Millie Thom from Bringing History to Life nominated me for the Creative Blogger Award and I accept it. I am currently reading Millie’s book Shadow of the Raven, a story of historical fiction set in 9th century England. I cannot wait to finish and pick her brain about bringing such distant history to life. […]
As a child, I lived a one-dimensional life. I could not tell the difference between what was me and what was reality, often mistaking one for the other. It was very confusing. It pitted me against the outside world. I had to be always alert to the ever changing landscapes, certain that the living code […]
I read something by Rumi once: “Don’t be satisfied with stories . . . How things have gone for others . . . Unfold your own.” Live life without an outside reference. In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes that she found God inside herself as herself. Aristotle says consciousness is the process […]
I got a new app Color Splash and I made these. The woman is the “Seer,” a character in a graphic novelesque something I have brewing in the mind. She is the fourth character, the first supporting, to be created. I’ve not written a word. It is all heavily edited photography using Perfect 365, Word […]
A proverb is a “simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity.” Proverbs are handed down generation to generation. The study of proverbs is called paremiology. Otis Elevator’s friend recently sent me the featured image and the following proverb to accompany […]
One of the victims of my elevator fainting act read my post. He responded: I love your article. And, now I remember why I hate elevators. He then went on to recount, via text, a relationship he has with an elevator named Otis. I asked him whether I could post it on 1874. He agreed […]
This is a picture of my son when he was two. He had run away up the hill and returned triumphantly with this rock. I love that I was the audience for his triumphant procession home. Triumph means victory but it also means the procession of a victorious general into Rome. He must have […]
These are the elevators in the garage of the building where I work. They service three garage floors. They can be impossibly slow sometimes, like today. Though, I did not mind as it gave me time to photograph them. The 11 story building where I work is serviced by 2 elevator banks with 6 elevators […]
Today, I looked for a photograph that drew me to the outside limits of an object – its edges. There’s something about architectural edges, the edges of a building, that is severe and at the same time uplifting. My soul snaps to attention in vague recognition of something straight and eternal in me. I took […]
This is one of the first pictures I posted on my personal Instagram account. It was taken a couple of years ago. It is the view from one of our kitchen windows. Spring time seems so far away right now but this state of flowering-ness is really just around the corner.
Something we keep carefully is something we treasure. Something we keep carefully has meaning. Meaning is something that is not naturally directly expressed. Meaning is on the inside of something, maybe even hidden. This is just an old tree with ivy growing on it. This tree is planted on a parcel of land somewhere in […]
Today, we were to “capture a sweeping panorama of an entire” something. A wide ranging unbroken view. I thought of our trip to Glasgow in 2008. It was the first time I had ever tried photography in earnest. My husband was at a conference and I went on the conference tour to a nearby castle. […]
This was the best I could do today: observe something small. This tree stands on 8th Street. I was straining to observe something new on my well worn path and I saw tiny buds on the limbs of this tree. They were pink! Even though it was back down to the 30s today, Spring cannot […]
Today, we think about fleeting moments and capturing motion to convey the fleetingness of time.
Photo 101 asked us to translate architectural elements into black and white. I walked one block to the Museum of American History and National Portrait Gallery, past the Hotel Monaco and the Le Droit Building, through the middle of the Museum and its fantastic oasis of an atrium, to Calvary Baptist Church and back. Two […]
The Photo 101 weekend edition asked us to play with light. I read the Fundamentals of Light and bought a couple of the suggested apps for iPhones. SlowShutter gives your iPhone camera some level of digital single-lens reflex camera functionality, including manual settings for aperture, shutter speed and light sensitivity. The photographic term “exposure” is the “amount of light captured […]
I took this picture last week. It is called “Vaquero,” Spanish for “cowboy.” It was modeled in 1980 and cast in 1990 by the Texan-born artist Luis Jiménez. It is made out of acrylic urethane, fiberglass and steel armature. It stands on the north side entrance of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and National […]
I have issues with the telephone. It feels very intrusive to me. I have tried different ring tones on my work line, including a man saying “Are you there?” I thought a human voice would help. It did not help. When today’s Photo 101 prompt suggested: “Intrigue us with uncertainty,” I knew I wasn’t advanced […]
I am learning so much in Photo 101. Today, I focused on light. Then, I played (a lot) with the saturation to draw warmth with light. Not color warmth but actual temperature type heat. Really blue skies, really green grass, reminds me of the tropics and of heat. Today’s sun was brilliant and un-obscured and […]
When my feet hit the ground in the mornings, the first thing I do is change my infant daughter’s diaper. Her stand is right in front of the nursery window that looks out on the back yard. This winter we would sometimes see deer. Now, Spring is coming. This blue-hued bird sauntered across our line […]
I never remember where I have been. The first time I went to Europe, I was 15. I do not know exactly where I stayed. It was an hour train ride, maybe two hour train ride away from Paris. My sense is it was south or east but not north or west. It is like […]
Earlier today, I found myself in a neighborhood I do not frequent. I remember around eight years ago, I was shopping for a condo in the same neighborhood and my realtor delicately told me that one street over she would not feel safe getting out of the car. I could see no parking garages near […]
Our little fairy tale cottage is surrounded by about thirty trees on half an acre. Almost all the window views are of trees. This is a view from our bedroom. It was taken yesterday right before it really started snowing. I feel like the leaves were reaching out to touch me. One […]
Day 4 explores “bliss” captured through a photograph. Some definitions first. Bliss: (n) complete happiness, great joy, paradise, or heaven. Happiness: (n) feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. Joy: (n) a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. Paradise: (n) an ideal or idyllic (extremely happy, peaceful or picturesque) place or state. Heaven: (n) a place, […]
Yesterday I photographed the frozen Potomac for the “street” assignment. Today’s topic is water and I have opted for frozen water using some of yesterday’s pictures. Photo 101 prompts us to explore our relationship with water. Some years ago, every time I would cross the frozen Potomac River, I would think of the Bering Strait. […]
Today’s Photo 101 topic is the street. I drive on streets to get to work every morning, including this grey icy morning. I am about to get on the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge to cross the Potomac River into Washington, D.C. I am almost stopped as I slowly merge onto the bridge. This is a homeless […]
“Home is elusive,” per the Day 1 assignment of Photo 101. The featured image is the view from my office. I have been looking out on these buildings for 11 years. Over these 11 years, I have been in four different offices but all along the same corridor. This view is my favorite view yet. […]
Exhibition 1874 