Thursday, July 29, 2010

my crazy long to-do list

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shot on the fly while passing through Day Moon Press in Seattle
Not that I'll get to it all but I'll be here trying. Meanwhile, acoupla links till I can put together a real post 
• a blog post over on Two Shear Spirits, my joint blog with writer Joan Tapper
• Caro's fab new Tshirt. I ordered one for me and one for my mom.  I hope you get it. 
  And, also, get one.

Monday, July 26, 2010

on home turf

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Traveling Woman, designed by Liz Abinante, in a tomato-y red Lisa Souza Merino Sock. 
My idea was to knit this in March when I started a series of trips to shoot the new book project, and by April-June I'd be wearing it on chilly planes, and on cool nights on the west coast, in the NW, everywhere I went,  and I would look tres chic.
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Plus the nerdy satisfaction of the pattern name matching my life. Like so many of my good intentions , it didn't spool out as planned. Instead I traveled like crazy and now, back at the ranch, finished it in time for a July heat wave.
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To underline that sometimes the payoff comes when you're  close to home, here's one of the best locations I've shot at in a flurry of interesting and odd  locations. It's the mammal archives at the natural history museum at Yale. Above, the view before we set up to shoot a researcher working in this room.
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How great to have this lineup watching us work. Every few minutes I looked up, and there they were, staring. Most were on display when my sons were little and we were regulars in the exhibit rooms. It was a reunion with old friends. A lucky one; I doubt they are meant to stay in a jumbled lineup in an otherwise sealed & controlled storage facility.
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As for my travels, I'm not exactly staying put.  New Jersey for a shoot  Tuesday & Wednesday.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

contrarian views

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There I was, in the lush green of the Pacific NW, after a day of photographing in a riotously colorful artist's studio. And I went crazy, couldn't stop shooting these walls at Ft. Worden.
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Maybe it's the quilter I spent some time photographing in Ohio, earlier in June, and some talk we had about composition & color and space.
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Wouldn't it be cool to make a knit or sewn or crocheted version of this?
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and the colors. Love them.
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Another quilt or blanket?
 I admit I've been admiring the anti-graffiti paint smears in a New Haven underpass for months but never photographed  them, so I was  ready to love these.
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I know, some of you are thinking, what is wrong with her? Go shoot some summer blooms!
Sorry, can't help it.  A graphics professor once told me I zigged instead of zagged.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
If you're missing the juicy color, don't worry, it'll be back verrry soon. I finished my tomato red shawl and am ready to show it

Monday, July 12, 2010

blogging most fowl

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A month? It's been a month? Traveling like a mad woman and working hard to finish shooting the new book has kept me away.
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There're over 12,000 images to edit. There have been  heroic efforts from friends in binding off tonnage of wool, mohair, and silk blends. There are the vicissitudes of location photography in steamy weather, or endless sun when you want some light shade.  I've got volumes to share on the subject of recent adventures in quirky craft/knitting/community book production.
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However, these charming ladies and their knitwear will not be in the book. To paraphrase something I read in this NY Times article about people making art to protect abandoned houses in Detroit,:  sometimes the power of an object isn't in its duplication, but in its ability to inspire.
So go design your own birdwear . And be sure to show me.