(by free I mean, sticking your camera through a fence)

Bret’s commencement speaker that evening was the Bill Cosby!  It was cool to see him speak in person… even if it wasn’t comedic material

The next morning, before heading our separate ways, the five of us took a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary.  We did the self-guided tour featuring audio narration by none other than… Steve Bushemi!

It was such a cool place… and it was also super-sunny!  The ghostly presence of the building worked especially well with the dreamy Holga effect.

We started our journey by driving from Michigan to New Jersey, to stay with my dear friend Laura.  From there we were able to take the train or bus into New York City.  It was quite like I expected it to be… an overwhelming amount to see, but I sure had fun trying to take it all in!  I would like to take a moment to brag that we got to see a Cindy Sherman exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art!

After having trouble finding a good film lab here in SE Michigan, I am happy to report that I received wonderful service from Huron Camera (just outside of Ann Arbor).  Also, all of these rolls were from my 10+ years expired stash!  (there’s something powerful to me about the idea of making something that almost went to waste see the light of day).  The following are digitally composited diptychs from the Fujica — Can you identify where they were taken in NYC?

And although it was generally too overcast of a day to get good photos from the Holga, I did get a few of the new World Trade Center skyline.  Here’s one (two) of those:

Philadelphia will hit the blog soon… Boston could be a smidge longer because I have to finish the roll … A sunny weekend in Petoskey should do the trick!

Unplanned, these were all taken at Pike Place Market.  I think we feel extra compelled to go there now that we know we’ll be moving soon.  Before, I took it for granted as a tourist trap (it is insanely busy in the summer):  there’s a farmers market in every neighborhood every weekend in Seattle.  While the different neighborhoods are fun and unique, Pike Place does have a timeless appeal.  I feel these work well in black and white because they convey the overwhelming historical presence felt roaming around the market.

These were taken on Ilford XP2 (color negative black and white) that expired in the 90’s (just like grunge).  Several are double-exposures.  I left in the imperfections on all

(Click to view large!)

Getting our hair & makeup ‘did at Salon:Re.  I remember being sooo tired because I was up all night catching up with Michelle & Adrienne, my friends since middle school!  Totally worth it though – as soon as the ceremony started I was too overwhelmed with activity and happiness to ever notice I was tired

I’m so glad that we booked my former co-worker Amanda to capture our memories:  I can’t tell you how much time I spend re-living our big day through these beautiful images.  We didn’t even think about how well our colors would go with GVSU’s orange buildings — not to mention how lucky we were to get blue skies in autumn!  I couldn’t have asked for more comfortable weather.

I could go on and on about our wedding trip home… it was so great that I’ve been in a bit of a mental funk since returning to WA.  So, to get myself motivated, I decided to start entering photography shows again.  I was fortunate enough to be juried into Glazers Camera’s Holga Competition for the second year in a row!  Last time they had four different categories – but this time it was narrowed down to just portraits.  So when I planned to visit Kelly on our drive between southern & northern MI, I knew I just had to get her to pose for a few frames!  I’m so pleased that I did, because this image got my very first honorable mention:

There was a closing event at Glazers, and I got to meet one of the jurors Michelle Bates, and get an autographed copy of her book!  It felt really good that a few of my newer Seattle friends came out to support me – and even a friend from GVSU who also lives out here!  City of transplants

I was just notified that another photography show I entered, Shadows & Reflections, has accepted three of my entries!  I think that’s a new personal record for me, beating Edmonds Art Fest in 2010, in which I had two entries selected  This show is curated by June Sekiguchi, and will take place in February-June at University House Wallingford.  That’s right – it’s at a senior living center.  I loved reading this article about how retirement community art exhibits are quickly growing in popularity!  I can’t wait to see how other artists interpreted the theme.  Here are the pieces I had accepted:

The first two should look familiar if you follow my blog (I seriously thought I took those a couple months ago, not over a year ago…), and the third one if you follow me on flickr (sorry I’ve been neglecting you).

So there you have it:  how I’ve been occupying my time for the last three months.  Don’t worry – I’ve got plenty of new projects in the works, including:

• Promo shots for Bleeding at Dawn while I’m home for Christmas
• Hanging photos up for sale at Lah Lah’s Pre-Loved Clothing (new store run by three of my favorite Petoskey women)
• Blazing through a refrigerator full of expired film that was so kindly donated!

I gave myself a creative personal project:  using film again!  I really missed shooting with my Holga, so it made an appearance when Joel and I took our first trip to see the coastline Memorial Day weekend.  Although it was raining the whole time, I had a lot of fun experimenting with double-exposures / overlapping frames.  I’m quite thrilled with how the images turned out:

Of course I also photographed a couple more concerts:

Plants and Animals

Broken Bells (James Mercer of The Shins collaboration with DJ Dangermouse)

Other exciting news:

• Purchased a used 100mm f/2 USM lens (in non-photographer talk, that means super-great close ups)
• I will have two pieces in this weekend’s Edmonds Art Festival