Yippeee! Summer arrived in Vancouver this past weekend. Let’s hope it’s here to stay for awhile.
I had a really great long weekend. How was yours…?
Category: Toy & Trash cameras
Van Dusen garden poppies
I’m hoping summer will be back REALLY soon, because I’m very tired of being cold and wet. I saw a glimmer of warmer weather yesterday evening, just as I was on the return trip from a bike ride around the seawall. I’d like some more of that, please….
Red coats are wonderful.
Danny Michel was in town this week for two shows at the Railway Club, and I’m very happy I made it to one of them last night. I’ve missed him the last few times he’s played Vancouver, and didn’t want this to happen again. He’s always an entertaining performer and anyone I take to see him becomes a convert to his music. He’s on tour right now to promote a new CD/DVD box set he’s put together independently, featuring material recorded at two live shows in Toronto.
Blowing balloons
“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Speaking of gratitude, five things I am grateful for:
1. All the wonderful and generous friends I have in my life.
2. The emails I receive sometimes from people via flickr to let me know my photography is inspiring.
3. The sunshiny weather forecast for the next five days.
4. Meeting the many interesting people who contribute to Momentum Magazine at a brunch last Sunday.
5. Finding more wisteria vines than I previously knew about, growing in my neighbourhood. They are almost in full bloom!
Magnolia (b&w)
I can’t remember if I have mentioned this already, but I have recently added more prints for sale in my etsy shop.
I’m hoping to upload more soon, once things settle down and I get the chance to scan my most recent holga photos.
A special thank you to Liz Shuman for blogging about my store on Abstract the Day earlier this week, and to Leslie Webster for the featured gallery of my work on Apartment Therapy: San Francisco today.
[Edit: I meant to add this to the entry earlier…]
There are two things you should check out this weekend if you live in the Vancouver area: Vancouver Moving Theatre’s production called “We’re all in this Together. The Shadows Project: Addiction and Recovery” ends on Sunday. The play is inspired by the ancient tradition of shadow theatre (see the photo on their website) using stories of the Downtown Eastside. It features a cast of thirty community actors performing as shadow-casters and musicians.
There is an open house at the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (O.W.L) this Saturday and Sunday. I learned about this organization, located in Delta, after reading Conversations with an Eagle by Brenda Cox. The book is her personal account of working closely with a Bald Eagle named Ichabod, during her years of volunteer work at O.W.L. The open house gives people the opportunity to see more of behind-the-scenes at the rehab centre than is normal. I would really love to go to this, but sadly can not make it this weekend.
Brightness
I took this photo with my holga a few weeks ago on a trip to the Squamish area to go exploring with friends. It was a beautiful, peaceful day, with weather hot enough to make us wish for shorts and sandals to wear. It came very close to this type of weather again yesterday. Spring is here and summer isn’t far behind.
Yesterday I attended the Creative City Conversation, conference at the Vancouver Playhouse. The purpose was for “the City of Vancouver to gather information to develop a 10-year, long-term plan for arts and culture in Vancouver. Local, national and international speakers were invited to share their experience and stimulate discussion. It was free and open to the public.”
I want to write more about this experience at a later date, but for now let me leave you with a talk by Ken Robinson at the TED conference earlier this year. Mr. Robinson was the keynote speaker at Creative City and gave a very entertaining and inspiring speech very similar to the one for TED.
I haven’t felt much like updating my photo blog lately because I’ve been pondering what exactly I want to do with this thing. It’s in need of a proper design, featuring a portfolio and contact section. I should also add a link to my new etsy store. (Now I can proudly say that I sell my work.)
There is a small show of Holga photos on display at the Pendulum Gallery. The work is by local Vancouver photographer Trevor Brady, and will be on display until April 21st. I liked seeing Holga photos printed very large and bold. It gave me a few ideas for things to do with my own work.
Magnolia
I’ve been wanting to try out a few of the modifications that are possible with a holga. There are many out there, but the three I am most intrigued by are panoramas, macros, and shooting with 35mm. Last week through a contact of mine on flickr I discovered a simple variation on the “macro mod”, where I can use my close-up filters to get closer to my subject than the one meter minimum a holga normally allows. If you don’t have close-up filters, there is an article on Toycamera.com with three variations for macro modifications.
I’m really happy with the results from my first roll. Even though I chose flowers as my subject for the test I can see potential in using this technique for shooting portraits. It’s always frustrated me to keep my distance when photographing people with the holga, and now I can get much closer.
I have a gallery of the night shots taken this past winter up at Toycamera.com. Please check it out.
Sun summoning sunflower
I have chosen the above sunflower photo as my avatar to summon up a bit of sunny weather. Here’s hoping it works.
Last Saturday I went for the loveliest walk in the rain. The air was fresh with the perfumed scent of spring, the temperature was warm, the plants and moss glowed a vibrant green, and everywhere the trees were blossoming. A week later it’s still raining, and my walks outside seem less lovely and more…soggy. We are at the point of springtime when every Vancouverites thoughts turn to ark-building.
Crows in conversation
Thank you to everyone who came out to Exposure Gallery over the weekend to visit with me and see my photo in the show. I was able to get a bit of reading done during my gallery sitting shift, and discovered the work of two photographers new to me.
The current issue of Light Leaks magazine features an interview with pinhole photographer Martha Casanave, and a stunning selection of photos from her series Explorations along an Imaginary Coastline. A nice compliment to her work is that of Robin Bartholick and his digitally constructed black and white images. (See series 1 and series 2.) It’s interesting to me that their work is so similar, with gentlemen dressed in turn of the century garb and imaginary landscapes, but they achieve their results at opposite ends of the technological scale.