Recent Winter Holga

Where did this week go??? Not that I'm not glad that it is Friday (although I have to work this weekend) but things went fast this week. I have been busy working on wedding photos from last weekend, as well as my first-ever maternity session yesterday! It was really fun and we set up a mini studio in the nursery! Besides all the editing I have been doing, it has snowed here and spring has been halted right in it's tracks. I even made out out climbing on Monday.... but alas, snow came on Tuesday.

Here are a few Holgas from a roll that I thought last. Hopefully these will be my last winter photos for the next eight months:)

Now Hanging...

I am super-excited to have three photos that will be hanging in ExVoto Art and Design Studio's Black and White themed show. The show will open on February 27 with a reception from 1-4pm at their studio in Medford. I dropped off my work today and had a look around as they were preparing for the show, and there is a ton of cool art!

Here is the card for the show

Here are two of the three pieces that I will have displayed.

 This is a photograph from my Holga that I took while cross-country skiing at Wildcat Mountain State Park in southwestern Wisconsin.

This is another photograph from my Holga. I took this while hiking this fall on the Ice Age Trail near Prentice.

Boundary Waters :: And more Holgas!

 Here is my final installment of Holgas from our trip to the Boundary Waters.

 Three Sisters island on Snowbank Lake. We camped on this island.

 Grass on the edge of the lake.

Birch Trees

The canoe in the morning.

Carrying through a portage.

Some rocks at the entrance of Snowbank Lake.

Reflections of the North Woods in the Lake

Holga at the Fair

I took my Holga to the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield a few weeks ago. I wasn't quite sure how the photos would turn out... I usually don't shoot my Holga at night. Last time I tried the film quality was just really degraded, but it was also inside. But with a general idea and a few double exposures and a few long exposures, a few of the photos turned out! Actually, I only took three.

This is my favorite. There actually is more detail in the shadows on the original print, but the scanner did a cruddy job and there was a ton of scan marks, so I just darkened it all out. I like hand-holding long exposures, especially with a Holga. The images from a Holga tend to be more "memory" quality for me, so the light motion blur is more forgiving than with the crisp tangibility and immediacy of digital cameras.  

Fair rides. I didn't ride any, but I ate a lot of fair food.

The Ferris Wheel. This is a double exposure. I like how it looks carnival-esque as an image, not just because it is a carnival.

Here is an interesting link about the end of Kodachrome: http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_4e9f782a-aca0-11df-806f-00127992bc8b.html

I love the colors and those old family slides. Family photos never will look the same....

Water Lily

A few Holga photos from the lake.

We went canoeing and kayaking at Rock Dam Lake in Clark County.

I like water lilies.... a lot. It is hard to get photos of them, especially with a Holga since the closer you get the fuzzier it gets.

Did anyone read the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series? The third one, the last one that I read, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they sail across the ocean to the end of the earth and there are all these underwater towns and stuff. That is how I remember it anyway. After I read the book in maybe fourth grade, I found a new love of paddling. I loved going through the lakes in Minnesota where you could see the grass and the little trails that animals and fish made through the reeds and the weeds. It reminded me of the book and I would make up all these elaborate stories in my head of what was going on down there. Perhaps there were little people riding little fish. Who knows? That is probably a long explanation of why I still love water lilies and secret lake corners.

On a side note:

A card of mine was featured on the blog Refining the Moment. She has a cute collection of different cards from Etsy, check it out!

Holga Blog: Self Portraits

I know I posted about self portraits awhile ago and I had every intention of pursing self portraits with zeal.... but that didn't so much happen. I did take a few, but none with the full intention that I wanted to out into the project. Holga Blog came out with the winners today on their blog: Self Portrait Challenge Winners. My photo was featured in the list, but not as a winner. It is the photo of me in a hammock that I blogged here. Check out the self portrait Flickr group and the blog. The winning photos are quite stunning. I especially enjoy the third place winner, the photo is really fun. It is neat to see what people have done for the challenge and gave me a lot of ideas.

I took these two photos while I was heading to Stratford in the evening. I like them ok, but they aren't really that well thought out and I just took them on a whim. I do like that they are black and white, but I did like most of the photos from this roll. I think because I never shoot b&w and I liked the change. I do drive a lot so, that part of the self portraiture says me. I suppose though that if I had thought them out they would be a lot more self conscious and awkward, and the only place I really felt comfortable photographing myself without feeling dorky was in the car.

I shot this as we were heading back to Wisconsin from Duluth and driving over the bridge into Superior. I didn't realize I was in the photo. I do like this, I just wish I was aware that I was in the photo and had moved the camera down a bit so more of the mirror was included. Oh well. It would have worked for the contest, but I didn't get the film back in time.

2010 Confluence of Art Biennial

Exciting news! Two of my photographs got accepted to the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center's 2010 Confluence of Art Biennial. This is a juried exhibit, the first I have ever entered! It was a goal of mine this year to have work in a gallery, so I sent submissions to a few different galleries in the area and region.  Here is the Regional Arts Center website. The exhibit runs August 16- October 8.

This is a photograph of an Island at the Apostle Island National Lakeshore near Bayfield, Wisconsin. We have gone kayaking up there for the past two years. It is really beautiful, and no bugs! I believe this is Otter Island, but I am not sure. It was when we were kayaking to Oak Island for our final night.

This is a photo from this winter. It is a double exposure with slow motion blur. Dan and I were ice fishing and I think he was walking back from checking our tip-ups. I think we caught at least a dozen fish that day! It was my second time ice fishing.