This Is My Photo Blog…

As if!  I mean, it “walks like a Duck and…”, you know the rest.  I am currently working with an online piece of software building an actual revenue based website.  Basically, an online portal to do business.  Right now, it’s the business of Photography.  A life long passion you could say.  Of all the millions of photographs I’ve shot, that equals the amount of pictures, negative and slides I’ve accumulated, totals the number of storage boxes in my studio’s closet!  Yes, it’s much, AND I hear FILM is coming back in fashion!  So for your Retro entertainment, below I’ve posted a picture taken with a Nikon SLR film camera and digitized to this blog.

2Man Street

On this blog, I have set up several stations or sections, where you can click directly on the main menu titled Photographs for an overview of what works journalistically and then, of course, the drop down of individual photography styles.  Most times on the “Photographs” tab/link, I am blogging about something photo-centric or two, but my Home Page is where all incoming photoblog themes live.  These are usually my thoughts on photography, experiences with new cameras and general day to day being a photographer, along with holidays and special events.

So, don’t miss a tab and be on the look out for my new website and when that happens, this site will roll back to “myphotoeye.wordpress.com” and ComposingEye will be the working website.  Thanks for visiting and comeback soon!

~susand.

“Double, double, toil and trouble!”

 

Shakespeare said it best…and then there’s…  Horror, blood, guts, knives with stains of human skin…vampires, bats and witches hats;  black cats and  wolves that howl in the night.  A moon that laughs in spite of this spooky pagan night!  This is NOT my favorite “holiday”, but it is my favorite season.

I Love this time of year.  It’s Autumn..not fall.  It’s crisp and refreshing; it renews and resolves the deepest sigh inside. I love the trees changing colors: bright red, burnt orange -blue and green.  I love that the Moon gets bigger and closer. I’ll take a room with a window I can sleep under.  Let it be the moon that lights up my dreams~ I love pumpkin pie, pine cones and baskets full of cheese, fruit and wine.  It’s Harvest time.  A time of renewal.

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So, let’s get the “spooky” out of the way and really begin to enjoy this time of year!

 

Has Washington, DC “Upped” its (he)Art Beat….

 

…Or, have I just been asleep?  In all due respect, I believe I have been sleep walking.  Union Market has been around for quite a minute and I have ventured inside for some fresh veggies and meat, but never did I par-take in ALL of its many wonders.  They do a pretty sweet outdoor theatre at night during certain times of the summer and fall, and every Saturday as I drove on pass or scootered by, I saw people enjoying the space outside with the new benches and sound stage and, well, I’m not really sure how much goes on over there.  I never stop to check it out.

Only this pass Sunday, I made the decision to treat my sister with a birthday surprise and invite her to the Angelika Pop Up at Union Market.  Mind you, I have never been there and hoped that it would be a grand experience.  We got more than we bargained for and I thanked the Heavens’ above.  We were all pleasantly pleased.  It was family day at the movies.  We saw Eddie Murphy in, “Mr. Church”, which was an amazing film and I got to know this very cool venue.  They serve craft beer, wine and of course your traditional, non-traditional theatre popcorn.  Plenty to see, more to enjoy and it sits right next to the coffee and gelato house on the corner of Brentwood road and Penn St NE.  Before the weather gets really bad, I think my scooter and I will be haunting these two venues for some weekends to come.

The Arts District Does Not Disappoint

SO much Art…so much to do and a lot is going on over here in Hyattsville!  I’d of never guessed that this side of town had all this and then some.  The recent Hyattsville Arts Festival was engaging to say the least.  I wish I could have been there for the whole day, or at least half the day, but I was busy sitting in a room full of Traders at the JW Marriott Hotel, listening, learning and asking questions (see the last post The Best is Yet To Come).  

It was a hot day, so I commend those Artists who were able to sit out there from Noon till 6pm.  The musician’s in the park, the blown glassmakers, the duct tape artist; the photographers and dressmakers; Basket weavers and jewelers and an added attraction this year to the festival were the craft beer makers!  Oh, you didn’t know?  Making beer is now an artists’ craft:  The home brewers, barn brewers and warehouse brewers.
I did come away with some interesting items..a few I tried on for my “at home” fashion show!

Feeble Attempt at Fashion 🙂

Anyway, the short hour and a half I was able to spend there, I had a blast.  This weekend (October 1st, and this should be fun, since we are expecting inches of rain) is the Hyattsville Zombie Run, Walk, Trot or Crawl. I probably won’t do either, except take pictures.  It will be interesting who wins the best Zombie costume…and BTW?  What’s up with all this Zombie shit??  I’m starting to believe we may be in for some real “Walking Dead” people out here… oh, wait, I think we have some already.  They are just not yet dressed for the part…. who said life isn’t ready for primetime?

Hyattsville Arts Festival

 

The Best is Yet To Come!

THIS could actually be true, if we can hold on to the economy and the markets don’t explode!  After Photography, my second most favorite thing to do in this world is trade the markets.  I waited almost a whole year for this event, TDAmeritrades’ Market Drive and I was NOT disappointed.  What motivates a person to wake super early on a Saturday morning, to prepare for a day of learning, technical jargon and lots of people interested in the same industry?  TRADING!  My mentor and guide in this market is Tom Sosnoff of TastyTrade fame.  An online financial education and trading information outlet.  He was there live and in person for some great teaching and sharing.  I couldn’t get a selfie with him, because he fan club rushed to the stage after the presentation to do just that and to usurp his brain.

