Dark Secrets

My friend and talented photographer, Sarah, is sponsoring a photo contest on her blog with the title "Dark Secrets".  It was fun trying to think of things to do for this assignment.  (A big thanks to John M. for his creative thoughts!).  I sent in a couple of submissions.  The first concept was to show a woman, at home in the afternoon drinking.  So my idea was to do a self-portrait sitting in front of afternoon soap operas nursing a bottle of vodka.  Concepts are always so much easier than reality.  When I got ready to stage this photo, I realized that all our TVs sit right beside windows, so taking the shot right into the windows was going to present quite a lighting challenge, and since I am very lighting-challenged myself, I went looking for a way around the problem.  I finally set up a chair and table in front of the TV in our exercise room.  Not the best environment to stage the photo, so it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but I think it got the message across.  So that's the first of these two images and it's entitled "Afternoon pick-me-up".

The second image was also a fun little "self portrait" of my foot and leg, playfully rubbing up a man's leg.  First of all I had to set up lighting in dark room and I had to put the camera on the floor (actually on a pillow propped up by a little cardboard box.....yes, I am very hi-tech!).  So, after every shot with this one, I had to pick up the camera, check the image....try to put it back in the same spot and shoot again.  I used a stand-in for the guy's leg (my yoga bolster) until I got something I could live with.  Then, when George got home, my real guy took the place of the yoga bolster until we could get another shot to live with.  Anyway.....one of my learnings over the past year is that art is a little like sausage....sometimes you just don't want to know how it's made!  So, the second shot is called "An Affair to Remember".  The full idea for this was to do a diptych (two images shown side by side that tell a story) and show a second image of the same leg with the fishnet stocking and stiletto disappearing into the curtain of a confessional (thanks to John and Claudia for that idea!).  But, I just couldn't get up the nerve to call a Catholic Church to ask if I could "borrow" their confessional for a while!  I love the idea, though, so if anyone knows a friendly priest that might be willing to help, please let me know!

I'm certainly not expecting to win the contest with either of these shots, but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon and got me shooting again!  Be sure to check out Sarah's contest and all the entries at her blog http://bulb-photo.blogspot.com.

Here are the photos.  (PS....I would have posted this on the blog section of my new website, but I still can't figure out how to get it to do an RSS feed to facebook....hopefully soon!)

Moving to a new home

I've put together a very rough effort at a website to use as a photography gallery.  I put up a few photos tonight to test out the template and start to figure out how to set up the site, but this is definitely under construction and I doubt the photos on there now will even be the ones on the final site.  I have a ton of work to do.  But at least now there is something to see.   If you're interested, you can check it out at www.debrawarrenphotography.com.  I have a blog page set up as a place holder and as soon as I learn how to use it, I'll start blogging there.  I figure that I needed to move away from the "365 blog" anyway, and hopefully this will be a good substitute.  So....this might be my last blog at this site  (assuming I figure out how to do it on my website!) and my only one without a photo!

aging gracefully

My first photography post of 2011.  I've been "taking a lot of pictures" lately (construction on our house in the mountains, a family member's collections I'm trying to sell, stuff like that) so my camera has been in my hand fairly often, but certainly I haven't produced anything that I felt like adding to my blog.  But today I thought I'd post one just to enjoy the process again.  As any of you know who have followed my 365 blog, I enjoy photographing flowers.  I particularly love tulips and even more specifically, I love the stages they go through from their tight little buds to the curling petals drifting falling to the floor.  I bought some pale pink tulips last week and watched them go through their metamorphosis.  Yesterday when we got home from being away for the long weekend, they were in their final stage.  I knew I couldn't move the vase of flowers since it was very fragile and the petals would fall away quickly, so I just left them where they were (fortunately near a window so I could take advantage of the natural light) and I put a white board behind them to simplify the background.  I like this image because it's so light and airy.  I usually gravitate to dark and heavily contrasted photographs, but I thought the delicate treatment, with the brightness enhanced and the colors slightly desaturated, fit the subject.

I still promise that one day soon I'm going to write about what I learned from last years 365 journey, but I just haven't taken the time to put it all together.  Meanwhile, think good thoughts of spring with this little photo.