just to see what it looks like. Maybe someone has figured out how to successfully get a figure sharp in a very long exposure. Hopefully, someone can explain how to do it....or maybe it's just what happens, and you live with it. On some level, it keeps the photo more honest, since you get to see that the person was moving slightly from breathing! Hmmm, that's a nifty rationalization....or an art critic's way of interpreting.