Happy Birthday to me!

30!

Surrounded by Trees

One of the reasons the Northwest is so Great – the abundance of beautiful evergreen trees. I love being surrounded by dense patches of fir, spruce, and hemlock trees. Here are three recent tree photos~

New Growth, Old Growth ~ Moran State Park, Orcas Island, WA

Trees, Roof, Field ~ Orcas Island, WA

Logging ~ Olympic Peninsula, WA

New Journal Portrait, Irresistible Dog

“To Market” is the latest in my series of journal portraits. (See the others here.) This entry is taken from the diary of a woman visiting relatives in France in 1956. On this day she went to a busy street market in Paris and bought asparagus, rhubarb, and radishes. Good choices – these vegetables made for a beautiful color combination. At first, I actually had a hard time deciding if this writer was a man or a woman. The handwriting seems neither masculine or feminine. She writes with excitement about attending luxury car shows but also makes note of helping out with housework (I guess that makes it clear!) By the end, enough entries tipped in the female direction, including this one.

I also included a photo of my irresistible assistant Teddy showing off his big, sharp tooth.

September Light

We are having a beautiful weekend – just look at the light of yesterday’s sunset. This is Saltar’s Beach, which is just around the corner from our house and my favorite spot in Steilacoom (also home to the spooky abandoned marina). I have a feeling this is the last warm weather I will feel for a while here in the Northwest…so I’d better get outside.

Salmon Fishing, Samish River, WA

Salmon fisherman in between rain showers in the Samish River near Bow, WA.

Labor Day Photography Sale!!

I’m having a print sale in both of my online shops this weekend, Sept 4 – Sept 7. All photographs have been marked down 20%!

For small prints take a look here and for larger prints here. (I can always do a custom print so please contact me if you’d like a special size.)

Have a great weekend!

Heavy Sky, 10 x 10 print

Nice Day to Wash, 8 x 10 print

Two new Journal Portraits

Scrabble

Nice Day to Wash

My diary/journal project continues! Here are two new photographs.

Another colorful stop ~ Long Beach, Wa

On our way back to Washington along the northern tip of Oregon, we stopped in Astoria and climbed to the top of the Astoria Column. Below are two pictures taken from up above, this one of the Lewis and Clark River~

This one shows the very long Astoria Bridge, crossing the Columbia River and connecting Oregon and Washington~

Back in Washington, we stopped at Long Beach, where we caught either the beginning or end of the International Kite Festival!

Near Long Beach there are two 19th century light houses, both built to guide ships from the Pacific Ocean into the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse~

And the North Head Lighthouse~

And also in Long Beach, the closed Cross Way gas station made me stop and look~

Oregon Coast – Cannon Beach

Here was my favorite spot from a weekend drive to the Northern Oregon Coast. This is Cannon Beach. I like the combination of gentle and rugged beauty – steep rock formations like in the photo below and soft, powdery sand. And I couldn’t imagine a better time to arrive  than during this hazy, cloudy sunset.

And Teddy enjoyed it too.

New Photographs – Journal Portraits

How?

Joel Called

Moon

Here are three photographs from a new series I’m working on – for now I’ll call them journal portraits. My idea is to make pictures based on old diary entries – not my own – but stranger’s…

A few years ago, when I lived in Memphis, I found a woman’s diary in a thrift store. It was such a surprising thing to find on a shelf, on sale for .75 cents, that I took it home and read the whole thing. The diary spans the first six months of 1982, beginning when she meets a man named  Joel and ending with their breakup. Clearly she started the diary with the purpose of writing about her relationship, but what’s striking is the indirect way in which she does it. She meticulously notes whether Joel called or not and how much time they spent together each day.  But it’s everyday chores and dinner menus that cover the pages. I read on, waiting for some emotion, romance, or an event of some kind, but either it never happened or she didn’t write about it. For me, this made for a read that was both boring and compelling! I knew that on the next page something would be revealed – but nothing was.

As a journal keeper myself I found this confusing. Wouldn’t she want to write about the important stuff, the troubling stuff, the best and the worst? My favorite part of keeping a journal is reading over it later and seeing what still matters and what seems silly. Most things don’t matter anymore, or at least in the same way they did when I wrote about them, and that’s comforting. But after reading a few more diaries I know that people write for different reasons – that’s part of what’s interesting.

With each picture I am selecting elements from an entry and creating a little scene that alludes to what’s written on the page. I want to include the handwritten page itself in the picture because it gives a personal feel, that has something to do with the moment of writing just for yourself.

I hope to be able to show a range of entries – thoughts from people of different personalities and periods of time, from the banal to the more profound.

This project may be pretty slow going  - diaries are (understandably) hard to find. Anyone care to make a donation?! I will post photos as I make them and would love any thoughts or feedback.