Tom’s last words were: “I’ll stay until the last person leaves!”  I couldn’t stay that long!  I tried.  After an hour and still not able to get close, I took a selfie of the fan club surrounding my mentor.  Vowing I’ll get another chance, I rushed back home to catch the last hour of the Hyattsville Arts Festival.  It was a day I will never forget.

 

What A Wonderful World It Would Be!

Stuck on nostalgia; in love with antiques…cameras, mostly, but I am a collector of all things old and memorable.  Coins and “fiat” paper dating back to the 1800’s, along with stamps and Newspapers!  It gets to be a bit much, but one day I will have that oak and cherrywood room where I can show off all the goodies.
Once a year, I pull these cameras down to clean and I’m seriously thinking, once a year is way too long.  The dust bunnies attack and though I give them a quick swipe once and a while, they really need a home of their own.  They sit like well decorated momentos on my four tier bookshelf amongst Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Perkins Gilman…to name a few.  What a wonderful world it would be if at some point in time one or the other had held that camera or exchanged those coins or even read The British Gazette while  eating their Tea and Crumpets for breakfast?

My collection above consists of three (3) Polaroid Land Cameras and these puppies value anywhere between $18-$50.  Not much when you consider how long I’ve been lugging them around!  There are four (4) movie cameras: a 1932 8mm silent film, (1) Super 8 Silent and (1) Nikon (Nikkor) Super 8 Sound film.  My favorite is the 16mm.  I love that camera.  It’s a Bell and Howell, pretty popular among consumer enthusiasts in it’s day. There’s the Kodak 620 film camera and the twins lens 2 1/4.  The Nikon in the center has been relegated to my collection, because she served me well.  I shot her until she couldn’t shoot; I’ve dropped her a dozen or so times and she kept on ticking and finally, I set her down one day to pick up a digital camera~ and so I think it might be shutter envy…anyway, she won’t perform.

Below, are a few shots of my cameras and cleaning session and it was a long and meditative day…oh and by the way?  Not selling any of them!  No matter what their value, they are priceless to me.

  

     

Black Out

What does an Artist do?  Check out… when inspiration wanes or life and reality get discombobulated and space and circumstances take over time and temperance… what does an Artist do?

Even the image you see before you is not mine own.  I grabbed it from google, “black Square”.  It tells the tale of my missing years here.  Three is a small number, so I’m not completely lost in the shadows, but ask me to pick up a camera for a real gig (money), and I concede.  Something is coming, I just don’t know when or where; how or at what time…what hour.

So, here is my tunnel, for all to see.  Someone told me once, “there is a light at the end.”

~susand.

Stepping In

Stargate

So, I’m always looking for a way to step inside my cameras eye.  Looking beyond the immediate subject that I am shooting to get to the other side.  My photo eye sees three dimensionally, but my camera does not.  It is a flat two dimensional piece of art.  What if you could look at a photograph and walk right inside of it; get lost in its’ space, actually be there?

I try to bring depth and distance to my work when I am photographing.  I want the viewer to look and look and visualize what else is to the right and what else is to the left and stay inside that photograph for as long as it takes to bring them back home.  When I was in California, shooting to my hearts content, my camera eye needed something and to my right, on Pier 39 was a camera shop.  Of course, I went in…and came out with the widest angle lens I could afford.  It began a different way of seeing.  I realized I could actually lift my leg and step over this lens right into my distance.  This went on for a few months, until I realized I could connect to the distance without the lens.  It was just a matter of stepping in.

The Tunnel Ride

Without the wide angle, I was able to use the space, naturally provided for me, adjust my own seeing eye and find my stepping point.  Taking the viewer through the Stargate, by stepping over and in, but also giving them the freedom to walk a straight path by simply putting one foot in front of the other; being able to see inside a Sunset and walking on the water, taking that canoe ride without even knowing whose doing the rowing; looking skyward and the sheer feeling of being able to reach that high…it all makes sense when all we have is three dimensions though we’re always searching for more.

I like the mystery of depth and distance in a photograph.  It does keep my attention.  I like when I can take a deep breath while being consumed by an interesting piece of art that really moves me and this is what I hope to convey with my photography.  Some real meaning to the viewers own internal visions, their own hopes and dreams and wishes.  It is all about filling up the tank of your life, just so you have just the right amount of energy to get inside…as well, to the other side.  And why not?!

Skyward

The Mirror

The Mirror

when working on a theme, I always try to start with a spine, a throughline.  Latent traits from my acting days.  So, my spine was a clear depth of field between subject and mirror.  This series went on and on.  Checking and then deleting; wondering if I needed to charge my battery up, because my meter wasn’t reading right.  Now, I’ve been told I have a “wandering” eye, but I’m not shooting through binoculars!  Only one eye is in the lens.  Still we do have peripheral vision and that may cause the mind to see in a different way.  I abandoned the project.

Months later, when I went back to these series of shots, I almost kicked myself…almost… because I was about to delete them.  Within “The Mirror” I saw ART and I reached inside to see what I didn’t see then. A wonderful intense feeling came over me.  I was on my lunch break at work and my laptop was with me as I began researching through those photographs; manipulating this one, changing that one and an hour later came “The Mirror”.

I was pleased.  I had lunch for dinner that night.