Day 190 On Black Again, still loving it

I have been battling getting sick for the past week. Being out yesterday for my son's birthday didn't help much, but I did enjoy it. Last night as I was taking a couple of Advil PM's, I noticed how pretty blue they were in the light. So of course I thought I should photograph them. Not feeling up to being outside in the cold foggy weather, today was the day. It used to be that when I photographed something on black it was a one image deal. Lately it's whatever I can find. Even then I have to omit a few images so as not to post to many. When I started this blog I thought I wanted fifty images of things on black, at this rate I think I'm going to make it.

Day 189 Steven Swimming Dec!

I was thinking I might not acquire a photo of Steven swimming in December. It's been cold and overcast all month with a little rain at least once a week. There was one day that could have been nice but Steven was sick. So today on his 28th birthday we were able to take a few pictures. And I do mean just a few! Steven said in no uncertain terms he was getting in the freezing water for only a quick minute. I got in up to my knees for a better shot and I admit it was cold! burrr...

Day 188 Colored Ice

I really love yesterday's picture, so much so, that nothing I shot today made me happy. I photographed many things and am settling on a few shots of colored ice.

Footnote, Now that I see it posted the colors are really quite bright and beautiful.

Day 187 Wayne in Red

Feeling a little under the weather today and with it being so cold and foggy outside I decided to photograph something inside. My husband was away at work so I had free range to set up a light and have fun. I draped the red silk cloth over one light and proceeded to photograph everything that could be cool, wine glasses, ice, rusty horse shoes, tinfoil, pancakes and even another one of my dogs. Soon my husband came home and he let me take a few pictures of him in the red light. I really played with the ice and have many cool pictures but like this one of my husband best. I have always wanted to photograph a person with different colors on their face. This is not the photo I have long imagined creating, but I am happy with it.

Day 186 Seven on Blue

Yesterday while photographing tomato's I noticed how nicely my dog Seven was behaving. I have wanted to photograph him but every time I try he leaves. He must be shy. I was thinking maybe I could put black cloth underneath him and photograph him from the top. Today as I started to set it up I had a last minute euphony and decided to use blue as a contrast color. I like the results.

Day 185 Tomato on Red

I cleaned up my room today. I mean the kind of clean where you move the bed and vacuum underneath it. Which for some people can be quite often, but for me is every couple of years or so... While cleaning I found a paper bag, long forgotten, which contained several pieces of folded cloth. One of these pieces was bright red. I decided I would photograph something on red the moment I took out this sexy silky cloth. Red on red! how fun would that be. I had several red items but settled on a tomato. The cloth had wrinkle lines and being to lazy to iron it I photographed close up. I sort of liked the whole tomato on red but wanted something a bit more interesting. The steak knife is my favorite knife, I use it for everything involving cutting.

Foot Note, This is actually a post for Dec 26. I had it posted then deleted it to make a slight change not realizing that when I reposted it, it was past the midnight hour.

Day 184 Christmas morning on the road

I snapped a few pictures as we headed South on the 99 towards Bakersfield to spend Christmas day with family. I love being on the road Christmas morning. The fog made this morning especially nice.

Day 183 More Stuff on Black

Since starting this blog is seems as if I have a craving to photograph everything I see. I especially enjoy photographing things on black. And now that I have created a couple of projects I really want to photograph more things on black. I really think photography is my drug of choice. I also think since I am home again I should start trying to make a photo a day. But then again I am not sure when I will have to leave. My mom starts chemo Jan 13th. It was difficult to stop this blog because it meant so much to me to create a photo a day for an entire year, but given the reason it was easy. I also enjoy that no one who followed this blog, about four people that I know of, is following it anymore. I don't feel stress about having to create a good photo every day. Although even with that behind my photographic efforts I have many days I wish I could take back, be a little less lazy, and get a good picture. There are some spectacular embarrassments posted on this blog.

Projects on Black

To entertain myself I put together a couple of projects using the photographs I've made on black.

These projects are really fun to put together.

Day 182 on Black

I'm so stressed about putting together a good portfolio that I have changed it about twenty times. Who is to say what a good photograph is.... I mean there are some obvious great photo's in the world but who is to judge what makes a good portfolio? Art is so subjective. I think in the end you can only put in what you care about and not worry about what anyone else thinks. Which is hard to do when it is someone else who is going to judge you on it. To work out some of that stress I photographed some things on black.

Day 181 Domestication

Throughout the years, particularly in the winter time, I have fancied myself a domesticated woman. I'm not sure exactly what it means to be domesticated but I am pretty sure it involves making cookies. During the baking of cookies process, I always think "this looks neat, I should photograph it." So today I did.

