Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry for the prolonged absence...I've been working on a bunch of different things and of course still looking for a job. I decided I needed to keep myself busy, and that I missed making things, so I started making some nuno felt scarves and blank books, both of which I'm now selling on Etsy and Artfire. I'd love it if you'd check out my shops and send the links around! I'll be updating pretty consistently and as soon as I can get some more materials I'll probably be making some different items too. I like making wearable things but I'd like to make some more "artsy" pieces as well.

I never realized just how much effort it takes to get an online storefront set up! It seems simple at first but then you have to take photos of products and edit them and come up with names and product descriptions. It's been a big learning experience so far and hopefully it will continue to be. My biggest goal is to share my work with people and make a living with it, so I hope this is a good start.

Otherwise not much going on here...I'm trying to take more photos but it's hard when the days are still so short. Yesterday the cat tried to help me with photos for the shops, so I got a few good images of him.

From Junior

From Junior

From Junior

The Cold Goodnight, color-corrected

I think these look much better, there was way too much red in them before.

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

Of course, it's hard to make these look really good, since they're so noisy. I've done everything I know how to do to make them better, 3200ISO on this camera just doesn't look that great. Better than the 10D though!

Trying to get better at blogging...

I know it's been a long time, sorry! The holidays were busy, as I'm sure they were for everybody. I started out in my hometown of Nashua, NH, went to Brooklyn, NY for New Years, went to New Jersey for a few days and now I'm back in Dover, NH. At the moment I'm trying to find a job and also trying to get back to working on my art, both photography and textile/fiber stuff. Also trying to eat better, move more, drink more water - all the usual New Years resolution type things, though I didn't make any official resolutions this year. Mostly, I'm just trying to take better care of myself.

Anyway, I have a lot of photos from the past couple of weeks - I attended two shows recently: A performance by The Gate at Fody's, in Nashua, and a Cold Goodnight show at the Brickhouse in Dover. The Gate is a really tight cover band that plays music from a wide variety of genres and eras. The band consists of my friends and former bandmates Greg Reinauer and Ben Geyer on bass and piano/keyboard, and Whit Love on guitar/vocals, Eric Levine on drums, and Julie Albert on lead vocals. Greg is also a member of the band Melodeego and Ben has a band called The Ben Geyer Sextet, based in NYC.

From The Gate at Fody's, 12/27/08

From The Gate at Fody's, 12/27/08

From The Gate at Fody's, 12/27/08

The Cold Goodnight is Damian Boyar (one of my roommates from college) on bass, Meri Cartmill on vocals, Matt Cartmill on drums, and Sean Joncas on guitar. The Cold Goodnight lists their influences as The Pixies, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Social Distortion, At the Drive In, Save Ferris, Veruca Salt, Bad Religion; beyond that I'm not sure how to describe them, but they're good.

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

From The Cold Goodnight@The Brickhouse, 1/9/09

I'm undecided about color correction on these. There were so many changing colored lights that I don't think there's really a way to make these "accurate." Should I just try for neutral skin tones? Or just leave them as-is?

Ice Storm!

As many of you probably know, New England has been struggling through a very tough weekend...The storm on Thursday caused an unprecedented number of power outages across the area. Here in Dover we went almost two days without power or heat. My parents' neighborhood in Nashua still doesn't have power, but they are lucky enough to have a generator that they are sharing with some neighbors. We managed here pretty well...In a way it was nice to be without television or computers for a little while. We played a lot of cards at night, drove and walked around during the day. If it wasn't for the cold, it wouldn't have been too bad, but by yesterday morning it was about 47 degrees in the house. A couple of our friends in Dover did have power, so we sought refuge there yesterday, until our power came back in the afternoon.

I tried to make the most of this whole situation by shooting some long exposures while playing cards a couple nights ago. I also took some pictures of the Cochecho River in downtown Dover.

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

From Ice Storm, December 12-14, 2008

They look a lot better when viewed larger, so check them out on Picasa.

Time to start again...

I've been thinking a lot lately about starting to blog again...I've got a few different things going on that I'd like to start documenting and sharing. After a pretty long hiatus, I've started taking pictures again. I don't shoot as regularly as I have in the past but it's a start. I got a new camera this fall (Canon EOS 40D), right before shooting my brother's wedding in October. That was the first wedding I've had a chance to shoot and I actually had a pretty good time, and I think I made some successful images. Unfortunately I haven't been able to edit this images yet though, because I was on Star Island until the end of October, went to Key West last week, and didn't have a computer until a couple weeks ago. Of course, I took a bunch of pictures in Key West, and here in Dover before I left for vacation, so I have a lot of catching up to do

I think one of my favorite parts of Key West was the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. Shooting there was a great way of limiting myself to a small space and specific subject matter, so that I could really focus on taking pictures...Whenever I was just walking around in Key West, I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't choose what to take pictures of. There's still a lot of editing to do, but here's a start.

For Frank

So, Frank told me to start posting...I've been wanting to for a while but I've been really busy with thesis, having tons of computer issues (getting a new one for graduation though!), and haven't been shooting. But, I'll be headed off to the island soon, so I thought I'd post a few images from last summer:

This is Annie, one of my best friends on the island...We worked on the same crew last summer and will be working together again this summer. This image was a regular occurance last year: waiting on the pier for a boat while everyone else ate dinner.

Just another night on Shack Deck, where most of the Pelicans (the people who work on Star Island) go to relax after a hard day's work. This deck is off the back of the building I live in and looks right out over the water.

A view of Shack Deck from below.

The view from Shack Deck.

I really want to scan some of my black and white work and cyanotypes, and get pictures of my thesis work. So much to do! Hope this holds you over until I start shooting again, Frank!

The last picture I took...

I haven't taken pictures in a while. Things have changed a lot this semester, art-wise, and photography has taken a bit of a backseat. I know I haven't updated in a seriously long time, but I thought I'd show an image of where I left off. Oddly enough, this image is in many ways connected to the work I'm doing now, which is all sculpture-based and doesn't involve any photography.

It's late, so maybe I'll talk more about this later...If I get a chance/some time, I'll shoot some photos of what I'm working on now, just for comparison.