photographer of the day: anja niemi

today i'm highlighting anja niemi. i don't know her but my friend meigan knows anja and pointed me at her website. woah. anja is super talented. her work is a bit haunted but gorgeous. and really, i would kill for her locations. here's a lovely photo of hers:

image copyright anja niemi

the cocktail umbrella

a few weeks ago our art directors club meeting was postponed thereby giving me reprieve from my cocktail umbrella assignment. that was a few weeks ago and now it is imminently upon me. we're meeting on tuesday and i have nothin'. this weekend will be full of thanks giving (literally, giving of thanks), hanging out with family, and plenty of cocktail umbrella brainstorming.

design inspiration

due to the genius that is link-sharing on facebook, i came across this link the other day. i've been keeping it open in my browser just to look at every few hours as creative inspiration. i personally love business cards and this blog is a collection of the best! check this one out, it's my current favorite

something like home

my new project that i've been talking about for months is officially up! it's called something like home. It is an ongoing series focusing on pieces of homes and americana. my intention is to deconstruct shared american memories by distilling them into iconic details that represent and evoke emotion which is tied to our collective conscious.

you can also check out my other ongoing project which explores the use of my iphone camera as the new polaroid.

i hope you like them!

alas, no obama inagural tickets

since my senator has probably recieved her share of 30k requests (or more) for inagural tickets, i figured these two photo sites are as close to obama as i'm gonna get.

this website is just so great. i'm in love with how these journalists captured the background of the campaign. i wish more intimate work like this made it to the mainstream media.

this is also another great photostream of behind the scenes obamamania. i was told some of these photos were taken by el presidente himself while campaigning. how cool!

burried treasure: an update

i developed 5 rolls of the mystery film: 3 rolls of 110, 1 roll of 116 and 1 roll of 126. one roll had vague photos on the contact sheet of an unidentified woman but unfortunately all the writing from the paper had exposed onto the film. the other 4 rolls were totally blank. i don't think i'll be processing the rest of the film which requires super pricey c22 processing. oh well. at least one of the blank rolls was awesomely dark sea green (seriously). and yes, i'm keeping that one! any ideas on what to do with three clear strips of 110 film?

burried treasure: 32 year old film

the other day my boyfriend's mother found a bag full of exposed film from 1976 which was taken by a now-deceased family member. you can imagine my excitment at being handed a cache of extinct film and put in charge of discovering what's on it and if it can even be processed/printed.

the mission commences: i'm having 4 rolls attempted by new lab in the city and another 2 done by gamma if they can figure out what to do with it. the other bunch of rolls are c22 process (seriously?) and there's one roll of kodachrome which may not even be develop-able. i'm checking into rocky mountain film lab to see if they can do the c22 at a reasonable price. there's one other roll that has a wacky name that they lab guys didn't even recognize. imagine how cool i felt piling my rare film onto the counter at new lab and having a couple of people fly over saying "ohmigod where'd you find that!?"

i'll keep you posted about what develops. yes, pun intended.

photographer of the day: henry dombey

i had a lovely afternoon today talking shop over coffee with a good friend of mine. henry and i talked about our work until we were nearly blue in the face. we ended up looking at photos for almost 3hrs instead of the 1hr we planned on (there's no better way to spend an afternoon!)

henry is stellar. his ability to tell stories is unrivaled in anyone i know who shoots portraits with a photojournalistic tendency. his work is subtle, gentle and a tiny bit heartbreaking in the best way. here's one his images that i love:

image copyright henry dombey

what price beauty?

sometimes i forget what i participate in by shooting "fashion". this is perhaps one reason i find myself more and more attracted to portraiture and fine art....



...but then again, sometimes advertising gets it right:

photographer of the day: matt shain

today i'd like to highlight the awesomeness that is matt shain. his images are beautiful and haunting. they speak of sadness, loss, hope and of the awkward in-betweens in relationships, families and personal aloneness. i can't encapsulate all that he is, but i know i love it. here's one of my favorites:

image copyright matthew shain

todd hido's "a road divided" and the avedon exhibit

yesterday i went to the opening of todd hido's new show: a road divided. the show was beautiful and it was great to say hi to todd again. he is so ridiculously talented, i just can't get enough of his work. if someday the sky dropped down a big load of money on my head and there was extra left over after helping my family and doing good things etc., i'd go straight out to buy a hido print... or ten. here's a gorgeous image from the show:

image copyright todd hido

if you haven't been to 49 geary lately, take a peek. this exhibit is phenomenal as is the current avedon exhibit at the franekel gallery. a worthy way to spend an hour or two of your afternoon.

a myriad of things

i've been MIBA (missing in blogging action) for about week or so... let me attempt to catch up:

the end of my la trip was great. after my last meeting with C magazine on wednesday i did a great shoot on thursday. it was very up in the air until about 1hr before the girl (jessica) arrived, but once she was there it was smooth sailing. we went very low profile - no stylist or hair/makeup. jessica was delightful and gorgeous, having her au natural was excellent. (see below for a blog post devoted solely to jessica)

on friday i hung out with chloe for the day and had her take some portraits of me. they're not back from my retoucher yet (she shot polaroids, they're being scanned) so i can't show them, but they may be the only photos of myself i dare show other people. bravo chloe. that night we went to see my friend damon castillo and his band play at hotel cafe. they just released an album and the show was a ton of fun. i flew home that saturday and crashed out on sunday.

since then, life post-la has been all about catching up. last week i worked on jessica's images, did other administrative stuff and worked two days with one of my favorite photogs from nyc, michael moran. we were photographing the new east asian library designed by tod williams and billie tsien. i worked with michael on this building when he was in town shooting it in the spring so it was nice to be back there at it again. michael is just lovely and he's fun and mellow to work with. i'm looking forward to when he's in town again.

the big news for me is that this past monday i did a wonderful shoot with my new favorite crew. i worked with deborah dapolito from artist untied and cheryl dailey on makeup. my wonderful assistant was meigan canfield. we worked with a spectacular girl from ford named nichole. the shoot was fantastic. i'm currently pitching it to a rad magazine in nyc who shall remain unnamed until i hear back about whether or not they'll run it. i've been hustling all week working nearly around the clock to get the images turned around and they just went out in the pitch tonight. i have my fingers crossed.

this weekend is a baby shower and working on getting my new polaroid project onto the website. i also have to work on my next POI for my AD club meeting which is coming up shortly. charles gave me a cocktail umbrella for this round... i'm still scratching my head about how to use it as inspiration. stay tuned!

my image is in the APA holiday show

i just found out that i won third place in this year's APA something personal show! pretty exciting, huh?


last year i got two images into the show but neither of them placed. this year i only have one image in the show but i'm very excited that it won!

the show opening is also the apa holiday party. invitations are here. it's a really good time, come see the show and celebrate the season!