Day 180 Kitty's new Kitten

Yesterday while photographing S. Ninth Street with black and white film I met a woman. I hung out with her for a while and she invited me to her motel room to show me some of her kittens. She had four yellow striped kittens and one grey stripped kitten. She asked me if I wanted one but of course I already have to many pets but I offered to try and find them homes. I took a few pictures and posted a couple on my face book page. Soon Kitty, a friend of mine, replied that she just had to have one of the kittens. Kitty is an awesome animal person and will offer the kitten a wonderful home. So this morning I went back to the motel room and found it's resident. She let me in and I noticed one of the yellow kittens was missing. This saddens me as it will probably end up on the street as a stray or wind up dead. The woman said she thinks someone stole it. I found the kitten Kitty wanted and headed home. While Kitty drove over to pick up her new family addition, I thought it would be fun to see if I could take a picture befitting the cover of a cat magazine. I think these are my three best shots. Kitty said she was going to call her new kitty Dexter.

Day 179 Steven Swimming in November

I'm back from spending time in Southern California helping to care for my mom and will be heading back down again tomorrow. Now that I'm not posting daily pictures to this blog I see things all the time I want to photograph, and so I've decided to continue with posts. Obviously they will not be consecutive. The plan was a photo a day for a year, but cancer doesn't ask you if it's a convenient time to show up. Seriously... would it ever be a convenient time for anybody?

Today November 13th I'm posting my November pictures of Steven swimming. I will post more pictures as life allows. I expect that won't be much, but I will continue until I've reached my goal of 365.

So here is Steven on a cold day in November.

The Blog

I started this blog as a way to keep myself photographing. I have been trying to get accepted into an MFA program but haven't been able to. I also had no idea what I should be doing photographically and I thought this blog would help me find out. IT did. I have many ideas and projects I'm working on. I'm excited about all of them. I also know I need to be meeting people and photographing them in black and white. That is my calling as a photographer.

I had been thinking for a while now that I was ready to stop with this project, but also thought I wanted to see it through to May 1st, 2010. However, My mom's health has taken a turn for the worse and I feel it is necessary to spend as much time with her as I can, encouraging her to get healthy. She lives far from me and I won't be able to do both. I also feel as if I have what I need for my 2009 MFA portfolio application. So.... I will no longer be posting daily photo's.

I will continue posting pictures for myself if I can on occasion, such as the monthly series of my son swimming. I'd really like to finish that series.

Thank you for the support you've given me, for the encouraging words in person, in private e-mails and in the comments.

Day 178 Dog

It seems while on my Sunday morning walks I photograph more dogs and cats than I do people. I guess a lot of people are not up and out at that time. This is one of the dogs I've come across.

Day 177 Jim

A picture fo Jim, taken the same day as yesterday's post. He loves all the stray cats that hang around the hotel.

Day 176 Man at the Door

While photographing on South Ninth Street earlier this month I met a man named Jim. I had photographed him before without knowing who he was and during the course of this meeting he mentioned he had a van I might want to photograph. So off we went to his motel so I could photograph him and his van. I hung out for awhile talking to him when I captured this image.
Jim is pictured left.

Day 175 Man in Chair

Two Sundays ago I went for one of my morning walks. I walk sometimes for a few hours looking for photographic opportunities. I was pretty happy with my findings on this day when I came upon this man. After taking two frames I started talking with him, and he seemed to appreciate my wanting to document ordinary life and was happy to have me take his picture. I was impressed by the proud way he sat in his chair. I took more pictures of him after our talk and he continued with his proud sitting mannerisms. This is the second frame from before I talked to him.

Day 174 Steven Swimming in October Month Six

It is October and the sixth month of my monthly series of Steven swimming. We didn't spend to much time this go round, but I am happy with the results. I picked two for this month as well. The top picture because it appears he has an alien face and the bottom picture because I love the light drops.

I went back and looked at many of my swimming pictures from the last few months and have so many wonderful shots I never noticed the first time around. It's amazing the difference time makes when editing work.

Day 173 Glass Santa with Forks and Water

I don't know what this concoction is, just a collection of things I like, glass, forks and water on black.

Day 172 Crystalized Water

I thought I would try for a better splash photo but as I began to get things set up I wondered why do I have to drop something in the water to make it splash? Why not go for pure water? Just water splashing in a wine glass flashed with light. A pure photograph. I tried it at three different levels. One to see the inside of the glass, two a little higher up and three near the top, almost a view from above.

Day 171 Forks and Spoons

I noticed the silverware sitting in the drying rack on my kitchen counter. Well I just love silverware so a shot of some forks and spoons.

Day 170 Pomegranate on White

I had another pomegranate on the kitchen counter so I thought it would be fun to photograph it on white.

Day 169 Pomegranate

It was a busy day and I thought I'd finally photograph whatever I was watching on TV. Then I saw the pomegranate sitting on the kitchen counter and broke it open. I didn't even get out my lights. Just used a flash and a slow shutter speed.